The Long Walk Review
A couple days back I was able to see one of my most anticipated films of the fall, The Long Walk. This is the latest Stephen King film adaptation featuring several up and coming actors. This is a film that I was very excited to see and all of the early buzz for the film was fantastic. So did this film live up to the hype? Let’s talk about it!
The Good
The first thought that came to mind leaving the theater was “that was one of the most brutal and gut wrenching films I’ve seen in a long time.” I mean that as an absolute positive, where it’s a film that puts these characters in this thrilling and dark situation where there’s only two ways out. Starting at about 10 minutes into the film, you're on the edge of your seat until the credits roll. If you don’t know what this film is about, it’s based on Stephen King’s first ever book. Where 50 young adults (one from every state) enters in a conversation to walk at least 3mph or they get shot. Whoever is the last one standing gets a big cash prize. The film explores and shows you the brutality of what they’re doing. They show you all of these ways that people can drop under the speed limit and get shot. Whenever somebody gets something in their shoe, they have to use the bathroom, or they get allergies you feel the tension of what’s going on. Since the film’s cast keeps on getting smaller and smaller as it goes along, you feel this danger even more as you don’t know who’s going to live and who’s going to die. I think the film is unfortunately benefited by so many of the themes of the movie being so relevant today. It’s poor timing that this film released the same week as the Charlie Kirk incident and when school shootings are unfortunately so prominent in today’s culture. It adds this extra level of dread to what’s going on because it’s very easy to see a future where something like this could happen.
One of the things that makes the film so compelling is you have a set of characters that you care about and all of them played by great actors. Our two leads of the film are Copper Hoffman and David Jonsson. Both of them have been proving themselves as up and coming actors over the last several years. In this film they continue to show their abilities. The film is built on their shoulders, if they don’t work the movie doesn’t work. The film needs them to be charming but the film also needs them to be dramatic and emotional. Both of them are able to do that and deliver these emotional and layered performances. As the film goes along the more and more the film relies on them so you care about them and their friendship. There’s a reason why you want both of them to win, but you know only one of them can. But all of the other characters in the film are very good and have something about them that stands out. There’s characters that are kind of introduced as minor characters but become important later on. There’s characters that you don’t like at the beginning but you slowly sympathize as it goes along. There’s characters that have quirks about them that pop and stand out. Whenever one of the more prominent characters die, you feel the emotion because through the direction, writing, and acting they made characters that you care about.
I’ve alluded to this before because the film does a great job of building tension. The film is directed by Francis Lawrence who directed ⅘ of The Hunger Games films. There’s a number of similarities between those films and this film where both involve teenagers/young adults being put into terrible situations and a lot of them dying with this evil government watching over them. He just knows how to build the tension, how to make every small choice have enormous weight and consequences to them as you know any small thing they do can cost them their life. As soon as the film gets going and the journey begins, the tension rises and doesn’t stop until the credits roll. Along the way you see the characters building bonds with each other, you start to like characters more but you also don’t know who’s going to die next. It’s also written by JT Mollner who is one of the most exciting faces in Hollywood today. He wrote Strange Darling from last year, this great little thriller that was one of my favorites from last year. Then this film being another great thriller he’s establishing himself as a name to look out for. Every film that he’s attached to I’m excited for because he’s a great talent.
Another thing that really stood out to me about this film was that it felt like a mix of both sides of Stephen King. King is famous for writing horror and thrillers, and you get this film. But he’s also written more hopeful stories about friendships like Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption. The Long Walk feels like a mix of both sides of him. I’ve talked about this already, but the film has a lot of tension and thrillers. But the real meat and potatoes of the film is the heart and the exploration of friendship. That’s part of the reason why the film works as well as it does and why it’s so engaging. On paper, it’s not obvious why a film about a bunch of young adults walking for hundreds of miles is so compelling. The reason for that is because there’s this hopeful vibe to it. The film establishes the goals and motivations for the main characters. Both of them have their reasons for why they want to win and what they hope to accomplish. This film is very different from The Shawshank Redemption, but there’s a lot of similarities between the two because of the central friendship and how their different backgrounds affect their goals and motivation for the film. The heart of the film is really what surprised me about the film, because the trailers didn’t showcase the heart, it was 100% focused on the thrills of the film that you’d expect from a Stephen King adaptation.
Finally, another element that really surprised me was that film’s sense of humor. The film has humor placed at the right moment throughout the film. None of it breaks the tension, but keeps the film going. It creates a sense of forward momentum for the film because it breaks the tension and keeps things more lively and entertaining. Because all of the actors do a great job the humor comes organically from their chemistry and dynamics.
The Bad
Given the inherent nature of the film with characters being killed off as it goes along and the cast getting smaller and smaller, it means this is a hard film to market. If you’ve seen the trailers you know which characters don’t have a lot of screen time and who makes it further than others. The trailers for the film played a fair amount of times when I went to the theaters so I’d seen the trailers a fair amount of times and I think some of the shock value was taken away because of it. However, it didn’t take away from the overall experience of the film but like I said some of the shock value was taken away because of it. I don’t blame the movie or the marketing because it’s a hard film to market given so many characters die in this film. If you’re interested in the film, I’d avoid watching the trailers so you can get as fresh of an experience as possible.
Also, the film does such a good job of being brutal and gut wrenching that this film isn’t the most rewatchable and I don’t think it’s a film that I’ll rewatch a whole lot. This is almost a positive about the film because it does such a good job of what it’s trying to do. But because it does such a good job, I don’t think I’ll be rewatching it a whole lot. It feels like a film I’ll rewatch once every couple of years just to watch a great movie.
Final Thoughts: The Long Walk was one of my most anticipated films of Fall 2025 and it’s really good. It’s a great mix of everything that Stephen King adaptations have, the thrills and the hopefulness. The performances are fantastic, Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson are two of the best up and coming actors. The themes and what the film is about is so relevant that it makes the film so horrifying. I’ve seen several people call this the best film of 2025. I wouldn’t go that far, but it’s really good and definitely worth a watch.
The Score: 8.9/10 (B+)
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