The Long Walk

• Directed by Francis Lawrence
• September 12, 2025
• Based on the 1979 novel The Long Walk by Stephen King

Fifty boys compete in an annually televised competitive walking contest where whoever lasts the longest wins a large cash prize and one wish of their choice.

Cannot say The Long Walk was high on my viewing list. No specific aversion to it based on what I knew, just nothing that struck my interest. Some praise of it I read online and serious indecision on my part one afternoon changed all that. After seeing it I realized I should have been interested.

The story is not built around action but around drama and interactions of the characters as they take the titular long walk. In this story the walk is a televised event for a revolution-devastated US. It is officially a contest to give hope to the impoverished masses with a massive cash prize and one wish waiting for the last person standing. The rules are simple yet brutal. Each contestant must keep an average pace of three miles per hour of nonstop walking and failure to do so after three warnings results in death.

Not much really happens in the televised contest. It’s just walking with the occasional death. And at 50 contestants over several days that sounds like it would get old. The fictional The Running Man series had contests but all we get makes golf look entertaining! The character of Billy (Garrett Wareing) serves to inform the audience on a deeper level on the contest could have provided some dialogue on what helped spice things up to hold viewers.

Mark Hamill plays the Major who is clearly a celebrity in this world because of him being the face of the contest. You would think that gives him a bit of a leisurely existence, but he does leg work for the government putting him in the crosshairs of contestant Ray (Cooper Hoffman). You have a big celebrity, and you put him out to do grunt work? That doesn’t make sense to me, but it does help streamline the story.

There are deaths left and right in this. Brutal and abrupt. You might think that makes it a fast paced but it’s quiet and slow burn movie. It’s surprisingly philosophical as it delves into the motivations of the characters or those we see along the way. There is occasionally an onlooker alluding to natural morbid human curiosity.

There are four core characters (Ray included) in this who spend most of the film talking. It is very well acted with the bonds of friendship between Pete (David Jonsson) and Ray being a highlight who also form the central relationship. The characters feel real in how they react. Each has their own special reasons for joining though all ultimately connect over wanting the money that the walk provides.

This thoughtfully discusses how desperation will motivate people to do anything. Based on dialogue, the entire country is desperately poor and this is the only real chance for a better life anyone has. Everyone knows if they fail what happens. There’s no compassion for injuries or medical issues. Yet they all participate and I think it’s something we can all understand. 

Part of me was prepared to dislike The Long Walk. I couldn’t see how they could get anything from a bunch of people walking for money, yet I couldn’t stop watching. I cared about the characters and wanted each one to succeed so when their deaths came, it bothered me. 

There are themes of vengeance and friendship and sacrifice. It’s a human story despite the borderline absurd premise. That is due to the performances of David Jonsson and Cooper Hoffman whose comradery is genuine that hides the life-or-death nature of their situation making it shocking when they confront reality of it confronts them.

The characters are fully formed-even the supporting ones-though the world they live in is vague. We can make a few assumptions but not much is certain beyond grinding poverty. The viewer is left to answer the questions about the larger world though none of that is necessary for the story of the film.

The Long Walk is a great story. It’s dramatic but not action oriented. The drama will hold you and keep you watching them until the very end.