THE LONG WALK
Genre: Thriller
Directed by: Francis Lawrence
Starring: Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing
Release Date: 9/12/2025
Platform: Theaters
Rating: 4.5/5
By Stephen Lackey
“In a year full of Stephen King adaptations THE LONG WALK may be the best of them.”
At age 19, Stephen King was just becoming a writer. THE LONG WALK is his reaction to the televised violence he was seeing and the forced drafts related to the Vietnam War. The book, released under his Richard Bachman pseudonym, was also apparently written to impress a girl. THE LONG WALK has had a long and storied journey from book to screen that spans decades. It has finally hit cinemas, appropriately directed by Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence. In a year full of Stephen King adaptations, THE LONG WALK may be the best of them.
THE LONG WALK is set in a dystopian near-future where the United States has lost the Great War and the country is impoverished. The “Long Walk” is an annual event designed to serve as a distraction for the country, where young men literally walk until only one is left standing. If a walker drops below three miles an hour, he is executed. The winner gets an exorbitant amount of money and a single wish to be granted. It seems appropriate for Francis Lawrence to direct this story because, formulaically, it is a return to the well for the director, considering that he directed most of The Hunger Games films. The film plays like a combination of The Hunger Games and Stand by Me. The story was scripted by JT Mollner, writer of the 2024 film Strange Darling, a film that was a bit divisive upon its release.
Once the “walk” begins, the film becomes a character study, and the success or failure of it falls on the script adaptation and the performances of the young stars. Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson demonstrate incredible range as their characters become connected during the walk. Character development happens organically across all of the walkers, offering a blend of drama, humor, and social commentary. Mollner makes some smart changes to the story, developing strong circular storytelling and powerful dramatic moments. Mollner wisely leaves much of King’s dialogue untouched. The simple conversations between Hoffman and Jonsson are riveting and moving all the way to the climax of the film. Their characters are fully realized and relatable, giving the proceedings greater weight. Mark Hamill is also fantastic as the villainous face of the story where the true antagonist is the government.
THE LONG WALK is deftly directed, beautifully shot, and wonderfully acted. The film and the original novel demonstrate how history repeats itself because this fifty-plus-year-old story is as relevant in its commentary today as it was when a teenager wrote it in the late sixties. The only minor bumps in the road are references to old pop culture that really should have been updated in the script for modern and younger audiences. The film is often blunt and extremely violent, which heavily contrasts the quieter, more dramatic moments in the film. Some will say the violence is gratuitous, and they’d be right. That’s the point. This event is meant to be a cathartic experience for the majority of the country, a distraction from their daily struggle to survive. This is reality TV, it’s COPS, it’s the evening news. King was discussing the way we watch violence in media and the way our government uses it as a distraction, before Battle Royale or The Hunger Games. King further digs into it again as Bachman with the novella The Running Man. This simple little film and breezy source material have a lot more to say than you may expect which will make it a film, like the book, worth revisiting over and over. THE LONG WALK may have been a long time coming, but it was definitely worth the wait.
