10 Running Man Latest Best Episode

Running Man Latest Best Episode in 2023

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Fugitives Updating Their Facebook Profiles During a Standoff = About 15 Years from "The Running Man"

Social media has made Stephen King's 1982 novel "The Running Man" (and its 1987 movie adaptation with Arnold Schwarzenegger) a frighteningly possible reality.

A 36-year-old man, Jason Valdez, reacted poorly in Ogden, Utah when police attempted to serve a felony warrant. He holed himself up in a hotel room with his handgun and a woman. Then he logged into America's favorite pastime and began updating.

Not long ago I wrote an article about the possibility of a devastating double-dip recession and compared it to several 1980s works of dystopian entertainment, including Stephen King's 1982 novel "The Running Man" and its film adaptation that was released five years later. The novel and film, set in the late 2020s, saw an America embroiled in the depths of a second Great Depression. An impoverished population was kept compliant with violent and entertaining reality television. The most popular of these shows, The Running Man, let viewers follow the saga of a man legally hunted to death...the longer he lived, the more money he got. If he lived long enough, he was a free man and a veritable multimillionaire.

With the threat of a deepening recession looming in the recesses of everyone's minds, now it has been revealed that Facebook and the Internet, not reality television, may be the nefarious key that makes Stephen King the unlikely predictor of America's future. Fugitives like Jason Valdez may, of their own volition (for now), entertain their "friends" with real-time updates of their flight from law enforcement. With the Internet accessible from everyone's smart phone a fugitive could easily create his or her own online show, complete with a blog, while on the run.

The public could log in and comment, vote, or offer support. Indeed, some of Valdez' friends apparently offered tidbits of information, such as the location of police officers surrounding the hotel. A good television producer could cook up a compelling reality show based around this isolated saga in Utah in about three minutes flat.

If the recession worsens and crime rates soar, will angry young men use social media to broadcast felonious misbehavior and flights from justice? Perhaps - such actions seem logical. Angy people want to be heard, to fight back, or seek help from friends. Perhaps Valdez' actions were more a call for help than a way to taunt the local police?

All we can say for certain is that this will not be the last instance of social media being used to potent effect during a fugitive's attempts to delay or escape incarceration. And everyone should pick up King's 1982 novel and read it...almost 30 years after its release, it proves frighteningly close to home.