The Long Walk review

THE LONG WALK: 

FRANCIS LAWRENCE CRAFTS ONE OF THE BEST STEPHEN KING ADAPTATIONS SINCE…THE LIFE OF CHUCK EARLIER THIS YEAR! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: **** out of 4

LIONSGATE

It’s walk or die in The Long Walk

 

            The most intense, anxiety-filled walk since Joseph Gordon-Levitt walked across the Twin Towers in 2015’s The Walk begins in The Long Walk, the new film from director Francis Lawrence (Constantine, I Am Legend, The Hunger Games franchise) and based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. I’ve never read the book before so I don’t know how faithful this film is to it, but the movie certainly caught my interest when I first saw the trailer which seemed like a mix of Stand by Me, Squid Game, and The Hunger Games (Which is fitting given the director of this movie). 

            Of course, I jumped into the new Demon Slayer movie and Spinal Tap sequel first, but as soon as those films were watched and reviewed, The Long Walk was next on my agenda and…Wow! This is a really damn good movie and easily Francis Lawrence’s best film since The Hunger Games: Catching Fire in 2013 that also stands among the best Stephen King adaptations. 

            I was on the edge of my seat, invested, exhilarated, and captivated during my viewing, it managed to make a group of people walking non-stop the most tension-filled thing on the planet. To put it bluntly, it completely surpassed my expectations and I already thought the movie looked solid from the advertisements. 

            The film is set in a dystopian future where 50 randomly chosen teenage boys participate in an event known as the Long Walk. The boys are given water and rations and must walk without stopping along a preset route while being escorted by soldiers, if one of them stops for anything they are executed onsite. 

            So, Ray Garraty (Cooper Hoffman-Licorice Pizza, Saturday Night) and Peter McVries (David Jonsson-Industry, Alien: Romulus) and some new friends they made will need to walk to survive while asking themselves “How far would they go?”. 

            The film also stars Mark Hamill (Star Wars franchise, Batman: The Animated Series, Kingsman: The Secret Service) as The Major, Garrett Wareing (Boychoir, Independence Day: Resurgence, Perfect) as Billy Stebbins, Tut Nyuot (The Dumping Ground, Hetty Feather) as Arthur Baker, Charlie Plummer (All the Money in the World, Dark Was the Night, Moonfall) as Gary Barkovitch, Ben Wang (Mean Girls (2024), Karate Kid: Legends, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping) as Hank Olson, Joshua Odjick (Wildhood, It: Welcome to Derry, Frontier Crucible) as Collie Parker, Roman Griffin Davis (Jojo Rabbit, Silent Night, The King of Kings) as Thomas Curley, Judy Greer (Jurassic World, Ant-Man 1 and 2, Halloween (2018) trilogy) as Ray’s mother Ginnie Garraty, and Josh Hamilton (Manchester by the Sea, Eighth Grade, Maestro) as Ray’s late father William Garraty. 

            Overall, The Long Walk is an adrenaline pumping, shocking, and suspenseful big screen experience with a gripping story, strong emotional drama, and very compelling characters to anchor this walk. This honestly felt like how I’d imagine a Hunger Games movie had it gotten an R rating where instead of it being dazzling and glamorous despite the circumstances, it’s hardcore and gritty which adds to the tension of the situation. 

            You will see these young boys die in horrific ways throughout the course of this movie and every time one of them barely avoids getting killed, you just feel this collective sigh of relief in the theater. It helps because the film makes the characters very likable even those who fall under the classic Stephen King tropes are still endearing in their own rights. 

            Cooper Hoffman is great as this young man who lost his father at the hands of The Major and participates in the Long Walk in order to obtain the cash reward for his mother and use his wish to kill The Major for shooting his dad. He is essentially the protagonist we follow throughout the movie, but there is a twist about him towards the end I dare not give away. 

            Aside from Alien: Romulus, I haven’t seen David Jonsson in many things, but he was also a standout as Ray’s friend during the Long Walk, he has great chemistry with Hoffman and adds a lot of emotional weight to the film, a great friend character who you don’t want to see bite the dust and have a bullet put in his head by the end. 

            Even the Stephen King bully characters, most notably Charlie Plummer is made interesting here who of course, starts off like a jackass, but over the course of the film you see that he is going through some mental health issues and expresses guilt over things he does during the early parts of the movie. The bullies from It (2017) are fun in how over-the-top they were, but in terms of making you give a shit about these types of characters, Long Walk wins by a mile, no pun intended! 

            Mark Hamill is a lot of fun as this scenery-chewing Major who’s in charge of the whole thing, classic over-the-top antagonist who’s in power and loves the horrible things he does. The kind of person you want to see get a bullet put in his head, but Hamill is having a ball onscreen.

            It’s a very simple premise, but very effective and gripping and I appreciate that the movie doesn’t try to exposition dump the origins of the Long Walk or long scenes with characters explaining their motives. No, you’re just put into this situation, you quickly understand everything you need to know about it, and the characters give their motives and reasons through conversations during the walk. 

            I’m grateful the film doesn’t waste time nor does it drag, everything is perfectly paced, the energy and momentum is kept throughout the runtime, and you care about the people walking in some shape or form. I loved the new Demon Slayer that came out and it’s easily the big money-maker from this past weekend, but even that movie had moments where it dragged plus it was significantly longer than this. 

            Holy shit, The Long Walk is such a good movie and one of my new favorite Stephen King film adaptations. It’s an exhilarating, brutal movie that gets your blood pumping and is fueled on anxiety, add in some compelling characters and solid drama and you got yourself a truly remarkable survival thriller that you won’t soon forget.