The Most Dangerous Game
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- This article is about the short story by Richard Edward Connell. For the novel by Gavyn Lyall, see The Most Dangerous Game (1963).
"The Most Dangerous Game" (1924) is a famous short story by Richard Connell and the author's most well-known work. It concerns a big-game hunter trapped on the island of a fellow hunter who, bored with conventional prey, has come to see humans as the only quarry worthy of his skill.
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[edit] Characters
- Sanger Rainsford, the protagonist; is stranded on the island after falling off a yacht.
- General Zaroff, the antagonist; a Cossack nobleman, formerly in the army.
- Ivan, Zaroff's huge deaf and mute henchman; also a Cossack.
- Whitney (a fellow hunter) and Captain Nielsen, Rainsford's companions on the yacht; play little in the story.
[edit] Direct adaptations
The story has been adapted for film numerous times. The most significant of these adaptations (and apparently the only one to use the original characters) was The Most Dangerous Game, released in 1932, having been shot (mostly at night) on sets used during the day for the "Skull Island" sequences of King Kong. It starred Joel McCrea as Rainsford (now named "Robert" instead of "Sanger") and Leslie Banks as Zaroff, and added two other principal characters: Eve Trobridge and Martin Trobridge, who are brother and sister. The story was also twice produced as a radio play for the series Suspense, on 23 September 1943 with Orson Welles as Zaroff, and on 1 February 1945 with frequent Welles collaborator Joseph Cotten playing Rainsford. In these productions, Rainsford narrates the story in retrospect as he waits in Zaroff's bedroom for the final confrontation. The shift from third-person to first-person narration can, like the depiction of the final fight in the movie, be seen as a necessary adaptation to the storytelling conventions of a different medium.
A second movie adaptation, or a remake of the 1932 movie, was produced by RKO (the studio that produced the 1932 original) as A Game of Death, and released in 1945. Directed by Robert Wise at the very beginning of his long and distinguished directing career, the movie was regarded poorly. Footage from the original was recycled, and one actor from the original, Noble Johnson, was cast in this remake. In keeping with events of the time, A Game of Death changed Zaroff into "Erich Kreiger", a German Nazi.
[edit] Other adaptations
The basic man-hunting-man plot of "The Most Dangerous Game" has been recycled many times. The following list (which currently includes only English-language examples), is representative but not exhaustive.
[edit] Movies
- Bloodlust! (1961) which was mocked as an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
- The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) ends with a lethal duel between James Bond and an infamous assassin, Francisco Scaramanga, on Scaramanga's private island. Bond wins and the movie ends with him sleeping well in Scaramanga's yacht, with a woman (Britt Ekland).
- Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity (1987), in which scantily-clad women crash land on a distant planet, where a spandex-clad villain hunts humans for sport.
- Predator (1987), which has an alien hunter stalking human soldiers led by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the jungles of Central America.
- The Running Man (1987) - based on a novel by Stephen King, writing as "Richard Bachman"; set in the year 2017, a government sponsored gladiatorial-style competition that takes place in an earthquake-ruined section of Los Angeles, in which several "runners" attempt to survive while being chased by "stalkers".
- Hard Target (1993) starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, has wealthy businessmen hunting homeless vets across desolate urban landscapes.
- Surviving the Game (1994), which involves a homeless man Ice T being hunted by Gary Busey, Rutger Hauer, and others.
- Jumanji (1995) in which the hunter in the magical board game central to the story, Van Pelt, hunts the main character because "[he] rolled the dice".
- The Pest (1997) is a comic version of the story in which a Miami con man (John Leguizamo) has to stay alive for 24 hours in order to get $50,000, all the while being hunted by a German hunter (Jeffrey Jones).
- Series 7: The Contenders (2001) in this darkly comedic spoof of the reality show genre, six contestants are selected from a random lottery and spend the entire show's season hunting each other. The last survivor moves on to the next season. They must survive three seasons in order to obtain their freedom.
- The Eliminator (2004) in which six men, each "sponsored" by a different "player" are pitted against professional hunters and against each other, with a fabulous prize promised to the survivor.
- Battle Royale - A film about a government-sponsored manhunt event involving middle school children in a dystopian Japan
- Wedding Crashers (2005) - While hunting quail, Vince Vaughn's character jokingly suggests his interest in hunting bigger game, such as gorillas, rhinos, or "hunting a human being right now. The most dangerous game. Like a worth adversary. Not a human being that's armed, but a clever..."
[edit] Television
Television series that used the basic plot elements of "The Most Dangerous Game" include:
- Supernatural - When the Winchester Brothers investigate mysterious disappearances, they find that thay are not facing a supernatural being, but rather a family of likely inbred survivalists (also a reference to *The Hills Have Eyes out in the woods who have decided to start hunting humans, as they offer the best hunt.
- Gilligan's Island - a hunter decides to hunt Gilligan while the other castaways struggle to interfere with the hunt. Gilligan wins-and Kincaid the hunter goes insane.
- Charlie's Angels - In episode 79, "Angel Hunt," the Angels are trapped on an island and hunted as game by a mysterious man.
- The Incredible Hulk - David Banner is trapped on an island with an insane hunter whose job is complicated by Banner's tendency to turn into the Hulk when he is cornered.
- Fantasy Island - Mr. Roarke grants a hunting aficionado's wish to hunt the wildest quarry of all — man.
- Doctor Who - the serial The Deadly Assassin involves a virtual reality scenario that places the Doctor in a jungle with a villain hunting him.
- Xena: Warrior Princess - the 6th Season episode, "Dangerous Prey", features "Prince Chesnick Bloodicarr Morloch of Upper Scheherazadestan," who has "hunted almost every creature that crawls or walks on this Earth" and found them to be easy prey; in search of a true challenge, he begins to hunt Amazons, then sets his sights on Xena herself.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer - the episode "Homecoming" features Buffy and Cordelia on the run from manhunters.
- The Simpsons - celebrity Rainier Wolfcastle informs Homer that he plans to convert a YMCA into a game park where he can hunt "the most dangerous prey of all: man". The 2005 Halloween Special also features Mr. Burns hunting Springfield men for sport and actually states several times in its dialogue that Burns is hunting "the most dangerous game."
- Futurama - In the episode "Less Than Hero", a super villain known as the Zookeeper uses a pack of highly trained animals to kill people. When Fry, Leela and Bender foil his plan but he still escapes Fry remarks, "Thus proving, the most dangerous animal of all is... THE ZOOKEEPER!"
- Star Trek - The Squire of Gothos episode-faced with a powerful alien being obsessed with 18th century Earth history, Captain Kirk offers himself up as the quarry in a "fox hunt" in exchange for the freedom of his ship and crew.
- Jonny Quest - in the episode "Shadow of the Condor" the Quest team crash land on a mysterious airstrip in the Chilean Mountains and to escape Race Bannon must battle in the skies with an aristocratic former WW1 German air ace who wants to relive his old glory days.
- Get Smart - in the episode "Island of the Darned," Agents 86 and 99 are sent to an island where they are hunted by KAOS's Hans Hunter, after agent 27 was murdered by him. {Hunter thinks the chase will be fair-he will have guns and dogs to chase Smart and 99; Smart will have only his intelligence; Smart tries to trade a knife for a gun from one of Hunter's henchmen}.
- American Dad! - in "Bullocks To Stan," Stan and his boss, Bullock, take Hayley's boyfriend, Jeff, into the woods to kill him. When Jeff begins crying, Stan suggests that they give him a head-start. Bullock agrees to "make a game of it"; but two seconds into his head-start, Jeff steals their SUV.
- Relic Hunter - in "Run Sydney Run," Sydney wakes up on an island and discovers she has been captured by an insane hunter bent on chasing her down and killing her.
- Dexter's Laboratory-on an episode of Dial M for Monkey, to save his friends, Monkey must win against Huntor, who tries to hunt Monkey for his trophy wall; Huntor ends up being hunted himself on an alien planet. Huntor later makes a cameo appearance on Samurai Jack trying to hunt Jack-and fails.
- Batman Beyond - Stalker is an African hunter originally obsessed with hunting the new Batman as the ultimate quarry.
- The Mighty Ducks {Animated series}- The ducks find themselves trapped on a desert Island-and they are the query!! Duk l'orange refers to the German accented hunter as "Colonel KLUNK"-an obvious injoke to Colonel Klink.
- Family Guy - In the episode "The Thin White Line", Peter and his fellow coworkers at the Happy-Go-Lucky Toy Factory are hunted by their boss, Mr. Weed, at a company picnic. Mr. Weed shoots them with tranquilizer darts, and whoever is the last standing wins a paid vacation.
- Danny Phantom In the episode "Life's Lessons" Danny is hunted in the Ghost Zone by Skulker
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - In Captive Pursuit, a species from the far side of the wormhole known as Tosk is encountered, and is followed by the people who are hunting him.
- The Colbert Report - while disassembling "crumbelievable" American pop culture, host Colbert explains that now that there are so many cable TV channels, each member of his hypothetical demonstration family has his/her own channel to listen to. He then shows how the family dog, after watching lions attack zebras on Animal Planet will kill the daughter - "the most dangerous game."
- The Venture Bros. - In part one of "Showdown at Cremation Creek", the Monarch informs the Phantom Limb of his marraige to Limb's ex-girlfriend. During the conversation, Limb hunts and kills several of the Monarch's old cellmates released in his backyard.
- The Avengers - the 1967 episode "The Superlative Seven" sees John Steed and a group of people stranded on a deserted island where they are hunted by a top assassin.
- Crank Yankers - a hunter puppet calls a personal trainer and tries to hire him in order to hunt him. He assures him he won't kill him -only knock him out and urinate on him.
[edit] Print
- The Marvel Comics supervillain Kraven the Hunter was an insane hunter who repeatedly hunted Spider-Man as the ultimate quarry.
- The Sound of His Horn,, the alternate history-novel from 1952 by Sarban (author)
- Deathwatch, by Robb White
- Hunting Party, by Elizabeth Moon (1993)
- Death Game by Franklin W. Dixon Basically the same story-line, except that a renegade ex-Colonel hunts Biff Hooper and the detective brothers.
- Dangerous Game by Don Hollway (2006) is a different take on the man-hunting theme, as a Mogadishu veteran turns white hunter on an illegal safari.
- Dragon, by Clive Cussler (which makes direct reference to the original story).
- An article in the January 17, 2006 issue of The Onion, entitled "Maverick Hunter's 'Human Beings As Prey' Plan Not As Challenging As Expected"[1]
- Something Positive - in this webcomic, a story arc beginning August 23rd (but dated August 14th) 2006 features Avagadro, a cynical and dememnted stage director dying of four cancers and syphillis, daring Karisma, a social strangler fig, to kill him in a game of his own devising. Provided she can kill him before Thanksgiving, his fortune is willed to her...
[edit] Video games
- Far Cry (Play begins after protagonist is knocked off a yacht, forcing him to swim away to an exotic tropical island.)
- Manhunt A game for the PS2 developed by Rockstar North. The main character is hunted for fun by lethal killers, all the while filmed as the basis for a snuff film. The character must kill or escape his pursuers in order to complete the game.
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion makes a short reference to an event where humans are hunted by big game-hunters in the miscellaneous quest "Caught in the Hunt".
- Many games in the Resident Evil series feature a powerful enemy which stalks the player throughout the game (such as the Nemesis from Resident Evil 3)
- One of the targets in Hitman: Contracts are british aristocrats who are hunting humans.
- (Catfish) One of the many charactors in Twisted Metal: Head On wishes to hunt humans for the sake of challenge. As general Zaroff
