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| “ | Who do you love? Do you love me? | „ |
| ~ Killian's most famous quote |
| “ | 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 is the main antagonist of Stephen King’s 1982 novel The Running Man, and it’s 1987 film adaptation 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.
Novel[]
The show deems the runner 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, known as Stalkers, set out to kill him. The objective is to stay alive for thirty days.
Film[]
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" for cash and other prizes (particularly full pardons for the convicts). The Stalkers are large and physically-powerful men with ornate weaponry, costumes, and nicknames...
- 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: "Now he's just 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: "Sorry I haven't got a Bud 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.
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 Ben Richards: if Ben agrees to become a Runner, his fellow prison-escapees will not have to. When Ben accepts, Killian goes back on his deal by putting both of the other fugitives in 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 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 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; Running Man is rigged so that no Runner can possibly "win".
Ben's fellow fugitives are slain by the Stalkers; Ben himself outwits and kills Sub-Zero, followed by Buzzsaw and Fireball, while Amber tricks and kills Dynamo. Captain Freedom openly declares his admiration and respect for Ben, refusing to stalk him, and is fired by Killian...who offers Ben a contract as a new Stalker. Ben angrily tells Kilian what he can do with his contract.
Ben, backed by resistance-guerillas, ultimately shows the Running Man audience 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 guerillas win their battle against the police, Ben finally avenges himself (along with Killian's other victims) by strapping the deranged host into a gameshow-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."
Trivia[]
- In the novel the movie was based on, Killian was an executive producer on the reality 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 and daughter were killed by an angry mob, ten days before starting his run.
- 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.
External Links[]
- Damon Killian on the Pure Evil Wiki
