Glad to see you’re not one of those cranks who thinks that somebody else wrote the Richard Bachman books using a pseudonym. Obviously, he wrote the books - it says so right on the cover. Those non-academic elitists claiming that only somebody named King could have written these books are doing a disservice to Mr Bachman’s memories and to free people everywhere.
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[li]You have a large cash expense account. You can travel anywhere in the world, wear disguises, use weapons, hide, whatever, for those 30 days. You do have a one-day head start before they announce you to the world.[/li][/QUOTE]
Do you get the cash expense account at the start, or do you have to go to an ATM every week to get new? Because that would make for easy tracking.
And how large? If the expense account is 1 million dollars, I’d take that money and screw the rules for sending the videotapes - better to have 1 mill. and live, than getting killed by trying to win 1 billion and giving away my location with the mail.
And yeah, better than middle class is high class - a lot of money buys privacy.
Instead of holing up on land, I’d look at getting a ship (yacht) and sailing out a bit in the ocean - difficult for the hunters to reach. That requires solving the mail problem, though.
Or during the 24 hr. period, before the media broadcasts your face, approach 10 different train employees, who all resemble you in different disguises, and offer them (from your expense account) a thousand dollars if you can take their job for the next month. (Say that you are a journalist writing an article to explain why). Hire 9 unemployed people resembling them, so the hunters can’t simply look at whose spot is unoccupied (since they might blab to the media afterwards). Switch between the disguises.
That depends on the disguise being good enough that the people you hire don’t realize that they are talking to the hunted man.
I respectfully disagree on these points. A solitary man in the woods is a noteworthy creature - if spotted, he’ll stick out like the proverbial sore thumb. And for all you know, the Park Service overflies the woods with IR gear to catch poachers and the like. And once spotted, you’re limited to fleeing on foot. Staying in an urban area provides valuable camoflauge and multiple options for flight; it makes good sense.
As for avoiding places you’ve been before - eh, there’s something to that, but only to a point. Were I the Running Man, it would be folly for me to keep visiting my favorite bars, but it would be reasonable for me to spend some time in DC. Yes, the Hunters might expect me to do that - but recall that the Hunters have all sorts of investigative and logistical support behind them. They can quickly familiarize themselves with any city they think I might be in, whereas I only have my own resources to draw upon. I’m better off hiding in a place I know and understand well.
Actually, you could have as much prep time as you wanted, couldn’t you? I mean, people volunteer for this show - they aren’t drafted. If I thought I might want to go on The Running Man, I could spend years planting supply caches around the world, doing research, and so on. The clock doesn’t start until I actually show up in the producer’s office and sign on the dotted line.
As I recall (though I’ll admit that it has been some years since I read the book), Richards headed off to the Games building to try to get into a game–he needed some money, and going on a game show was a way to do it. He did not “audition” for any specific game, as potential contestants had no choice of what games they wished to play; they were assigned by producers to a game show. (I seem to recall a couple of the other shows being “Swim with the Crocodiles,” and “Treadmill to Bucks,” which were shows people hoped they weren’t assigned to.) People may freely leave at any time during the audition process, but if they do, they will not be allowed back.
So, when Richards appeared to be well-qualified for The Running Man, the producers assigned him to that game show. I don’t think he more than three or four days passed from the time he walked in the building until the Running Man show, with him on it, aired; and he never left the building during that time–he couldn’t, if he wanted to play the game. In other words, he had no knowledge of which game show he would be on, and no opportunity to leave the building to prepare anything, if he wanted to remain qualified to play the game.
I initially thought you said you’d pretend to be a mailbox. And, you know, it’d be really easy to mail off your videos if you were inside one of those boxes all the time…
I considered that. I’d get bored. Not like mailman is the most exciting job ever, but I guess I could hold out 30 days to avoid death.
Now that I consider it more carefully, I’m not sure I could stand 30 days as a mailman either. I would probably go postal and attract attention in about 2 weeks. But I would be more accepting of my imminent death.
I’d go with the hide in plain sight strategy:
(1) Cut and dye my hair to disguise myself. Maybe go with some rudimentary make up to change my appearance slightly.
(2) Move somewhere saying I just split with my GF and am looking for a new start. Have ready story about starting a business or something like that.
(3) Have jokes about how much I look like the running man: “Ha ha man I do look like him. I hope they don’t shoot me!”.
I’ll tell you what would give you away - the 40 lb. cardboard box you’d be lugging around with 60 videotapes in it.
Confined to a shpping mall, albeit the world’s largest, no less.
I did kind of wonder about that when I first read the story. Just how did he lug all these tapes around? Can’t recall if it offered an explanation.
To answer some of the above questions. This may throw in some monkey wrenches, but it’s all from the story:
[ul]
[li]He waits in line at the Games Network, goes through a battery of tests. So they get a very thorough physical and psychological profile of him.[/li][li]The network has dozens of macabre games. Only at the end of the process, he is told he’s in The Running Man. He is then immediately sequestered in a Games Network hotel room for a couple days. No contact with the outside world allowed. He never leaves the building.[/li][li]He is given a brief intro on TV, and then dropped into a taxi. [/li][li]He does get a significant amount of cash, it’s apparently sufficient for most of his purposes, and running out wasn’t an issue in the story. But it’s not millions for bribes or purchase yachts to sail the seas for 30 days.[/li][li]It is the most popular show. Think trying to be Clay Aiken walking through the mall in American Idol’s heyday. EVERYONE is looking for you. The cities and town are essentially large ghettos where no one has anything to do but watch TV and hope to get a reward for your demise.[/li][li]The above point is important, because no one is really neutral. The lower classes want/need the reward money. The upper classes see you as a criminal. [/li][li]He quickly dismissed going abroad as he would still need the paperwork, passports, etc. The Network does not grease any wheels or aid you in any way. In the story, he was an unemployed blue-collar worker. [/li][/ul]
I was saving this, as it may change some above strategies. But, to be fair, Richards didn’t know this at the beginning either. So here’s a major spoiler:
Richards discovers this later: the Network reads the postmarks from the mailed tapes, and alerts the Hunters to your location.
Well duh!
On the other hand, I’m sure someone with a stack of cash could procure a fake passport that’s good enough to get on a plane. I’m thinking the best bet would be to join the French Foreign Legion, as I understand it used to be that legionnaires had to join using a pseudonym and once accepted couldn’t be extradited for the duration of their contract. Of course, the bad news is that the first contract runs for five years and the only way to get an early discharge is for acute medical reasons, but I can’t help but feel it would still improve the odds significantly.
I would set up several fake identities, not just id etc but actual fake persons.
I would set up decoys for the hunter force to waste their time and ammo on .
I would randomly commit incredibly aggressive acts against those hunting me, with results that might give trauma resulting symptoms to them.
I would make sure that everyone who attempted to inform on me would become an horrific example to others,
At every opportunity I would hunt those against me.
I would maintain as much as possible anonyimity to those who for what ever reason helped me.
So that even if coerced they could not identify me.
Also I would keep all info on a “need to know basis”, which as stooges they would NTK virtually nothing.
I would routinely give good rewards to those who even gave me minimal support, in the expectation of further help.
I would seek out information and pay or threaten to give it .
I would never take on the aspect of the reactor, but would try always to keep the initiative, keeping the hunters off balance and making them respond to me.
I would find out the locations and identities of those in charge of the operation against me and if possible take them out, if not possible give them a nasty scare.
But apart from that I have no strong ideas on the subject.
I wonder if being a bum could work. You’d be invisible to most ordinary people. But I imagine the other bums would notice you as new. They may not know about the show, but all it would take is someone with $100 asking them if they noticed anyone unusual recently.
I didn’t read The Running Man. Can you expand what you mean by 1984-style? How much like the world depicted in the book 1984 is it? Are there hidden cameras everywhere?
And certainly not an inappropriate username/post combo.
How about I go to Saudi Arabia or some country that requires women to keep their faces covered at all times?
The problem is leaving the US without a valid false passport, which you can’t get on the next streetcorner. Depending on how big the dystopian govt. is, I think going across the border to Canada is much easier (everybody is guarding the Mexican border) and try getting a flight from there. But if the Canucks watch the show, too, and the hunters can go everywhere…
However, what if you wrap your face in bandages, forge a prescription and go to a rehabilitation hospital, claiming you suffered burns on your face and need to recuperate slowly? You’d need to switch several times, since competent nurses would want to change your dressings, and expect some healing to take place after x days … but it would be better than “just” dying your hair/ wearing a beard.
Are you some kind of hit man, SEAL, Marine or anybody with high levels of competence in unarmed combat and guns? Otherwise, how do you make people sorry if you’re an ordinary guy?