The Running Man-Steven King-2

Ben’jamin
Mr. H Salsich
English 9
23/4/11

27-317

Ben Richards got into the show, The Running Man. The rules are simple, you have 30 days to survive and the whole world is looking for you. If someone reports you, they get 10,000 bucks. If you kill a government official, $100 bonus. Two men were sent out at the start of the show, one only lasted a few days before he was gunned down, but Richard went on the run. The catch is, you have to send the game committee 10 minutes of tape everyday, and everyday you don’t, there is a $1,000 dollar fine. The hunters use the tapes to track you down. Richard uses friends he has in Boston to mail in the tapes for him while he makes a dash Portland to where he can get into Canada. Unfortunately, he is seen and reported. He is now on the run completely from the cops, though he kills several of them, winning several extra dollars. Eventually, is shot in the shoulder, but he takes a hostage and uses her and the lie that he has a nuclear bomb to get into an airport onto a plane. He spends several hours bargaining with the game committee from the sky, they offer him a job as a hunter for future shows, he threatens to blow up the plane over New York. Eventually, he gets the committee to admit how corrupt the games are. Once he does this, he kills the crew on the plane with a gun he picked up, but is shot in the process. He is literally bleeding his guts out. He gets into the cockpit and starts flying the plane. Right before he bleeds to death, he flies the plane into the game building, ending it forever.

This was a great book about human determination. Ben Richards was determined to survive and to end the evil that put him there. This book also had a really really sad ending. Richards finds out on the plane that a “gang”, it was really the game committee, killed his wife and daughter, ending the reason for him ever being there. This is really a story of revenge, and also fear. Richards, being a poor person, is feared by the wealthy. Unlike the other contestant, Richards uses this to his advantage to influence his survival. This book really is the essence of what we have been talking about in class, the strength of human spirit.