You Probably Missed This Underrated 2025 Sci-Fi Movie – Now’s Your Chance to Stream It

2025 was a very good year for Stephen King adaptations, four of which have landed in theaters. Now, one of those films has found a streaming home — and it’s an underrated gem destined for cult film status.

The long walk was released in September 2025 and grossed $63.1 million worldwide against a reported budget of $20 million.

Even though this film was not a blockbuster, the director François Laurent and screenwriter JT Mollner gave it a sense of humanity that was a bit unusual for a genre film like this.

Since the film is now streaming, Watch with us shares some reasons why you should watch The long walk on Starz.

It’s Stephen King’s “Hunger Games” – but better

Viewers of The long walk you might notice some similarities between it and The hunger games. Both are set in an alternate America that is under the control of a dictatorship, and both feature teenagers from across the country who are sent to compete in a competition to the death. However, The long walk is anterior The hunger games by decades, and it was published in 1979. King also said that it was the first book he ever wrote, although it came out five years after his first novel, Carrie.

Contrary to The hunger gameschildren in The long walk avoid the one guy who tries to start a conflict between them. It’s an endurance contest rather than a battle royale, but the rules are essentially the same. There can only be one winner, and everyone else walks to their death or gets shot for breaking the rules or stopping. Marc Hamill periodically appears as the Major, the man in charge of this death march. Although her character is intentionally cartoonish, this is her second major performance in a King adaptation this year after Chuck’s life.

“The Long Walk” is surprisingly moving

A bit like The hunger gamesthis story wouldn’t work if The long walk didn’t give viewers reason to care about the boys before they expired. Ray Garraty (Cooper Hoffmanson of fire Philippe Seymour Hoffman) is the first walker to be introduced, and he is soon joined by Pete McVries (David Johnson), Billy Stebbins (Garrett Waring), Art Baker (Tut Nyuot), Hank Olson (Ben Wang) and 45 other teenagers.

Not all characters get this much screen time, but The long walk does a great job of turning most of the character deaths into emotionally raw scenes. There is only one outcome in this competition for the kids who don’t finish in first place, and that means almost every boy featured in the movie will die. It’s impressive that the film treats their deaths with a sense of humanity rather than making them seem like disposable non-entities. Their lives mattered, no matter how brief.

Young actors give their characters a sense of camaraderie

Judy Greer appears briefly as Ray’s mother, Ginnie Garraty, but for the most part this film is carried by its young performers. Most of the lead actors had valuable experience, including Hoffman’s lead role in Licorice pizza and Jonsson’s main character in Extraterrestrial: Romulus. This allowed them to create an on-screen camaraderie that was difficult to fake.

We won’t spoil the ending of the film here, except to say that the film takes a different direction from the novel. Unfortunately, this isn’t the kind of story that ends on an uplifting note. But it’s one of the best adaptations of King’s work in recent memory and one of the most underrated films of 2025 that’s worth watching in 2026. You might feel a little sad after watching it, but you won’t be disappointed.

The long walk is streaming on Starz.