The Long Walk is an intense, grotesque thriller that is not for the faint of heart, but delivers right up until the final shot. It slowly draws you into the motivations and the camaraderie of those who do the walk. It is one of the best Stephen King adaptations for the big screen. While I do have a few problems with the movie, overall, it’s really good with fantastic performances. I have never read the book, so I can’t compare the film to its source material. However, as a film, it has been one of my favorites of 2025. And I think for the first time, we are going to be talking about Mark Hamill during awards season. Sure, we know him mainly as Luke Skywalker, and he always plays a great hero, but he can also play a great villain, having voiced the Joker in the Batman animated series and in video games. What really makes this movie work comes from the young cast who make up the characters having to walk.
The story is set in a dystopian society, not too far in the distant future, where America lives under a fascist police state much like Nazi Germany. It’s the Hunger Games before there ever was The Hunger Games. To inspire a nation, the new America has an annual competition where one person representing each state must keep walking. If you slow down or stop, you get a warning, and after three warnings, you’re out of the competition! That’s all I’ll say to avoid spoilers. It is a sadistic competition that is supposed to inspire, but actually has the opposite effect. The best part of the story is the conversations between those who are doing the walk. They show up as strangers, and some become friends… they come together to try and survive the sadistic ordeal. The horror aspect of the movie does not come from blood and gore, but from not knowing who will survive, even though you know that the majority of the characters will meet their fate. There are plenty of scenes that will make you turn away and cringe, but the story keeps drawing you in as you easily connect to all of the characters on the walk, hoping they all survive. The two best performances come from Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson, who quickly become best friends and help each other until the end. Cooper Hoffman is the son of the late great Philip Seymour Hoffman, and he has gathered quite a resume from his standout performance in Licorice Pizza. He’s the everyday man who tries to stand up to the fascism within society. But of course, the real standout performance comes from Mark Hamill as the villain. He plays the Major… the militant warlord who seems more like Khan from Star Trek than an inspiring military leader. Mark Hamill has played a variety of characters, whether live or voicing characters. But he mostly plays comedic characters or heroes, so while it may seem hard to believe that he can be a villain, his performance as the villain that you constantly root for to die is one of his best performances and certainly worthy of an Oscar.
My biggest complaint about the movie, knowing that much about this futuristic dystopian society. They don’t go into great detail about what really happened, except that there was a war and there is a fascist regime running everything. It’s true that the backstory may not be that important compared to the story of all these characters doing the walk, but I think it would help to know more about their motivations for doing the long walk within the framework of the society they live in. Why is it considered inspirational when it’s essentially a sadistic battle royale that doesn’t really change things? It may not take away from the overall story, but I personally want to know more. However, we get enough details to know that American society is horrible. However, these minor critiques do not take away from a great film that has fantastic pacing along with great character performances. It feels like you’re on the long walk with them because the story draws you in so much. The nighttime scenes, especially when they’re walking in the rain, heighten the intensity of the film, and when you get to the end, you don’t see it coming. The Long Walk gives you plenty of surprises, where no matter how much you want to turn away, you can’t. It may not be a horror film in the traditional sense, but what will scare you is far worse. That’s the brilliance of this particular Stephen King story, and it’s what makes the film worth watching, along with all of the wonderful performances. I highly recommend it!
