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| “ | Who do you love? Do you love me? | „ |
| ~ Killian's most famous quote. |
| “ | Richards: Killian! I'll be back. Killian: Only in a rerun. |
„ |
| ~ Killian's exchange with Richards before sending him into the games. |
| “ | This is television, that's all it is. It's nothing to do with people, it's to do with the ratings. For fifty years, we've told them what to eat, what to drink, what to wear. For Christ's sake, Ben, don't you understand? Americans love television! They wean their kids on it! Listen, they love game shows. They love wrestling. They love sports and violence. So what do we do? We give them what they want! We're number one, Ben. That's all that counts! | „ |
| ~ Killian explaining his philosophy to Ben Richards. |
Damon Killian (Dan Killian in the novel) is the main antagonist of Stephen King’s 1982 novel The Running Man, and its 1987 film adaptation of the same name, and is the overarching antagonist of it’s 2025 remake film adaption of the same name, He serves as the host for the titular game show, and the archenemy of Ben Richards.
He was portrayed by the late Richard Dawson in the 1987 film adaptation. In the 2025 adaptation, he is portrayed by Josh Brolin, who also played Derek Bates in Into the Blue, Dr. William Block in Planet Terror, Detective Trupo in American Gangster, George W. Bush in W., Dan White in Milk, Tom Chaney in the 2010 True Grit film, Thanos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Cable in Deadpool 2.
Personality[]
TBA
Biography[]
Novel[]
The show deems the Runner (contestant) as an enemy of the state, and allows him to go anywhere in the world. He is given a twelve-hour head start before an elite group of Hunters set out to kill him. The objective is to stay alive for thirty days. The Runner earns $100 for each hour that he stays alive, $100 for each Hunter he kills, and a grand prize of $1 billion if he somehow survives the full thirty days.
Before going on the run, the Runner is given $4,800 (an advance of all his normal winnings on the first two days) and a pocket video camera. He can run to any corner of the entire world, but he is required, per his contract, to record two videotaped messages and have these mailed to the studio for broadcast. Failure to do so means the contract is broken and the Runner gains no further money, but the hunt will last forever. Killian openly gloats that the maximum record is 197 hours (equivalent of eight days, five hours), and that no Runner has ever survived the thirty days without being found, nor is anyone ever expected to do so.
1987 Film[]
In the 1987 film adaptation, The Running Man television series is a gladiatorial competition taking place in the urban outback of Los Angeles, which (according to the movie's backstory) was all but destroyed by a 1997 earthquake. The show finds several "Runners" (various undesirables, often prison convicts) being challenged to survive while chased by "Stalkers", ostensibly for cash and other prizes (particularly full pardons for the convicts). The five known Stalkers are large, physically powerful men with ornate weaponry, costumes, and nicknames:
- Professor Sub-Zero is an ice-skater who slashes his victims to pieces with a razor-edged hockey stick, or blows them up with pucks made of C4, on a rink surrounded with razor-spiral. Ultimately, Ben cornered Sub-Zero and garroted him with a length of barbed wire: "Here's Subzero, now, plain zero!"
- Dynamo, an opera-singer, shoots bolts of lightning from his wrist-mounted plasma-casters. (When he attempted to rape Amber, she activated the fire sprinklers and thus electrocuted him. This made Dynamo the only Stalker to be killed by somebody other than Ben)
- Fireball, wearing asbestos from head to toe, wields a flamethrower and uses a jetpack. (Ben eventually cremates Fireball by rupturing and then igniting the gas-line for said hardware: "How about a light?...What a hothead!")
- Buzzsaw is a motorcyclist whose jade-toothed titanium chainsaw can cut through steel as if it were wood. (Ben ultimately commandeers this weapon and turns it on Buzzsaw, then jokes, "He had to split.")
- Captain Freedom uses his unarmed combat prowess, no weapons. He is the only Stalker to not fight Richards, and the only member of the five known Stalkers to survive the events of the movie.
Damon Killian works with the now-corrupt U.S. government to keep the populace blind and under control, via The Running Man plus similar TV programming. He is not above manipulating the Runners' backgrounds (presenting doctored evidence, or even spinning complete and utter lies) in order to "justify" their being hunted down and executed. Moreover, Killian doesn't lie just to his audience. He cuts a deal with police officer-turned-murder scapegoat Captain Ben Richards: if Ben agrees to become a Runner, his fellow prison-escapees, Harold and Bill, will not have to. When Ben accepts, Killian instantly breaks this deal by putting both Harold and Bill into the game as Runners.
When innocent L.A. citizen Amber Mendez discovers that Killian has twisted the facts about Richards' past, her efforts to clear his name succeed only in landing her on Killian's death-list: Killian accuses Amber of being Richards' accomplice, and thoroughly tarnishes her reputation, on live TV. She is then thrust into the game-zone, with the Stalkers on her trail. (Naturally, in fact, this is to keep Amber from exposing Killian's falsehoods to the masses.) While fleeing Fireball, she discovers that last year's winners of The Running Man winners are actually last year's losers: supposedly, these previous Runners redeemed themselves by completing the game, and are now enjoying assorted luxurious retirement packages which they won. Actually, they were all trapped and executed, apparently by Fireball; The Running Man is rigged so that no Runner can possibly "win", the only winners being Killian himself, and possibly the government.
Ben's fellow fugitives are slain by the Stalkers; Ben himself outwits and kills Sub-Zero (making it the first time a Stalker has died on TV), followed by Buzzsaw and Fireball, while Amber tricks and kills Dynamo after Ben earlier spared his life. Captain Freedom openly declares his admiration and respect for Ben, refusing to stalk him, and is fired by Killian. Killian then offers Ben a contract as a new Stalker, but Ben angrily refuses what Kilian has proposed.
Ben, backed by resistance guerrillas, ultimately shows the audience of The Running Man, Killian's true nature by storming the fortress-like TV station and pirating Killian's broadcast signal. The resistance troops engage the heavily armed security guards in combat, with Killian's studio audience caught in the crossfire. While the guerrillas win their battle against the police, Ben finally avenges himself (along with Killian's other victims) by strapping the deranged host into a gameshow entry bobsled and launching him down the chute into the Stalking Zone. Killian flies headlong into a billboard with his own face on it, which results in a fatal explosion. As Ben humorously observes, "Well, that hit the spot." The broadcasting network collapses soon afterwards.
2025 Film[]
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Gallery[]
1987 Film[]
2025 Film[]
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Trivia[]
- In the original novel, Dan Killian is the executive producer on the show, not the host, but still plays the role as the main antagonist and arch-nemesis of Ben Richards.
- In the book, he even had the guts to inform Richards that his wife Sheila and sick daughter Cathy were killed by a trio of armed intruders, ten days before starting his run. This action would ultimately cost Killian his life, as Richards performed a kamikaze assault on the broadcasting tower, killing them both. This ending was altered in the 2025 adaptation to avoid comparison to 9/11.
- Before Richard Dawson was cast, Chuck Woolery was considered for the role of Killian, because Woolery is the same size as Arnold Schwarzenegger and would've been a perfect fit for an opponent for Schwarzenegger, but Woolery was unavailable due to scheduling conflicts, so Richard Dawson was cast at the request of Arnold Schwarzenegger because Dawson is a close friend of Schwarzenegger.
- After Chuck Woolery turned down the role, the producers then wanted Burt Reynolds for the role of Killian, but Reynolds turned down the offer after finding out that he was gonna be billed last, when he wanted to be billed second next to Arnold Schwarzenegger, but the production crew refused to do that.
- The Running Man was Richard Dawson's final film appearance.
External Links[]
- Damon Killian on the Pure Evil Wiki
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