Help me figure out the title of this movie!

April 8, 2007 7:39 PM

Help me find this movie I saw as a kid. It is about a scary reality game that is filmed by a powerful media company where people play for life and death. There is a hockey scene with a chainsaw and I think it was made in the eighties or early nineties.

I don't have much to go on here. Most of it is in the question. All I remember is that it starts out with the contestants going down this big chute and being deposited in the game, which they have to get through to 'win.' I think it is all filmed by some scary media company. The first test I think is on this ice rink and the goalie has a chain saw and the contestants have to kill him. That's pretty much all I remember, but this has been bugging me for years. I'm 21 now, so it probably would have come out in the late eighties or nineties. Thank you so much!

posted by names are hard to media & arts (14 comments total)

Sounds kind of like "The Running Man" with Arnold Schwarzeneggar. Subzero was the guy on the hockey rink.
posted by Justinian at 7:42 PM on April 8, 2007

The Running Man. From 1987.
posted by Justinian at 7:43 PM on April 8, 2007

Let me just say that if you watch this movie now... you will not find it scary.
posted by selfnoise at 7:47 PM on April 8, 2007

Definitely The Running Man. Based on a Stephen King (as Richard Bachman) novel that was much, much better.
posted by cortex at 7:51 PM on April 8, 2007

That is it! Thank you.
posted by names are hard at 7:53 PM on April 8, 2007

I love that the "plot keywords" on IMDb start with "Gatling Gun" and "Minigun"
posted by grobstein at 7:56 PM on April 8, 2007

Do yourself a favor and read the Stephen King short story it's "based" on. The short story is a zillion times better, and doesn't have horseshit like a killer goalie, yellow spandex suits and Richard Dawson.
posted by frogan at 9:43 PM on April 8, 2007

Q: Who loves you, and who do you love?

A: Metafilter!
posted by aubilenon at 9:52 PM on April 8, 2007 [2 favorites]

On the other hand the short story doesn't have the governor of the largest state in in the Union, who presides over one of the largest economies in the world, killing people and making wisecracks.
posted by Justinian at 9:57 PM on April 8, 2007

the governor of the largest state in in the Union, who presides over one of the largest economies in the world, killing people and making wisecracks

I'd buy that for a dollar!

Both formats have their plusses and minuses, actually. The movie has not aged well, though.
posted by Rock Steady at 10:05 PM on April 8, 2007

"On the other hand the short story doesn't have the governor of the largest state in in the Union, who presides over one of the largest economies in the world, killing peoplethe governor of Minnesota and making wisecracks."

The Running Man and Predator, the only two double-gubernatorial action movies. Now to get Carl Weathers or Sonny Landham elected.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 10:26 PM on April 8, 2007

The Running Man and Predator, the only two double-gubernatorial action movies. Now to get Carl Weathers or Sonny Landham elected.

Don't forget Batman and Robin, which had both the Governator and Jesse the Mind in it.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 8:23 AM on April 9, 2007

Don't forget Batman and Robin

On the contrary, it is an excellent idea to forget Batman and Robin as much as possible.
posted by kindall at 10:23 AM on April 9, 2007

I also have to second reading the book.. It is MUCH better than the movie, and I'm a big Arnie fan!

On that note, when are they going to make the Bachman book "Long Walk" into a movie? It would be a great flick!
posted by ranglin at 11:49 PM on April 9, 2007