Rob Reviews "The Long Walk"

2025 COULD be the Year of Stephen King.  The Monkey may have had mediocre response (it still cleared its budget opening weekend and did almost seven times that worldwide), but the absolute genius of The Life of Chuck seemed to put things back on course.  As I approached The Long Walk (based on one of his “Richard Bachman” novels in the late 1970s), I was optimistic that he could go at least two for four (The Running Man comes in November, and from what I have seen, I am cautiously optimistic).

It is a post-war world of an undisclosed time frame, and the government is trying to improve the country’s economy.  In order to do so, they come up with the event this film is named after, where one young man is chosen each state from a lottery system to literally “walk ‘til you drop,” escorted by cameras mounted on military vehicles with armed soldiers on board.  Each runner carries a watch that counts their miles and speed; if they fall below three miles per hour, they are giving a warning to get back above that mark.  If they get any warnings, they must stay above that mark for three hours to reset that level; however, if they don’t after the third warning, they are given their “ticket”: shot and killed on site.  There are no breaks, no time to lie down, and no tolerance on any level as they are rooted on by “The Major” (Mark Hamill, who has his second King adaptation this year after a brilliant performance in The Life of Chuck).  Raymond Garraty (Cooper Hoffman) is the selection from the state the walk starts in (I am thinking Kansas, but don’t quote me on that… the book has it starting in Maine of course), but does not necessarily give him “home field” advantage as young men from across the country with different motivations and secrets vie for a very large cash prize and a wish of their choice.

When it comes to King adaptations, I tend to be VERY leery of what is presented.  I honestly prefer the version of The Shining that was a mini-series on ABC because it stuck closer to the source material.  Outside of that, I really only have that upper echelon reserved for films like Christine and Carrie.  I honestly didn’t think Hollywood could get back around to that type of adherence to the source material, but you know what?  Here we are.  With this and Chuck, I am full-on amazed with the storytelling.  The Long Walk kept me on the edge of my seat the ENTIRE time as the numbers diminish, taking twists and turns that had me guessing all the way through. 

Even though this is really Garraty’s story, David Jonsson’s Peter McVries goes toe-to-toe with him as his ally and new best friend while the other walkers turning this into an ensemble piece that even I did not see coming.  There is not a single bad performance here, and everyone contributes their part to a tee.  Keep your eyes specifically on Jonsson, Garrett Wareing as Stebbins, Charlie Plummer as Gary Barkovitch, and Ben Wang (who has his second hit of the year after Karate Kid: Legends) as their careers move forward: they are that good.  Director of all but the first of the films in The Hunger Games franchise (and he’s got the next one too) Francis Lawrence uses that level of storytelling here to magnificent results, and Jo Willems pushes its cinematography to its intense and dark limits.

I am also glad I did not research the source material until AFTER I saw this film because even though there ARE liberties taken with it, those liberties actually improve the story (the ending is even different, and I liked it better as well).  I was simply blown away (no pun intended) by how good The Long Walk is, and it has been a LONG time since a film left me breathless multiple times within a single production.  I cannot recommend this film highly enough, and it has completely upended my list of 2025’s best films at this point.  With the fourth quarter of the year right in front of us, this really makes me excited for what is to come from Hollywood as we make the mad dash to the end of the awards window!