Copyright Screen Rant
The Running Man hits theaters this month, a remake of a 1980s sci-fi thriller based on a Stephen King novel. While the original is a cult classic, it wasn't a great movie. However, it did something that remains notable as it predicted the reality TV craze a decade before it started. It also wasn't the only movie to do so. Reality television has been around for decades, but it didn't really become a huge craze until MTV began airing The Real World in the 1990s. Since that time, reality TV has become a huge draw, with shows like Survivor, American Idol, The Kardashians, and more, taking the television world into the lives of strangers. The Running Man (1987) With Edgar Wright bringing The Running Man back to the big screen with a new remake, it is easy to forget that the original Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi hit predicted the reality TV craze years before The Real World captivated audiences. Of course, the difference is that The Running Man featured a man fighting for his life. This original movie was based on a Stephen King novel, which itself predicted reality TV a decade earlier. However, the film went a long way in showing how people would gather in masses to watch strangers competing in situations with the greatest stakes. This wasn't a television game show; it was an intense competition. It is easy to see how The Running Man predicted later shows like Survivor, where contestants aren't dying, but they are put in dangerous situations. It was also highly influential for other survival movies like The Hunger Games, which took reality TV to the extreme, but after Survivor had already become a global hit. Death Race 2000 (1975) Death Race 2000 is an outlier, only because the competition here isn't technically a television show. However, it is a national event, and people would follow the race on the news to see how the different competitors are doing. It also created a new media star in Frankenstein, a popular driver with a more professional wrestling persona. This is something that reality TV has done over the years. No one really knew who Kim Kardashian was until she began to be heavily promoted on Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Carrie Underwood became a massive star after appearing on American Idol. The Miz caught WWE's attention thanks to his starring on The Real World. In 1975, Death Race 2000 likely drew on professional wrestling as a template for building its competitors, with Frankenstein as the most prominent example. However, in today's society, countless people try to become celebrities by heading onto reality TV competitions. Death Race 2000 predicted that entire phenomenon. UHF (1989) UHF is an interesting movie because it focuses on something that barely exists in today's society. Much like Wayne's World, this is a movie with a plot involving local television networks that operate on cable services in those areas. With big cable services and streaming, these are no longer an option. Besides, YouTube exists now. However, looking at YouTube, that was a clear result of people loving reality TV and deciding to bring their own lives to the public in a different space. Looking at UHF, it's easy to see how these forms of storytelling would one day exist, but at a comedic level. That is no surprise from the mind of Weird Al Yankovic. Anyone who wonders where Internet reality shows like Mr. Beast and more came from, look back to 1989 and see how Weird Al created reality shows about everything from "Bowling for Burgers" and "Raul's Wild Kingdom" to "Stanley Spadowski’s Clubhouse." Pleasantville (1998) Pleasantville is an interesting choice because it actually hit theaters after The Real World became a sensation on MTV. Remember, The Real World took people and had them live together in a house, with cameras always running, similar to what Big Brother became years later. Pleasantville asked what would happen if it were real people. The plot sees two teen siblings fighting over a remote control when they suddenly end up transferred into a 1950s black-and-white sitcom. While the two siblings know they are not supposed to be there, their parents think they are their real sitcom kids, and their lives are broadcast to the world. Of course, in later years, this was something fans would see, but with "celebs" sharing their lives. The Simple Life with Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie premiered five years later. Keeping Up with the Kardashians premiered nine years later. Everyone from Ozzy Osborne to Hulk Hogan had a reality TV show, bringing fans into their homes. Real Life (1979) Even more to the point of the reality TV shows that bring cameras into people's homes, Real Life was a movie that hammered this point home. Released in 1979 and directed by Albert Brooks, Real Life is a mockumentary co-written by Harry Shearer, the man who co-wrote and starred in This is Spinal Tap five years later. The mockumentary follows Brooks, a documentary filmmaker, as he brings his cameras into the home of a regular American family, leading to mishaps and uncomfortable situations for the family. The entire film is a spoof of Americans wanting to know more about strangers' lives. This is clearly something that reality TV has exploited over the years. TV shows like Sister Wives, Teen Mom, Married at First Sight, and Jersey Shore take people inside the homes of people, often with uncomfortable situations leading the way. Real Life predicted this phenomenon decades before it became popular. Death Watch (1980) Death Watch sounds like the name of a thriller, but it's very different and much more sobering. This movie follows a woman named Katherine (Romy Schneider) who learns she is dying of an incurable disease. When the world finds out, she becomes a celebrity, and a TV company offers her a huge payoff to let them film her final days. Death Watch is the name of the fictional reality TV show they are filming, and they set out with cameras to follow this woman as she prepares for her death. She takes the money and goes into hiding, but the TV show producers expected this and are following her, filming her as she goes. It is a massive invasion of privacy, and the idea that the public would be macabre enough to want to watch a woman slowly dying as television entertainment is disgusting. However, when looking at many reality TV shows, and even the 24/7 news channels following O.J. Simpson, this was a precursor of what would come. Videodrome (1983) Videodrome is a David Cronenberg movie that is a disturbing look at the effects of television on viewers. Set in the early 1980s, the CEO of a small UHF television station accidentally stumbles upon a broadcast signal from someone sending snuff films for people to watch if they know where to look. However, what he soon learns is that the snuff films are involved with a mind-control conspiracy. When the CEO starts to have intense hallucinations, he realizes that things are going to get very bad for anyone who watches this broadcast signal. This is a very different prediction about what reality TV could do to people who become so infatuated with the shows that the lines between reality and fiction blur. With a non-stop flood of sex, violence, and horror, it is hard for anyone to understand what reality even means anymore. EDtv (1999) EDtv was another movie that came out after The Real World premiered on MTV, so it didn't totally predict that sort of entertainment. However, this was a film that was more of a precursor of what people would one day watch, and its fictional network, True TV, is even similar to a network many true-crime fans know to this day. The plot here was similar to Real Life, where producers would take cameras into a normal man's home and broadcast his life to the world. Matthew McConaughey plays Ed, while Woody Harrelson is his brother, Ray. What happens next is that the brothers realize that their new fame comes at a cost they never expected. This was a big deal because one of the significant controversies coming out of reality television, especially in the last 20 years, is that the regular people on the shows learn quickly that fame has as many negatives as it does positives. The Truman Show (1998) The popularity of a show like The Real World helped shape the idea behind The Truman Show, which, in turn, added something new to the reality-television genre. Unlike most reality TV, where the stars know they are being filmed, this has the star believing he is just living a normal life, while, in reality, having it broadcast to the world. This was one of Jim Carrey's best roles, as he plays Truman, the only "real" person in the fictional town where he lives. He was raised there from birth, and his entire life has been broadcast for the world to see, with all the townspeople hired as actors. However, things change when he starts to realize something isn't right. Hidden-camera shows have been around for years, but adding them to the idea of reality TV world was different, and now there are several shows where not everyone on the show knows they are on TV during filming. Network (1976) The entire basis of the reality TV craze is that people want to watch other people's lives, either because their own lives are uninteresting or because they love train-wreck television. There is a reason millions watched O.J. Simpson running from the police. It is also true that reality TV with intense drama draws bigger numbers than happy shows. Network was released in 1976, and it remains the gold standard for people watching television to see other people's problems. Peter Finch is Howard Beale, a news reporter who has a nervous breakdown on the air. Since the ratings skyrocketed during his breakdown, the network decided to keep bringing him back.
