Most Dangerous Game: How Quibi’s Version Changes The Classic Book

The Most Dangerous Game, one of the launch titles for Quibi, makes some big changes to the original book. The first three eight-minute episodes of the new thriller series were just released on the brand-new streaming service. Though there’s no shortage of streaming platforms in 2020, Quibi stands apart from its competition by being a service that’s focused on delivering content to subscribers who are on-the-go. The platform accomplishes this by releasing its shows in short segments.

At launch, Quibi offers quite a few news, reality, and scripted shows. Its scripted shows, referred to as “Movies in Chapters”, are broken up into short segments that are between seven and ten minutes long. Since the intended purpose of Quibi is to provide content on mobile devices to be consumed by busy subscribers, the coronavirus pandemic and the fact that so many people are now stuck at home have arguably made this the worst time for Quibi to be released. In any case, Quibi is here, and a diverse list of titles are now available for viewing, including The Most Dangerous Game.

The Most Dangerous Game is based on a short story published in 1924 and written by Richard Connell. The story, which has been adapted to the big screen numerous times beginning in 1932, centers on big game hunter Sanger Rainsford who finds himself trapped on an island in the Caribbean. After meeting a Russian expatriate named Zaroff who lives on the island, Rainsford learns that he’s going to be hunted like an animal by Zaroff, who believes that Rainsford will make for a challenging hunt. What follows is an intense game of cat-and-mouse with Rainsford trying to escape from Zaroff unscathed. Here’s how Quibi’s adaptation of The Most Dangerous Game changes Connell’s short story.

Main Character Of The Most Dangerous Game

Quibi’s The Most Dangerous Game doesn’t use the same protagonist that’s featured in the book. In the original version of the story, Sanger Rainsford is a World War I veteran and a big game hunter whose accomplishments have made him a well-known figure in the sport all around the world. The show has replaced Raisnford with Dodge Maynard (Liam Hemsworth), a track star and a real estate investor with a brain tumor. Dodge, who recently discovered that he’s living on borrowed time, has a wife and an unborn child when he meets a rich CEO named Miles Sellers (Christopher Waltz). Sellers explains to Dodge that though he can’t save him, he can help Dodge’s family by giving them money if he agrees to let himself be hunted.

Unlike Sanger Rainsford, who is financially well-off and lives a comfortable lifestyle, Dodge is struggling financially due to a bad investment, where he put most of his money into one project. Dodge is already unable to pay his bills when his life is further complicated by the news that he’s dying. The combination of these two problems is what makes Dodge so desperate to resolve his situation. Also, the change from World War I veteran-turned-big game hunter to track star-turned real estate investor modernizes the character and gives him a reason to be a willing participant. While Dodge is still equipped with a skill set he can use to survive the hunt, he won’t be quite as capable or as experienced as Rainsford, and that change could be an attempt to make not only his character more relatable, but his predicament a bit more interesting.

Premise Of The Most Dangerous Game

The basic premise and the core element of The Most Dangerous Game‘s story – a man being hunted for sport – remains intact but the rules of the hunt, how it plays out, the setup, and the setting are all different in a big way. The first three episodes don’t explore the hunt itself, but they do lay out the rules and reveal what it will involve. As previously mentioned, Dodge is given a choice whereas Rainsford was placed in a much different situation. After finding himself on an isolated island, Rainsford realizes that he’ll either be hunted by Zaroff or turned over to a man who will simply torture and kill him. Dodge, unlike Rainsford, could have declined to participate and would have had the opportunity to spend what time he has left in peace with his wife.

The setting and where the hunt will go down is completely different in Quibi’s version compared to the short story. Rainsford, like a big-game cat, is forced to run for his life in a forest, while trying to outwit and escape Zaroff. During this time, Rainsford must also navigate through traps and other hazards. The modernized version of the story takes the protagonist out of the jungle and places him in an urban setting. The Caribbean island has been swapped for Detroit. Rainsford will have to use a cell phone to periodically update his location. Also, guns have been taken out of the equation, which will certainly make it more challenging for hunters to catch and kill him. All these conditions being altered means that though the basic idea of the story is unchanged, the hunt itself will be inherently different from what took place in Richard Connell’s short story.

Themes Of The Most Dangerous Game

How has the series changed the basic themes of the story? At least partially, that remains be to seen. Killing and the question of whether or not it’s right or wrong is the biggest moral question of The Most Dangerous Game, with the difference between animals and humans being a very important factor in this issue. Rainsford makes a living off killing animals, but he doesn’t have a problem with this because he doesn’t equate animals with humans. To Rainsford, his prey really are just animals, and he doesn’t seem to assign real value to their lives. To Zaroff, the ultimate prey is Man, because humans can do what animals cannot: reason. He doesn’t believe that humans are any important than animals. His idea is that animals survive on their instincts while a man’s ability to reason gives him a greater advantage when trying to escape those who hunt him. This idea is touched on in the show when Sellers explains why the hunters he’s associated with are interested in hunting Dodge, but since Dodge doesn’t have a background in game hunting the difference between animals and humans may not be as important to the show as it was to the short story.

The morality of killing, however, may be addressed as more episodes are released on Quibi. In the short story, Rainsford values the lives of humans, and for this reason he’s able to overcome his anger and resist his impulse to kill his attackers. It’s not clear yet how Quibi’s adaptation of The Most Dangerous Gamewill tackle this problem once the hunt for Dodge intensifies.

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