Stephen King: Tropes

Stephen King

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The Running Man

Free PDF here
Published in 1982. Set in the year 2025 but many things are clearly dated.

Audio Tape
Video Tape
Land-Lines with cords on the receiver?
Pay phones
5 cent gumball machines
Honkey - 60s 70s talk?
Afros - hair-style 60s 70s?
Studebaker - expecting to see these old cars still on the road
Pictures are air-brushed ... literally, not digitally

No internet
No mobile phones
No smart phones

Questions/Observations:
It seems like King forgot that Richards had a broken ankle because he seems to be walking fine later in the book.
How did the hunter on the plane get his gun back?  I thought Donahue forced him to drop it.


The city of Derry is used, which is a clue that author Richard Bachman is really Stephen King.
This was the 11th book he published so you could already see the patterns.

Similarity between The Long Walk and The Running Man

Both involve a large number of people applying for a deadly game with a large reward if you win, but only a small percentage pass the tests to get in.

No units giving like mph:
it would go no faster than forty
The car was doing eighty easily
One of the police cars, doing sixty-plus

Tech that doesn't exist now:

Jet: Lockheed GA
Jet: Delta Supersonic






Date Created December 15, 2018
Last Updated December 15, 2018
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