In the 1980s, television made humiliation look like harmless fun. Forty years later, Edgar Wright calls it prophecy. The path to The Running Man began with It’s a Knockout! and 3-2-1 , two surreal British game shows that turned confusion and chaos into national entertainment. On It’s a Knockout! , ordinary people in costumes stumbled along obstacle courses while the crowd cheered. On 3-2-1 , contestants solved riddles so bizarre that even the winners often left empty-handed. Together, they formed a picture of spectacle without empathy, a kind of cheerful cruelty that fascinated Wright .

At a premiere screening followed by a Q&A at the TIFF Lightbox in Toronto on November 12, Wright described to viewers and the media, including Collider’s own Tania Hussain , tha

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