Stephen King's The Long Walk Becomes 2025's Most Heartbreaking Film

Some films leave you with watery eyes, others have you crying for hours after leaving the cinema, and then there's Francis Lawrence and JT Mollner's 2025 adaptation of Stephen King's dystopian thriller The Long Walk. This movie features an endearing cast of mostly doomed outcasts and stays faithful to the source material until it completely rewrites the original conclusion – transforming what was essentially a self-centered narrative into something centered on love, making it superior to the book and arguably one of King's finest adaptations ever filmed.

A Brutal Contest in a Dying America

A memorable review on Letterboxd simply reads, "It's not a fun movie." While "fun" depends on perspective, it actually delivers plenty of thrills for science fiction horror enthusiasts, until reality hits hard and you realize you've grown deeply connected to characters who are being eliminated one after another.

The narrative unfolds in a dystopian world that feels uncomfortably close to our reality, where little remains of America under a fascist military government controlled by a dictator called the Major (Mark Hamill). We follow Ray Garraty (Cooper Hoffman), who joins 49 other young men in an annual competition called The Long Walk. The premise is simple yet terrifying: keep walking or face death. Slowing down or stopping results in a bullet to the head, among other horrific fates that befall the contestants throughout the film.

From Solo Journey to Brotherhood

While King's novel focuses entirely on Ray as the narrator of a bleak tale about survival after civilization's collapse, the film gives him a grieving mother (Judy Greer), a profound connection that develops over three days, and personal revenge as his motivation for entering the competition. His experience becomes shared with the friends he makes during the walk, forming a group of unlikely companions who maintain hope even as fellow contestants die around them.

That profound connection involves sacrifice and culminates in a final act so intense that audiences struggle to catch their breath by the film's end. Watching these rough but kindhearted young men, knowing their inevitable fate, becomes even more painful when you witness the bond between Garraty and Peter McVries (David Jonsson).

Love and Sacrifice Redefine the Story

Director Mollner explained to GamesRadar+ that this was always his vision: "What was the center of this? It's the love story between Garraty and McVries... People had different ideas about what the relationship was, because the key to that relationship is that these characters love each other. They only know each other for a few days, but they really, truly love each other. And that's what the center of the movie is – the love story."

Though Ray forms friendships with other walkers like Olson (Ben Wang), Baker (Tut Nyot), and Parker (Joshua Odjick), his connection with McVries runs deepest. Hoffman and Jonsson deliver powerhouse dramatic performances with chemistry that feels genuine and electric. McVries becomes Ray's anchor, keeping him calm during gunfire and alert when exhaustion sets in. He even pulls Ray back into the competition after Ray runs to his mother in the crowd – a scene The Academy highlighted, noting how Mrs. Garraty's tearful cry of "Keep walking!" expressed her love in that devastating moment.

Ray enters the competition not just for his mother, but to kill the Major – something he confides to McVries, revealing how the Major executed his father for opposing the regime. The film sets up Ray as the likely winner, mirroring the novel's outcome, but delivers a crushing twist: McVries prepares to sacrifice himself, but Ray convinces him to continue walking before taking the fatal shot himself. A devastated McVries maintains composure long enough to complete Ray's mission, declaring "This is for Ray Garraty" before pulling the trigger and walking away into the darkness.