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Adapted from Steven King’s story, The Long Walk is a dystopian view of humanity that celebrates the destruction of young men in an attempt to motivate a society dulled by totalitarianism and is a brutal warming for our present times making it one of the unmissable releases of 2025.

The Long Walk is set years after a war that establishes an authoritarian government in the United States under which civil society has declined creating a population that has become impoverished. To help motivate the citizens, a yearly competition of ‘The Long Walk’ has been established whereby young men across the country nominate and fifty or so are selected to take part in an endurance test to keep walking at no less than three miles per hour without stops or rest until only one remains alive. The walk is overseen tyrannically by The Major (Mark Hamill) and the winner receives a wish of their choosing and a large sum of money. The participants selected for this walk include Raymond Garraty (Cooper Hoffman), Peter McVries (David Jonsson), Arthur Baker (Tut Nyuot), and Hank Olson (Ben Wang) and others. Along the way, as participants fall around them, Ray and Peter’s friendship grows and backstories are disclosed as their walk builds to the conclusion.

Screenwriter, JT Mollner, skillfully develops the original material with the result of the film becoming a little Squid Game like, including explicitly gory graphic content that isn’t out of place given the context of the plot.  Director, Francis Lawrence, again teams with long term cinematography collaborator from The Hunger Games series, Jo Willems, to bring the sweaty, rain soaked, bloody tale to a visceral reality.

Mark Hamill’s performance and role of The Major while playing an important structural part of the plot is very much background to the impressive young cast, Hamill appears mostly in a uniform with a hat and sunglasses. Son of the brilliant Philip Seymour Hoffman, Cooper Hoffman, who looks a lot like his father, again delivers another brilliant performance in the lead role building upon his growing acting reputation which began with his excellent performance in Licorice Pizza. David Jonsson is similarly outstanding in his performance as the pivotal character. Tut Nyuot and Ben Wang also steal scenes in their roles along with Roman Griffin Davis (from Jojo Rabbit) in a shorter but impressively acted role.  In addition, the rest of the young cast all provide first-rate support.  

Although King’s story of The Long Walk has taken four previous failed production attempts and forty-six years from first being published to finally appearing on the big screen, perhaps the wait was fortuitous as it now serves as a timely warning in our current times.

Reviewed by Rob McKinnon