The Long Walk Movie

This is one of my favorite Stephen King books and I was excited when I heard it was movietized. I read this back in October 2019 and gave it a 5/5 on Goodreads.

The movie held up well to its counterpart. Of course it’s not as good, but still a great watch. The quick premise is that 50 kids must walk 3mph till only one person remains. You get one warning per mistake and a warning is removed per hour. After 3 warnings you’re shot in the head. The brutality of the kills when someone stops walking was depicted perfectly. The first walker had his head blown off completely on screen. I thought for sure they’d change cuts, but it happened in one shot.

I enjoyed all the characters and the brotherhood formed between Peter and Ray. I had to stop myself from getting too attached knowing that only one person can survive. Just like the movie, they say a short friendship is better than none.

The pacing was also impressive. I expected it to be slower on screen, but the 1:48 runtime flew by. I also appreciated how the walk pretty quickly with little backstory to bore us. We were able to infer a lot without having everything explained to us. One of my favorite scenes was the incline and how frantic the camera jumps and cuts were. The kids were dropping like flies and the tension was sky high.

The ending caught me off guard. It has been five years since I’ve read the book, but I am pretty sure that Ray won the walk. The switchup to Peter winning and shooting the major shook me. Ray admirably sacrificed himself instead because he couldn’t see the visions of hope that Peter had. Then Peter carries out Ray’s last wish.

Overall a solid flick. None of the “antagonists” really did much for me, but it was cool to see the breakdown of all the characters the longer the walk went on. Every character was flawed and at the end of the day they’re all just kids.

Rating: 829/1000