With weapons aimed at your back and a chance for freedom and financial stability ahead, how far are you able to endure in a never-ending walk that demands every ounce of blood, sweat and determination you have? Director Francis Lawrence tests the limits of 50 contestants in the film adaptation of Steven King’s 1979 novel “The Long Walk,” released Sept. 12, 2025.
The film takes place in a war torn United States where a young adult is chosen from each state for an annual lottery. If chosen, they can participate in a competition where the winner can be freed “from today’s financial struggle” and receive one wish granted by the government. This competition is known as “The Long Walk”. It is a test of endurance and mental fortitude. As long as a player can maintain a walking speed of 3 miles per hour, they continue to live. Here’s the catch. Unlike a 5K or the Chicago Marathon, “The Long Walk” doesn’t have a finish line. It goes on until 49 corpses are left rotting behind one survivor.
The film features a wide cast of talented actors whose performances work particularly well together when forming strong relationships between their characters. None of these competitors knew each other before participating in the event. They’re freshly turned adults who all seek to benefit from the prize. As the film progresses, we get the opportunity to watch characters such as Ray Garraty (Cooper Hoffman), Peter McVries (David Jonsson), Arthur Baker (Tut Nyuot), and Hank Olson (Ben Wang) bond and become brothers. This made the moments when those friendships inevitably came to their tragic end especially devastating to the audience.
Also starring in the movie is Mark Hamill as the Major, the man in charge of the walk. The Major is less of a character in the film as much as he is a setting. Whenever a competitor would try to talk to him, the Major repeats a seemingly pre-generated response encouraging them to keep going. The Major represents the uncaring and indifferent nature of this world and the contest. As soon as they crossed the starting line, the players were no longer people. They were the government’s propagandic message: The only chance someone has of freedom and prosperity is if they become a cog in our machine. It is up to you to watch “The Long Walk” to learn whether this group of boys manage to overcome this idea and make a real difference in their world.
“The Long Walk” is a compelling film. It makes you feel just as stressed and exhausted as the characters are as the competition goes on. This may have been the most immersed I’ve felt in a movie theater the whole year. Of the 2025 films, I ranked “The Long Walk” 4th, taking the spot of “Superman” and pushing my previous review’s “Caught Stealing” down to 6th.
