Ep. 57 The Long Walk by Richard Bachman (Stephen King) vs. The Long Walk (2025)

Imagine a country so desperate for unity that it turns survival into a national spectacle. That’s the engine powering Stephen King’s The Long Walk—published as Richard Bachman—and the 2025 film adaptation that brings its brutality into the present. I unpack how a grim endurance contest for teenage boys becomes a mirror for war, propaganda, and the price of being cheered on while you fall apart.

I start with the rules and the promise: keep the pace or get shot, win anything you want for life. From there I trace the political undercurrent—how the novel reads as an anti-war allegory steeped in post-conflict America—and how the film updates the world, trims the field to fifty, and alters key characters to sharpen momentum. The crowd matters: the book surrounds the walkers with onlookers who gawk, collect souvenirs, and make suffering public; the film’s quieter roads isolate the boys, delivering a colder dystopia that puts the system in stark relief. I dive into Garraty’s motives, McVries’ moral gravity, and Stebbins’ bleak lineage, showing how each version changes who we root for and why.

Violence becomes the central argument. The movie’s graphic executions demand you look; the novel’s restraint lets your mind do the damage. Which creates empathy, and which creates numbness? I wrestle with that question while exploring the story’s most human details—bathroom breaks, humiliation, and the steady erosion of dignity. Finally, I compare climaxes: the book’s haunting ambiguity versus the film’s cathartic revolt. One leaves you walking into darkness; the other fires back at power. My verdict crowns the novel for its lingering chill and crowd psychology, while saluting the film’s performances and bold ending.

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Chapters

• 0:00 New Year Intro And Setup
• 1:33 Book Context And Political Allegory
• 4:23 Rules Of The Walk And Stakes
• 7:18 Adaptation Overview And Faithfulness
• 10:14 Too Many Characters To Track
• 12:18 Contestant Pool And Film Changes
• 16:08 Scram And Olsen: Merged Arcs
• 21:12 Garrity’s Motivation And Freeport Scene
• 26:05 Crowds In Book vs. Film
• 29:20 Final Three And Diverging Endings

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to Books versus Movies, the podcast where I set out to answer the age-old question: Is the book really always better than the movie? I'm Juvia, an actress and book lover based out of New York City, and today we will be talking about The Long Walk, written by Richard Bachmann, aka Stephen King, and its 2025 adaptation, The Long Walk, starring Cooper Hoffman, Mark Hamill, and David Johnson, directed by Francis Lawrence. Happy New Year, everyone! Was I expecting to have an episode ready for you to go on the first day of the year? No, I was actually not expecting that. I'm actually really excited that I was able to bring three episodes to you back to back. So, back to back to back, I guess, would actually be the appropriate thing to say. So, yeah, I'm absolutely chuffed about that. I'm so happy. So, I do want to say right off the start that this episode might also not be as meticulously edited as I usually do. Just because, like I said during my Christmas episode, I am currently in El Paso with my family and just getting some good family time in and holiday time with them. So I know when I listen back to this episode, I'm gonna be very upset that I didn't take the time to meticulously edit it the way that I usually do. But in the moment, I'm gonna be happy that I took the time to spend with my family. But that being said, let's go ahead and get started. I don't have much more to say beyond that. So The Long Walk was first published in 1978. As I said, this is written by Stephen King under his pseudonym Richard Bachman, and I'm really curious as to I I want I need to do more research as to fight to find out why Richard Bachman was writing so politically at this time, because this is when he wrote The Long Walk and he wrote The Running Men, and both are very obvious commentaries. I mean, The Long Walk is very much an allegory towards Vietnam War, the Vietnam War specifically, um, as the Vietnam War had recently ended, but in general, this these are just very political titles for Stephen King, which Stephen King is a very political person, but you know, we usually know him as the horror guy. So I really want to know what was what motivated this beyond the Vietnam War, if there was anything. But anyway, the long walk follows 16-year-old Ray Garrety as he gets ready to compete in the annual grueling match of stamina and wits known as the long walk. In this long walk, 100 boys must keep a steady pace of four miles per hour without stopping. The winner receives a prize. This prize is anything that he wants for the rest of his life. But what a lot of these walkers don't realize is just how they can never be fully prepared for something as grueling and as harsh as this walk is. There's no finish line. Ultimately, the winner is the last man standing. Contestants cannot receive any outside help whatsoever. If they slow down under the speed limit, they're given a warning. If they're giving three warnings, they're out of the game permanently. The 2025 adaptation, The Long Walk, follows a group of teenage boys who compete in an annual contest known as The Long Walk, in which they must remain in which they must maintain a certain walking speed or get shot. So yeah, it is a fairly faithful adaptation. It is definitely set more in modern times as opposed to this taking place in the 70s. But otherwise, there are little, there are like minor changes as we will get into. And as always, there will be spoilers. Although I shouldn't say as always, because I did manage to do the monster episode without any spoilers. So, but as usual, there will be spoilers in this episode. This one I just can't get away with not revealing any spoilers. So, as I stated that this book is an allegory for the Vietnam War, there's definitely some things that the political commentary that Stephen King was trying to make was definitely very anti-war and very anti-Vietnam war in particular. The, you know, the walkers are a lot of them are drafted into the long walk. They they are allowed to back out if they would like, but they are drafted and a lot of them have no choice but to do the long walk. While, like I said, it is technically voluntary, but a lot of them don't have any other option but to do it, especially if they live in poverty, they don't have a lot of money. This is the way they see to get out of this situation. The prize is kind of like a vague prize. Yes, they can get whatever they want, but do they really win after they've suffered and seen so much? They're still, yes, they win, but are they really winners when they're when they're gonna have like they could have psychological like PTSD, things like that from what they experienced. So those are the different ways in which the Vietnam War is kind of brought to life in this fictional world. So just wanted to get that out there. But the long walk in this world was created after a some sort of war. It's never really specified. There was like some sort of war. This is an alternate United States, so it's not the Vietnam War. It's just it's hinted that it's like a civil war that happened in the United States and it just devastated the country. And so this is this long walk is a way to like build a patriotism and get the get people to root for something and unite for something. And yeah, so this is definitely not that this is not the United States, this is an alternate United States, and this is why the long walk was created. Before I continue, I do want to say that there are so many characters in this book, and it was hard to keep track of all of them, even watching the film and and reading the book. It was it's just a lot of names. The the main ones that stuck with me are like Ray Gardy and McFries. And um, yeah, so they're the ones, and then like little by little, like with the with the film, I remembered like the faces of the actors and was able to keep track of who was who that way. Not necessarily their names. I was still like, I don't know who that was, like name-wise, but it's like I know who that is visually. Reading it, I was still like, wait, who's who is that again? It's just a lot of names to keep track of. So I won't be naming everyone unless I absolutely have to. And so, as you may, I was laughing earlier when I said McFries because the character spelled M-C-V-R-I-E-S. I'm pretty sure it's pronounced McFries. But even while reading the book, I would switch back and forth between calling it McFries and McFries. So that's probably gonna happen while I'm doing this episode. So it's the same person. I'm just switching up the pronunciation because my mind can't settle on what the correct one is, even though I'm pretty sure it's McFreeze. But anyway, yes. So in the book, there are 100 walkers in the film. They cut it down to 50. Now, these 100 walkers can be from anywhere. There's kind of there's a draft similar to the Vietnam War draft where people were kind of just drawn by like via lottery system. So these walkers can be from anywhere in the country. There might be more than one person from one state, there might be only one person from a state, there might be someone from there, might not, a state might not have a representative. So it's just the 100 walkers and they can be from anywhere. In the film, they cut it down to 50 walkers, and it's one boy from each state. So every state has a representative. But yes, they cut it down from 100 in the book to 50 in the film. This does make it a little bit easier to keep track of. There's still a lot of boys, and they do die a lot quicker in the film because it's just a lot easier to kill 50 boys than it is 100. So yeah, there's definitely more competitors that last. They don't die off as quickly in the book as they do in the film, but I guess that just has more to do with the amount of people competing at a time, which makes sense. In the film, they also combined the person, they combined the characters of Olsen and Scram. So they combine characteristics of him, and then one of the other characteristics they gave to a different character. So Scram in the book is although he's a teen boy, I I I want to say all the walkers that compete in the long walk are teenage boys. They're not any older than 17. So these are all like really, really young, young competitors. So that makes just everything even more difficult to comprehend. But the there's a character by the name of Scram, and even though he's 17 years old, he is married and his wife is pregnant, and that's one of the reasons why he did the walk. It was one of those things that it was advised against him, but now like he was he had a like a job that wasn't providing enough for his family, and so his he saw joining the walk as a chance to possibly lift his family out of poverty. So he is married and has uh is expecting a baby. In the book, Scram dies of pneumonia, and after he dies, the remaining boys kind of agree to agree that whoever wins will send some of their prize money to Scram's wife so that she is able to not struggle as much financially as she tries to now raise her baby as a widow. In the film, Olson, Olsen is a character in the book as well, but they combined the characteristic of Scram into Olson in the film. I know this is very confusing. Again, there's a lot of people to be aware of, but in the film, Olsen, there is no character of Scram. Olsen is the one that is married. And Olson in the film dies the same way he dies in the book. He steals one of the guns from the guards and shoots and ends up shooting at them. He kills one of them, and then obviously the guards shoot back and he dies. It's a very graphic death in the book. Not so much in the film, but the film is very, very graphic. I'll get a little bit more into that once I talk about like my my thoughts, my ultimate thoughts on the film and everything. But yeah, oddly enough, that death I don't recall being as graphic in the film as it is in the book, which is maybe a good thing in this instance because they shoot him in the book. I'm about to get very graphic, so just this is gonna be graphic. This is gonna be a graphic episode, it can't be helped. But they shoot him in the book, like across the abdomen, and so his intestines end up like spilling out. Yeah, that does, I don't remember that happening in the film. I think I would remember that, or I could have blocked it out again. I'll get into that. But that is that's how Olson dies in the book, and that's how he ultimately dies in the film. He does shoot back at the guards and they kill him. But since there is no character of Scram in the film, Olsen is the one that is married. And again, the boys come together and say whoever wins will send some money to Olson's wife so that she can, so she doesn't struggle so much financially. Our main character, Garrity, Ray Garrity, and the majority of the time the characters are referred to by their last name. So I will also be referring to them by their last names. I don't remember the names of like most their first names of most of these characters, but anyway, Ray Garrity, he's their main character. They say his name several times, so but yes, in the film, so in the book, he has a girlfriend named Jan, and that's kind of his motivation to make it to Freeport. He's the contestant from Maine, and so the walk starts at the main Canada border, and then they work their way down um towards. I'm guessing they work their way down to Florida. Do they make it all the way to Florida? No, who's gonna make it to Florida walking without any rest or sleep or anything? So yeah, so the long walk, they start and then they just walk. They and they don't do not stop walking. They do not stop, they're not allowed to rest, they're not allowed to sleep. They are fed, they do have um belts that come with like kind of like astronaut food. So that's what they eat, and they're given water as well whenever they need it, but they're not allowed to rest or sleep. So yeah, no one's gonna make it to walking from Maine to Florida, but I'm I'm thinking that's where they go because the walk ends somewhere in Massachusetts. But anyway, so Garrity is from Maine, he is his mom seeing his girlfriend mainly is his motivation for making it to Freeport. And in the film, he doesn't have a girlfriend. He sees his mom when he makes it to Freeport, and Ray Garrity does almost die in the in front of his mom and in front of his girlfriend slash mom in the book, but he is saved by McFreeze. So in the when when Scarrity sees his girlfriend in the book, he kind of decides, like, you know what, I'm done walking, I'm gonna die in her arms. And McFreeze saves him from that and is like, you're not like, no, you're not gonna die in front of your mom and your girlfriend. That is very selfish way to die because you're gonna leave them with that image of you just dead right in front of them. Like, you're not gonna do that. So McFreeze stops Gardy from killing himself, essentially, in front of his mom and his girlfriend in the book. In the film, again, he does see his mom and he runs to her. And so the walkers are not allowed to leave like the the lines of the street, like they have to stay within the the lines. If they step off to the shoulder or any or past the shoulder, they're done. They're shot. So Garrety runs towards his mom in in the film, and she's freaking out, she's very sad. She's played by Judy Greer in the film. She does a good job. There's but yeah, so he runs to her, and again, McFreeze has to stop him. But and and his mom is also like, no, like, don't worry about me. But he's apologizing and he feels really bad because he realizes that maybe he should have backed out. That maybe this is when he starts thinking, like, maybe the prize isn't worth it. So he tries to back out or he regrets not backing out and is like apologizing to his mom and his girlfriend for that, but they're kind of just like, you keep going, or his mom is like, keep going, keep going, don't worry about me, whatever. He doesn't get to interact with his girlfriend and his mom that much in the book because they are surrounded by a huge crowd of people. In the book, there's definitely like larger groups of people that are watching the walkers. In the film, there aren't really people that watch them as they're walking by. The main the biggest crowd is once they're reaching the end. So once it's down to like the final few walkers and it's like, all right, this is gonna be over soon, that's where the huge crowd is. So they get to front row seats to see who the winner is. But in the book, there's like any small town, there's a group of people watching. If it's a big city, there's like people standing like it's a parade, just watching them walk past. So it's a lot more difficult for him to interact with Jan and his mom in the book than it is in the film where his mom is like, she shows up because she wants to see her son. But yeah, so she's not like he's able to apologize and talk to her and and everything. So in both the book and the film, the final three walkers are Gardy, Stebbins, and McFries. They do change up, they did change up in the film who the final two walkers were. So in the book, uh, McFries reaches a point where he's like, I'm done, I don't want to walk anymore, and he just kind of gives up, and nothing Garrity does is able to convince him to keep going. So McFries is killed, leaving Garrity and Stebbins as the final two walkers. In the film, they give what was Scram's death. So again, Scram is the one that had the wife in the book and dies of pneumonia. They give Scram's death to Stebbins. So Stebbins in the film is the one that dies of pneumonia and ends up leaving McFries and Garrity as the final two walkers. So the ultimate winner in the book ends up being Garrity. So after McFries, McFreeze and Garrity become really, really good friends. And once McFries dies, Garrity is kind of just like, you know what, then I'm done walking too. And so he goes up to Stebbins and is like, you win, man. Like, good job. Stebbins is revealed to be one of the major's illegitimate sons. And so that's like his main motivation is like, if I win this, I'm gonna be welcomed into my father's home. That's what I'm gonna use my wish for. And so Garti goes up to Stebbins and is like, you're you're laser focused. There's no way you're gonna, there's no way you can lose. So congratulations, man. And as he's trying to tell Stebbins this, Stebbins just all of a sudden like grabs Garrity in horror and falls over dead. And that's how Gardy becomes the winner in the book. So McFreeze sacrifices himself. McFreeze kind of just reaches a point where he's like, I'm done. And he sacrifices himself, and then Stebbins also just reaches a point. I'm assuming where he just gets so exhausted he can't go on and he dies. And Garrity is the winner. And it has kind of a more ambiguous ending where he's might be hallucinating, like he's just so in shock at like everything that he just experienced, everything he just witnessed. So he's such in a shock that he sees like a dark figure up ahead that tells him to keep walking. And so even though the major says you're the winner, what do you want your prize to be? Like Garrety just completely ignores him, and the book ends with him continuing walking towards this dark figure that he's seeing. So it's yeah, it's very, it's a very, very dark ending. In the film, so McFries is the one in the film, Stebbins, he said, dies of pneumonia, and McFries and Garrety are the final two walkers. McFries says, you know what, I think you deserve to be the winner. Like everything we've talked about, everything, I feel like you're the more deserving person to win. So I think you so I I'm gonna stop right now. And he stops, and Garrity convinces him, like, no, like we we'll keep going together, we'll keep going. When it like when it reaches a point, we'll we'll figure it out, but like you keep going, keep coming with, like, keep walking with me. And McFries is right, is like, okay, yeah, I'll keep walking with you. And so McFries is like talking, is like he keeps going and he's talking to Garrity, trying to uh, and is just like, man, like I can't believe I almost did that. Thank you so much. Only to hear the gunshots of Garrity being. Killed. And that's when he realizes that Garrity has now sacrificed himself so that McRees could be the ultimate winner. Way at the start of the film, Garrity had said that his wish, should he win, was that he was gonna wish for a gun and kill the major himself. The major was responsible for capturing his father, Garrety's father, who was opposing the government, and for opposing the government, he was executed. And so Garrity's motivation was revenge on the major. And McVrice had told him, like, that's not a good, like, I don't think you should, I don't think revenge should be your ultimate goal in this walk. Like, you can do so much good. Like, you can use your prize money to actually help your community, and that would be better than seeking revenge on the major. But once Gardy sacrifices himself, McVries wishes for the gun and kills the major and completes Garrity's final wish before McVrees then continues on walking and chaos ensues all around him because he killed the major. And that is how the book and the film compare to themselves. So, yeah, there is one other change that I forgot to mention. So, in the book, the walking speed, the walkers have to maintain a walking speed of four miles per hour, and if they drop below that, then they they get three warnings and then they die. In the film, it's a walking speed of three miles per hour, so they get to walk slightly slower, but still very intense. So, yeah, that was that was another change that I forgot to mention. Both of these were really hard to read and watch just because of the imagery. The film, more so because it's actually quite graphic. I think like the most graphic description we get in the book is is Olsen's death when they talk about how his intestines are coming out. Everyone else, it's kind of just described as like you hear the gunshots, or if Gardy gets a good look at them, it's mainly talking about how like there's a hole in their head or something. But even then, like it's not that graphic. The film is incredibly, incredibly graphic. And that's apparently something that Stephen King really, really wanted. Like he fought for it to stay as graphic. Uh, he was like, he didn't want to shy away from seeing these young boys getting shot and killed out. Like, to him, it's very important that the audience see that. And I'm not sure how effective this was because it did reach a point. Like the first few deaths, I was like, oh, okay. Um, all right. Like that was, and I knew this going because I had read an article about it before watching the film. So I knew we were gonna see boys getting shot. So I was expecting it, but it was still like so graphic, which obviously it makes sense. It there's no way to not make someone getting shot graphic, other than like only hearing the gunshots each and every single time someone dies. But it did reach a point where like I could not watch anymore. I could not watch anymore, and I I like every single time I was coming, I was like, okay, and I would just close my eyes and and and open them once it was like over. So it did reach a point where it was like too much for me. I'm not someone who likes um who can handle that kind of graphic. That's why I don't like slasher films. It's like I don't like seeing blood and guts everywhere. So to me, it just it was too much. Like it just became too much uh graphic and I I could not handle it anymore. For Orlando, who can handle that stuff? It did, he was saying like it just reached a point where I was desensitized to it and it didn't affect me anymore. And maybe like as I was thinking about his reaction to it, I was like, maybe that was maybe that's part of the point. I'm not sure, but I mean it it does reach a point in which, like, I'm sure soldiers reach a point of being decent to a point that there's such a thing as PTSD and everything, but where it's like no matter how much death they see, like it's they're just numb to it at that point. And it's like, well, it's another, it's another killing or whatever. So a lot of people that might lead violent lives or have a job or they have to kill a lot of people, whatever the job may be. Um, so I don't I don't know, maybe that was that might especially knowing that this was the book was an allegory for the Vietnam War. Like, maybe it it is meant to like if you do reach that point of desensitization and numbness, maybe it is, maybe that's kind of the point where it's like you reach a point in which you stop caring about people and you stop caring about soldiers who are dying for us, or you know, I don't know. Maybe maybe that wasn't supposed to be the point. And but I would I was just thinking about that once or Lando was like, I was just I just grew so desensitized and numb, like I just didn't care anymore after a point. And I was like, well, maybe that was maybe that is the point, but I don't know. Maybe we were supposed to care from beginning to end about each and every single death. But for me personally, it was it did reach a point where it was like too much, I could not watch it anymore. So yeah. The book in the film, but mainly the film since it is a lot more visual medium, is graphic in a lot of other ways besides the deaths of the walkers. There's it's also very graphic in terms of bodily functions. So this is your warning. If you cannot handle bodily function talk, then fast forward a little bit. But I mean, again, these kids, these walkers are not allowed to stop. So if they have to go to the bathroom, if they have to pee, a lot of them just turn around and face the soldiers and pee in that direction and then turn around and keep walking. But there's other bodily functions, and you can't help when you have to go. So apparently, one of the the questions they ask in like the questionnaire that they have to fill out in order to be submitted to like the draft. I'm just gonna call it the draft board, is they have to answer a question saying how many times they go number two. And I don't know if that's they're chosen based on how often or how little they go, or maybe it's a combination of both, but that is one of the questions they have to answer. And so there are a few times in which the characters have to drop their pants and use the bathroom. In the film, it only happens it happens with two characters. One of them you don't you don't see it. You see him like pull his pants down, pop a squat, and then he catches up to them, right? As his third warning rings out. So yes, you could literally die in the middle of going to the bathroom, that which is awful. But yeah, so he like you see him drop his pants, he pops a squat, and then, but you don't actually see anything come out. What does happen to one character in particular is he in the middle of the first day of the like they just started walking a few hours ago, he gets diarrhea. And you know, with diarrhea, you kind of have to go often. And so, yeah, they they they do show the the diarrhea in the film. So if you cannot handle bodily functions, just be aware that that is in there. He there this character does exist in the book, but you're not like you're reading about it, but there's a difference between like reading about it and actually seeing a human being on screen with diarrhea come coming out of them. But the this is one of like, this is one of the first deaths you see on screen is this poor kid who can't handle, who can't, who can't do anything about his his bodily functions and and a sickness that betrayed him on like the worst day possible. So yeah, um, so you do see that. You do see the diarrhea, and eventually he does die because he stops one too many times to let his uh to let his bodily functions go. And a lot of the walkers are kind of like, why would he like why doesn't he just let it like why doesn't he just go? Like, why doesn't he just go? Why does he stop to let it out? And I think my I I think most of us want to die in a dignified manner is the only way I can describe it. And while there's no way to die dignified when if if that's the only way you can die uh in this instance. I think I I don't know anyone that wants to walk around with that feeling of like I just there's liquid bodily functions that's not pee all over my pants, and and yeah, I mean that's gonna make anyone feel nasty and uncomfortable. And I don't think anyone wants like would someone do it if it meant that they get to survive? Sure. But I mean, I don't blame him either. I don't know that I could continue walking if I have that all over my clothes and I have no way of changing. I I I don't I I'm just saying I don't blame him. I understand, I'm I understand. That's all I'm gonna say. So yeah, just just know that that's in the film. There is one more character that has to deal with bodily functions in the book. So there's the poor diarrhea kid. I feel bad calling him that, but I don't remember his name, but there's the poor diarrhea kid, and then there's the same character art from the book, and from the film that I just mentioned, where you don't see him, you don't see his body functions, you just see him pop squat. So he does have it in the book as well. Same situation. He right as he's about to receive his third warning, he finishes and catches up with his friends. The third character that this happens to in the book is Garrety, and it happens to him in one of the cities. So, as I said in the book, every single time they're in a major city, there's a crowd of people just watching the walk as if it was a parade. And so it this is like real a really, really humiliating moment for him because it's like he can't hold it any longer, and he has no choice but to relieve himself in front of all these people. And to add to the humiliation is like once he's done, he continues walking, and there's people eyeing it because they want to keep it as a souvenir. But you know, there's people like that. You know there's people like that that would be like, I don't care what that is. This is a souvenir from this event. I'm gonna keep it. So, yeah, so that it it it's they cut this from the film, but in yeah, in the book, it's it's definitely a really humiliating moment for Garrety that he has to not only relieve himself in front of a crowd of people cheering this on, kind of hoping at the same time that they witness his death. But once they don't witness his death, now they're looking to keep a little souvenir. And it doesn't matter that it is poop. They want that souvenir. So yeah. So this book and this this film are really difficult to read and watch for those reasons. Like I would say the film is definitely a lot more difficult to watch just because of how graphic it is. But the the the book is hard to read as well. Um, it's it's it's difficult. But that being said, I rated the film three and a half stars, and I rated the book four stars. So the winner is the book. Yeah, the book I just felt the ending was the ending of the film was more satisfying because you see the major die. But the ending of the book was just a lot more haunting, and I did knock some points off the film because of how graphic it was. Again, I can't handle that much graphic. I I just don't function that way. So I did knock some points off for that. But the book, I was able to handle it a lot more than I was able to handle the film, so it was a lot easier for me to um give it a high reading. But even then, I I just the film is good, the acting from everyone is is great as well, but I just I I feel like the book is better, and I just felt for the characters a lot more in the book, and he said the ending is haunting, and there are some things that were changed for the film as well that were included in the book that I can maybe that I can see why they were not included. There's moments in which Gardy is maybe second-guessing like his sexuality. I just because of the time period it was written, I didn't know that it's a very nuanced conversation, so I can I can just see why that wasn't included in the film. But yeah, um, I but I did enjoy the book a lot more than I enjoyed the film. So the winner is the book. And I forgot to say this in my introduction, but thank you so much to Scribner Books for my tickets to the advanced, to an advanced screening of the long walk. Yeah, I entered one of my many Instagram giveaways, and one of them was advanced tickets, was tickets to an advanced screening of the long walks. So I got to see it a few days before other people. And yeah, so I'm really, I'm really grateful that I that I got to see it. And this this film came out like September, October, so it's been a while since I've seen it, but it just took that long for me to get that book from the library. But I do recommend the book. I think it's very cleverly written, and I and I I think adding the crowds, just watching these boys just adds an extra element rather than like the deserted kind of walks that the boys go through in the film. I think it adds more to have the crowds like just like this ugly, ugly spectacle of like, are we gonna see death? Are we gonna see all this other stuff? I think that just added an extra layer to it. And I also just felt like it was the film felt a lot more dystopian to me. So it was easier for me to kind of separate it from reality, if that makes sense. Whereas the book, like, there's references to stores that I know, which sound like this sounds odd, but it's like that kind of just made it more real to me, as opposed to like I this is like a nameless, faceless section of the United States that they're walking through. There's while there are like a few spectators here and there watching the walkers, it doesn't add that level of like, ew, you guys are disgusting. Why are you watching these kids like so eagerly do this walk? So yeah. Anyway, that is it for this week's episode of Books versus Movies. If you liked what you heard, please leave it a rating and a review and tell all your friends about it. Help us grow this little community or help me grow this little community. And I'll see you next time. Bye.