The Running Man has a notable difference from the original Stephen King novel, and it serves as a dig at the Kardashians. The Running Man’s dystopian world setting puts audiences in a futuristic version of America where practically every citizen consumes entertainment on a “Free-Vee.” The device is mandated by the government, and TV shows are distributed straight to audiences’ homes from Games Network, the sinister corporation behind The Running Man game. This all comes from the novel, but Edgar Wright’s 2025 film spiffs up the setting with some additional TV world-building.
Stephen King’s prescient novel was released in 1982 under his pseudonym, Richard Bachman, and later loosely adapted into a 1987 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Now, Edgar Wright and Glen Powell’s version has provided contemporary audiences with a much more faithful version, bringing the book to life practically beat for beat. While there are some distinct changes to The Running Man’s ending, one of the more notable additions is the corny reality TV series that plays throughout the movie: The Americanos.
‘The Americanos’ Is a Spoof On ‘Keeping Up With the Kardashians’
It should be painfully obvious to anyone watching The Running Man that The Americanos is meant to be riffing off of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, the reality TV series that ran between 2007 and 2021, introducing millions of people to the controversial socialite family. The Running Man places this in the film for comedic reasons, giving audiences something familiar to giggle over, but it actually has pretty dark ties to the story’s thematic material that aren’t kind to the Kardashians, or really any reality television.
One crucial detail of The Running Man’s society that’s glossed over in the film is that books are essentially unavailable to the common people. In the modern world, the internet has essentially taken over the role of the leading source of information, but when King wrote The Running Man, public libraries held that position. A library is intended to be a government-funded location where everyone can go for free information, and a crucial detail of the novel is that libraries have been barricaded behind steep paywalls that only the wealthy can afford. In its place is the Free-Vee.
The Running Man posits that the government would use reality TV shows like this for the distinct purpose of dumbing down the American population, making it easier to keep them in control.
While game shows like The Running Man are intended to evoke anger and pit civilians against each other, a factor that’s evident in the film, The Americanos is meant to numb audiences’ brains, making them susceptible to easy manipulation. It’s no secret that Keeping Up With the Kardashians is “turn-off-your-brain” television, but The Running Man posits that the government would use reality TV shows like this for the distinct purpose of dumbing down the American population, making it easier to keep them in control.
Stephen King’s novel examined a futuristic society that, in many ways, has come true. While it’s not exactly Free-Vee, people today have more access than ever to mind-numbing, easy-to-consume content that doesn’t benefit them in any way. That said, even Stephen King couldn’t have predicted the phenomenon of financial success and social influence of reality TV stars, so this jab is a modern update to King’s world that connects with thematic fluidity.