Directed By: Francis Lawrence 

Written By: JT Mollner

Based On The Novel By: Stephen King 

Cinematography: Jo Willems 

Editor: Peggy Eghbaliant and Mark Yoshikawa 

Cast: Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Ben Wang, Charlie Plummer, Mark Hamill, Judy Greer, Josh Hamilton, Garrett Wareing, Tut Nyuot, Jordan Gonzalez, Joshua Odjick, Roman Griffin Davis 

In the near future, where America has become a police state, 50 boys are selected to enter an annual contest where the winner will be awarded whatever he wants for the rest of his life. The game is simple – maintain a steady walking pace of at least three miles per hour without stopping. Three warnings, and you’re out – permanently.

This film announces itself as a slow burn and then has the nerve to earn it. From the outset, a dark cloud hangs overhead, but what makes the experience so quietly devastating is how much warmth, camaraderie, and fleeting hope exist beneath that shadow. You know purely from the premise that this is going to hurt. A dystopian march for survival, a grim prize dangled in front of young men with nothing else to cling to. And yet, against all odds, the film keeps reaching for something gentler: connection, shared humor, the fragile optimism of youth.

The storytelling is intentionally cut and dry, almost austere. There’s nothing flashy or sensationalized about the way we move through this bombed-out vision of Middle America. Streets feel hollowed out, spectators feel desperate rather than celebratory, and the so-called hope this march offers the world feels cruelly abstract. The film doesn’t exaggerate its dystopia; it lets the emptiness speak for itself. That restraint is precisely what makes it so unsettling.

At the center of it all is the chemistry most notably between Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson, who anchor the film with a bond that feels lived-in rather than written. Their relationship becomes an emotional spine, but the real achievement is how the entire ensemble locks together. This is a movie where the heart lives in the group, even if it’s a bruised, dark heart. Each character’s elimination lands with a genuine sense of loss. Early on, the executions feel shocking, almost confrontational, as if the film is forcing you to understand the rules of this world in the harshest possible terms.

As the march continues, something subtler and more painful happens. The violence recedes into the background not because it matters less, but because it hurts more. You begin to avert your eyes the same way the characters do. The film places you inside their exhaustion, their grief, their numbness. It’s an odd, devastating alchemy: the suffering deepens, yet so does your emotional investment. You don’t just watch the film, you endure it alongside them.

As a Stephen King story, it fits perfectly within his particular brand of Midwestern dread. There’s no supernatural evil lurking here, which somehow makes it scarier. The horror is human, systemic, and banal. It’s also tinged with nostalgia. a throwback to a kind of youthful camaraderie where people from wildly different backgrounds can form instant, meaningful bonds. That sense of shared experience, of learning from one another before time runs out, gives the film its aching soul.

Francis Lawrence deserves real credit for the direction. Known for handling large-scale studio spectacles, he proves here that he can scale things down without losing intensity. The film could easily have been an intimate indie drama, yet it still carries the propulsion of a thriller. It’s juggling multiple tones at once emotional, political, suspenseful and somehow keeps them all spinning.

Yes, on paper, the story sounds simple and even predictable, and for the most part, it embraces that simplicity. But within that framework, it offers something far richer: a meditation on endurance, youth, and the quiet brutality of hope weaponized. It’s the kind of film that breaks your heart slowly, thoughtfully, and without apology.

The ending is likely to divide audiences. I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about it and that uncertainty feels intentional. It lingers, gnaws, and invites interpretation long after the final frame.

This is not an easy sit, nor is it meant to be. But it’s a deeply admirable piece of filmmaking. one that deserves discovery, discussion, and reevaluation. It may not have found its audience at the box office, but one can only hope it finds a longer life beyond it. If studios made more films like this somber, human, and unafraid of sadness. we’d all be better off, even if we walked out a little heavier than we walked in.

Grade: B