Let’s make this simple. You want to know if there are any mid- or post-credits scenes in The Running Man. The answer is no, though the entirety of the closing credits are accompanied by some in-universe imagery that does add a bit to the world of the film and where things go after the conclusion.
Full spoilers follow for The Running Man.
Those who are only familiar with The Running Man thanks to the 1987 movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger may be surprised by how different the specifics of the story are in director Edgar Wright’s new version, which is much more rooted in the original 1982 Stephen King novel vs. that earlier adaptation. This version of Ben Richards (Glen Powell) isn’t captured and forced to play the diabolical game show, The Running Man, but instead volunteers for it in his desperation to help his sick baby daughter, Cathy. Even if he is killed within the 30 days he has to try to avoid the game’s five dreaded Hunters – led by the always-masked McCone (Lee Pace) – he’ll at least likely earn a lot of money along the way that his wife, Sheila (Jayme Lawson), can use to buy Cathy the medicine they can’t currently afford.
With the entire country open to him as part of the game, Ben moves from city to city trying to avoid being spotted, though the Hunters and the cops who help them nearly nab him several times. But while The Running Man depicts him as a crazed killer, eventually resorting to deep fakes of him ranting like a madman – which the show’s producer, Dan Killian (Josh Brolin), and host Bobby T (Colman Domingo) laugh off as simply being part of their showmanship – Ben does find a few willing to give him safe haven versus the many who will call the show if they spot him to collect their own reward money. Ben’s protectors include people like Bradley (Daniel Ezra), who has come to realize just how corrupt the system is that they live under. The Games Network who puts on The Running Man and other sadistic game shows both runs and owns nearly everything and controls all of the messaging people see, including hiding the exposure to radiation that has given many cancer, including Bradley’s little sister.
Stephen King wrote The Running Man in the 1970s and set it in the dystopian future of – wouldn’t you know it – 2025. Wright’s film doesn’t say what exact year it is, but it does seem to be set in basically a dystopian parallel present, complete with analog technology like King envisioned things decades ago. In an expansion of his role in the book, this includes Bradley releasing underground tapes in which he wears a mask to disguise his identity and spreads information about what the Games Network is really up to.
When things get too dangerous in his hometown of Boston, Bradley ends up sending Ben to a like-minded revolutionary he knows, Elton (Michael Cera), who lives in a town called… Derry, Maine!
Welcome to Freaking Derry!?
That’s right, The Running Man includes an extended trip to one of the most infamous locations in Stephen King’s stories this side of Castle Rock. King’s Running Man book did in fact include Derry as a brief location, one of several smaller mentions of the fictional town in his work before he’d focus on Derry and the evil that lurks within that town in the pages of 1986’s It. Interestingly, The Running Man was originally published under King’s then-secret Richard Bachman pseudonym, and its future/sci-fi setting didn’t have any outright horror elements, much less a mention of, say, a supernatural killer clown. But it’s still very fun to see the town make its way into this film, even if it’s sort of a skewed alternate universe version of it, given how much more weight the name Derry brings with it now.
Publishing his own anti-Games Network messaging via a zine, the staunchly revolutionary Elton is also a bit of a reckless loose cannon, with a vendetta against the Network-controlled police for the death of his father. When Elton’s less-than-understanding mom tries to summon the cops to turn Ben in, Elton first stops her, but then ends up calling them himself in order to lead them into an ambush. But while Elton’s many booby traps do take out the cops who first arrive, things get much more dangerous when Hunters show up. Elton and Ben flee in Elton’s vehicle, only for Elton to be shot and killed, though Ben is able to set off Elton’s bombs and jump to safety as they explode, killing one of the Hunters in the process.
A cult of fandom has already been growing around Ben thanks to those who also resist the Network outright, as well as those who are simply impressed by this underdog who has evaded being killed far longer than most who play The Running Man. Ben has not only killed several of the police that have tried to take him in, but a famed Hunter as well; thanks to this, “Richards Lives” graffiti and signs have been appearing in increasing numbers throughout the film, indicating a groundswell of support.
The Running Man Ending Explained
The final act of The Running Man involves a desperate Ben taking a random hostage when he jumps into a car with Amelia (Emlila Jones), the kind of well-off citizen who has completely bought into the lies of The Running Man and their image of Ben as a vile criminal and killer. He tries to tell her she is wrong about him, even offering her his gun to show he means no harm. When Ben is spotted by two armed men hoping to score money for taking him down, he is ready to accept his fate, hoping Amelia can make it to safety, only for the two men to be shot first by Network guns. Now realizing the Network has their own specific agenda about how they want this to play out that involves keeping him alive at least a bit longer, Ben yells to a crowd of police and bystanders with the lie that he has a powerful explosive in his pocket, using Amelia’s small bag as his concealed prop. He demands a private plane and drives to a small Derry airport to board it. (I wonder if there’s an Air Force base nearby…)
Amelia impulsively decides that although Ben told her she can leave, she will stay with him as his faux-hostage to help him continue his ruse, because what he’s told her and the Network’s actions in killing those men now has her now questioning all she knew. This feels like a hard-to-buy, heavily rushed change of heart (including a willingness to put her life in jeopardy so quickly) versus the book, where she and Ben spend more time together and he does force her to accompany him, and where her realization of the truth is more subtle and gradual.
McCone meets them at the plane, where Ben forces the lead Hunter to take his mask off, finally revealing Lee Pace’s handsome Lee Pace face for the first time in the film. On the plane, he is introduced to the small crew, who he instantly realizes are actually the other remaining Hunters. Killian then contacts the plane, asking to speak to Ben privately. He tells Ben that they know his bomb is fake, thanks to the plane’s numerous detection devices not being set off when he boarded. However, Killian has a bold proposition for Ben: He has proven so adept at both avoiding capture and taking out his enemies that Killian wants to hire him as a new Hunter and give him his own show to boot, called Hunter #6! All Ben has to do first is kill all the other Hunters on the plane, but knowing Ben will resist this, Killian has another decidedly dark reveal: Ben’s wife and child are dead. He tells Ben that McCone and the other Hunters tracked his family down and killed them as revenge for the Hunter that Ben killed, and shows him video footage of the murders.
Focused on putting on a good show and making the audience cheer, Killian appeals to the increasing pro-Ben sentiment by having Bobby tell the viewers that the Hunters were caught breaking one of The Running Man’s core rules – keeping the family of a Runner safe – and portraying Ben’s quest for revenge as a righteous turn of events.
Ben initially acts just as Killian hoped, screaming in agony about his family and then taking the gun Killian hid for him and going to the cockpit. A fight ensues, and the autopilot is engaged, during which Ben manages to kill the three other “regular” Hunters, leaving only McCone. They fight, even as McCone insists that what Ben saw was more doctored footage, and that he and the others didn’t kill Ben’s family. They’re likely still alive… at least for now. McCone then reveals that he himself was a former Running Man contestant, the only one who made it all the way to day 29 before Killian offered him a similar deal to join as a Hunter. McCone seems to have long since lost his humanity though, as he coldly recalls when his own family was killed in front of him by the Network.
Ultimately, Ben manages to kill McCone, but the plane still has no pilot, which is a bit of a problem. He tells Amelia to put on the only remaining parachute and places the zines Elton gave him into her bag, asking her to help get them to the public before sending her out the emergency door to safety. Going back into the cockpit, Ben is contacted by Kiliian, who asks for his final “Yes” to his offer. Ben refuses and demands to know if his family is actually dead or not. With plans to make Ben his new star clearly out the window, Killian plays a deep fake “live” video for The Running Man that shows a deranged Ben saying he’s going to crash the plane into the Network building, killing everyone there – including the audience. The Running Man fans in attendance begin cursing and screaming at Ben.
By the way, this Killian-engineered fake plan by Ben is the genuine ending of The Running Man novel, which concludes with a fatally wounded Ben flying the plane straight into the Network building, presumably taking out everyone inside. One can imagine that’s not likely something we’ll see the hero do in a Hollywood film after the events of September 11, 2001, so the movie includes it as a villain-engineered possibility rather than an actual event.
Instead, the 2025 movie Killian and Bobby follow up this doctored threat from Ben with the announcement that they have fired a missile to intercept the plane, which we see hurtle through the air, hitting the plane and blowing it up as The Running Man crowd cheers. And that’s that for Ben Richards… or is it?
Richards (Really) Lives!
In the aftermath, we see a new revolutionary video from Bradley, in which he recounts what occurred, but then asks… is Ben Richards really dead? He points out discrepancies in that last episode of The Running Man, like shots of the crowd supposedly booing Ben that don’t match up with what was shown earlier and include footage pulled from an earlier episode, and then also notes the airplane had a pilot’s ejection seat.
We then see the very much alive Sheila at a grocery store, shopping with a now healthy-looking Cathy sitting in her cart. Sheila glances outside and sees a man with a hood and a mask looking towards her, standing dramatically in front of “Richards Lives” graffiti. Holding Cathy, she cautiously walks outside towards the man and begins to get emotional as she approaches him.
Then we’re at The Running Man studio as they prepare to kick off the next season. The audience is riled up in all the wrong ways for Killian, with many chanting for Ben Richards, holding “Richards Lives!” signs and other messages both in support of him and against the Games Network. Killian and Bobby argue about how to handle the situation, with Bobby storming off in frustration, leading Killian to declare he’ll just host himself.
Killian walks on stage grinning… but only for a second, as the crowd’s jeers overtake him. Suddenly, people begin to jump the barriers, overwhelming and attacking security. Killian tries to flee, but trips and falls as a man approaches from the crowd, singularly focused on him. Yep, it’s Ben Richards all right, and he pulls out a gun and takes a page from Killian’s TV producer playbook, counting down to action with “Five, four, three, two, one,” at which point he pulls the trigger. And that’s definitely that for Dan Killian, and presumably for The Running Man!
Is There a Running Man Post-Credits Scene?
No, there’s no actual scenes once we cut to the credits after Killian is shot. However, for the entire duration of the closing credits, we see what look like pages from Elton’s zine in the background, though they’re filled with information written after the events of the film (and Elton’s death). It appears that others are continuing to pass on revolutionary messages.
A lot of quick headlines also flash by in the credits, dealing with upheaval in the wake of the film. This includes an image of a furious-looking Amelia, presumably now a full-fledged revolutionary herself, and one headline noting that no one has been able to find Bobby T ever since The Running Man host wisely got out of the Network building before all hell broke loose.
Note: This story was originally posted on Nov. 13. It was updated with full spoilers on Nov. 14.
