Directed by Francis Lawrence | Written by JT Mollner, from the Stephen King (as Richard Bachman) novel | 108 min | ▲▲▲▲
Does it make any sense that in October 2025, when the critical community is losing their collective mind over One Battle After Another and its portrait of an America at war with itself, this less-heralded adaptation of an early Stephen King novel might actually be a more powerful, relevant comment on the state of the union? It’s not a perfect movie, and it objectively is nowhere near as ambitious as the PT Anderson epic, but it is potent in its simplicity. It stares into the abyss as the abyss stares back.
The dystopian vision is direct and to the point: We’re in an alternative America circa the 1970s, a few years after a war “tore the country apart.” Now in a deep economic depression, a televised event helps motivate the nation to continue to produce. Young men from across the country are encouraged to enter a lottery, and 50 are chosen, one from each state, to participate in a contest. The winner gets untold riches and a single heart’s wish. All they have to do is walk a long country road, and keep up a rate of three miles an hour. It’s a test of strength and endurance, there’s no finish line — the last man still walking wins. Everyone else dies, shot to death when they fall.
Raymond Garraty (Cooper Hoffman, Licorice Pizza) has a strong motivation to do this, even as his mother (Judy Greer) begs him not to. In the first steps down the road he makes friends with another guy, Peter McVries (David Jonsson, Rye Lane and Alien: Romulus), while other characters in support (including those played by Garrett Wareing, Tut Nyuot, Charlie Plummer, and Ben Wang) are equally vividly drawn, projecting a mix of friendliness, bluster, and intimidation tactics. But like the history of young men who became soldiers and went to war, they don’t really have a clue what it’ll be like after marching100 miles. Or 200. Or 300.
The deadly cost of this commitment is rapidly made clear in the first 24 miles, before it gets dark on day one. Whatever needs they have, bodily function-wise, they can’t stop walking. Their heavily armed escorts will offer sustenance and water, but nothing else. There’s no mercy here, and while some of these competitors do offer some human kindness to their fellow walkers, those who struggle with mental health challenges are rapidly revealed. Hoffman and Jonsson are especially good together, their characters bound in a shared compassion. However, the violence, when it comes, is bloody and graphic.
Director Francis Lawrence, probably best known for The Hunger Games franchise, is a decent choice for this material, though a couple of times I wondered what Mike Flanagan or Frank Darabont, who’ve adapted Stephen King before, might have done with it. Would they have opened it up beyond just what’s happening on the road? Unlike The Hunger Games, we don’t see much of this society beyond the walk — what do the people watching this “event” make of it? Is there a level of fame that benefits the individual states if their representatives do well? Why isn’t the Long Walk co-ed? And why is there only one military commander in charge of the entire affair — The Major (a very growly Mark Hamill)?
I suppose restricting the action to just male characters on the titular walk boosts its symbolic, allegorical power, and it is plenty powerful. At its core the film is about how America has desperately lost its way, willing to sacrifice its youth and the most vulnerable on the altar of capitalism, criminalizing the poor and the mentally ill. This is the year’s most moving, intense treatise on the subject, and it will stay with me.
