The Running Man’s return to production wasn’t just a simple reboot – it was a rethink. Taking more from Stephen King’s original novel than the 1987 film, it pitched a gleaming, hyper-commercial game show against a darker, dirtier outside world. The satire of RoboCop, the scale of modern sci-fi – and, unexpectedly, a new kind of camera robot.  

When two AGITOs first rolled onto the set of The Running Man (2025), they weren’t supposed to do much – in fact, they weren’t supposed to move at all.  

“They were brought in as a props,” says James Harwood, AGITO Pilot, CineWorks. “Originally, they just wanted two dummy rigs that looked the part – something futuristic to dress the stage. We were even going to supply a couple of shells that didn’t work.” 

By the second day of filming, that plan had changed dramatically. 

The production team soon realised that the monitors behind the stage – the “video village” area of the fictional game show – needed genuine feeds to look convincing on camera. The AGITOs began supplying those live images, capturing the backstage action as it unfolded across the displays.

“Unless they wanted to green screen every single monitor, which would’ve been crazy expensive, they needed those screens to play real footage in real time,” explains Harwood. “So suddenly, these prop AGITOs had to become bona fide, working camera rigs.” 

In other words: the AGITOs started filming the fake broadcast inside the film – creating live, in-camera feeds for the LED walls that surrounded the stage. 

Working in MagTrax mode, the two AGITOs moved effortlessly around the set, guided by magnetic strips hidden beneath the floor. “The stage was packed – extras everywhere, cable rigs, a Technocrane the size of a bus,” says Harwood. “There’s even a scene where the crowd storms the stage. You couldn’t have laid track; it would’ve been chaos. With MagTrax, we could glide straight through it all. The Technocrane could literally roll right over the magnetic tape — we never had to lift or reset anything.”

The two units were perfect twins – same towers, same heads, same cameras – ensuring every background feed matched flawlessly. “They looked identical, which made the props department very happy,” he adds.

The production liked the result so much that by the end, the AGITOs were being choreographed into the action itself. “They started planning moves around us – little passes, wipes, bits that became part of the visual rhythm. In the final scene (spoiler alert), when the lead character is shot, it’s actually an AGITO that glides in for the close.” 

What began as a piece of set dressing quietly became a fully-fledged filmmaking tool. Operated by a two-person team under the props budget, it saved time, crew and mayhem. “Normally you’d need four people to do what we were doing,” explains Harwood. “With MagTrax, we could handle everything ourselves – driving, framing, focus – and never slowed anyone down. It was the perfect tool for the job.” 

In the end, the production found itself relying on the very thing it had brought in to fake. It’s an irony that suits The Running Man perfectly: in a story about media, illusion and performance, even the robot turned out to be real.