The Long Walk (2025)
Director Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire) adapts one of Stephen King's darkest stories with the dystopian thriller The Long Walk.
The film takes place in an America that
is decades into full economic collapse. Its totalitarian government puts on a
contest where contestants apply by lottery to participate. They must continue
walking at a minimum speed of three miles per hour, with any drop below resulting
in a warning. After three warnings, the participant is executed. The walk
continues until only one is left and that person is granted any wish they want
(other than to overthrow the government).
The movie's main characters are Ray
(Cooper Hoffman) and Pete (David Jonsson). They form relationships, some
friendly and some initially antagonistic, with some of the other walkers. However,
the specter of death hangs over them all.
In a way, The Long Walk functions
as an exceptionally bleak metaphor for life. A person starts with optimism and
high hopes, as well as makes some friends, but they grow more tried and pained
as the journey progresses and watch their friends gradually fall by the wayside
until, one day, it is their turn to fall. Suffice to say, it is not a film that
will enter the Hallmark Channel's rotation during Christmas season.
At its worst, The Long Walk can
feel a bit like misery porn. Like too many modern films, it's also hopelessly
in love with gratuitous extreme gore (someone should tell filmmakers this is
neither shocking nor edgy nor transgressive when it seems like the majority of
R-rated films now feature this level of gore). But, at its best, it's a film
that emphasizes the importance of human connection, even if that connection is
brief and even if everything else seems hopeless.
Ultimately, Hoffman and Jonsson earn
this a positive rating. Both are excellent (viewers may remember Jonsson from Alien:
Romulus, a film he almost single-handedly elevated from mediocrity with his
soulful performance). Here, they imbue what could have simply been a lengthy
exercise in cruelty with a desperately needed humanity. Tut Nyuot also does
strong work in support as one of the kinder boys on the walk.
