Image: Braveworld Productions Taft Entertainment HBO Pictures
About This Quiz
It's quite interesting to watch a 1987 film in 2017 and see how its depiction of the future comes a bit close! You think you can separate science fiction from science fact? Then warm up and let's run with it in this "The Running Man" quiz.
Which popular Hollywood action hero starred in "The Running Man?"
Sylvester Stallone
Wesley Snipes
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in "The Running Man." The film's basic premise is somewhat based on a Stephen King novel which he wrote under a pseudonym.
Bruce Willis
In what year was this futuristic story set?
2000
2017
The story of "The Running Man" opens in 2017. The entirety of the story runs for about one to two years after that.
2015
2020
The Running Man proposes a future dominated heavily the media. In particular, what kind of media did the movie highlight?
newspapers
television
Television figures prominently in the film's story. "The Running Man" predicted a future where the global reach of television would happen instantaneously -- and it's already happening!
cinema
radio
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"The Running Man" is a TV show that's popular in the futuristic world of 2017. What TV show genre is it?
sitcom
game show
"The Running Man" is a TV game show that's influential worldwide. It's also under the umbrella of reality TV since the game show is broadcast live,
dramedy
news reports
Yes or no: It's really good to be a contestant in "The Running Man" game show.
Yes
No
Nope, sorry. There's a reason "The Running Man" is titled as such. It's a game show where you literally run for your life to stay alive!
The beginning of the film's story focuses on an incident that happened to our hero, Ben Richards, while he was in Bakersfield. In which U.S. state is this city located?
Pennsylvania
North Carolina
New York
California
California is the setting of the film's opening storyline. Bakersfield is a city in the Golden State.
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Ben Richards, the film's hero, eventually becomes a contestant in "The Running Man." What do they call the contestants on the show?
fugitive
hunted
runners
All contestants on "The Running Man" are considered "runners." Their contestant uniforms are designed for running.
losers
Before Ben Richards became a runner-contestant in "The Running Man," what was his profession?
Navy Seals bomber
helicopter pilot
Ben Richards is a helicopter pilot working for the government. However, it's a totalitarian government, so everyone is obliged to follow orders, no matter how bad these orders are -- as Richards found out.
submarine mechanic
commander in chief
What is Damon Killian's role in "The Running Man"?
its host
Damon Killian is the charming and dapper host of "The Running Man." But behind the scenes, he is anything but charming or dapper!
scriptwriter
financier
director
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The contestants have to run away from certain colorful characters who are out to kill them. What did the show call these characters?
killers
stalkers
"The Running Man" features several celebrity stalkers whose job it is to hunt down the runners-contestants and stalk them and kill them.
heroes
mutineers
One of the major stalkers is called Subzero, a huge Asian-looking guy who is dressed in the uniform of a popular sport. Which sport is it?
baseball
basketball
hockey
Subzero is dressed as an ice hockey player. His puck and stick are his deadly weapons.
chess
Another demonic stalker is a huge, huge guy named Buzzsaw. What kind of contraption does he use to stalk the runners?
a taser
a stun gun
a shotput
a chainsaw
Buzzsaw carries a chainsaw that's so powerful it can slice through metal. Imagine what it can do to a human body...
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Another crowd favorite among the stalkers is Dynamo, who is decked in a Roman warrior-like outfit, only he has this one dynamic addition to it. What is this addition that makes his outfit unique?
it has electricity
Dynamo walks around giving off light. That's due to the electricity he has in his costume and his weapon.
it gives off ice cubes
it is like a shotgun
it has small pellets to ping people
An elderly black stalker wreaks havoc among the contestants when he hunts them and uses his flame thrower on them. What is his name?
Meatball
Furball
Curveball
Fireball
Fireball is the kind-looking elderly guy who blasts a flame thrower at runners. Not so kind after all...
Ben Richards is a fallen government employee who became infamous when he supposedly did this while flying a helicopter over Bakersfield, California. What did he do?
flooded the city
threw food at the residents
shot and killed the unarmed people there
Richards is known as the Butcher of Bakersfield because the totalitarian government falsely accused him of shooting on unarmed people who were rummaging for food there. When broadcast over the news like this, fiction becomes fact in dystopian 2019.
crashed the helicopter in the city
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Wrongfully accused of butchering the townspeople of Bakersfield, where was Ben Richards sent to serve his punishment?
rice fields
prison
Ben Richards was imprisoned for defying shoot-to-kill orders. In prison, he met both friends and enemies.
gotham
hall of justice
Ben Richards, along with some other cohorts, fled the prison and escaped. Ben planned to hide in this person's place where he thought he would be safe. Who is this person ?
his brother
When he escaped from prison, Richards planned on going straight to his brother's apartment. He thought he would be safe there, since his brother would later smuggle him out of the country.
his wife
his mother
his father
Instead of finding his brother in his apartment, a lady named Amber Mendez lived there. What did Amber eventually do to Ben?
she went with him to escape
she ratted him out
Amber didn't believe Ben's innocence so she ratted him out. But it took some time for her to do it.
she killed him
she shot him
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Amber, the woman who turned in fugitive Ben Richards, works at the TV station where "The Running Man" is produced. What is her job?
a secretary
musical composer
Amber makes a living by composing musical scores or jingles for the TV station. Naturally, she would have access to any kind of TV footage at the station.
a security guard
a medic
Ben Richards was eventually blackmailed to join "The Running Man" as a runner-contestant by its host, Killian. What was the exchange deal if Ben went on the show?
Killian would give him his own apartment
Killian would let him go free if he won
Killian would release his two friends from prison
Ben Richards' prison pals, William Laughlin and Harold Weiss, were captured by the police. In exchange for keeping the two of them out of "The Running Man," Richards had to volunteer on their behalf. But all of them are entered as runners anyway.
Killian would grant him three wishes
Ben Richards' prison pals were resistance fighters who wanted to expose Damon Killian and the evils of the media empire. What were the resistance fighters looking for to accomplish their goal?
the satellite
the uplink
The resistance has long been looking for the uplink which controls the broadcasting of content from the TV station. They heard that it's inside the show's game zone, so they look for it as they run for their lives.
the control room
the tech booth
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One of the jailed resistance fighters, Harold Weiss, located the TV network's uplink and got the numerical codes to override the broadcast. What type of person is Weiss that he can do this?
he's a tech geek
Harold Weiss is a tech geek. he can break computer codes, like what he did with their jail escape.
he's a wizard
he can walk through walls
he is clairvoyant
Harold Weiss was able to override the computer control of the collars that prisoners wore. While that jail had no walls, the collars could detect if prisoners went out of bounds. What happened to prisoners who tried to escape?
they were electrocuted
their heads exploded
Weiss was able to remove the codes that detected the collars. These collars would make their wearers' heads explode if they passed the electrical boundaries.
they were shot
they were magnetized in place
When Ben Richards was holding Amber Mendez hostage to use her identity cards as a way to get past the police, Amber made a scene that called the police's attention. Where was Amber when she tried to make her getaway?
at the bus station
at the airport
Ben wore a disguise when he blackmailed Amber into going to the airport. He would have escaped if she hadn't screamed and ratted him out.
at the train station
at the taxi stand
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When Amber saw the news broadcast about her escape from Ben's clutches at the airport, she saw a few things had been added to the story. What kind of TV/filmmaking technique made these additions possible?
editing
With a little bit of good TV editing to add extra bloody scenes, Amber saw how the TV station was manipulating news broadcasts to frame Richards. That's when she decided to seek out a better truth.
musical score
switching
budgeting
Since she had TV network access, Amber decided to snoop around the station to get the raw footage of Ben's pilot duty at Bakersfield. What happened to her while she was doing this?
she got caught
Amber was caught redhanded while going through unedited file footage of the Bakersfield incident. It wasn't a massacre, after all.
she reedited the footage
she slept with the video librarian
she got fired
What happened to Amber Mendez after she got caught stealing the unedited footage of the Bakersfield incident?
she was killed on air
she became a runner-contestant
Amber was forced to become another runner-contestant in "The Running Man." They concocted a story that she was Ben's hidden girlfriend who helped him.
she was raped
she joined the evil side
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What does the outside TV audience do whenever a televised runner-contestant is chased by stalkers in "The Running Man?
they call in to voice their opinion on air
they wait for freebie giveaways
they just watch
they bet on who will win
Some entrepreneurial TV audiences have set up a gambling board where the TV viewers could bet on who will win for that certain episode. Of course things got tilted when the people started to bet on Richards...
Since Ben Richards became a sensational runner-contestant in "The Running Man," this never-happened-before result began happening. What started happening?
the stalkers were getting killed
Ben Richards was responsible for killing the stalkers one by one, with the help of his other runner friends. It's a first for the show!
the ratings of the show sank
Damon got a co-host
the stalkers quit
What really happened to all the runner-contests who supposedly won during the previous seasons of "The Running Man"?
they are banished from the country
they live off their winnings somewhere else
they get killed anyway
The supposed winners of "The Running Man" ended up being burned by Fireball's flame thrower. He revealed this to Amber who saw the corpses.
they become contestants the next season
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When Damon Killian was running out of stalkers to put on the show, he called in a retired one named ___ Freedom.
Captain
Captain Freedom was already retired from "The Running Man" when he was called back to play again. In a totalitarian regime, you just can't say no...
Colonel
General
Admiral
What was Captain Freedom doing career wise before Damon called him back to kill Richards?
he was a policeman
he was a workout trainer
Captain Freedom was already happy with his new career as a fitness trainer. He was selling fitness training videos, in which he starred, of course.
he was an actor
he was a sportscaster
To dupe the audience into believing that Captain Freedom killed Ben Richards and Amber Mendez in "The Running Man," host Damon Killian staged their fight and used these types of people to pretend they were Ben and Amber getting killed. What are these people called?
stuntmen
body doubles
Body doubles for Amber and Ben were hired, and later the faces of the two were superimposed on these doubles. That means the audience would think it was them getting killed by Captain Freedom.
extras
bit players
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Captain Freedom believed "The Running Man" was a sport about "death and honor,†a page out of the code for ancient types of fighting. To what kind of arena-type fighters was he referring.
gladiators
The supposed code of the gladiators was about a man fighting another man in an arena, using bare hands or weapons, but no trickery or fancy gadgetry. That's why Captain Freedom wouldn't hear of it when Killian wanted him to wear a fantastic costume.
freethinkers
terpsichoreans
philosophers
You Got:
/35
Braveworld Productions Taft Entertainment HBO Pictures