The Long Walk Review: Gritty and Moving!

​Storytelling as a whole have told us that in the end heroes always prevail and happy endings are on their way. Cinema especially has held onto this sentiment to give audiences characters and tales to root for, being an escape from the real world we live in through entertainment. Films are sometimes afraid to dive into territory where not everything works out in the end and hope isn’t always present.

It is risky to have audiences leave the theater in a lower state than they came in with. This is why it is crucial to have filmmakers who are able to present stories with just enough realism and unimaginable ideas that blend together in a way that leaves a lasting impression whether that is positive or not.

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The Long Walk, based on the story by Stephen King, is a concept that director Francis Lawrence is no stranger to, having made the Hunger Games franchise. Along with his direction, what makes the film especially strong and powerful is its screenplay by JT Moliner that takes what could have been a game of “picking off” its characters and turns it into a masterful examination of community, brotherhood, and vengeance that stands high in the list of films this year.

​Raymond Garraty (Cooper Hoffman) is one of the 50 men selected in a lottery system to compete in the Long Walk, a competition in which the man who is able to walk for the longest without going under 3.0 miles per hour wins a large sum of money and one wish. When he arrives Garraty meets Peter (David Jonsson), Hank (Ben Wang), Arthur (Tut Nyuot), Sebins (Garrett Wareing), Collie (Joshua Odjick), Gary (Charlie Plummer), and Thomas (Roman Griffin Davis), all vying for the same opportunity of glory.

As the walk begins, the boys begin to understand exactly what they signed up for and how the people who carry you through life, no matter for how long, are more of a gift than anyone could offer. The Long Walk’s filmmaking on a technical level is astonishing in its ability to create long dolly shots using its camera to follow the boys’ journey throughout its entire runtime. Commanding the screen in its direction in conjunction with its actor’s constant movement makes the film a ride in itself. Its audio is almost its own character through its leveling of volume and intensity making the character’s dialogue and the sound of gunshots both terrifying and powerful.

The Long Walk is rightfully dark and gritty in a way that leaves its images searing in our brains. Not just for the violence that occurs, these images make an impact for their context through the film’s look at connection between men and how it can be severed so quickly without warning (or in this case with three). Upon meeting all of the boys it becomes impossible to root for one specific young man seeing how they all form bonds with one another that expand past wanting to beat each other in a competition.

Early on in the film displays the willingness to protect each other from a larger evil. Through this we see a story about young men having to pick up the pieces of those who have destroyed their world before and being expected to do so without putting up a fight. When the world they live in is presented where hunger, the economy, and global environmental problems are of concern, it also becomes a story a lot of us understand about our own expectations to fix a broken world left behind by others.

On a thematic level, The Long Walk poses a nihilistic look at how the world can dim the spark of the most optimistic of people. With hardship and trauma comes both strength and hate. Some bask in their own destruction and struggle to rise above their obstacles while others are able to take them and create something bigger from it. Both paths can be understandable and sometimes can blend together, as shown in the differences in how the characters enter the competition given their pasts.

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The film begs the question “is there really a light at the end of the darkness we encounter?” What makes the film memorable is its ability to not have a concrete answer to this question. Instead, it analyzes both our real world and the world presented in the film to leave us with ideas to marinate on. ​Even if we may not like the answers we come up with. It has the ability to walk the thin line between what is important to exhibit and what will work with audiences. In the end The Long Walk doesn’t shy away from the hard truths in the world but may just give us just enough hope in watching these characters to understand how human connection can never be limited.

‘The Long Walk (2025)’ Rating – 4.5/5