The Long Walk, 2025.
Directed by Francis Lawrence.
Starring Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing, Tut Nyuot, Charlie Plummer, Ben Wang, Roman Griffin Davis, Jordan Gonzalez, Josh Hamilton, Judy Greer, Mark Hamill, Joshua Odjick, Keenan Lehmann, Marina Stephenson Kerr, Noah de Mel, Teagan Stark, and Daymon Wrightly.
SYNOPSIS:
A group of teenage boys compete in an annual contest known as “The Long Walk,” where they must maintain a certain walking speed or get shot.
Endless debates rage on over whether or not a war film can function as anti-war, regardless of intention, considering the shell-shocking violence typically on display. Well, The Long Walk is a blistering, propulsive, system shock of an antiwar film through allegory. Directed by Francis Lawrence (his credentials with The Hunger Games series make him a fitting choice for what is, ultimately, also a dystopian YA narrative but one more unflinching in bleakness and brutality), the film is based on the novel from Stephen King (and adapted by Strange Darling filmmaker JT Mollner), which was actually written (published later on) when he was 18. It is presumably no coincidence that this would have been around the time of the Vietnam War, serving as a foundation for King’s perception of war and how, like the film’s title, it’s nothing more than a slow death march for young men.
Wasting no time with backstory specifics (delving any deeper would be irrelevant), the film drops viewers into its promise of an America torn apart by an unknown war, with financial destitution affecting nearly 99% of the population. The cruel militia at the top of this hierarchy, led by Mark Hamill’s The Major (admittedly a bit over the top and the only significant weak link here, playing the character with all the depth of a first-person shooter video game villain from the 1990s), believes that much of this economic despair comes from a lazy society with no drive or motivation. His twisted solution is a game of death: one teenager/young adult representative from each state will sign up for the titular Long Walk.
This event features enforcers in tanks and other military vehicles following this group, ready to execute anyone who stops moving forward or falls below three miles per hour three times. The only rule benefiting these contestants is that, after walking for a certain amount of time, one of those stops will be removed from their record, indicating that there is also some strategic approach to pacing and breaks.
Like most films centered on war, The Long Walk is about the brotherhood that naturally forms. The key difference here is that while their instinct is to work together to survive and ensure they keep each other moving forward, there can only be one winner. As for the prize, it’s a hefty sum of money intended to inspire more effort in the workforce and future Long Walk sign-ups. And because those in charge of this demented game are oh so nice, the winner can also request a different prize, which can be anything they want.
As for the characters, the film boasts a wide range of personalities, racial ethnicities, and slices of Americana, homing in on Cooper Hoffman’s Raymond Garraty and David Jonsson’s Peter McVries, with the former a pessimist driven by vengeance and the latter rightfully horrified but optimistic that there is hope in the future for humanity. When the two come across a local spectator parked in a lawn chair, seemingly at ease as if this is a normal activity, Peter insists that society has been conditioned to believe that this event is an acceptable form of entertainment, punishment, and motivation. Frequently throughout the banter, his words break into a rather unforgettable smile, encouraging the other contestants, many of whom become his friends, never to stop searching for beauty in their surroundings.
Meanwhile, Raymond (Cooper Hoffman is also excellent, at one point giving a speech about how influential his character’s dad was, working on a meta emotional level) has a similar kindness, willing to share food with others or help up fallen comrades to prevent their execution, but it comes with a different worldview and endgame. Yes, Raymond could use the money to help him and his widowed mom (Judy Greer), who are emotionally and financially struggling to move on from the death of his dad (Josh Hamilton), but he is also after something else that won’t be spoiled. There are a couple of predictable beats and one unnecessary reveal, but for the most part, this is uncomfortably raw with no cop-outs.
They are surrounded by a plethora of colorful characters, ranging from the twitchy and talkative Hank Olson (Ben Wang), the nearly sociopathic Gary Barkovitch (Charlie Plummer) who believes the surrounding death won’t affect him, a scholarly type documenting the Long Walk for a future book should he win (continuing with the war allegory, it is similar to how soldiers jot down what they observe on the battlefield), and more. The dialogue comes naturally, as they discuss everything from lost dreams to playfully ribbing one another. This is a film that’s less about these young men as characters, but again, as a brotherhood.
As mentioned, it’s also uncompromising in its depicted violence, but never exploitative. Cinematographer Jo Willems frames much of this death (which is somehow more dehumanizing than an average execution, considering something horrific is already usually happening to stop someone from moving forward) from the perspective of those at the front, looking back in despair, anger, and sadness (words that also accurately describe the stirring score from Jeremiah Fraites). It’s also rather dynamic for a film that primarily consists of shots of characters walking forward, making use of several angles and shakier movements to accompany the escalating intensity. Francis Lawrence and JT Mollner’s adaptation of The Long Walk is gutwrenching and unshakable, requiring a long shower afterward.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association, Critics Choice Association, and Online Film Critics Society. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews and follow my BlueSky or Letterboxd
