An excerpt from my script review for The Long Walk (unproduced by James Vanderbilt) which will be available 10/06/25:
2.) Plot Stability
Just a reminder, this is for Vanderbilt’s unproduced version and not the version that was produced, that one being written by JT Mollner.
But since it’s based on a novel, I’m assuming a lot of the same nuts and bolts are in here.
So what I liked…
First and foremost, this novel was written in 1967 and published in 1979. When you read the logline you definitely get Hunger Games vibes.
A group of teenage boys compete in an annual contest known as “The Long Walk,” in which they must maintain a certain walking speed or get shot.
You’re probably thinking, “Wait a minute! This is The Hunger Games!” And that’s okay, because the boss thought the same thing when she glanced at the summary of the book before reading. Then dived into the research and realized one came before the other.
But here’s where it’s different, and what I enjoyed…
The Long Walk vs. The Hunger Games
To do “the Walk” as it’s called in this universe you have to apply, so it’s voluntary.
Once you apply, there’s no guarantee you’ll get in either…in this version Garraty refers to passing a test which his mother was very proud of saying not everyone can do it.
(Which is dumb when you think of it. What written test proves if you can walk or not?)
After that, there’s even a “back out” date that you can withdraw your name.
That date passes and there’s a lottery choosing 100 boys, so not everyone gets in.
Short story long, you choose to be in it.
This all made for a really cool story, and as it unfolds you realize “the prize” (anything you can wish or dream of) is only part of the reason most boys are there.
More about that in the dialogue section…
Where this unproduced script differs from the novel (and I believe the produced film stays truer too) is that The Walk is very much televised for the Major’s regime to entertain the masses.
Crowds of blood thirsty mobs show up to cheer on the walkers, but subconsciously hoping to witness one of them being shot.
Feels very much like the 80s dystopian audience in The Running Man.
But another brilliant thing Vanderbilt does in this version is have the first three miles or so go untelevised, so the boys just assume it’s a casual stroll through rural Maine.
Olson, Mr. Exposition, says it’s so they can “thin out the herd” and have the boys look more worn when they hit the first town, but little does he know that there’s quite the steep hill that they don’t hit until mid afternoon when they’re tired and hot.
This certainly takes its toll on the boys, and part of me asked, “How didn’t they know,” but then the clever idea that it wouldn’t have been on TV and how could they have known?
Other than that, there are a lot of similarities to the novel.
Harkness writes a book as he walks about all the contestants and who they are.
McVries (which my wife and I are unsure how to pronounce) still saves Garraty from being shot in front of his mom and girlfriend.
Barkovitch is still an asshole.
Stebbins’ familial twist is still the same.
Oh, and this version differs from the produced film in that it sticks more to the novel by having Garraty’s dad get “squad’ed” as a dissenter to the Major’s regime.
My bad, one more critical difference…in this version Garraty “wins” but shambles right past the Major to walk with (presumably) the ghosts of his dead friends. In the novel he is touched by, who I like to think, is the Man in Black, and shudders away from him running off into the sunset when the story ends.
Sidenote and maybe it’s too Hunger Games, but it’d be an interesting idea to see a sequel to this story, whether in book or film form, diving deeper into the world and using what was established in the first installment.
Do the winners actually live? Or are they shot behind a shed like McVries suggests?
When Parker catches the guards by surprise, killing one of them, could that information be used by a later group to overthrow the Major, Harkness’s book serving as an underground published inspiration?
Maybe it’d be too much of a cash grab, but as Stephen King tends to do with the stories he creates, I want to know more about the world I just read about.
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