The Long Walk (2025)

I don't particularly love Stephen King. A good friend of mine has him among his favorite writers and I read through the Dark Tower saga in tribute to my friend and that fondness. King is the prince of pantsers, and I am as guilty of that tendency as many, but "On Writing" struck a chord. There is something beautiful in betting on yourself to wrap up a story, a "high" akin to gambling like a high roller. But just because that is King's preferred method of operation, doesn't mean that he might always do that, as his shorter stories have transitioned into film.

The director, Francis Lawrence, has a knack for films where the system is damned and the characters struggle to wrestle against the hand of fate and fatalism. He made Constantine with Keanu Reeves, I Am Legend with Will Smith, and the Hunger Games trilogy and prequel. 

Which is only proper, because as I was emotionally affected by the characters and their motivations. I thought "This is a tragedy of human life that I wished came through clearer in The Hunger Games." The rules of the film are simple: 50 young men, one from every state, chosen by lottery. When the starting gun goes off, the candidates must walk on the pavement at a minimum 3 mph pace, with three warnings given to get back up to speed or be executed. The last one walking will receive a massive cash prize and one "wish" or "special request" granted by The Major. 

America's economy has fallen to shambles, and the Long Walk is broadcast to inspire the productivity of the everyday American. Witnessing such a human march motivates a productivity boost to gross national productivity and THAT IS ENOUGH TO JUSTIFY DOING IT. Except, as the young men are stumbling day and night, they find more in common with each other than with the soldiers and authoritarian regime enforcing this system. 

It is cruel. It is heartless. It is brutal.

But the film is shot and lit beautifully, and the comradeship and camaraderie is truly inspiring. The characters find more in common with helping each other to keep walking and you genuinely start to care for each walker's story as they reveal their hopes for a better life on the other side of this Walk. I didn't expect that this film would stir me and give me hope to carry on, and it is pointedly not because the circumstances are supported reasonable, necessary, and justified, but because the characters know that all of those elements are lacking, and persist for the love of the man walking next to them in defiance of fatigue, sanity, and death.