The Long Walk (dir. Francis Lawrence)

by Jack Martin | Sep 10, 2025

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 108 mins

UK Distributor: Lionsgate

UK Release Date: 12 September 2025

WHO’S IN THE LONG WALK?

Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Mark Hamill, Garrett Wareing, Joshua Odjick, Tut Nyuot, Charlie Plummer, Ben Wang, Roman Griffin Davis, Jordan Gonzalez, Josh Hamilton, Judy Greer, Izabella Raven

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Francis Lawrence (director, producer), JT Mollner (writer), Roy Lee, Cameron MacConomy and Steven Schneider (producers), Jeremiah Fraites (composer), Jo Willems (cinematographer), Peggy Eghbalian and Mark Yoshikawa (editors)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

In a dystopian America, a group of young men compete in a deadly walking contest…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON THE LONG WALK?

Stephen King has the unusual ability to make just about any minor thing in our everyday lives utterly terrifying, whether it be cars or mobile phones or clowns or dogs or just about anything you could imagine. But there’s one universal trait that he – as his pseudonym “Richard Bachman” – took advantage of pretty early on in his writing career: walking. In King’s (sorry, “Richard’s”) 1979 novel The Long Walk, the simple act of putting one leg in front of the other was transformed into a tense and deadly winner-takes-all exercise that felt like The Hunger Games long before The Hunger Games was even a thing.

Fittingly, Francis Lawrence – the director of all but one of the Hunger Games movies, including the upcoming Sunrise on the Reaping – is the one to finally bring King’s story to the screen after versions by the likes of George A. Romero, Frank Darabont and André Øvredal all failed to make the necessary steps forward. Yet, The Long Walk hits a hell of a lot harder than most of the Hunger Games movies, for it not only refuses to shy away from how utterly gruesome and harrowing this situation can be, but as an emotional experience it is an unexpected rollercoaster where you’ll be laughing, crying, and screaming in anguish alongside the poor souls stuck walking for miles on end.

One of those poor souls is Raymond Garraty (Cooper Hoffman), a young man in a dystopian America who has been selected to participate in the Long Walk, an endurance test where he and several other young men must simply walk at a consistent pace until there is only one of them left, with the last man standing – after all the slowpokes and deserters have been brutally shot in the head – being granted anything his heart desires. Rather than adopting an every-man-for-himself mentality, like some of the more boisterous competitors like the stoic Stebbins (Garrett Wareing) and the nervy nuisance Barkovitch (Charlie Plummer), Garraty quickly forms a bond with some of his fellow walkers, particularly Peter McVries (David Jonsson) who, like just about every participant, has his own solid reasons for making it to the very end of the Long Walk.

A movie of people doing nothing but walk towards an uncertain destination may sound tedious on paper – and thanks to movies like Gus Van Sant’s Gerry, we now know how draining such a viewing experience can be – but Lawrence and screenwriter JT Mollner (the filmmaker behind last year’s twisty thriller Strange Darling) quite brilliantly capture the horrors of always being in motion. You see people walking on twisted ankles, close-ups of feet that are just gushing with blisters through their reddened socks, competitors in the background collapsing from exhaustion or aneurisms, and even one person completely voiding their bowels like they’ve unwisely gone out for a curry the night before. It’s pretty disturbing, especially since most of them appear to be no older than their mid-twenties (the youngest claiming to be 18, though it’s hinted he may actually be even younger), and Lawrence makes it all seem like such a nightmare as characters you get to know quite a bit about will just suddenly be riddled with bullets or start stabbing themselves in the neck, all at a far more extreme level than any of his Hunger Games movies.

Perhaps the most painful aspect, though, is the fact that most of them are characters who you grow to genuinely really like, making their inevitable demise all the harder. Mollner writes them in such a way where they can be crass, self-serving and far from nice to be around, with more F-bombs among them than at a screening of the South Park movie, but still very likeable in their own way as they jovially rag on each other about what their ultimate wish will be upon completion while also encouraging one another to keep walking when they start to fall behind, for there may be only one winner but they’re still all in this together. The performances really elevate their charm, especially David Jonsson who exhumes charisma and optimism even in the grimmest of moments, and delivers some powerful monologues that almost leave you on the verge of tears from how well the actor conveys such raw yet understated emotion. Your heart really does break for these young men as they slowly succumb to the side-effects of walking endlessly, as Mollner and Lawrence do an excellent job of making you empathise with them, even when they’re being total dicks to each other (and in one or two cases inadvertently leading them to their swift demise).

Only a couple of times does The Long Walk put a foot out of place, like adding certain elements that aren’t ever expanded upon such as the fact that the whole walk is being broadcast on TV even though it doesn’t seem like this is a world where anyone owns a television anymore, and it mainly just feels like something the studio asked Lawrence to insert so that it would feel similar to The Hunger Games. Mark Hamill is also in this movie (his second King adaptation of the year after The Life of Chuck) as the scowling Major overseeing the walk, but while he’s certainly intimidating whenever he needs to be, there isn’t really much to his character other than just standing on a truck and occasionally shouting lines you’d hear from an NPC in a video game.

Those moments aside, The Long Walk is terrific stuff as it adapts King’s (sorry, “Richard’s”) story with bleak ferocity and emotionally captivating drama, all while putting you off from ever adding a treadmill to your home gym.

SO, TO SUM UP…

The Long Walk is a terrific Stephen King adaptation that refuses to shy away from the gruesome nature of its premise while still making it a truly emotional stroll thanks to characters and performances, especially David Jonsson, that you’re more than comfortable walking alongside.