The Long Walk Review: There is Always a Choice, Right?

Promotional poster from the production company Lionsgate

Written by: Niomi Dylan Sass

As a country, we stumbled ourselves into an epidemic of laziness, and there is only one way to regain a glory long gone. This is mournfully true in the universe of the 2025 film adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, The Long Walk. In this high-intensity thriller, directed by Francis Lawrence (director of the Hunger Games franchise) and script written by JT Mollner, America is no longer The Beautiful and hasn’t been for a while. Starring Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker from Star Wars Episode IV), who plays the antagonist, The Major gives one lucky contestant from each state to participate in the annual event, the Long Walk. 

The rules of the race are met with simplicity and executed harshly. There are 50 lottery winners who get to participate; all must keep walking from the beginning to their end. All contestants must keep their pace at a speed of 3 miles per hour or more. If their speed falls under the requirement, they get one warning to pick up their pace. Moments following, the second warning will be given, and after the third warning, the participants will receive their ticket of elimination. If anyone steps off the payment, a ticket will be administered as well. There is one winner, no finish line, and everyone gets a shot. 

Cooper Hoffman is the protagonist Raymond Garraty, also referred to as number 47, and makes a best friend in the most unexpected place, number 23 Peter McVries, played by David Jonsson. They both are in it for the prize, which is wealth beyond comprehension, and one wish that can be used to grant a desire money cannot buy. Motive enough for anyone struggling financially to keep up with a fast-growing economy, which is most people. Numbers 23 and 47 have similar intentions in their hearts but are influenced by their own ulterior motives. 

Number 23 believes that all it takes is one person with a mountain of wealth who is willing to contribute their riches to change society for the good of it, and that’s what he plans to do with his winnings. His new bestie, number 47, plans on doing something with his wish that has the potential to change the tradition of the annual walk - I’ll let you find out what that specifically is. All the people who applied to participate did it for their own reasons that are all equally important to each of them. Number 47 has strong feelings that none of them actually volunteered, but the pressures from society and their effects drove them all to sign up; in a way, there are no true volunteers.

Intensity begins to brew as the odds just became better after the first contestant gets their ticket. Graphic isn’t a good enough word to describe the first person’s death unless it was all capitalized. It was GRAPHIC. That’s better. As the day goes by and dusk begins to set, we see that the participants are half asleep, but still keeping pace until they meet an incline. Warning and tickets are being administered left to right while bodies are dropping down. From this point on, the tension continues to build with ferocity after each ticket is granted. 

I have never seen a theatre so packed for a movie in the horror genre this whole year, and I am a horror girlie, I went to over 10 horror movies on the day of their premiere in 2025. There are so many metaphors wrapped into this film and so little time to talk about them. It follows themes playing with a dystopian America mirroring facets of the current state of our country. One could argue that our economic reality, stemming from a capitalistic society, is being mirrored in the way the contestants are treated in the Long Walk. While wrapping it all together through outlooks on life through the perspectives of people who had it rough synonymously.

However, what stood out to me the most was how every person who got a candid death had a different way of coming to terms with dying. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t fond of the macabre, so this part was extremely fascinating, seeing a representation of the different stages of grief. Each one had a different way of grieving their life before it ended. Watching the people who dealt with bargaining, depression, and denial while coming to terms with accepting their fate was heart-wrenching to see. The few who accepted their reality and went on their own terms had a different effect on me. The friendship and support the participants gave each other in their final moments were beyond beautiful. It led me to respect the hell out of them.

What makes America in this film feel like a dystopia, just as equally as it feels tangible, is parallel to their pride as justification for their actions in the name of America. There is material that has been banned, like music, books, and movies, that all encompass a point of view the country no longer wants to acknowledge. Sound familiar? The only difference, if there is a difference, is that in the world of the movie, you can be killed for teaching it. Not just taken to trial and sentenced to death, but straight up dragged out of your home and executed in front of your loved ones while they are forced to watch. There have been many dystopian futuristic movies created in the past, yet this one is scary because of how close our nation is to presenting some version of this as a solution to a non-existent problem. 

There were other small similarities I saw when comparing our economic reality to how the contestants are treated during the walk. If you cannot meet ends financially, then the way the world is designed is to leave you behind in hopes of not getting dragged down by helping. During the Long Walk, they said, “Girl, same.” At least most of the participants weren’t in the business of helping others. They were all tagged with a number, too, like they were chattel, or it represents that the working and lower-class citizens are nothing but a number to the one percent. Number 23 says their world was conditioned into thinking that the Long Walk was the answer to a problem that was never clearly and reliably addressed. Like most of us have been conditioned to partake in capitalism, thinking it’s a form of socio capitalism, we can use paying for grocery bags as an example for that. Are we really trying to make the planet greener, or are corporations trying to find a way to gain more profit by making consumers pay for a bag at a cost that multiplies what they bought at market price, in the disguise of going green? 

Through some of the morbidness and hopefully entertaining review, I will leave you with some positive outlooks on life I gained by watching this film, starting with the most morbid. The one constant thing in the world, besides paying taxes, is the fact that everyone eventually passes away, somehow, someway. People just might get lucky enough to have the opportunity to choose how they spend their final moments before it occurs. Remember to choose to find the light inside dark situations you can’t control. Above all, be present because this moment matters more than the last one, and if you’re having a hard time, “think about making it to the next moment instead of the end.”