this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2025
977 points (99.4% liked)
Funny
12397 readers
2185 users here now
General rules:
- Be kind.
- All posts must make an attempt to be funny.
- Obey the general sh.itjust.works instance rules.
- No politics or political figures. There are plenty of other politics communities to choose from.
- Don't post anything grotesque or potentially illegal. Examples include pornography, gore, animal cruelty, inappropriate jokes involving kids, etc.
Exceptions may be made at the discretion of the mods.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
‘Rollerball’ and ‘Death Race 2000’, both from 1975, are the progenitors of the genre. The first one is based on the screenwriter William Harrison's short story ‘Roller Ball Murder’ from 1973, the second one on Ib Melchior's 1956 short story ‘The Racer’, but the stories are pretty much unknown compared to the films.
Both of these set the totalitarian and corrupt backdrop. ‘The Running Man’ particularly feels like a rehashing of ‘Death Race 2000’ — at least the film does, idk about the novel since they're supposedly not 1:1.
‘The Hunger Games’ also uses the premise of ‘Battle Royale’, afaik.