The Long Walk vs. The Running Man: Which Stephen King Adaptation About a Dystopian Future Death Game Involving Moving Your Legs Is Right for You?

Spoilers travel for the Stephen King novels The Long Walk and The Running Man, arsenic good arsenic for The Long Walk movie and the archetypal The Running Man movie. The Long Walk is retired connected Friday, September 12, and The Running Man hits connected November 14.

It’s not unusual to person an adaptation of a Stephen King publication deed theaters. The prolific fearfulness writer has had galore movies and TV shows made retired of his enactment for decades now. What is weird is that wrong 2 months of each other, 2 adaptations of Stephen King books are coming retired that are eerily similar.

The Long Walk, which hits theaters connected September 12, and The Running Man, which hits theaters connected November 14, are some King adaptations that helium wrote nether the pseudonym Richard Bachman and which diagnostic dystopian aboriginal decease games based astir moving your legs successful immoderate fashion. They were besides released successful publication stores wrong years of each different – 1979 versus 1982 – and have, successful assorted fashions, been successful improvement arsenic movies for years (The Running Man had a anterior adaptation released successful 1987).

So with that successful mind, which Stephen King adaptation of a dystopian aboriginal decease crippled astir locomotion is close for you? Let’s interruption down assorted aspects of some books and movies truthful you tin decently fig retired whether you should run, walk, oregon not spell astatine each to the movie theatre this fall.

What Are the Books (and Movies) About?

Despite the bizarre similarities betwixt the two, they veer disconnected successful circumstantial ways that we’ll get much into successful a second. But to laic a small groundwork here, The Long Walk takes spot successful an unnamed twelvemonth successful the future, aft nine has beauteous overmuch collapsed. Each year, 100 kids stitchery to implicit “The Long Walk,” which is precisely what it sounds like: They support walking, astatine slightest 4 miles per hour, until lone 1 of them is left. There are assorted different rules to the game, but basically, if you get 3 warnings, you’re out. And if you’re out, you’re changeable dormant by the soldiers pursuing along. On the different hand, the fortunate “winner” gets immoderate helium wants arsenic a prize for the remainder of his life.

The movie version, directed by Francis Lawrence, whittles the radical down to a much manageable 50 contestants, aka 1 per state, and lowers the velocity to a minimum of 3 miles per hour. The prize is unlimited riches for the remainder of your beingness positive 1 wish. But otherwise, the movie is simply a comparatively faithful adaptation of the novella.

The Running Man, meanwhile, takes spot successful the acold aboriginal of – get this – 2025. America is simply a dystopian wreck, ruled by a fascist dictatorship that keeps the populace placated with TV crippled shows. The astir fashionable is The Running Man, where, successful bid to triumph a cardinal dollars, you request to enactment live for 30 days portion tracked by “Hunters.” Like The Long Walk, determination are much rules, but cipher survives for 30 days, and often not for longer than a day, due to the fact that American citizens get wealth for reporting connected the whereabouts of the contestants.

The 1987 movie mentation starring Arnold Schwarzenegger kept immoderate of those trappings, arsenic good arsenic the sanction of the main character, Ben Richards. But a batch from the publication was changed to marque it a blockbuster, action-focused Schwarzenegger movie. Also, they moved it to instrumentality spot adjacent earlier successful time, successful 2017, which is benignant of hilarious.

The caller 2025 mentation is reportedly acold much faithful to the publication and is directed by Shaun of the Dead’s Edgar Wright (though, afloat disclosure, we haven’t seen that 1 yet).

Origins of The Long Walk and The Running Man, and the Bachman of It All

While The Long Walk was released successful 1979, it was really the archetypal caller King ever wrote: He began crafting it erstwhile helium was a freshman successful assemblage successful 1966. The Long Walk is simply a not-so-shaded allegory for the Vietnam War, with young men sent disconnected to dice acknowledgment to a lottery, truthful fixed that timeline, astatine the tallness of the anti-war movement, you tin spot wherefore this was apical of caput for the young King. The Long Walk wasn’t the archetypal publication helium had published – that would beryllium Carrie successful 1974 – but since past it’s been collected successful The Bachman Books, which contains 4 of the novels King published nether the pen name.

The Running Man, meanwhile, was released successful 1982 and has thing to bash with the creation craze of the aforesaid name, which Paula Abdul created successful the precocious 1980s. According to King successful On Writing, his combo acquisition manual and memoir released successful 2002, helium wrote the full of The Running Man successful a week. At the time, King was jamming retired a ton of novels… But adjacent astatine his regular accelerated pace, 219 pages successful 7 days is faster than Ben Richards runs successful the book. It was besides collected successful The Bachman Books successful 1985.

As for the Bachman of it all, King explains wherefore helium wrote the novels nether the pen sanction successful the FAQ connected his website. “I did that due to the fact that backmost successful the aboriginal days of my vocation determination was a feeling successful the publishing concern that 1 publication a twelvemonth was each the nationalist would accept,” King writes.

Since King could constitute a full batch much than 1 publication a twelvemonth (see supra re: 1 publication successful a week), helium convinced his steadfast to merchandise the Bachman books without fanfare truthful that helium could spot however they would merchantability compared to his regular books – and adjacent created fake details similar a bio and backstory for the “writer,” arsenic good arsenic an writer photograph featuring Richard Manuel, a person of King’s literate agent.

King besides adds successful the FAQ that “eventually the nationalist got omniscient to this due to the fact that you tin alteration your sanction but you can't truly disguise your style.” While your mileage whitethorn alteration connected that, it’s mostly considered that King’s Bachman books are, if you tin judge it, adjacent nastier than the books written nether his existent name. They incorporate harsher obscenities and are often overmuch grimmer than his King-penned novels.

Years later, Joe Hillström King would effort a akin experiment, penning nether a pen sanction starting successful 1997, and yet revealing himself to beryllium Stephen King’s lad successful 2007. That pen name? Joe Hill, writer of, among different things, Locke & Key, NOS4A2, and The Black Phone.

How the Games Are Played

We touched connected this earlier, but the existent carnal execution of the games is vastly different, contempt the akin seeming setup. In The Long Walk, it’s an endurance test. To get much successful the weeds, the locomotion does not stop, time and night, until 1 victor remains. The radical of men who are technically volunteers, though everyone volunteers for the lottery, are fixed h2o and nutrient supplies. But they’re besides fixed a informing if they driblet beneath the minimum speed. After 3 warnings, they’re killed. If they locomotion for an hr with nary warnings, they suffer a informing and tin get backmost down to zero warnings. The “game” continues until determination is 1 winner, truthful technically it goes connected arsenic agelong arsenic it needs to.

In the movie version, we’re told The Long Walk is being broadcast retired to the full country, and the lawsuit is determination due to the fact that it inspires America to greatness again – the GDP increases each twelvemonth aft a Long Walk victor is declared. But for the astir part, similar successful the book, the boys are walking done mostly bare roads successful a dilapidated America.

The Running Man, meanwhile, is explicitly televised arsenic a TV crippled amusement connected The Games Network, hosted by a antheral named Bobby Thompson – deliberation Caesar Flickerman from The Hunger Games meets Bob Barker, and you get the drift. Multiple contestants are moving astatine a time, and they’re fixed a fewer 1000 dollars successful currency and a video camera, arsenic good arsenic a 12-hour caput start. After that time, their lone extremity is to past nevertheless they tin arsenic they’re tracked by the Hunters. They get $100 per hr for staying alive, $100 dollars for each instrumentality enforcement serviceman oregon Hunter they kill, and the aforementioned cardinal dollars if they enactment live for 30 days (which ne'er happens).

In addition, Running Man contestants person to nonstop 2 videotaped messages a time backmost to the workplace for broadcast, oregon they lose. As our “hero” Ben Richards rapidly learns erstwhile helium tries to exposure the contention arsenic a sham, TGN has nary issues editing that footage if request be.

Who Is Making the Movies?

To instrumentality a small swerve from the books, let’s speech astir who is progressive successful the movie versions, which should hopefully pass your determination to locomotion oregon tally (to theaters, not successful general).

The Running Man remake/adaptation archetypal cropped up erstwhile manager Edgar Wright mentioned he’d beryllium funny successful making it successful 2017 connected X (formerly known arsenic Twitter), but it didn’t get officially announced until 2021, marking the archetypal clip successful past thing connected Twitter reflected reality. (Just kidding. Maybe.) Anyway, Wright directed and co-wrote the movie with Michael Bacall, with Glen Powell starring arsenic Richards. Unlike the overly muscled Schwarzenegger from the 1987 adaptation, Powell is simply a wholly ripped and chiseled specimen of quality perfection, aka comparatively person to the wiry messiness of a quality from the novel, but still, let’s beryllium honest, Hollywood-ized.

The caller movie besides features Lee Pace arsenic Powell’s main adversary, Colman Domingo arsenic the MC, Josh Brolin arsenic the not-at-all-evily named shaper Dan Killian, Michael Cera, William H. Macy, and, successful a possibly mild coincidence, 1 of the stars of Netflix’s Locke & Key, Emilia Jones.

The Long Walk, meanwhile, comes from a feline who knows thing astir teen decease games: Francis Lawrence, who has directed each Hunger Games movie since Catching Fire. The formed isn’t rather arsenic flashy arsenic The Running Man, though it does prima Mark Hamill arsenic The Major, aka the gruff subject antheral who lords implicit the “game.” Judy Greer besides stars arsenic the parent of the main character, Ray Garraty, who is played by the precocious Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s son, Cooper Hoffman. David Jonnson, who has been lauded for his performances successful Alien: Romulus and Rye Lane, among others, co-stars arsenic Ray’s champion person during the Walk, Peter McVries. Ben Wang, the caller Karate Kid, besides appears successful the formed arsenic 1 of the contestants.

Cooper Hoffman and David Jonnson pb the formed of The Long Walk.

The Societal Resonance and Themes

As mentioned earlier, King explicitly wrote The Long Walk astir the Vietnam War, and the movie nods to that – oregon astatine slightest doesn’t contradict the themes – acknowledgment to an aesthetic that embraces a premix of ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, and occasionally Dust Bowl looks for the characters and settings. However, it’s hard not to ticker The Long Walk and deliberation specifically astir the contiguous day, arsenic well. The Hunger Games whitethorn person been a small aboriginal successful our real-world timeline to deliberation of Panem and the Games arsenic thing different than a faraway warning. In 2025’s The Long Walk, Lawrence is nodding towards a totalitarian America conscionable past an economical and societal illness that, successful today’s fraught times, doesn’t look arsenic unfathomable arsenic it erstwhile mightiness have.

That surely comes done with Hamill’s The Major, who ne'er says “Make America Great Again” but does speech gruffly astir bringing America backmost to its glory days acknowledgment to the sacrifice of a fewer brave young boys. It’s wide arsenic they locomotion the roadworthy that this is an America that is ne'er coming back, and 49 teens dying isn’t going to hole anything… Instead, they volition beryllium worn retired and tossed disconnected with the promises of immeasurable riches that lone 1 idiosyncratic a twelvemonth tin get, and yet are not shared with anyone else.

The Running Man, meanwhile, was ever up of its clip – but present is besides a small excessively precocious successful 2025. Themes of a totalitarian dictatorship person ever been contiguous successful fiction, but the thought of world TV didn’t truly instrumentality disconnected until the ’90s, and it wasn’t until the 2000s, with the premiere of Survivor, that we really got thing adjacent to a decease game, adjacent though cipher really died connected the world bid (that we know of…!). But adjacent the tech mentioned successful Running Man was up of its time: Camcorders didn’t truly go immoderate benignant of happening until the mid-’80s, and adjacent past they were tape-based.

Both stories were collected successful The Bachman Books, which contains 4 of the novels King published nether the pen sanction Richard Bachman.

The top subject fabrication ever gets is successful portraying a satellite that's a shadowy reflection of our own, scenarios that pass america astir the extremity of the way we're presently on. The satellite we unrecorded successful present is afloat of debates astir quality organizations ditching journalism successful favour of authorities propaganda and the authorities overseeing arts institutions similar the Kennedy Center oregon nationalist museums similar The Smithsonian, portion the National Guard has been deployed to our ain cities. In that sense, Stephen King's visions of reality-show based authoritarianism are much applicable than ever.

Body Count and Violence

Okay, capable astir themes and junk, what if you conscionable privation to ticker radical die? Mild spoilers present that you tin astir apt fig retired for yourself, but astatine slightest 49 of 50 kids dice successful The Long Walk, aforesaid arsenic 99 retired of 100 dice successful the novella. There’s plentifulness of gunfire and visceral unit successful the movie version, but nary of it is chill astatine all. It’s horrifying and presented mostly successful afloat framework by Lawrence and company. Unlike The Hunger Games movies, which surely sat connected deaths but straddled the uncomfortable enactment betwixt criticizing the amusement and being entertaining for the existent assemblage successful the movie theaters, there’s thing amusive astir immoderate of the deaths successful The Long Walk movie.

Again, we haven’t seen The Running Man yet, but the trailers are surely selling it arsenic a classical Edgar Wright bully clip astatine the theaters. There’s a large quality there, too, which is that we’re watching the bad guys die, killed either by Powell’s Ben Richards oregon 1 of his allies (or competitors). Despite the deficiency of Schwarzenegger, The Running Man is some captious of our amusement and aiming to beryllium entertaining, per the pulp caller ethos of Richard Bachman. Will the last movie extremity up being morose? Possibly. But based connected the footage we’ve seen, there’s going to beryllium plentifulness of cops and hunters dying, and tons of the kinetic enactment scenes Wright has made his breadstuff and food successful everything from Baby Driver to Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. It’s not apt to beryllium the purposefully grim slog of The Long Walk.

Bring connected the Bad Guys

A movie is lone arsenic bully arsenic its villain, and some movies person a fewer doozies. Mark Hamill is decidedly successful his fearfulness baddie era, acknowledgment to playing always-sunglass-wearing The Major successful The Long Walk and his crook successful Mike Flanagan’s Netflix adaptation of The Fall of the House of Usher. It’s ever amusive to spot Luke Skywalker flex those acting muscles, though he’s not rather arsenic over-the-top arsenic his iconic villain relation arsenic the dependable of The Joker.

The Running Man, meanwhile, has a murderer’s enactment (figuratively) of endowment taking connected Glen Powell. Lee Pace is chewing up scenery presently successful Foundation and seems similar the cleanable foil for Powell arsenic the pb Hunter. Josh Brolin, arsenic a shaper and truly the atrocious feline down the different atrocious guys, is simply a large prime – and you whitethorn retrieve he’s successfully played astatine slightest 1 iconic villain before, arsenic Thanos successful the MCU. And Colman Domingo, who is connected a heater close now, arsenic the TV host? Heck yeah.

The End

We’re definitely getting into spoilers here, but 1 facet of the movies that is worthy discussing is the end. We noted that Bachman’s books thin to beryllium nihilistic, and The Long Walk and The Running Man decidedly carnivore that forward. The Long Walk does so extremity with 1 contestant winning, and past wandering disconnected into the dark, permanently damaged. The Running Man, meanwhile, ends with a dying Ben Richards ramming a level into The Games Network skyscraper, blowing up the nervus halfway of The Running Man to assistance prevention nine portion sacrificing his ain life.

Glen Powell stars successful the caller mentation of The Running Man, from manager Edgar Wright.

As for The Long Walk movie, Lawrence and institution bash marque immoderate captious changes to the ending that don’t soften the blow, but necktie into the subtle differences they made for the surface adaptation. It’s hard to watch, and it doesn’t propulsion immoderate punches.

And arsenic for The Running Man? Not to beryllium blunt, but it’s going to instrumentality a batch of cajones connected Wright’s portion to extremity a movie with an airplane crashing into a skyscraper, station 9/11. The 1987 mentation featured Richards crashing a car into the workplace and making retired with his emotion interest, which… didn’t truly lick anything. So expect the 2025 Running Man to deed determination successful the mediate of those 2 points – oregon onshore determination wholly different.

Running vs. Walking

The astir important origin erstwhile determining which of these movies you should spot successful theaters… Do you similar moving oregon walking? If you privation to get determination accelerated and beryllium a small retired of breath, portion getting your bosom racing, past moving is the mode to go. If you similar to instrumentality your clip portion breathing immoderate caller aerial and stretching the ‘ol legs, past walking is your question method of choice.

Either way, it’s a large clip to beryllium a Stephen King instrumentality – sorry, Richard Bachman fan. And there’s different option, of course: You could ever thrust a car, similar successful Christine.