"The Game" will show you one of the most unforgettable endings in '90s cinema, "The Running Man" delivers sharp satire on reality TV, and "Battle Royale" is the story that spawned "Squid Game" and "The Hunger Games".
The Game (1997)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 77%One of David Fincher's most underrated thrillers, made while riding high on the success of "Se7en."
The film starts off calm and ordinary, smoothly drawing viewers into the madness that follows.
We meet Nicholas Van Orton (played by Michael Douglas), a successful and self-assured man.
But that calm shatters when he receives an unusual birthday gift—an invitation to participate in something called "The Game," designed to push him out of his comfort zone.
Nicholas doesn't think much of it. He's not even suspicious that the gift came from his younger brother (Sean Penn), someone he hasn't spoken to in years. Without giving it much thought, he enters the game.
That's when things get interesting. The game's host starts addressing Nicholas through his TV screen, a taxi driver jumps out of a moving car with Orton inside, sending him plunging into water. His life changes completely in an instant.
But how do you figure anything out when nearly every move threatens your life?
By the end, everything falls into place—though you won't see it coming. Pure Fincher. The thriller even echoes the director's previous film, "Se7en," where the ending also left audiences stunned.
When it first came out, critics gave the film a lukewarm reception. But over the years, its popularity has grown, and reviewers have changed their tune.
Now, if you scroll through the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, you'll see most people loved the thriller.
Film critic Eric Estrada from Cinegarage, for example, calls it "Fincher's best film," while The Times praises the film for experimental cinematography techniques like "super slow-motion shots."
Michael Douglas, who played the lead, has said he's proud of the thriller. Especially the ending.
As for the director? His opinion stands apart from the generally positive response. Fincher wasn't happy with the project:
Despite David's self-criticism, I'd say the film isn't better than "Se7en," but it's definitely not worse either. It's a solid thriller that plays with expectations, features a perfect cast, and delivers a distinctive ending.David Fincher on The GameWe didn't figure out the third act, and that was my fault because I thought if we just kept our foot on the gas, it would be fun.
The Running Man (1987)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 65%"The Running Man" is the quintessential '80s movie rolled into one: Arnold Schwarzenegger, a sinister game show, and full-blown dystopian vibes.
This action flick shares more than just a deadly game with "The Long Walk" – both are based on novels by Stephen King (this one published under his pseudonym Richard Bachman).
And while the adaptation sits at 67% on RT, its cult status has long since crushed those modest critical scores.
The Austrian Oak plays Ben Richards – a helicopter pilot who gets framed for massacring civilians and branded the "Butcher of Bakersfield." Naturally, after breaking out of prison, he's caught and thrown into the country's top-rated show – "The Running Man."
It's literally gladiatorial combat broadcast live, where participants are split into two groups – "runners" and "stalkers." Not hard to guess that the latter hunt down the former, while the former try to survive.
But the real villain isn't the stalkers – it's the cynical and brilliant host Damon Killian (the genius Richard Dawson).
He manipulates the crowd live on air, doctors footage, and turns murder into family entertainment. It's a vicious, over-the-top media satire that's become even more relevant today with the rise of the internet.
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Schwarzenegger complained in his book "Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story" that Glaser "shot it like a TV show, missing all the deeper themes."
Strange take, considering the film is literally about a TV show and, from a satirical standpoint, nails it perfectly: dumb but spectacular.
Critics also blasted the film for "mindless violence." But through the years, "The Running Man" has become weirdly prophetic. It predicted our obsession with reality TV and media manipulation with frightening accuracy.
The New York Post even wrote that American Gladiators was pitched using clips from this film with the tagline: "We're doing the same thing, just without the killing."
Battle Royale (2000)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%Many viewers unfamiliar with this film think "The Hunger Games" or "Squid Game" are brutally violent.
You'll be surprised to learn that the godfather of deadly competition thrillers was the Japanese "Battle Royale", which came out way back in 2000.
We even wrote before that the legendary Quentin Tarantino calls it his "favorite film of the last 20 years."
The film was directed by 70-year-old (at the time) veteran filmmaker Kinji Fukasaku. He said he poured all his hatred for adults into the film—hatred that had built up since World War II, when he, at 15, had to hide behind his friends' corpses during bombing raids.
Still not hooked? The plot will definitely do the trick.
In a future Japan, economic collapse and rampant youth crime have pushed the government to a radical solution: they pass the "Battle Royale" law.
The film starts innocently enough, like Fincher's "The Game." A class of ordinary Japanese students heads out on a field trip. The atmosphere shifts dramatically when they're gassed unconscious and wake up... on a deserted island.
There, their former teacher (Takeshi Kitano) greets them with a smile. He cheerfully explains the rules of the "game": you have three days to kill each other. Only one survives. Refuse to play? Your explosive collar detonates. Enter a "forbidden zone"? Your collar detonates.
Each student gets a backpack with supplies, a map, and a "random weapon." Some get lucky—they score an assault rifle. Others? A pot lid or binoculars.
Yesterday's friends, young couples, and school bullies are forced to decide: kill or be killed.
Everything's shot with maximum realism. Adding to that "realism" is the fact that in Japan, Takeshi Kitano is known not just as a director but as the host of popular game shows (like "Takeshi's Castle").
In its home country, the film received the rare R15+ rating. Many countries outright banned it. U.S. distributors were too scared to release it theatrically for over a decade, fearing lawsuits.
But critics and audiences loved it. Time Out praised its "dizzying atmosphere," while BBC called it "a gripping action film that teaches lessons about discipline and determination in shockingly violent fashion."
Unlike the sanitized "Hunger Games," "Battle Royale" isn't a melodrama with some action thrown in. It's an angry, bloody, and sometimes darkly hilarious parable about growing up. Earlier on zoomboola.com, we explained why the film "The Long Walk" is called "a masterpiece."
