The problem is that the corrected book rules are so drastically hard that they end up making no sense.
The viewers don’t know it’s a game - so it’s not Who wants to be a millionaire, but Americas most wanted. Therefore, nobody, not even a desperate person who needs cash for a medical procedure to heal his wife, would apply. (Also, no organisation to help because nobody would know about the reward, right? The public would be told that since the runners are murderers, their reward is their life. The movie made more sense in that regard: usually the runners were convicted murderers, only Arnie was framed; and the whole thing took place in one big arena).
What’s the motivation of the company to have this game, and of the state, to allow it? With the OP rules, where the runners have a slim chance, I could see the state wanting to identifiy and thus weed out, underground groups before they become strong. But with the revised rules, there is no chance at false passports or wigs.
And the company could use real convicted murderers instead of civilians and do the whole thing in an enclosed place. Heck, let civilians apply as hunters for their chance to work out their aggression by trying to kill a bad guy, and you could sell tickets!
So why the promise of 1 billion (even if they don’t intend to keep it)?
I think as a mind game only the OP rules have a chance. I still stand by that forfeiting the money by skipping the mail videos and hiding would have a better chance. Since the money isn’t enough to cover renting a yacht, I’d go down to the harbour in disguise with a gun* and threaten a boat owner of a houseboat to take me with him, and then go offshore in a different country.
I assume that the expense money is enough to buy a gun, and that even in dystopian America, people still have dozens of guns, because there are so many around and it’s part of the US culture.
Another trick, esp. since the video cassettes are so small, would be, after pre-recording them all, to make another 30 copies, put them all in padded envelopes (so nobody knows the videos are inside) and give them to drivers of greyhound buses at the bus depot, with an extra 10 $, saying “It’s a bet with a friend about whether post or bus is quicker”. The other 30 I’d give to some hobos at the trainyard, together with train tickets.
Um, no. The viewers are well aware it’s a game called The Running Man. They are NOT told that the runners are murderers until said runners are forced to kill cops in self-defence. After that, Richards is called a killer because he is one. The public know the exact rewards for the runner.
Nobody applies specifically for the Running Man, but those who do get accepted for it stick with it because the rest of their life is bad enough that going out with a bang and leaving a few hundred behind for their loved ones is better than what they could otherwise achieve.
They don’t really have a chance, but they do get false IDs and wigs.
The OP said that the TV company would lie to the public that you (the runner) are a criminal, so that not only would the poor people turn you in for a reward, the middle class would turn you in because you are a criminal. Like I said, I’m going by the rules in the OP, not the other versions mentioned.
If those are supplied by the TV company, then the hunters know of them, right? And the station can show the new identity any time they like? So what’s the use of that?
No, not yet. I was going by the OP and what else has been said in this thread.
winning this game is super simple, if you have an accomplice you can trust.
you need a place to stay, totally out of sight the entire time so the accomplice is your source of food and all that stuff.
you will also need to find a way to mail the tapes to others who will then mail the tapes from those locations, this is the hard part, but if you can work out the details you are golden since the only way they have of finding you is through those tapes and their postmarks.
the other thing is you would need to find a way to mail tapes to others who will mail tapes to others who will mail tapes to the games. all of them cannot know who sent them the tapes and it would be pretty critical to have all recipients in the chain unaware of the post marks on their packages. you need to do this so the hunters cannot just hunt down the first level in your chain and then find you from that.
also your accomplice absolutely cannot be someone known to be known by you.
now that I think about it, you could possibly get 10-15 people who would help based on the promise of payback later on…in the book the rules are not clear on what happens to people who helped out a winner after they win. but with those people you could easily set it up so you have tapes coming in from 60 cities all over the country one from each and on each day you could deliberately set up far away locations Seattle/Miami for one days tapes, be sure to have a 3 day window where all the tapes come from one general area, this will make the hunters think you lost your network and bring them all in on a false trail.
of course doing all of this, with no upfront prep and 80’s dystopia no net, no cell phone, would be a bitch, I seriously think the best bet would be to hit up M.I.T. and find a group of kids to work out the details and be your support.
ok not so simple but not exactly difficult either, relies on a bit of trust and luck but it could be done.
hell I just realized.
you could probably do all of this with just one accomplice.
they would need the disguises and they would need to travel, you make all the tapes the first day, (mail out the very first 2 immediately, like film them in the elevator on your way down to the street) then just hole up while your partner drives around the country side dropping tapes off, using disguises and laying low the whole time as well, their job is to not be noticed dropping off tapes so they need to use care while doing the drops, no fingerprints on the tapes and they will have to drop a letter or package into the box as well so they look like an ordinary person mailing stuff. work the system, if UPS/Fedex are around send a few tapes through them to give you a chance to move a larger distance between drops. (mail tapes from Seattle, also fedex tapes from Seattle on a 2 day delivery that way you will have one day where you dont have to mail any tapes, using Fedex and UPS combined you might be able to take a 2 day break and cover some real ground. they big key would be unpredictability and staying off the radar, essentially your partner is now the running man but nobody knows this. have days where you mail 2 or 3 from one city then do the Fedex/UPS trick and bail for someplace far, spread the hunters out all over hell and back, use an 8 sided die to determine your direction of travel each day (each number for each direction plus the half points on the compass N.E. and all that) use another totally random method for determining your distance traveled each day (this would vary depending on your maximum distance you could cover in one day for each day.
But how, in a dystopian society (which might have police informers or snitches depending on how bad it is) are you going to find somebody who has no obvious connection to you, yet that you can trust enough that they don’t simply turn you in - or kill you after the 30 days are up and you received your billion dollars?
Usually it takes time to get to know somebody enough to decide whether they’re trustworthy - and even then people get oven deceived (not only people who marry serial killers or spys, but also best friends where suddenly the friendship breaks apart: and money, like a lotto win, is often the breaking point in those stories).
Great point. I think the info about 1 billion reward will leak out one way or another. Even if people are not sure if it’s true, there are organization dedicate to more uncertain things.
In the spider man movie, Peter Parker takes pictures of himself as spider man to get rewards. Someone might want to capture you just to take picture every few days to get rewards, and turn you in at the end.
Does average people know about the 30 days limit? What I am thinking is that if you can convince people (by people, I mean a chosen person who you purposely let him/her capture you) to delay turning you in, by promising great rewards. If you can manage a way to turn in the videos beforehand, and if this person is greedy enough to keep this a secret…
Actually what we have in this thread is conflicting information. The OP said that the public is told that the runner is a criminal, to stop any sympathisers helping him.
Those who re-read the book said that the public knows it’s just a game, which would mean people would be willing to help for a cut of the money.
The public knows that it is a “game.” But in this socieity, that means a contest to the death. not “The Price Is Right.” However, they are brainwashed into rooting against the runner. The government doctors up video images so the runner appears to be a brutish animal, willing to kill to survive. The government is a master manipulator of the masses through the Free Vee.
Within the framework of the story, no one would just help out for a cut of the money. Although, given time (which the runner does not have) it might be theoretically possible for a runner to make some sort of arrangement or pact to improve his chances.
That’s not conflicting information. The public know it’s a game, a game in which people can die, including sympathisers if they help out. They’re not told the runner is a criminal, they’re told he’s a killer, which, by that point, he is.
BTW, I realised my phrasing was ambiguous, but I meant that you can get disguises (why would you not be able to? ) not that they were supplied by the company. That would, as you say, be stupid and pointless.
Previously it sounded like you were speaking as someone who’d read the book, when you talked about ‘the corrected book rules.’
I don’t know how much detail of the dystopian state is given, but going by disguise and using fake IDs is something that not only criminals, but also subversives want, so a dystopian state cracks down much harder than a legitimate one.
That’s why I wondered if e.g. implementing a rule that only licensed actors - that is, actors who are guild members - can buy professional make-up and wigs, and Halloween costumes are only available two weeks before Halloween. That law would be easy to pass because not many people would protest, but would make life on the run for anybody very difficult.
I was referring to other dopers in this thread saying “I re-read the book and these are the details I want to correct therefore”.
1: Become homeless in a big city. Fake beard, hat. Look like the kind of homeless person everyone wants to stay away from and not look at. Mail the tapes at night.
2: Become an ultra orthodox Jew living in a small flat in a big city with a sizeable ultra orthodox population. Fake beard, hat. Only come out for food and to mail the tapes at night.
Yes, I think the solution to everything is a fake beard and a hat.
Dystopian future, remember? Everybody is essentially in a bad way in big cities.
They track the postmarks, cordon off the city, tell everybody which city, and start questioning everybody in hats, beards, masks, and start checking underpasses.
Dystopian future. Track postmarks, cordon off city, announce the city, and start checking underpasses and synagogues, especially for hats, beards, and masks.
Well a city like NY with several millions of people would be difficult to cordon off, I think. It simply takes time to check everybody, even if the police force is larger, esp. if you’re looking for disguises and hence can’t have robot cameras or similar do a check.
And unlike the hunters, would the cops spend all their time looking for you - before you killed a cop! - or would they just arrest you if they happened upon you during a routine check, but otherwise they have their hands full with normal crime and can’t afford to cordon off an entire city?
Does this dystopian future have the typical barcode-ID-on-your-arm (RFID chip under the skin) scenario, where people can be accounted for automatically, or is it still paper IDs?
What about cameras, like in London today, together with face-recognition software - did King already envision that?
Something I noticed upon re-reading the book. The TV show really does a terrific job in ratcheting up the hate against Richards. Especially when he kills the cops he’s evaded. The police have roadblocks against him, and are willing to (and do) shoot on sight. It got so bad that
The crowd murders his wife and child
What happens if he actually makes the 30 days? Do they bring him up on stage, give him his check, and then tells the viewing public: “He made his 30 days, everyone stop hating him now. Including you cops.”
No one is expected to make it to 30 days. The money is more like a false hope. Individuals picked are people who don’t like authority, bright, and in good physical condition. They are the people who are capable of doing some damage to that society. In another word, they are the people who need to die.
I think if you are still alive after 25 days, they will stage your death, and still hunt you forever. Sooner or later, you will run out of money. What is worse is that they have confirmed that you are a threat, so you must die.
The record is 8 days (at least according to the book). It’s never been an issue, and the Network is clearly doing everything it can to make sure it never becomes an issue.
) not that they were supplied by the company. That would, as you say, be stupid and pointless.