Lede
Two films and two books try to outrun each other but keep landing on the same track.
THE RUNNING MAN (2025) MOVIE SYNOPSIS
A bleak near future. A corporate state sells death as prime time. Convicts run through a televised gauntlet of engineered killers and neon traps while a hungry audience cheers for blood over justice. The show sells hope, but the prize is a lie. Survival is a slogan. Freedom is a product note. The system rigs every turn while the hero fights his way through a world that treats humanity like disposable content.
The Running Man | Official Trailer (2025 Movie) – Edgar Wright, Glen Powell
THE LONG WALK (2025) MOVIE SYNOPSIS
One hundred boys. One rule. Keep walking. Drop below the required pace and you are shot on the spot by smiling soldiers who treat it like crowd control at a music festival. Cameras follow the procession along endless American roads while a nation watches, bets, screams, and devours the spectacle of suffering. The winner receives anything he wants, but the cost is his sanity. In the end it is not a race. It is a slow peel of human spirit under the sun.
The Long Walk (2025) Official Trailer – Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson
STEPHEN KING BOOK SYNOPSIS
THE RUNNING MAN (1982)
Ben Richards joins a deadly televised contest because poverty leaves him no choice. He must evade an entire nation of hunters for thirty days while everything he does is broadcast. Each hour alive earns money for his dying daughter. The book is less gladiator show and more bitter takedown of media, class warfare, and how capitalism chews the poor for ratings.
STEPHEN KING BOOK SYNOPSIS
THE LONG WALK (written in 1960s, published 1979)
In an America soaked in authoritarian charm, one hundred teenagers march until only one is left alive. No turning back. No rest. No protest. The march is a ritual of state power disguised as tradition. It shows how young lives become currency for spectacle and obedience. It is a quiet horror, more psychological than explosive, but it lands deeper than most bullets.
THE ROAST: KING’S LOOP OF DEATH GAMES
Stephen King has a long love affair with state sponsored misery.
Two races. Two governments. Two crowds that clap while kids and convicts die.
Different coats. Same skeleton.
The Running Man shouts.
The Long Walk whispers.
Yet both share the same spine. A society so bored or broken that it turns slaughter into Saturday night plans.
King writes worlds like a man pacing a corridor, opening new doors to the same nightmare. The costumes change. The message stays. Power loves a game it can rig. Media loves a death it can monetise. The audience loves a story that makes them feel safe by putting someone else in danger.
And the ideas bleed into each other because they come from the same well.
That is not theft. That is one writer wrestling with the same demon for decades.
THE REALITY CHECK
Would people actually die for a prize
In real life
In our world
In the year 2025
No.
Most people do not even buy lottery tickets.
The thrill fades the moment real blood is on the menu.
Our dystopias love to pretend humans queue for oblivion if you hand them a voucher.
Reality loves comfort far more than sacrifice.
The truth is simple.
People will kill to avoid dying.
But they will not die to win.
What does not make sense
- Both films pretend the future loves death races more than dinner.
- Both worlds call murder entertainment but forget real people do not queue for pain.
- The state has infinite budgets for TV carnage but none for basic sanity.
- Corporations act like they discovered morality on a lunch receipt.
- The prize is freedom but the contestants never had any to start with.
Sense check / The numbers
- Stephen King wrote The Long Walk in the 1960s and published it in 1979 under Richard Bachman. It sold tens of thousands in the first run [Publisher].
- The Running Man novel came out in 1982, also as Bachman. King reused the core idea of state games for control only three years apart [Publisher].
- The Running Man (2025) remake sits with a reported budget of over 100 million USD and still leans on the same skeleton as the 1982 narrative [Industry reports].
- The Long Walk (2025) adaptation arrives with its own modern shine but markets a ritual march identical in spirit to The Running Man hunt [Studio release].
- King has written over 65 novels and more than 200 short stories. Recurrence is not a bug. It is his brand [Author data].
The Running Man (2025)
Director: Edgar Wright
Writers: Edgar Wright, Michael Bacall (screenplay)
Main cast: Glen Powell (Ben Richards), Josh Brolin, Colman Domingo, Lee Pace, Michael Cera, Emilia Jones, William H. Macy
Composer: Steven Price
Production company: Genre Films, Complete Fiction
Runtime: 133 minutes
Release year: 2025
The Long Walk (2025)
Director: Francis Lawrence
Writers: JT Mollner (screenplay), based on the novel by Stephen King
Main cast: Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing, Charlie Plummer, Ben Wang, Tut Nyuot, Mark Hamill
Composer: Jeremiah Fraites
Production company: Vertigo Entertainment, About:Blank
Runtime: 108 minutes
Release year: 2025
The sketch
Scene 1
A giant corporate tower with screens blinking.
One exec says: Test the new ratings lever.
The lever is labelled Walk Faster.
Scene 2
Two producers argue.
One says: We need originality.
The other says: Fine. Change the shoes. Keep the deaths.
Scene 3
A state official signs papers.
Camera crew asks: What is the prize this year
Official replies: A good view of how rigged it all is.
What to watch, not the show
- The way spectacle hides state power like a shiny curtain.
- How media sells violence as civic duty.
- The echo chamber where poor people become props.
- Kings own loop of despair repeated through decades.
- The assumption that audiences want blood when they really want biscuits.
The Hermit take
History repeats when storytellers keep poking the same bruise.
Kings worlds change outfits but the message never moves house.
Keep or toss
Verdict: Keep
Keep the message.
Toss the recycled track.
Sources
- Stephen King bibliography overview
https://stephenking.com/works/ - Publisher info for The Long Walk
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Long-Walk/Stephen-King/9781501144264 - Publisher info for The Running Man
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Running-Man/Stephen-King/9781982197021 - The Running Man 2025 IMDb
https://imdb.com/title/tt14107334/ - The Long Walk 2025 IMDb
https://imdb.com/title/tt10374610/ - Industry budget data
https://variety.com/ - Wikipedia – The Running Man (2025 film): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Running_Man_%282025_film%29
- Wikipedia – The Long Walk (2025 film): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Walk_%282025_film%29
- Wikipedia – The Long Walk (novel): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Walk_%28novel%29