Ben Richards, unable to afford medicine for his dying daughter, decides to apply as a contestant on the Network's deadly Games.

After passing a battery of psychological and physical exams, Ben is chosen as a contestant for The Running Man, the Network's deadliest show.

Executive producer Dan Killian briefs Ben on the rules: survive 30 days for a billion New Dollars and record tapes twice daily.

The Network presents Ben to a live studio audience using a manipulated image, and the crowd boos and openly despises him.

Ben obtains a fake identity from hockshop owner Molie Jernigan and boards a plane to New York to begin evading the Hunters.

Ben spots a possible Hunter watching from outside the Boston YMCA and realizes staying in any single location too long is fatal.

Ben detonates the oil tank in the YMCA basement, killing several cops, and escapes through a storm drain into the street.

A young boy introduces Ben to his older brother Bradley Throckmorton, a rebellious teenager who agrees to help Ben evade the Hunters.

Bradley tells Ben the Network is hiding a deadly air pollution crisis that is slowly killing the lower classes without their knowledge.

Ben arrives at a Portland safehouse but Elton's mother recognizes him and calls the police, forcing a violent car chase that wounds Elton.

After losing the car, Ben forces a woman named Amelia Williams at gunpoint to drive him through a series of police roadblocks.

Ben falsely claims to carry explosives and demands a plane at the Derry airport, facing off directly with Hunter chief Evan McCone.

Amelia lies to McCone and confirms Ben has explosives, securing him a plane; Ben then forces McCone and Amelia to board.

Killian radios Ben mid-flight, exposes the explosives bluff, offers him McCone's job as Chief Hunter, then reveals Sheila and Cathy are dead.

Fatally shot with nothing left to lose, Ben overrides the autopilot and steers the plane directly into the Games Building.

Desperate to save his dying daughter, Ben Richards applies for and wins a slot on The Running Man, the Network's deadliest game show. A manipulated TV debut turns the public against him before he even starts running, while Hunter chief Evan McCone prepares to pursue him. Ben survives on the road by moving constantly, relying on underground allies, and staying one step ahead of both Hunters and the police. The game reaches its peak when Ben bluffs his way onto a plane with a fake explosives threat, forcing McCone aboard with him. Killian then calls mid-flight to expose the bluff and deliver the devastating news that Ben's wife and daughter have been dead for days. With nothing left to live for, Ben steers the plane toward the Games Building in a final act of defiance against the system that destroyed him.

Ben Richards's desperate run from the Network's Hunters.

A phone operator implies Sheila is doing sex work, and Sheila confirms it when she gets on the line with Ben.

Ben deliberately antagonizes guards and exam administrators throughout the Games qualifying process, earning their open contempt.

Killian provides Ben a personal loan before the game begins, giving him coupons to send to Sheila for Cathy's medicine.

In the eighth-floor waiting room, Ben meets Jimmy Laughlin, a fellow high-stakes contestant who lives only three blocks from him in Co-Op City.

Ben records his first required game tapes in a New York hotel room with a pillowcase covering his head to hide his identity.

Ben leaves New York by bus and checks into a Boston YMCA under a false name, continuing his evasion of the Hunters.

A seven-year-old boy named Stacey finds Ben climbing out of a manhole and leads him to a hidden lean-to in an alley.

Bradley arranges to mail Ben's tapes from rotating locations, confusing the Hunters who use the tapes to track Ben's whereabouts.

The Network reports that Jimmy Laughlin has been captured and killed outside Topeka, leaving Ben as the only remaining Running Man contestant.

Ben disguises himself as a nearly blind priest and hides in plain sight in a Boston hotel lobby for several days.

Ben travels from Manchester to Portland using crutches and a bandaged head as his disguise, heading toward Bradley's arranged safehouse.

A riot breaks out along class lines as Ben and Amelia pass through a roadblock, with the poor and wealthy dividing into opposing camps.

On the plane, Ben passes Amelia a secret note and rehearses the fake explosives story with her before McCone enters their section.

After pretending to accept Killian's job offer, Ben breaks radio contact and then kills the airplane crew and pilots.

Mortally wounded after the shootout with McCone, Ben struggles to his feet and drags himself forward to reach the cockpit.

From Sheila's painful phone confession to the unexpected kindness of strangers, Ben's survival is shaped by the people he encounters along the way. Bradley Throckmorton's crew provides Ben with a gun, transport, and a clever system for mailing his tapes from rotating locations to fool the Hunters. After Jimmy Laughlin, the only other high-stakes contestant, is captured and killed, Ben presses on alone using disguises and constantly changing hideouts. A violent car chase at the Portland safehouse wounds his ally Elton and forces Ben to take his next desperate step. The crisis aboard the plane — including a deception rehearsed with Amelia and a final shootout with McCone — leaves Ben mortally wounded but still moving. His last act before reaching the cockpit is dragging his broken body forward, refusing to stop even at the very end.

The allies, disguises, and desperate moves that kept Ben alive.

Before leaving home, Ben makes Sheila promise to keep whatever money he wins so she can care for their sick daughter Cathy.

An interviewer clips the corner of Ben's application card, marking him as eligible for a high-stakes, potentially lethal Games assignment.

A cop named Charlie Grady gives Ben change to call Sheila from a payphone, a small act of decency amid the Games process.

Killian tells Ben that no contestant has survived in six years because Evan McCone and his Hunters have never once failed.

When Killian offers Ben a woman for his suite, Ben refuses and asks instead for books and bottles of bourbon.

The Network broadcasts a manipulated image of Sheila during Ben's debut, making her appear wanton and drugged to destroy public sympathy for him.

Ben jams the YMCA elevator with a wire toothbrush holder and then crawls through the basement storm drain to evade the closing Hunters.

Bradley reveals that a cheap homemade nose filter costing under ten dollars can counter the same pollution the Network sells expensive versions for.

Ben records clips urging the public to read about pollution, but the Network plays crowd noise over his remarks to silence his message.

Ben encounters an innocent young boy with a dog and realizes his fight has grown beyond his family to encompass all his people.

McCone erupts in fury aboard the plane when Killian offers Ben his position, revealing that even the Chief Hunter is considered disposable.

While the airport standoff continues, Ben surpasses the all-time survival record for The Running Man and becomes a symbol for the lower classes.

Killian tells Ben the airplane's security system would have detected real explosives, proving to everyone aboard that the dynacore threat was a bluff.

Ben wakes from a dream about his family's deaths, accepts Killian's offer as a ruse, then immediately prepares to betray him.

Killian looks up from his office window just in time to see Ben's face behind the airplane's windshield moments before the explosion.

Even before the game starts, small but significant moments define Ben's character: refusing comfort in his suite, choosing books, and watching as the Network manipulates his wife's image to strip him of public sympathy. Bradley's revelations about the hidden pollution crisis and the suppressed cheap nose filters reframe Ben's fight from mere survival into something larger. Every time Ben uses his recorded clips to call the public to action, the Network silences him, showing how completely the system controls information. On the ground and in the air, the stakes keep shifting — McCone's humiliation when Killian offers his job to Ben, Ben's record-breaking survival, and Killian's exposure of the explosives bluff all mark decisive pivots. The revelation of his family's murders strips away Ben's last reason to compromise, turning his fake acceptance of Killian's offer into the setup for his final act. The novel closes on Killian's last glimpse of Ben's face through the cockpit glass, a moment of recognition that arrives far too late.

The key revelations and turning points that transformed Ben's fight into a rebellion.