This Is America, Don’t Catch You Slippin’ Now

The Long Walk is my second-favorite Stephen King novel after his horror opus, It. I remember reading the dystopian novel in 5th grade and thinking, “This would make an incredible movie if they adapted it right.” I’ve been waiting for a film version for nearly three decades of my life. It almost happened a few times, once with The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile director Frank Darabont. When that version died on the vine, I’d mostly given up the idea that a faithful film adaptation would ever get produced.

Thankfully, after putting his stamp on the inarguably “inspired by The Long Walk” series of Hunger Games sequels, director Francis Lawrence along with screenwriter JT Mollner have done what I never thought I’d see: bring the bleak, brutal story to the screen in a way that feels right in line with novel’s soul.

There is no denying that The Long Walk is one of the best movies of the year that many people will not want to see. That’s why it’s so vital that it is seen.

Walk Or Die For This Dying Country

It’s impossible to shake how The Long Walk, a story Stephen King began writing as a college freshman in 1966, still feels so painfully relevant in 2025. The premise is simple: America has been left destitute after a debilitating war, and in order to keep the dream (read: lie) of America alive, a fascist government led by a nameless Major (Mark Hamill in a perfect piece of casting) has created a walking marathon for the young men of the country. There is no finish line. Everyone walks until they drop below a certain speed, and if they don’t pick up the pace after three warnings, they are executed by soulless soldiers. Only one boy can be left standing and his prize is untold riches along with one wish the government will grant.

This concept of the Long Walk is seen by the fascist Major as a celebration of America. If you just keep walking, you can win! Just pull up those bootstraps, boys. It’s as easy as putting one foot in front of the other. This insidious idea is at the core of the film’s scathing commentary about America. Whether it’s the specificity of the military being nothing more than a machine that relies on murdering children, or the grander idea of the American Dream being a carrot dangled in front of us all, the criticism here is as subtle as the bullets you’ll see pass through the brains of so many boys.

Hard Truths Left Bleeding On The Pavement

But that’s the thing I found so powerful about The Long Walk when I first read it as a boy: it puts the hard truths about America directly in your face, knowing you don’t want to look at them. Stephen King wanted to tell a speculative story that laid bare all the ugly evils of America in a way that emphasized their stark horror. Like Homer had Odysseus plainly state, “War is young men dying and old men talking.” If ever a modern tale captures that in amber, it’s The Long Walk.

All of this harsh honesty is anchored by a cast of young actors who will break your heart if you have one, since it’s clear that we live in an age where empathy is labeled a sin by the monsters who run the world. Seeing these boys build friendships in the midst of a system doomed to kill them for its own propaganda is harrowing in the extreme. I was sobbing at more than a few moments when certain characters “get their ticket” even though I knew their fate was sealed from the moment the movie started. It’s a testament to their performances and the screenwriting that I wanted them to live, even though I knew that was never a possibility.

Look, The Long Walk is the kind of movie that is difficult to recommend because most people don’t want movies to confront them. They just want funny person to do funny thing, or to see two lovers love like loving lovers, or to see spaceship do space thing because it looks cool, or to see Good Guy beat Bad Guy and think that’s how the world actually functions. This is a purposefully punishing story that is trying to make you angry and disgusted at what America actually is. It’s how I felt reading King’s novel all those years ago as a boy even younger than the protagonists, and the movie had the same effect on me as an adult living in a country that looks more and more like The Long Walk every day.

Hold your friends close. Keep walking. F*** the Major.