As long as they’ve got Arnie hashing out lines from his old action flicks, let’s remember The Running Man,
one of my favourites. Richard Dawson played an especially memorable
villian because he played it by doing what he does best: being a smarmy
game show host.
(For those of you who are too young to remember, Dawson was the original host of the American TV game show Family Feud.)
“Who loves you…and who do you love?! It’s time to start…running!”
What you may not remember is that Dawson’s character’s name in The Running Man
is “Killian”. “Killian” also happens to be the name of President Bush’s
commanding officer back in the early 1970s — the one who purportedly
wrote the memos that are now believed to be possible forgeries.
Another interesting coincidence: Like the running men Bush and Kerry,
the veracity of reports on Running Man Arnie’s character’s military
service is called into question. The official story is that Arnie’s
character is “The Butcher of Bakersfield”, a US Army helicopter pilot
who shot at innocent civilians. In reality, he defied orders to shoot
at a food riot in progress, saying that they were just innocent people
trying to eat.
Surely some speechwriter is going over The Running Man right now,
looking for the appropriate Arnie one-liners for the governator to use.
Perhaps Arnie’s worst one-liner, “Killian! Here is Sub-Zero. Now just
plain zero!”, might be a good starting point.
Other interesting tidbits about The Running Man:
- With Arnie now in office, this movie now features two future governors: Arnie and Jesse “The Body” Ventura, who would go on to become the governor of Minnesota.
- The movie was eerily prescient, predicting “extreme” game shows such as American Gladiators.
- In the movie, a good chunk of the government’s work involves
keeping the population misinformed and entertained. I loved Dawson’s
line as he gets on the phone: “Get me the Justice Department…
Entertainment Division”.
4 replies on “"Killian!"”
That was such a great film… not “great” as in meaningful or anything, but a good classic Arnie Film..
..I also read the book as well — Stephen King wrote it under the name Richard Bachman.
~SM
Der are innocent people down der! All dey want is some food for chrissake!
Thanks, John! I was trying to remember what that line was.
Remember folks, always keep your incriminating unaltered video footage neatly labeled and stored in an easy-to-find place. You never know when Maria Conchita Alonso will need it.
There’s also a pretty good techno album that samples heavily from the Running Man (Killian’s lines) called “Messiah, 21st-Century Jesus”. I liked it, but Wired magazine gave it their “Microwave of the Month” when it came out saying that it “sounded like squirrels fucking.”