The Writing Post

The thought of walking a 5k is miserable to some people, but walking endlessly until only one of you remained? Well, that would be a nightmare. However, what if your prize is anything that you choose? Money? Love? Richard Bachman (author Stephen King‘s famous alter-ego who died due to cancer of the pseudonym) came up and executed this idea during his freshman year at the University of Maine in 1967. That story came out as “The Long Walk,” which also comes from a King’s distinct Bachman-voice, which seems to be a bit more violent, and a bit more pointed. Now, the production company Lionsgate is turning the story into a film directed by Francis Lawrence, which is due out Sept. 12, 2025. But what is this story about, and what does it say about who we are as a society?

Summary

The setting of the story is the United States under a totalitarian regime. The regime televises the titular “Long Walk,” which is a filmed contest in which 100 men walk along US Route 1 until only one remains. The rules are as follows: contestants must walk at least 4 miles per hour, and are given three warnings if they drop below that speed for 30 seconds. The contestant is shot and killed on the fourth.

The story centers around Ray Garraty from Androscoggin County, Maine. He enters the walk and begins to get to know the people around him. Slowly, we learn more about the desperation of each contestant and why they have come to be in the “Long Walk” themselves. Nevertheless, the contestants are eliminated ruthlessly as the walk continues. Much infighting occurs throughout the day and night. Garraty befriends a number of walkers while he finds others to be purely fueled by the walk itself. The winner, as it stands, receives the prize of his choosing. This pushes the contestants into a literal long walk in which alliances are made and broken, and friends sacrifice themselves to save each other–and to die in peace.

Conclusion

I initially read Bachman when I read a novella called “Roadwork.” It had all the markings of a good King story. It featured well-drawn characters, including the protagonist Barton Dawes, and a compelling narrative in which municipality and highway construction imposes its imminent domain on the hero’s home. The events in the novel result in a final standoff and a question as to whether villains are made or created.

The other element that Roadwork has, that I think only relates to Bachman’s writing style, is a certain amount of raw grittiness that other King stories simply don’t have. As it were, Roadwork is a political story about government overreach and the place of citizens in the US, permanent or impermanent. While King has mentioned that he wrote the story about his mother’s death, one can only assume King’s political activism (and late night with road cones) played into the perspective of this novel. With this in mind, we can see these Bachman novels as a sort of soapbox for king to speak about issues he believes in (or believed in at the time). In this way, he can remark about controversial issues and write about taboo subject matter (school shootings and the like).

In a similar vein, Bachman’s novel The Long Walk has an air of violence and punchy discourse that cuts the reader to the bone. As it relates to this style of storytelling, the overused expression “unflinching” is fitting. Some critics–and the author himself–have pointed out that the book seems to mirror the Vietnam War, death marches, and senseless sacrifice through violence.

Meanwhile, the book itself is a critique of sensationalism and viewership in the age of entertainment and TV. The reader can imagine the enthralled audience at home throwing their hands up and celebrating as each contestant falls to the ground and is shot (circa Bachman’s other novel The Running Man). After all, the television during the late 1960s (and modern media) were evolving in ways moral sensors felt unbecoming. As I get older (and more prudish), I see some of these arguments in a new light. If copulation and physical aggression are already on the platter, how far do we really have to go to show violence, bloodshed, and death?

Outside of the moralizing, it’s a great story worth reading from the king of horror.