Literary
Ben Richards is the protagonist of The Running Man.
He lives in a world, where the media, particularly the games media (The Network) is controlling everything and a totalitarian state is governing the country. He decides to participate in the Running Man show to help his family with their problems. He was the most successful player. He even defeated the Lead Hunter, for which he was offered the job of taking his place. It was something that was offered to him, because in the meantime his family was murdered. He faked acceptance to destroy the Network in revenge for everything it had done to him, his family and to millions of Americans.
Film
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Ben Richards was played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
He is the captain of a group of helicopters. He refuses to kill unarmed civilians under the orders of his speriors. That´s why he was arrested and framed for the later executed crime. He spent 18 months in prison, where he and others stage a prison revolt, which succeeds and gets out of there. After freeing himself from the last chain he is later arrested again through a woman called Amber and forced by Killian to play in Running Man, the show he created, He sends him there with his two best friends with no intention of giving them a chance to survive it. Later Amber also joined him, when she relised he was innocent. He manages to escape the game, but his two friends die, join a Resistance group his friends are members of and turn the tables on Killian with the help of the group. He later executes Killian for his crimes after exposing them publicly and becomes a national heroe. He goes away with Amber and the show is closed. The fate of the totalitarian government after that is unknown.
