The Running Man Addresses The Ongoing AI/Deepfake Controversy In The Perfect Way

Warning: This article contains major spoilers for "The Running Man."

You can always count on writer/director Edgar Wright to have his finger on the pulse. The guy who delivered a hit zombie horror/comedy in "Shaun of the Dead" before that genre even hit its 2010s peak, made "Hot Fuzz" more exciting and intense than many an action blockbuster, and turned "Scott Pilgrim vs the World" into an ahead-of-its-time cult classic simply has a knack for this sort of thing. So it should come as little surprise that he's managed to pull off that trick all over again with his new adaptation of "The Running Man," the dystopian thriller based on a Stephen King novel that inevitably deals with some of the most pressing concerns we're struggling to grapple with these days.

No, we're not encouraging desperate citizens at the end of their rope to join highly dangerous reality TV shows full of questionable ethics, participating in placating entire unruly populaces with promises of bread and circuses, or living in a surveillance state where our every move is watched by Big Brother. Okay, on second thought, we're currently doing all of these things (and plenty more, just for kicks). Bad example. But, as our ongoing reality slides further and further into the realm of the absurd with each passing day, one particularly nasty signpost of the apocalypse keeps cropping up with apparently no way to escape it. Luckily for us all, "The Running Man" chose to address this ongoing controversy surrounding artificial intelligence and deepfake technology with Wright's signature sense of timing, wit, and laser-focused precision.

Nothing is real and everything is terrible in the world of "The Running Man," as Glen Powell's Ben Richards discovers the hard way throughout this nightmarish gameshow competition. The script, co-written by Michael Bacall and Edgar Wright, subtly tips its hand towards this idea in the early going. When Ben Richards and newfound friends Tim (Martin Herlihy) and Laughlin (Katy O'Brian) are first thrust in front of bloodthirsty audiences for their amusement, crooked host Bobby Thompson (Colman Domingo) shows zero compunction about outright lying to millions of viewers and inventing Ben's backstory out of thin air — and, worse yet, misrepresenting his relationship with his wife and young daughter. This should've been the moment when he realized exactly what he was going up against, but the true devious nature of the omniscient Network and its main overseer (Josh Brolin's Dan Killian) unmasks itself for all to see at the most critical juncture.

This is the point where the film's righteous anger towards AI comes to a head. One key rule of the game is that contestants must send 10-minute videos of themselves every day they survive, though the actual content of their recordings is left up to each individual ... or so they think. After a daring escape from a hotel he tried to hide out in, Ben takes one opportunity to rail against The Network for placing countless innocents in harm's way and reveals the execs are causing kids to get sick with cancer. But, when he tunes in later for the broadcast, his supposed screed against the system is transformed into an ugly and mean-spirited rant about his glee in inadvertently killing several officers sent to take him down.

That's only the tip of the iceberg, however.

If anyone somehow remains on the fence about the rise of "AI actors" and deepfake recreations of movie stars in the year of our lord 2025, allow "The Running Man" to persuade you. As the game goes on and Ben continues to defy death, it all builds to a climax where he forces his way onto a Network-run military aircraft with his "hostage" Amelia (Emilia Jones), his main rival Evan McCone (Lee Pace), and an entire plane full of homicidal hunters. After Dan Killian's entreaties to end the carnage and turn Ben into the lead of his very own spin-off show falls on deaf ears, he finally resorts to threats. Should he refuse, Killian will release a completely deepfaked video depicting an enraged Ben vowing to fly the plane into the Network's central building and kill everyone inside.

Although not exactly subtle, this entire storyline only further speaks to the running themes about gross misuse of technology, the tendency of authoritarian regimes to erase the truth, and the mass dehumanization of those of us under their thumb. Initially, Ben Richards' fight to survive is just that: a matter of life-or-death survival. But slowly, despite his single-minded focus to reunite with his family and provide for them, he gradually accepts that his ongoing defiance of the powers that be represents a class struggle with far greater ramifications. Even the lowest of the low like Ben might have access to disguises and fake IDs and other tools to stay hidden and live to see another day, but all of that proves meaningless in the face of AI, deepfakes, and a government with a stranglehold on the facts.

Remind you of anything? "The Running Man" is now playing in theaters.