Manhunt (novel)
Manhunt (originally The Running Man ) is a novel by the American author Stephen King , which was published as the fourth novel under King's pseudonym "Richard Bachman". It was published by the NAL publishing house in 1982 . The German translation by Nora Jensen was published by Heyne Verlag in the same year. In 1987 the book was filmed under the title Running Man with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead role.
content
The novel is set in the near future - the year 2025 - and is about the unemployed family man Benjamin Stuart Richards, who lives with his wife Sheila Catherine and their seriously ill daughter Catherine Sarah in the so-called Co-op-City, a slum- like housing estate. lives. The government and the public television companies have come together to form large alliances, democracy no longer takes place, and the cities are totally contaminated as a result of years of mismanagement.
Macabre game shows will take place on television in 2025 . The audience is entertained with games such as “Treadmill for Riches”, in which only those with chronic heart, liver or lung disease can take part. The most popular show of the year 2025 is the game show "Manhunt" ("Running Man"), in which viewers and hunters belonging to the television company hunt down a candidate and try to kill them as effectively as possible in the media. People who are not involved are often harmed.
In order to be able to buy the medicines he needs for his daughter Cathy, Ben Richards decides to go to the skyscraper of the television company and to advertise for one of the station's game shows, which finally works with a participation in "Running Man". For every hour he survives, he or his wife who inherits him are promised 100 dollars. Should he survive an entire month, Ben would win the jackpot and his life. To prove his life, Richards has to film himself with a camera for ten minutes twice a day and send the films to the game show. If he does not do this, his wife will no longer receive any money. With the help of a few tricks, the necessary pinch of luck and a friend and passport forger in the Co-op City, Ben manages to escape the hunters several times; mostly just barely.
Finally, the hunters track down the seriously injured Ben Richards before time runs out. However, he manages to hijack an airplane with the help of a hostage. On board the plane, the head of the television company made him an offer via video conference: From now on, Ben should work as a hunter in the game "Running Man" himself. At the same time, Ben learns that his wife and child have died in a robbery. Empty of meaning and physically and mentally exhausted, Ben steers the machine into the skyscraper of the television company.
filming
The novel was filmed in 1987 under the title Running Man by Paul Michael Glaser with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the role of Ben Richards. However, the film differs significantly from the novel, which has been widely criticized by Stephen King fans. Despite adopting the basic idea and the names of the protagonists, the novel served as a loose template for the film adaptation, in which the socio-critical attitude of the novel also played a different role.
The plot of the film takes place in 2017, Ben Richards is a helicopter pilot. An economic crisis has taken place, and to that extent the depressive mood of the novel is carried over into the film. Instead of manhunting across the country, the competitions are held in specially constructed arenas.
See also
- “ Das Millionenspiel ” - a German-language film based on the same topic based on Wolfgang Menge from 1970
- The Hunger Games
- Battle Royale
- The death row inmates
expenditure
- Stephen King: Manhunt ("Running Man"). New edition Heyne, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-453-43580-3 .
- Stephen King: Running Man . Signet Books, New York 1982, ISBN 0-451-15122-4 .