Arnold Schwarzenegger Disavows His Own Remakes in Scathing The Running Man Review

Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn't exactly go around blessing remakes of his old movies. But he just did more than that for Edgar Wright's new take on The Running Man — he basically said this is the one he's been waiting for. If you were on the fence, Arnold just nudged you into the theater.

Arnold's rare stamp of approval

In a clip Edgar Wright posted on Instagram, Schwarzenegger — 78 and still the guy everyone calls "Arnold" — met Wright and the film's star Glen Powell and gave the remake a full-throated cheer.

"The only movie that I always wanted to have redone of my movies was The Running Man. So now, this one really upped it and did exactly that. The action was unbelievable and creative. So, really fantastic."

Translation: of all the times Hollywood has circled back to his classics, this is the redo he actually wanted. Subtext: not exactly a love letter to the other remakes.

So what is Wright and Powell's Running Man?

Paramount's new version keeps the near-future, media-bloodsport hook but tunes the engine. The show The Running Man is the country's top-rated TV obsession: contestants (they're literally called Runners) have to survive 30 days while professional killers hunt them down, every step broadcast to a very thirsty audience. The longer you last, the bigger the payout. Glen Powell plays Ben Richards, a working-class dad pushed to enter because his daughter is sick. Josh Brolin is Dan Killian, the charming, ruthless producer who lures him into the game. Ben's refusal to play by the script turns him into a fan favorite — and a problem for the people in charge. As ratings spike, so does the danger, and he has to stay ahead of the Hunters and a nation hooked on watching him fall.

If you remember the 1987 movie, that one had Arnold as a cop framed in a dystopian America and forced onto the show to fight for a shot at freedom. Same wicked TV spectacle, different angle on why he's running.

How the other Arnold remakes stacked up

Here's where this gets interesting. Arnold's glowing review stands out because the track record on remaking his movies is... mixed. The numbers kind of speak for themselves:

• Total Recall (1990 original): IMDb 7.5/10; Rotten Tomatoes 81% Tomatometer, 79% Audience; budget $48–80M; $261.4M worldwide; streaming on Paramount+ (at time of writing).
• Total Recall (2012 remake): IMDb 6.2/10; Rotten Tomatoes 30% Tomatometer, 47% Audience; budget $125M; $211.8M worldwide; streaming via Starz on Apple TV Channels (at time of writing).
• The Terminator (1984 original): IMDb 8.1/10; Rotten Tomatoes 100% Tomatometer, 89% Audience; budget $6.4M; $78.3M worldwide; streaming on Paramount+ via Amazon Channels (at time of writing). A new rebooted adaptation is reportedly in development, per James Cameron.
• The Running Man (1987 original): IMDb 6.6/10; Rotten Tomatoes 60% Tomatometer, 61% Audience; budget $27M; $38.1M domestic (no worldwide total listed here); streaming on Netflix (at time of writing).
• The Running Man (2025 remake/adaptation): budget $110M; scores TBD.

Release timing, money, and the vibe

This new Running Man is a Paramount release, directed by Edgar Wright and led by Glen Powell, with Josh Brolin co-starring as the showrunner-from-hell. The budget's a healthy $110 million — big enough to deliver the kind of set pieces Arnold is praising as "unbelievable and creative."

The Running Man hits US theaters on November 14, 2025.

If you're keeping score: previous remakes of Arnold's stuff didn't exactly outrun the originals with critics or audiences. Which is why Arnold going out of his way to hype this one matters. If he's calling it the redo he always wanted, that's a pretty strong signal Wright and Powell might actually have cracked it.