My final blog for today...
I stand by that Running Man is such a fabulous movie (and book...but really, they're almost two totally different things). It's because of Arnold in that movie that I have this total fetish for veins on guys arms....bugs most chicks i'm sure, but to me it's the hottest thing ever, it makes me drool.
So I created a list a LONG time ago as to the Top 13 Reasons Why The Running Man, Richard Bachman/Stephen King, and Arnold were ahead of their time...the parallels to today are insane....
1. Reality TV: Real World is often credited as being the first Reality TV show (although American Family, back inthe day, really was the first one but it's not like it kicked off a whole genre)...Really, the Running Man tv show was THE reality show of it's time.
2. Infonet: when Arnold has the chick all strapped in her cheesy workout equipment, he logs into Infonet using a monitor/tv screen, keyboard, and remote...the remote was really like a mouse, and he was able to access an airlines network...Stephen King created the Web before it became mainstream. And Arnold bought his plane tix using that system...Stephen King created Travelocity back in 1987. And I know at the time we were all like "riiigghtt...sure you can just do a few clicks of the keyboard you can see flight schedules and book them...surreee"...well who has the last laugh now? (Hmm i guess Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz....)
3. Tight Airport Security. C'mon, remember before the year 2001...you were able to do ANYTHING at an airport. You could go through the gates with your family, you could bring 4 cans of hairspray in your carry-on luggage (as I have done...), you could bring swiss army knives...life was great! Well in the movie they're on hardcore airport security detail...as life is now, and probably will always be. Stephen King totally foresaw the TSA putting the smackdown.
4. Criminal Celebrities Now sure there was Son of Sam and all that...but in 1987, the paparazzi didn't make everyone into a God, especially not criminals or people on trial. I mean, Scott Peterson has marriage proposals! And did anyone really care about who Robert Blake was before his trial? In the movie, being a criminal and going on the Running Man game show made you an instant celebrity...Ben was the Scott Peterson of the future!
5. Lying News okay so really, the news has never been trustworthy. I realize that. But right now, it's a complete joke and I think anyone with common sense realizes the bias and propaganda that's being pushed on us at 6pm...serious pandering to whoever's paying the bills. I'd like to think in 1987, when the movie came out, that there was a bit more professionalism in the news, a bit more journalism integrity, a bit more people looking for the truth...in the movie, the news is one big scam, which is exactly how it is today.
6. Climbing for Dollars: at one point in the movie we see an ad for a tv show called Climbing for Dollars. The dude is climbing up a rope, with crazed mad dogs barking below, as he reaches up for money. You know what Stephen King invented? FEAR FACTOR.
7. Corporate Sponsorship Okay well I know this was around before 1987 and this didn't require much foresight....but throughout the Running Man "maze" (whatever they call it) there's a ton of ads everywhere for Coca-Cola, etc...there were plenty of movies in the 80's that had game show themes, etc, but the makers of The Running Man at least had the brains to put the reality of all the advertising in the movie as well...and now, it's EVERYWHERE in sports and game shows.
8. Audience: the audience in The Running Man screams...they yell...they thirst for violence. You know what that's called? JERRY SPRINGER.
9. Fly Girls: yeah you heard me. FLY GIRLS. In Living Color didn't come out until 1990, but the movie was a step ahead. Too bad J Lo wasn't in the movie...that would have been fabulous.
10. Technical Imaging...in the movie, they digitally swap faces to make it look like Arnold got killed...at the time, once again, everyone was like "riggghtt, sure you can do that with tv"...well fast forward to now, like in that Gatorade (or is it Nike? whatever) commercial where they take the different athletes' faces and put them in other situations (like Lance Armstrong boxing)...we don't even bat an eye. Dang Stephen King knew technology before we all did. At least all that coke-snorting and windex-drinking contributed to something.
11. Pixel Memory Storage Kind of goes with the previous item...after they've done all their image touchups and all that, the tweaked images/files get stored in the "PIxel Memory Storage". You know what those are now? JPEGS and GIFS and BITMAPS! Booyah.
12. Censorship In the movie's intro it mentions how art and music are heavily censored. You know what that's called in today's terms? THE FCC. Yeah Howard should have watched that movie to see what was gonna happen to him today. Maybe in the future there's another Nipplegate scandal.
13. And the most important part... That movie has everything: tons of action...a hero...noble buddies...a chick...a villain...if it were made today, that movie would scream: MILLIONS IN VIDEO GAME SALES. The potential is huge. So huge. Quite honestly, I keep bugging Kraig to figure out a way to convince EA to make the game, and i'm SURE you can convince Arnold to use his likeness...they convinced AL Pacino for the Scarface games....it's not like back in 1987 when the movie was made they thought about video game potential like they do now...
Okay well this list sounds MUCH better when I explain it in person, but I was sick of having it posted to my fridge so I had to create an electronic copy anyway.
Suck it.
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