{"id":219883,"date":"2025-09-12T03:51:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T03:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/219883\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T03:51:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T03:51:17","slug":"the-long-walks-brutal-new-ending-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/219883\/","title":{"rendered":"The Long Walk\u2019s Brutal New Ending, Explained"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n Photo: Murray Close\/Lionsgate\/Courtesy Everett Collection\n <\/p>\n

Spoilers ahead for the plot and ending of The Long Walk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Few authors have more thoroughly prepared us for our dystopian future than Stephen King. Over the course of 60-plus novels and a couple hundred short stories, he\u2019s depicted everything from a civilization-upending pandemic in The Stand to a real-estate huckster who uses his outsider status to become a political demagogue in The Dead Zone. In two separate novels written under his pen name of Richard Bachman, he crafted tales of an economically ravaged U.S. where a totalitarian regime distracts the populace with televised bloodsport. The 2025-set The Running Man will see its second film adaptation released in November, while The Long Walk is just now hitting theaters for the first time after spending decades in development hell. Both movies feel like they\u2019re arriving right on schedule.<\/p>\n

The Long Walk is one of King\u2019s most straightforward and contained narratives. Both the novel and Francis Lawrence\u2019s new film follow a group of young men who have volunteered \u2014 insofar as anyone can volunteer when they\u2019re out of options \u2014 for the title event, a brutal, days-long march that only ends when there\u2019s one survivor left. Becoming the last one standing promises life-changing riches and the fulfilment of a personal wish, but the Long Walk is a deadly contest: Stopping or even slowing down gets you a warning, and three warnings earn a gunshot to the head. The Long Walk is unsparing in its depiction of violence, as well as the other indignities the boys face along the way. (I asked myself how participants could go to the bathroom without stopping, only to have that question answered in graphic detail.) As in the book, though, this is also a story of the bonds forged between the Long Walkers, namely Ray Garraty (Cooper Hoffman) and Pete McVries (David Jonsson). Despite the fact that their individual survival depends on the failure of the other, they develop a deep connection to each other that helps keep them alive.<\/p>\n

In adapting King\u2019s 1979 novel, screenwriter JT Mollner hews closely to the source material, but releasing the film now inevitably gives it new shades of timeliness. When King began writing the novel in the late \u201860s, it was a response to Vietnam, and it still reads as a thinly veiled allegory. Decades removed, that association is nowhere to be found in the movie. Instead, vague references to a second Civil War invoke our current reality, with its stark ideological divides, encroaching political violence, and calls for retribution that have only escalated in recent days<\/a>. The economic uncertainty that inspired The Long Walk, meanwhile, is more salient than ever, with new lines like \u201cPeople with a lot of money doing good is a myth\u201d feeling especially pointed. There\u2019s also, of course, added resonance to the autocratic leader known as the Major (Mark Hamill), who presides over the Long Walk and potentially \u2014 though it\u2019s never quite spelled out \u2014 the country as a whole. In production notes for the film, Lawrence insists, \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to get too bogged down in details of the government because our focus is entirely these young men, their relationships, and their emotional journey.\u201d That may be true, but he\u2019s certainly aware of how fiction about totalitarianism plays in 2025.<\/p>\n

The Major has a somewhat larger role in the movie The Long Walk, which reveals a more direct connection to Ray that guides the boy\u2019s participation in the annual event. In King\u2019s book, Ray\u2019s father has been Squaded \u2014 taken away by the government\u2019s secret police \u2014\u00a0for political speech, including speaking out against the Long Walk. Mollner\u2019s adaptation sees Mr. Garraty (Josh Hamilton) executed by the Major himself for refusing to pledge his allegiance, an event witnessed by Ray and his mother (Judy Greer). Here, Ray is driven more by retribution than by the monetary reward of making it to the end. If he wins, he plans to wish for a carbine, which he\u2019ll use to assassinate the Major in clear view of the assembled crowd. It\u2019s a more <\/strong>film-friendly approach to the character \u2014 Hollywood loves a revenge story \u2014 but it also works to create a clear distinction between Ray and Pete.<\/p>\n

While King\u2019s version of Pete underlines the futility of the Long Walk, admitting he doesn\u2019t know what he\u2019ll wish for because \u201cthe whole thing is pointless,\u201d movie Pete offers a counterpoint to Ray\u2019s bloodlust. \u201cVengeance is not enough,\u201d he tells Ray. His almost too-selfless wish would be for the Long Walk to have two winners. We later learn more about Pete\u2019s rough-and-tumble life and the fight that nearly killed him. It was while recovering in the hospital that he made a decision to always find light in the darkness, a philosophy that informs his unusual approach to the Long Walk. \u201cIf you make it,\u201d Pete advises Ray, \u201cI suggest you choose love.\u201d These kumbaya platitudes feel out of place when battered and bloody boys are dropping like flies, but that works to the film\u2019s advantage, laying the groundwork for the final rug-pull.<\/p>\n

After the death of Stebbins (Garrett Wareing), the Major\u2019s illegitimate son, Ray and Pete are the only Long Walkers left. In the book, Pete chooses to stop and is killed, making Ray the victor. Psychologically broken from his experience, Ray keeps walking, following a phantom figure ahead that only he can see. In the film, it\u2019s Ray who stops, telling Pete he loves him before being gunned down. It\u2019s a jarring twist for readers, made all the more shocking by what happens next. When Pete is offered his wish, he bucks his original plan and asks for a carbine. \u201cThis is for Ray,\u201d he says, then shoots the Major and walks off into the night. In the end, Ray does choose love, sacrificing himself and abandoning his single-minded pursuit of justice so that his friend can live. And it\u2019s Pete, presented with the promise of his heart\u2019s desire, who opts for revenge.<\/p>\n

At first glance, The Long Walk\u2019s bold new ending seems to undermine the themes it\u2019s been cultivating, namely the importance of holding onto one\u2019s humanity amid dire circumstances. But the movie ultimately lands on something more nuanced. There\u2019s no question that the bonds between the boys are the heart of the film \u2014 it\u2019s that emotional connection, at least in part, that drives them to keep fighting. At the same time, any attempt at ending on a moment of grace and forgiveness <\/strong>would ring false, particularly in the context of our current moment. It\u2019s unfortunate timing that the film is debuting in the wake of the killing of far-right activist Charlie Kirk and amid a heated debate on the meaning and morality of political violence, in large part because this is not a conversation The Long Walk is eager or equipped to wade into. But its conclusion does capture something bleak yet honest about where we find ourselves. The closest thing the ending has to a moral is a reminder that while love may be essential, it\u2019s not enough to escape a system designed to make monsters of us all.<\/p>\n

The gut-punch of those closing moments also captures an anger that will feel familiar to viewers across the political spectrum. There is a point at which, the movie suggests, it is no longer possible to face suffering and oppression with dignity. Rather than trying to deliver an ending that validates Pete\u2019s ethos of camaraderie and forgiveness, the film offers a more uncomfortable acknowledgment of the limitations of \u201cchoose love\u201d as a guiding principle. It\u2019s not that there isn\u2019t something admirable about looking for the light in the darkness \u2014 it\u2019s that there\u2019s often little light to be found. \u201cEveryone loses\u201d the Long Walk, Pete says in the novel, and that includes the purported victor, who in both book and film never stops walking. Pete\u2019s final choice can be read as a betrayal of his ideals, but it may also be the only remaining path forward for him: If there\u2019s no real winning for any Long Walker in the end, he can only ensure there\u2019s no winning for the Major, either.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Murray Close\/Lionsgate\/Courtesy Everett Collection Spoilers ahead for the plot and ending of The Long Walk. Few authors…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":219884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[114861,19106,171,20427,53,12757,12758,67,132,68,1146],"class_list":{"0":"post-219883","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-cooper-hoffman","9":"tag-endings","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-mark-hamill","12":"tag-movies","13":"tag-stephen-king","14":"tag-the-long-walk","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-vulture-section-lede"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115189297402633440","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}