Stephen King’s The Running Man has a smarter ending than either movie

But both those movie endings miss the different, darker kind of satisfaction that comes from the much grimmer ending of King’s novel, published in 1982 under his Richard Bachman pseudonym. There’s a rote, business-as-expected quality to the ending of both movie adaptations. Glaser’s version, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Ben Richards role, gives the character a more neatly packaged happily-ever-after, while Wright’s version is more chaotic and uncertain. Still, they hit roughly the same notes.