Arnold Schwarzenegger recently stepped up in front of a group of veterans at the Skydance screening room in Los Angeles to introduce the new take on The Running Man, starring Glen Powell. Director Edgar Wright was right there, too, filming the whole moment for Instagram and X.
“In 1987, we made the movie The Running Man,” he reminded the crowd, proudly crediting the ’80s and ’90s as the peak of explosive action movies and action stars. Predator, Terminator, Commando… Arnold’s résumé backs his statement.
“Now, of course, a lot of companies come and remake them,” he said, followed by an extra-sharp edge: “In most cases, I am not happy about that because they are perfect movies.”
At first, he didn’t name names. But then he did. And it wasn’t talking about Glen Powell’s The Running Man.
“Why would you redo, you know, Total Recall? I was unhappy about it. I’d say, ‘OK, that’s—that is stupid to do.'” Everyone in the room laughed.
The 2012 Total Recall redo with Colin Farrell and Bryan Cranston made $211.8 million off a budget reportedly around $125 million. On paper, that’s fine. But critics dragged it all over the internet, and its Rotten Tomatoes score sits at a sad 30%. In comparison, Arnold’s 1990 version has an 81% score.
Despite that mini roast, Schwarzenegger made it clear he doesn’t hate every reboot. He actually always thought The Running Man deserved a second shot. “I always said in my interviews there was one movie that I did that came out really well, but I felt like we didn’t have the budget to do the kind of, to paint the future that this story takes place… that movie was [The] Running Man.”
A week before the screening, he watched Wright’s movie and came out suitably impressed. “I thought they did such a fantastic job,” he told the veterans, saying he was “blown away.” He also revealed that both Powell and Wright reached out for his blessing beforehand. That’s respect.
Wright returned the compliments. “I’m beside myself listening to him speak about the film we all worked so hard on,” he wrote online. “He has been so kind and generous throughout our production.”
This isn’t the first time Arnold has dunked on the Total Recall redo, of course. Back in 2019, talking to GQ about his career, he said: “Someone tried to do a remake of [Total Recall]. How stupid is that?”
While Wright’s futuristic adventure opened at $28.2 million worldwide (which is actually way lower than expected), having Arnold Schwarzenegger hype The Running Man remake in public is worth a lot more money. Let’s hope those numbers pick up.
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