Ben Richards is the novel’s protagonist and the eponymous running man of the title. When the story begins, he is a desperate man with a desperate wife and a sick child. He describes himself as “a dinosaur in this time. Not a big one, but still a throwback, an embarrassment. Perhaps a danger” (3). His self-characterizations are accurate. He will prove to be an embarrassment for the Network and is absolutely a danger to the unjust system the Network represents.

He and Sheila have an “[o]ld-style lifetime contract” (64), which refers to what would be a typical marriage in real, modern life. Killian reinforces Ben’s view that he belongs to another period. He tells Ben that he wishes he could preserve him as he does with art. Killian’s dossier on Ben provides most of Ben’s other salient characteristics: Ben is 28 and disdains authority. Killian describes Ben as “antiauthoritarian and antisocial. [He’s] a deviate who has been intelligent enough to stay out of prison and serious trouble with the government, and [he’s] not hooked on anything” (65).

Ben has a checkered history with work. He quit his job rather than risk sterilization. He has a daughter he loves, but her illness also propels his entry into The Running Man.