DAILY CALL SHEET: NOVEMBER 13, 2025

The Running Man (1987) Falsely accused of crimes against humanity, Arnold Schwarzenegger is forced to participate in a government-sponsored game show in which contestants must avoid being hunted down and killed on live television. His pursuers consist of outrageously themed assassins such as Dynamo, an opera singer clothed in Christmas lights who has the ability to toss lightning, and Fireball, a jet-pack wearing firebug armed with a flame thrower. The film has little to do with Stephen King's original novel of the same name, but it does have a nifty synthesized score by '80s stalwart Harold Faltermeyer, dance choreography by Paula Abdul (not joking), a pitch perfectly cast real life gameshow host Richard Dawson as the smarmy antagonist, and Arnie at his wisecracking prime. This is celluloid comfort food, nothing more.

TIL: Written around 200 AD, Tertullian's treatise De Spectaculis (On the Spectacles) pretty much summed up the Church's position on sports involving death, particularly gladiatorial combat. Among his criticisms were that such games promoted cruelty over compassion, eroded Christian virtues by inciting rage and bloodlust, and encouraged hypocrisy by applauding murder in the stadium while condemning it elsewhere. The Romans brushed off such complaints until around 404 AD, when a Christian monk named Telemachus barged into the Colosseum and inserted himself between two gladiators, urging them to stop what they were doing. The audience quickly stoned him to death. Despite this initial reaction to Telemachus' protest, however, Emperor Honorius was inspired by the monk's sacrifice to issue an edict banning gladiatorial combats across the empire.

The Faculty (1998) The teachers at Herrington High don't just act like they're from another planet, they are from another planet. At least, the slug-like alien parasites infecting them are. Fortunately, the freaks and geeks amongst the student body are able to figure out the invaders aren't too wild about caffeine and are able to convince the resident "drug" dealer to donate his stash to the resistance. What, didn't the suppliers at your high school deal exclusively in powdered caffeine? Anyway, just because the kids have a weapon doesn't mean the war is over. For that, they have to identify the queen parasite, but the growing number of infected aren't going to give up her location without a fight. For a post-Scream angsty teenage take on Invasion of the Body Snatchers, this is actually pretty entertaining, even considering its bad guys could easily be killed off with a case of Monster energy drinks.

TIL: While some breakaway sects like the Mormons and the Seventh-day Adventist Church have a problem with some drinks containing caffeine, traditionally Christians have embraced them, at least since the late 1500s. Now don't tell the Protestants, but if you're a Christian and you enjoy a cup of joe in the morning, you owe some thanks to Pope Clement VIII. You see, because coffee made its way to the western world from Muslim countries, it was considered by many Christians at the time to be Satan's beverage of choice, and the Pontiff was eventually asked to forbid its drinking. However, being reasonable, Clement thought it best to taste the stuff first. After a few sips, the Pope declared the devil's drink too delicious to be left to the infidels, and "baptized" it with his blessing. Within 50 years, the first coffee house opened in Rome, and spread throughout Christendom from there.