Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ‘Cameo’ from Running Man Isn’t the Only Reference to the Original

If you’ve read Stephen King’s “The Running Man,” Edgar Wright’s 2025 adaptation will feel much more familiar than Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1987 film. That’s not a criticism, it’s just a fact that the new version stays much closer to the beats of the novel. But while King’s work is the common thread, the film also takes numerous opportunities to specifically reference the 1987 version of “The Running Man.”

One of Schwarzenegger’s best films, directed by Paul Michael Glaser and written by action legend Paul Michael Glaser (“Commando”, “Die Hard”), the film is much campier and shows a different kind of dystopia than the new adaptation. Compared to the corporate fascism seen in Wright’s version, the world is polluted, industrial, and more militant in its authoritarian rule. The game show “Running Man” itself is arguably the biggest divergence from King’s book. Both the written version and Wright’s film show a reality show in which contestants are released into the ordinary world only to be hunted in part by ordinary citizens. The 1987 film makes it more of a WWE cage match, with a cordoned off, abandoned area of ​​decaying cityscape set aside as the arena for racers to traverse.

Although Schwarzenegger doesn’t appear directly in the new “Running Man,” he makes a near-cameo via the upcoming “New Dollars” currency, whose notes bear the likeness of a smiling Schwarzenegger. This Easter egg featuring the star of the original film is a nice touch, also referencing the action star’s political career. But that’s not the only time the 2025 film pays homage.

Although the actual competitions in the two films are very different, the pomp and circumstance surrounding them on the television side is quite similar. The 1987 film adorns its soundstage with big hair, “The Price is Right” audience segments, and lengthy dance sequences. Edgar Wright’s version of “The Running Man” avoids some of the specifically ’80s material, but it retains the bizarre stylings of cyber-cabaret, with Colman Domingo’s Bobby T. doing his best carny ringmaster impersonation. The dancers’ outfits and hairstyles also recall, more subtly, the distant future of 1987.

When the contestants are launched into the arena in the original film, they are sent in rocket sleds down winding tubes to the remains of the old city. This specific shot – one of the film’s most iconic – is recreated in the new film, with Ben Richards (Glen Powell) and the other riders loaded into bathtubs and dropped from the soundstage to the basement. It’s less roller coaster and more drop towers, if you want to get into theme park semantics, but it’s a clear homage to one of the 1987 film’s most memorable moments.

There are also other, less explicit references. Michael Cera’s water gun electrocution maneuver against a squad of network goons evokes the way electric stalker Dynamo meets his end in the original. In both films, Richards has a chance to finish off a defeated hunter, but he refuses on principle to kill a defenseless person. Of course, in both cases, the villain returns to insist on their deaths.

While Edgar Wright’s “The Running Man” stays faithful to King’s novel in most major beats, it diverges more significantly in the final act. In the book, Ben Richards flies his hijacked plane straight into Dan Killian’s office, killing them both. The ending of 2025’s “The Running Man” is different and adds a bit more dimension, with the reveal that Ben ejects and survives, becoming a major player in the armed resistance against the Network.

The final scene of the new film looks more like the end of 1987 than King’s version. Both films end with Ben storming the “Running Man” soundstage with a group of armed militants and taking violent revenge on Killian himself. While it would have been interesting to see more of the real behind-the-scenes mechanics of the new film (How long did it last? How did Ben connect with the resistance?), Wright plays fast and loose with the finale, leaving the viewer to fill in the gaps.

Although it could hardly be called a political treatise, the original film at least provides some context for the armed insurrection that Ben ends up being a part of. Regardless, if you’ve seen the Schwarzenegger film, this will definitely come to mind in the final moments of Wright’s “The Running Man.”