Spoilers below for The Running Man, so be warned if you haven’t yet watched!
At long last, Edgar Wright’s The Running Man shifted away from being an upcoming Stephen King adaptation and joined the ranks of 2025 movie releases. One’s mileage may vary when it comes to enjoying the action-packed chase flick from beginning to end — here’s what other critics are saying — but when it comes to the director’s love of peppering pop culture references, it’s a winner.
Wright’s love of classic horror movies shows up in spades throughout his and Simon Pegg’s A+ series Spaced, and his first live-action take on a King story features a number of on-screen nods to the author’s career. And not just a softball reference like The Shining’s signature carpet pattern. Given that The Running Man was originally published under the author’s Richard Bachman pseudonym, I was especially pumped that several of the easter eggs were indeed specific to that section of King’s career. Let’s dig in (while making sure we aren’t digging on old Micmac burial grounds).
Bachman’s Restaurant
No better way to give a shout-out to the author’s alter ego than to very specifically name-check it. This location appears soon after Ben Richards hits the road after his time starts. You know what I hear, though? The more you eat there, the THINNER you get. Somebody give me a rim shot.
(Also, that joke is not going to work nearly as well if it’s revealed Bachman’s is a loan office or a vape shop.)
“Stark” And Other Familiar Last Names
When Ben Richards is at the Network and starting the process of auditioning for myriad reality shows, a central locker room/staging area is shown, with a variety of surnames above each hopeful’s spot, and the bulk of them were easy to place. (Though I was admittedly clueless about one of them.)
The one worth highlighting earliest, though, is the “Stark” reference, as that alludes to a multi-headed connection to the King-verse. Ostensibly, it’s a nod to prolific author Donald Westlake’s crime-centric pseudonym Richard Stark, the name behind the Parker novel franchise. The first half of Stephen King‘s Bachman identity was itself a homage to Westlake’s alter ego.
Beyond that, King also homaged the surname via The Dark Half‘s George Stark, the pen name used by the novel’s protagonist that soon transcends from an innocuous fiction to a distinctly evil reality.
Other names shown in the scene are noted below:
- KING – Obviously pointing to the man himself, Larry King. No wait, I mean Stephen King.
- BATES – Kathy Bates is the Oscar-winning actress who headed up Misery as Annie Wilkes, played the titular character in Dolores Claiborne, and made a memorable appearance in The Stand miniseries.
- SPACEK – Sissy Spacek was the O.G. King Scream Queen, having starred as the vengeful teen in Carrie years before making a return to the fold as Ruth Deaver in Castle Rock.
- SHEEN – Before West Wing, Martin Sheen played a less moralistic POTUS for David Cronenberg’s The Dead Zone.
- DUVALL – Shelley Duvall is as iconic as anyone in a King adaptation, having suffered Stanley Kubrick’s directorial whims as Wendy Torrance opposite Jack Nicholson in The Shining.
Past Contestant Charlie Decker
When The Running Man looks back at a past contestant who seemed like he might go the distance, he’s noted as being named Charlie Decker. That’s another huge Richard Bachman reference, as Charlie is the dual protagonist and villain of the novel Rage. It’s a story that King has since distanced himself from, as it centers on a high school student who shoots his teacher and holds his class hostage. No such padlocks were available to save The Running Man‘s Charlie from certain doom, however.
Tabby’s Sign
Just before fans get to watch the ridiculousness of Glen Powell temporarily trying to convince the world he’s a blind priest, the camera passes by a local spot called Tabby’s, which is no doubt a reference to Stephen King’s significant other, author Tabitha King (née Spruce), whose nickname is indeed Tabby.
Kudos to Edgar Wright and co-screenwriter Michael Bacall for making my easter egg antennae go crazy throughout the movie. For those who read along without actually watching yet, it’s in theaters now.
