The Long Walk - In A Nutshell(Cinema Trip) - Movies In A Nutshell

Episode Transcript
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(00:12):
Hello and welcome to Movies ina Nutshell with me, Marc Farquhar,
myself, Darren.
Horn, and I, Paul Day.
We help you spend less timebrowsing and more time watching.
If you've seen the movie,we'll reveal what you might have
missed.
If you haven't, we'll give youa quick spoiler free breakdown.
We've got behind the scenestrivia, including Paul's facts of
the day, host ratings.
And a legend league table,plus your.
Chance to choose a movie.

(00:33):
So grab some popcorn and let'sjump into this week's movie. Okay,
here we are.
Cinema trip special episode.
We went to the cinema and wesaw the Long Walk and some people.
Came with us, our fans.
This is a war that will go on forever.
It's going to go on forever.Every episode.
We'll just ask them next time.Next time we do one, what are you?

(00:53):
Are you fans or listeners?They'll probably say both.
Yeah, but they might say,well, we're fans of Paul, but we're
listeners of Darren.
Or vice versa.
We're just here for the horn section.
That's what they're gonna say.We're here for the horn. Yes.
Okay, so we own part one,which is the nutshell, and we will
break the movie down. Spoilerfree. To help you decide if the Long
Walk is your kind of movie. Sohow do we break this down then? Have

(01:16):
you had much when we've onlyseen it recently. So have you had
much time to figure this one out?
Kind of, but it's alwaysweird. We were just saying because
when we watch them at home, wetend to write notes. But when you're
in the cinema, you don't.
That is true.
I regularly kept reaching formy notepad that wasn't there.
But it's one of those kind ofpost apocalyptic, semi post apocalyptic
movies like Hunger Games andDivergence and Maze Runner and all

(01:38):
that kind of stuff,particularly when society is collapsing
and then they have some kindof battle royale type kind of task
or Squid Games. Task or.Haven't seen Squid Games?
Yeah, reminded me of that.
That's what came to mind whenI. Yeah, yeah.
And then you get like onechance and if you win, you get money
and you get to have a happylife. And if you don't, you die,
you get shot.
Do this or die kind of thing.
But the way it was filmed wasvery conversational sort of thing.

(02:00):
So they're on this long walkand it's all to do with this stuff
Damon's just said. So Ithought it's almost like Hunger Games
meet, Stand by me or somethinglike that.
Yeah, there we go.
That's a good one. I didn't. Ididn't get round to doing a meet.
Yeah, that's good.
That was the first one thatcame to mind because it's kind of
guys talking as they're onthis challenge, but it's maybe not
as.
And stamp by me is StephenKing as well. Right?

(02:20):
Yeah. Yeah. So maybe that'swhy I made the connection.
Maybe not as.
What?
What were you gonna say?
I was gonna say maybe notquite as Drum.
Now I feel. I didn't feel badabout interrupting. You had nothing.
Nothing Action packed. Maybenot qu. Action packed because it's
mainly focusing on therelationships. It's kind of the endurance.
It's the endurance, it's thecharacters and it's that kind of

(02:42):
thing. Rather than stuffblowing up all the time. That's what
I was going to say. I knew Ihad a point.
So, yes, it is a story ofendurance mixed with control and
the means to keep going. Wheneverything. Everything inside you
says you want to stop, but youhave to keep going.
I think I saw also theoriginal story is written by Stephen
King when he was at uni orcollege or school. I never know what
the amount.

(03:02):
Oh, so it's an old story.
I think 1979.
All right.
So the comparisons are goingto come out against, like, things
like Hunger Games. Because itwas a Hunger Games director as well,
wasn't it?
Yeah. So it was the guy. I gotthis wrong. I thought it was the
guy who did the first HungerGames, but it wasn't. It was the
guy who did all the otherHunger Games, so He did like 2, 3
and 4.
But yeah, this was writtenbefore it, so it was a little bit
more, I guess, forward thinking.

(03:23):
And Rob, who went with thecinema, also had another film comparison,
which was speed, because theyhave to keep the momentum at three.
Three miles an hour. Was it?
I think three miles an hour. Yeah.
So obviously speed. They haveto keep the bus above 50 miles an
hour or something. It's like.Yeah, it's speed, but on a walk.
On a walk, yeah. Which Ithought was good.
Then a bus. What was thesecond one on? Was it a ship?
Yeah, it was a ship.

(03:44):
A cruise ship.
Cruise ship. Because cruisecontrol, wasn't it?
Yeah.
And then a walk.
I think I only saw that once.Sandra Bullock was in it. That's
all I can remember. Keanuwasn't. Anyway, we. We get sidetracked
here with our speed.
Referencing, so I've tried tobreak it down to abc. So I've got
the A, as a group of men kindof forced into a deadly endurance
contest, walk without stoppingor die. The B is the physical trial

(04:08):
becomes psychological battleas friendships, rivalries and inner
demons surface. And then C iskind of what starts as a brutal competition
evolves into, like ameditation of. On freedom, choice,
survival.
Yeah. I think it's also ameditation on what you do if you
win.
Yes. So that's kind of whatyou're. They're all thinking about

(04:28):
what they do if they win.
You get the money and then youget some kind of a wish. Which is
very kind of vague when theytalk about it, but we all think about
that, don't we? Like, we talkabout what would happen if we got
the lottery or whatever. Andwould you be sad? And I love those
memes I see when someone'slike, you know, I'd love to win the
lottery and just give. Like,if I see someone on Facebook need
500 pound for their car to getfixed, I'd give them five grand.

(04:49):
Or if I saw someone strugglingto pay their groceries, I would just
pay for it. And every day Iwould just do acts of kindness. That's
what.
That does sound amazing, butcan you imagine the level of attention
you'd get though?
People asking for thingssubtly? You're just like, you secret
millionaire.
Those are the memes. Youwouldn't be too obvious when I won
the lottery, but there wouldbe signs.
Yes, exactly. And a lot oftheir discussions around that in

(05:11):
the film, like, what if youwin? What are you going to do?
I think it's interesting thatit came out now with what's going
on in America. And I thinkwhen we're looking at the collapses
of society, from what we cansee through the media lens, it looks
like America's not in a greatplace. And, you know, my ex is American
and she seems to be sayingsimilar stuff, that there is a level
of desperation happening. Andit's curious as well, because Running

(05:32):
Man's being remade, isn't it?That's coming out later this year.
Yeah.
And that's similar. You know,it's basically a game show with people,
you know, again, who aredesperate. And it's this Roman gladiatorial
thing where we watch people dosomething ridiculous so that we can
feel good about. Yeah, totally.
Well, this film's also got aBig Brother element, hasn't it, where
it's being televised to theworld with them on this bit. Like,

(05:54):
again, the Hunger Games andall the other ones we talked about
a Lot of them are similarthing at Squid games, the same that's
only televised to certainpeople I think in certain.
People do see it though.
People.
It is made as entertainment.
Made as entertainment. So likeyou say, the gladiator comparison
of the arenas, are we goingback in? Is it all rolling round?
It's just we've got technologynow, so it's different.
Well, Bill Hicks used to saythat, didn't he? But go to sleep

(06:16):
and America. Here's AmericanGladiator. It was interesting that
American Gladiator is like asanitized version of the Roman gladiators
in a way. But it is just go tosleep, take your medicine, be sedate,
move along. I'm a way of sunshine.
If, if you are expecting sortof an action film, you're going to
be disappointed probablybecause it is very much a character

(06:36):
driven piece. Even though it'sgot these.
You're following this journey,aren't you?
Yeah, it's about poor stuff,apocalyptic questions and all.
Yeah, it has its moments butit's not like a action, you know,
one a minute, go, go, go. It'skind of lots of ups and downs.
It's people walking and yeah,it has them suspenseful moments.
But it's not like an ongoing thriller.
It's not non stop action.

(06:57):
No, it's a. It's a character piece.
I think we kind of stoppedtalking about diversity in the last
few episodes. But this one wasone of the most diverse films I think
we've seen for a while. Yeah,and that was fantastic. And I mean
the lead is like a white guybut it was a lot of people around
him of different ethnicities.So it becomes kind of like we were
saying with Predator, like amicrocosm of America. Yeah, this

(07:18):
representation from a lot ofaspects of America. As long as you're
male. Well, there's a. There'sa mum, I think. I think the mum is
the only female character.
And they never really explainthat, do they? Just that's who's
entered into this competition.
And if it doesn't stipulatethe beginning like this erases for
men only.
We used to talk about thiswhen I was young because it's like
a military family. Do youremember that guy, Simon Weston?
No.
He got next to. Was it anexplosion? And then he came back

(07:42):
and he's like face was kind ofburned off quite badly. The theory
was the population is notready to see women come home in that
state. And if they saw womencome home in that state they would
be so anti war. You would youknow, countries wouldn't be able
to go to war because theywouldn't have any support from the
populace.
In terms of people in thefilm, I'll say this, even though
it could easily fit into factsof the Day, but the lead character,

(08:04):
guy, do you know who that is?
No, not at all.
So he's called Cooper Hoffman.So I've seen him. No, close. Close,
but not quite right. Soundlike Roy Walker of Catch.
Right.
It's good, but it's not right.It's Philip Seymour Hoffman's son.
I can kind of seen him in afilm called Licorice Pizza who had
one of the girls of Girls, Oneof the women from Haim Haim Ham.

(08:26):
How do you.
The band.
Band, yeah, yeah, One of. Oneof them was in a film called Licorice
Pizza. She was really good init, actually, but he was in that.
But that's Philip SeymourHoffman's son, the lead guy.
Let's move on to part two,which is the unboxing in spoiler
territory. So if we've piquedyour interest and you'd like to check

(08:47):
out the Long Walk as we speaknow, it's currently still in cinemas.
Probably will be for a while.If not, if you listen to this in
a year, a year's time, gowatch it on Netflix or Prime, wherever
it happens to be.
It's going to be quite quickthese days, don't they?
Yeah, kind of copy.
Back in the day, kids, we usedto have to wait years for them to
read vhs.
But yeah, if you want to, youcan go watch it, come back because
there will be spoilers fromthis point forward. So in part two,

(09:07):
we have what did you miss?Where we will highlight things you
may have missed. Even ifyou've seen the movie many times.
Then Paul has his amazingfacts of the day and we round this
off with Hate it or Rate it,where we each give our opinion and
a score and we see how itlands on the Legend League. So what
did we miss in the Long walk?
It better not have missedthis, because I'd be furious. But
friend of the show, MarkCommode, I'm not sure if he knows

(09:28):
this at the end of the show, but.
Be my friend, he's a fan ofthe show.
Hopefully, if we can get Markto listen to this, it would be glorious.
So friend of the show, Mark Commode.
Yeah, I'll just leave it asthat hashtag.
Didn't realize that was MarkHamill until I think about halfway
through the movie.
I was the same.
What I knew he was in it.

(09:49):
I knew he was in it. Yeah, butI knew he was in it, but for some
reason I didn't pick up thatwas him. And it was literally probably
the same. About halfwaythrough. Oh, yeah, that's him. I
kept thinking, when's MarkHamill gonna appear in this film?
And then I realized he saidsomething in a certain voice because
you don't hear him that much.No, he said something. Oh, that's
Mark Hamill there. So I wasexactly the same as Sean Kermo. Sean,
is it short marker mode?
But also Mark. Mark Hammerhasn't done that much stuff. He's

(10:12):
not kind of a big A list guy.
Other than the marquee thingswe all know him for.
Yeah, basically Star wars,there's not much.
So if you have Joker in BatmanAnimated Series.
Yeah, I think it was in WingCommander as well back in the day.
But unless you've seen him ina more mature state, you wouldn't
recognize it if you've justseen him in the early Star Wars,
I guess. But you know, I'veseen him in Jane, Silent Bob Strike

(10:34):
Back, and yeah.
I've seen him in a few thingsover the years, but a lot of his
voiceover work I've seen himmore in. So the animation stuff he
does, it.
Felt like he was doing a weirdbeauty justice type impression from
Smoking the Bandit.
Do you think that until yousaid it now, you said it's a similar.
Kind of character, like avoice of authority and kind of track.
Yeah. Keep control.

(10:54):
I may have a fact of the dayof where he was channeling his voice
from. Do you want that now?
No.
Okay, I'll hold it back.
Do it anyway.
Make him wait. So I liked howthis shifts from the. The physical
side to the. The mental sidewithout you really noticing. There's
at some point you suddenlylike, oh, this is all about what's

(11:15):
going on up here. It's allthings that they're saying to each
other. The. The back and forthbetween other people, their dips
in morale. Versus before itwas just about the shoes or the leg
or the breathing or the havingwater or whatever suddenly shifts,
just all about them.
And it's how that physicalitythen impacts the mental. Like it's
like a domino's effect, isn't it?
Yeah, the.

(11:36):
The more tired because themain guy.
I forgot the Hoffman. Justcall him Hoffman.
Cooper Hoffman's character,he's quite an affable character when
he starts off, but then evenhe starts getting a bit, I want to
say arcy, but you would be ifyou'd walk that many miles. But he,
you start seeing the frictionswith him and the guy who he's really

(11:56):
friendly with, played by DavidJohnson. And when that starts fractioning,
you're like, oh, okay. Eventhe really cool headed guy's starting
to lose it a bit.
What's the story where thosekids get caught on an island and
it's a famous one?
I want to say Lord of theFlies thinking of this.
And they turn against eachother, don't they?
Yeah.
And it's kind of also like lost.

(12:17):
Well, that Lord of Flies I'msure happened in real life. Some
kids kind of got stranded onan island and they ended up surviving
for ages. They formed a minicommunity. They looked after each
other. They had like timeoutsand stuff and it was actually really,
really effective. So it's kindof curious in this where the show
is to win. So you think youwould sabotage each other. You think

(12:38):
you start swinging punchesyou'd like.
I wondered if to keep goingyou needed some of the people with
you, like, like a groupmentality. I can keep going if I've
got people with me but at thesame time I need to lose all these
people to win.
The alliances are formed alsothe, the, the friction happens in
the group and it builds andthat sort of creates the tension
in the film between them.

(12:59):
I was surprised that film thatthere was wasn't more of that. Yeah,
like sabotage. Sabotage andkicking, like breaking someone's
leg or something just to getthem, get them out. Like especially
the classic thing is to go forthe competition. Who's. Who else
is most like to win this.Let's go for them. Yeah, but there
wasn't really.
I currently don't want to goon the long walk with Mark now because
I now know his strategy is the strongest.

(13:20):
I won't be gone for youthough, will I?
Oh, yeah, that's true. I'malready gone. I'm probably the first
one out, right? Like, I'm notworried about him. He's already gone.
What's going on? Thanks, mate.Unless that. Unless that was my plan
all along and I was luring you in.
Or am I double bluffing?
Right? Or am I doublebluffing? Darren, are you double
bluffing?
No, I'm nearly 50. I wouldn'teven be in it. I can't even walk

(13:42):
to the toilet at 2am these days.
I don't know if anyone pickedup on this, but I've kind of found
this as a. This whole movie isa metaphor for life. Keep Putting
one foot in front of theother, facing challenges. You lose
people along the way. You makechoices and eventually die.
You're getting good at this.
I'd like that in terms of,like, a metaphor for work. Like,
it's not walking, it'sworking. You got to keep working,
keep working, keep working. Ifyou don't work, you don't get money.

(14:04):
If you don't get money, you.
That's fair.
You can't eat, you can't haverent, and you die. You're. You're
not a civilian. You know,you're not. In terms of, like, in
the Starship Troopers kind ofway, you're not valuable to society.
So. And it's highlighted bythe way I think our societies treat
the elderly as well. So youhave no reason to be here.
It reminded me a little bit ofthat film we watched. I think it

(14:25):
was your recommend, wasn't it?The In Time one.
Probably I'm excellent recommended.
You are. But that was allabout, you know, you're working for
your minutes.
Yeah.
And it's all about your time.And this felt the same. Like, if
you survive, you win all theriches in the world, but only one
of you is going to get it. Howmany was in the walking? 50. So 49
of them aren't going to makeit. Just that fact in itself as you

(14:45):
set off the start line andthink, well, most of us, there's
only one of us going to survive.
What would the prize have tobe for you to enter?
Off the top of my head, Iwanted to say Natalie Portman, but
that seems shallow. What wouldthe prize be? I don't think I'd enter.
I don't think there could be aprize big enough because I knew,
you know, out of 50 people, I don't.
Know, it was a bit vague atthe beginning, but a lot of people
seemed like they entered outof necessity.

(15:07):
I thought that. But then noone looked like they were starving.
No one looked like they wereweak. Like, some of them were athletic,
some of them were, like, a bit chubbier.
But it made out like. Like itwas. You were being called up, like.
Like they had to do it forsome reason. There was a prize, but
they didn't have to enter. Butit almost made it like they. There
was a reason why all these 50people felt like they had to do this,

(15:29):
but never really explained why.
I mean, the main characterobviously had the. Because we're
in. Spoiler alert.
National Service. That's theone I was thinking of. National Service.
That's what it's called not conscript.
We're in spoiler territory.
Yes.
So the main characterobviously had the revenge plot on
the General because theGeneral killed his dad, so he wanted
to win so he could get closeenough to kill the General. I told

(15:50):
you were in spoiler territory.So if you listened, it's your own
fault. But that was obviouslyhis motivation rather than the winnings.
It was about that revenge.
But we didn't know that.
But we didn't know that untilthe film got to that point, which
was quite. Well, there was aflashback at one point and you could
feel the friction.
And it came out more as thejourney went on.
But also, wasn't the dadkilled because he was reading banned

(16:13):
books and things like that?
Yeah, he kept. He keptbreaking the rules, which is.
Huge now in America, it's.
Is that back?
Yeah, I've been doing it for a while.
Wow.
See, actually, weirdly,Stephen King is really anti it and
he will start. He was like,okay, kids, America's ban these books.
Go to your library and getthem. Make sure you read them.
Let's work out why these are banned.

(16:34):
So in that sense, there'salmost V for Vendetta vibes.
Yeah.
I thought there was details ofeach. Each contestant, as it went
along was how they wereframed. Like there was body language,
small habits signaling who'sstrong and who's weak. Some people
in the background never sawthem, but then they. Then they would
suddenly appear in a scene andyou go, okay, that's the weird guy.
He's the. He's the loosecannon. We don't know what's going
to come from him. He's a weaklink. He's just. He's a contender.

(16:56):
Yeah.
As it went along, it kind ofbalanced everyone out. He showed
you everyone.
I'm surprised more peopledidn't go for the soldiers. Like,
if I thought I was going togive up and I couldn't walk any further,
I'd be taking a soldier downwith me 100%.
I mean, there was a couple whotried it, but they didn't get very
far. Spars.
They didn't do it, like,quickly enough. They kind of faltered
and stuttered over there, andthen by that time they're already

(17:16):
dead. Whereas if you took themby surprise.
But in terms of what wemissed, again, is it about, you know,
all of us try to put our hopesand dreams on a lottery or just a
big win and then all ourproblems will be solved? But don't
you just get all new problemsif you end up with that?
Well, There's a lot ofexamples of people getting the grass
is not always greener sort ofthing where they get whatever it
is and they're still notsatisfied. They're like, oh, that
wasn't what I was after.

(17:37):
It's the next thing.
I still don't know what I wasafter. What? It wasn't that.
So they get to the end of thewalk, they last the other 49 people
out, they get the prize, theyget all the winnings and money. Is
that everything, then? Arethey going to be satisfied? I can
never be satisfied.
It's almost like the worstthing that can happen for some people
is to get it.
Yeah. Destroys yourrelationships and friendships and
stuff.
They just drop off. They know.They just go fully into excess and

(17:58):
you never see them again.
I do like the idea that somecinemas were having what they called
treadmills.
Oh, yes. We were talking aboutin this. In the lobby before we went
in the cinema.
That would have been cool,watching it.
While you're walking on atreadmill. Yeah, that would be.
And then if you can't keep up,you pulled out the cinema. That'd
be cool.
How much of the film did yousee? I just saw 10 minutes. Didn't

(18:21):
make it. Oh, A.D. who went tothe cinema with us to watch it.
Yep.
He had a very good point aboutsocks, which was.
Oh, I do remember this now.
His obsession. As we came out,we were just. He's like.
Because the guy took. HisShoes fell apart.
Shoes fell apart. And thenhe's walking in his socks. And Eddie
was working out how many mileshe'd done in his socks. And I think

(18:42):
we even got to ask.
300 and something wasn't.
Yeah. We were asking chat GPT.How long can socks last for if you
actually walk that many miles?They had to be pretty good socks.
I think we were.
Yeah. So the only thing Ipicked up on was the. The sound in
this. The soundscape. Therewas lots of. There'd be footsteps,
then sometimes there wassilence or just the sound of them

(19:02):
walking. Like. No, just. Yeah,but then the violence was very sudden.
Sometimes it used to catch youoff guard. But that was replacing,
like the traditional score. Itwasn't. I didn't feel like it was
very. It was very stop start.Like sometimes there was music in
certain scenes, but for a longtime there wasn't. It was just the
sound of them walking or theweather or things in the background.

(19:23):
But the score would come inand out, which I didn't. That was
quite unique, I thought, and.
I guess that was to make moreimpact when it was them scenes where
it was quite shocking whenthere was.
Music, it was really dramaticstuff. Yeah, cool. Okay, let's move
on to Paul's facts of the day.What do you got?
Paul Cooper Hoffman said thathe and his co stars walked 15 miles
a day in 100 degree heat onconcrete and with no shade, totaling

(19:49):
almost 400 miles. And thegrueling long takes in the hot Winnipeg,
Canada sun, which is obviouslywhere they filmed it. He said there
was a real. When you got thereand started walking. Anxiety of actually
making it through the day. Soin some ways actually filming the
film they were puttingthemselves through the paces of which
I thought that because it isvery long takes, sometimes some.

(20:10):
Of the scenes are long.
And if you think about movie,obviously you have to do take after
take after take.
You also have to know how towalk. Pretend like being injured.
Yeah, that's wounded. Takeafter take.
How to act really tired.Because I watch videos of people
being really tired at the endof a long walk.
And even if you're actingthat, it starts to catch up. Because
I always remember Hugh Lauriein house. He had his limping house,
didn't he? But I rememberafter a while he started to actually

(20:31):
get a bit of an injury fromfaking his injury.
Because your other leg's goingto. Or whatever. The other side compensates
for your. What you're doing. Yeah.
And if you're filming what. Idon't know what they do 10 hours
a day sometimes, maybe more.Although Stephen King has said he
didn't explicitly intend itthat way. The Long Walk novel is
often seen as an allegory.
Allegory.
Let's call it that. Yeah.
Critique of the Vietnam Warand the senseless death and spectacle

(20:53):
of state sanctioned violence.
Vietnam War, that was theother thing. Yeah, there's definitely
links to that.
Yeah. And he said you're rightfrom your time. So certainly that
was in his mind. But I neverthought it consciously.
So as an algorithm differentor is it mean different meanings
in the same thing?
Yeah, it's just basically adifferent meaning of something else.
Yes.
Yeah.
It's weird because I rememberin. I think it's John Rambo. Is that

(21:13):
when he goes to. I can'tremember where he goes. Country beginning
with C. I always get it,always forget it. It's like to the.
Cambodia.
Cambodia. I think it's come.It's like to the west of Thailand.
Cambodia.
Cambodia, yeah. But I don'tknow how true this is, but there's
a bit where they've got Theseprisoners and they throw mines into,
like, a low swamp, and theprisoners have got to run across

(21:35):
the swamp and back again, andthe soldiers are betting on them.
And it just made me think ofthis kind of the same thing, you
know, that would have beeninteresting if we saw people watching
TV taking bets.
Yeah, that's true. We didn'tsee any of the other side in this
film.
There's only a very limitedsection of this. That was for, like,
the audience.
Yeah.
For some reason. And I thinkthat was just to hide the brutality
of it, really.
I would have liked to see theaudience watching it. And I would

(21:57):
like to see Gogglebox watchingpeople watching the audience. That
would have been cool.
That's the kind of inceptionwe want in these things now.
Yeah.
So answering your questionbefore about Mark Hamill's character,
Mark said that when thedirector, Francis Lawrence, approached
him about playing the part ofthe major, it immediately evoked
his teenage years in Japan,where he went to school next to a

(22:18):
U.S. military base. And hesaid, I know who this guy is. I've
seen him firsthand. And I'dwalk across the parking lot seeing
the officers putting theseguys through the paces in the blazing
hot sun, and it was justbrutal. Like, if you vomit, they
force you. It's horrible. Oh,that's what Mark Hamill said.
Oh, God, I'd rather be shot.
It wasn't Smokey and theBandit, but, yeah, obviously he's

(22:40):
seen a general. That's. Oh,yeah, graphic there.
The jackass guys would getthrough that.
Also, interestingly, in thebook, the walkers have to maintain
a speed of 4 mph. But in the movie.
Yeah, obviously that's fast walking.
Yeah. The request of StephenKing. They changed three miles per
hour because Stephen King feltthat the original speed was unrealistic

(23:00):
for the duration of the contest.
Yeah. But not in the late1970s. Now it would be.
Which is why they changed it.
Yeah. Now, this should uppageat two miles.
An hour, what you try to say.
I teach teenagers.
Some of them may listen to this.
This is actually one of fourStephen King stories adapted into
movies for 2025. Which I wasthinking, because Mark Hamill's in

(23:23):
one of the other ones. Andthat's when you first mentioned it.
I'm like, oh, there's onecalled the Life of Chuck that's just
come out with Tom Hiddleston.That's based off of Stephen King,
the Running Man. That musthave been based off Stephen King.
Oh, nice.
Yeah. I didn't know that. Themonkey. I don't know about that one,
but apparently that's anotherone out. So there you go. In the
film, there are 50 walkers,one from each state. In the book,
there are 100 walkers with nomention of state affiliations.

(23:46):
Yeah.
100.
Too many for. That'd be too complex.
Yeah.
Too. Too complex to film. Sothey've made changes from the book.
And the Major never removeshis aviator sunglasses. Even from
the sides, his eyes.
Even in the dark.
Even in the dark he wearssunglasses. Guess that was a stylish
thing. And one final one.There is quite a few. I was quite
surprised because normallywith new films there's not that many

(24:07):
facts floating about or behindthe scenes things. But the movie
title doesn't appear until the20 minute mark.
The what? Sorry, is it thewhat isn't.
Yeah, not the 20 minute mark.The 20 minute mark, yeah. Which was
a bit surprising.
I was like, wait, how longhave we been watching this for?
I did the same.
I felt like longer than five minutes.
This is like the longest Bondintro ever before the title sequence.

(24:29):
But yeah, it 20 minutes intothe film. I think it's because it
obviously sets it all up. Andby the time the title comes up, you're
well into the walk. Butthere's some facts.
Thank you very much. Okay,let's move on to hate it or rate
it. So I'm gonna go to Darren first.
I hated it.

(24:50):
Okay. I actually hated it.
Yeah. I was just so bored outof my mind. And I didn't like any
of the characters. I didn'tunderstand. There was no world building.
Like, I didn't understand. Ididn't get the thing. Like, I don't
get why all these people aredoing this. I don't get how this
is creating a morale boost andwhy productivity goes up. I don't
get any of that. And if. Ifthis was the thing and every, like,

(25:11):
teenage boy was entering it,you'd be working out your entire
life. Like, you. You'd get to.
You want to increase yourchances of winning.
Right. And you'd havestrategies for walking that far.
You'd have strategies for howto. While you're walking. And. And
you'd have thought about.
Yeah, we haven't mentionedthat graphic, but have we?
Right.
While you walk.
Yeah. You would just havegiven it way more thought. And also
for me, I don't think that theboys spoke like boys. And it's weird

(25:36):
because he did Stand By Me.And I think Stand By Me is a masterclass
in guys kind of talking toeach other, but it was just a bit
dumb. And kind of shallow. AndI didn't really get it. I was just
a bit like, okay, is this allthat's going to happen? And I think
it would have been better ifthere was like an audience. We got
to see people impacted by it.
Then they would have beenimpacted by it.
Yeah, like the Truman show.Doesn't it that part of the reason

(25:56):
the Truman shows. Well, forme, I think you heard that at the
time as well. But part of theimpact of that for me is it kept
cutting away to securityguards or the old ladies.
Get invested in the people whoare watching it. Yeah, well.
And that's what you said aboutGogglebox. You kind of. You want
to see the reactions. Therewas none of that in this.
It was like. It was weird. Itwas weird. It kind of reminded me
of in lockdown when infootball carried on but without all

(26:18):
crowds for the players. Evenif he's watching it on tv. It was
just, it just took a lot ofthe way, the life of it. Like someone
score a goal and it's like acouple of people going, exactly.
I forgive it if it was like anart house, low budget movie and they
were like, okay, this is theonly like crew and the cast we can
get. We can only afford thismany people. So there's no audiences

(26:39):
along the side. There's nokind of people cheering. Family members
haven't come. There's just, itjust seemed barren. Like it almost
like there was no population.
I think it was intentional,but I don't know why. Like there
was, there was definitely.There was definitely a mention of
there was going to be somepeople at a certain. At the end,
towards the end, there's acertain. When it goes through like,
like a.
Built up area and then theygot there, there was like 40 people.
I was like, really?

(27:00):
It wasn't that manyconsidering the spectacle of this
whole thing.
And there was no realmotivation for them all. Like if
there was someone saying, youknow, I'm walking because my little
sister's dying and I need toget the money to pay for a medicine
and oh, I'm doing it for this,I'm doing it for this. But they were
just like, oh, we might getmore money. And it never really clarified
the money. There was no, like,well, you could.
You get. He said, you got awish, you get anything you want.

(27:20):
Basically, that's what. Thenyou get a wish. Anything you want,
we'll give you it.
But you can't, you can't.
Possible.
Yeah, exactly.
You can't only go to space.Oh, we can't do that.
Sorry.
Denied.
I want a McDonald's. Well,McDonald's doesn't exist anymore,
so it's.
Closed, so we can't.
Sorry.
Yeah, so you wasted that wish.
So I didn't. It didn't seembelievable. None of the characters
seemed believable.
Didn't have seeming of consequence?

(27:41):
No, totally.
Like, they seemed okay with. Icould just get shot in the head any
minute. Which most peoplearen't okay with that.
Exactly. And they weren't eventalking about the philosophy of it
because I think if I enteredthat, I'd be like, okay, this is
a death sentence.
There was a little bit of itbetween a couple of characters towards
the end, but generally peoplewould have been talking about this
a lot more.
I like the Hunger Games films,but part of the compelling side of
the Hunger Games films isn'tthe Games themselves. It's the Capitol

(28:04):
and Donald Sutherland'scharacter, Snow, and how the Games
came to pass and sort of thecapital watching the Hunger Games
itself. And that's why you getmore invested in it, because you
see in the other side. Whereasthis, again, we don't know the world.
And if you don't take to thecharacters like you haven't. You're
thinking, what's.
What is this?

(28:25):
And then it ends. And I waslike, oh, that's ended. Okay. The
images have stopped moving. Iguess I'll go home.
I guess I'll have a drink withmy friends.
Yeah. I was like, all right.So, yeah, I didn't really do anything,
but. Was it based on a short book?
Short book, I think, yeah.
Oh, was it?
Yeah, yeah.
Not a novel.
No, no. This was. I thinkStand By Me was the same. I think

(28:46):
that was a show novella.
I just think it felt a littlebit dated. I mean, I think it is
very apt, like we were saying,with what's going on in the world,
this kind of grind to work,the collapses of various, like, civilizations
and things. Civilizations is abit harsh, but, you know, the collapse
of what society is goingthrough a massive upheaval, I guess.
So that seems okay. But itdidn't really.

(29:06):
Didn't land.
Yeah, it didn't. Didn't landfor me.
So we're gonna give it three.
I'm not even sure why three,but three.
Paul, I didn't hear as much asDarren, however, this is more what
we feel about it, isn't it?And if I was reviewing it as a movie,
I'd probably appreciate moreof the movie aspects of it and sort
of how it was to film Walkingand all that kind of thing. How it
made me feel was depressed. Imean, this is. Yeah, this was just

(29:30):
a dark film. It was meant tobe shocking. It was meant to make
you go, oh, this is grim. ButI just felt grim coming out of it,
like, oh, that was grim. And Ilike the Maze Runner and I like Squid
Game and I like some of theseother ones. But there was bits of
it, like you say where you go,oh, that was entertaining. This just
felt grim. I enjoyed thecharacters probably more than you.

(29:51):
I did get invested in them. Iliked the relationship with the two
guys. I thought that wasreally good. And I like the side
characters to a point. ThoughtMark Hamill was good doing his major
thing. Overall, I was justleft a bit. Oh, it's just so heavy
for the sake of being heavy.And I tend to. And again, this is
personal preference. Somepeople will probably be. In fact,

(30:11):
I saw them on IMDb saying,this is a masterpiece of filmmaking.
And I thought, for me, moviestend to be something I escape away
from the real world from. Imean, sometimes there's heavy films
I watch and if I'm in theright mood, I really enjoy them and
get stuff out. Like we'vewatched some political thrillers
and things which aren'tnecessarily my thing, but I've enjoyed
them more than this. This justmade me feel a bit, like, grim.

(30:34):
Oh.
So having said that, I'm goingto still give. I'm going to give
it a 4.6.
It's weird because when youtalk about it, I feel like you felt
worse than I did.
I. Well, I was bored.
But you were like. You felt depressed.
Feel it. I tend to feel films.So I'll watch really light films

(30:56):
that are probably critically rubbish.
Quite right.
But I'll watch them because itmakes me feel good.
Yeah. Yeah.
This one didn't make me feelparticularly good. Again, I'll give
it 4.6 because of the craft ofthe film and I appreciate there'll
be people who really do likethis film. Yeah, it just. It was
a bit too grim, I don't think.
I don't think it's a cinemafilm. Should have gone to stream

(31:17):
it.
Go on, Mark.
Yeah, I didn't enjoy either.It was.
It was a slog.
Just not a very good movie.There wasn't a lot to it. It just.
It didn't make sense. It was.Everything was a bit vague. I didn't
know why. I didn't really getwhy they were doing this walk. I
didn't understand why theywere prepared to risk their Life
happy for their life to end.And it wasn't really. The car at

(31:38):
the end wasn't reallyexplained enough. Yeah, I didn't.
The characters didn't really.I didn't enjoy some. When it got
to the end. Well, you had. Youhad come along with some of the characters,
like the main characters. Idid enjoy a bit of progression through
that and how some of theirchange. Sometimes they were, like,
strong, then they were weak.You saw different sides of people.
There was ups and downs. I didenjoy that. But overall, yeah, the
end is just a bit very weak.Just sudden, just. Oh, I was that.

(32:00):
Same as you. Oh, was that it?Oh, very, very disappointed.
And just sort of ended, didn't it?
And some of it, yeah, it wasvery grim. Like some of the. The
deaths and the. The way peopledied was just. It's not really what
I want to see.
I mean, there is times forthat in films, but because of the
rest of it had no kind ofupbeatness. There was nothing to
bounce it out. So just grim.
What' happened. A few times itjust. Even that novelty wore off

(32:22):
and it wasn't as shockinganymore and it was just death for
the sake of it. And I get whythey died, but, yeah, it just seemed
a bit.
And then there was the momentwhere the guy's pissing while he's
walking and Mark turns to meand says, oh, what's gonna happen
when he needs a.
Then we found out.
We found out. Explosive diarrhea.
Seemingly. No one had thoughtabout that.
No, no, exactly.

(32:43):
A tactic or a. How am I gonna.How am I gonna do this and not slow
down and get a Mark?
And it'd be like a trainercompany who's like, are you doing
the long walk? Here's the. Youneed to have the. Whatever.
Pay me $3,000 and I will getyou through this course.
Right, exactly.
The influences would be allover that.
Yeah. So it didn't make mefeel very good either when I came
out. So I'm going to give it a 4.2.

(33:05):
That would have been lush ifyou had the Proclaimers doing that
advert. Do you need to walk500 miles by the Proclaimers?
I've always got a bone to thatsong. Why isn't that song just called
A Thousand Miles? I would walk500 miles and I walk 500 more. That's
a thousand.
I think it's called I'm gonnabe. It's not called 500.
I know, but it should becalled that. Okay.
That's in the brackets.
Anyway.

(33:25):
Anyway.
Gives it a score of 11.8.
I think that's generous, butyeah. Okay, we're good.
I feel like there was somefilm craft on display. That's why
I kind of bumped up a littlebit. But as it made me feel as.
A film, it could have been alot better.
Yeah. Do you think there's apodcast show that reviews podcasts?
Yes.
You're really in.

(33:46):
There is. I listen to. I'msubscribed to two. There is.
And then they'll be like,okay, well, now we're doing movies
in a nutshell. Yeah. Just abit bored.
Well, I mean, if we. If we. Ifwe're prepared to pay a small fee.
That's what they do.
Really?
Yeah. Should we do that?
How small a fee?
I don't know. I can find out.
I have tuppence.
I'll get you the details. Infact, you can listen to it. Listen
to them, critique somebodyelse's podcast, see what you think.

(34:07):
And if we feel too muchInception now, it's like we're just
going to keep going in a loop,and if.
They write us down, we'll haveto do a revenge review of them.
It's not right us down, arethey? Come on.
It's never going to end this,is it? Never going to end the loop.
Was that 11.8? Okay, so thisputs it in 36th out of 38.
Oh, go on.

(34:28):
So it's just behind hotshots,which was 12.
Oh, no.
And one of the worst movies ever.
It's got 11.8 and it's thebottom. So Minecraft's bottom with
five. Long way down. That'srelegation certain.
Yeah.
And then the net is 11.7. Sothis is the long walk. 11.8.
Less than that.
But we gave it more than the net.
Yeah. 0.1.

(34:48):
I feel like I want to changemy point now just. Just for Sandra.
So there we go. Let's move onto part three, which is the listener
lo. So in part three, we havethe lobby where we share your comments,
answer your questions, andthen we ask the question of the week
and we round off part threewith next week's movie. So as we

(35:10):
go into the lobby. So we havenow got some replies for our question
about crazy stupid love, whichwas what is your most awkward or
surprising dating experience?
Excellent.
We've had some people messagein and email. So the first one was
Coon. Still hear a storystraight away. I'd been chatting
to a lass for a while, but shestood me up twice. No big deal. I

(35:32):
moved on a little while Later,I met someone else and we went over
on our first date. We sat downin a restaurant and who ends up serving
us? Yep. The very same lasswho stood me up twice.
Oh, wow.
As if that wasn't awkwardenough, later that night, she messaged
me saying how awkward it was.The problem was I was still sat to
my current next to my currentdate, and she saw the message as
well. Awkward.
Wow, that's high levels ofawkward, Kieran.

(35:52):
Yeah. Yeah. Liam fromWakefield says I met a girl for a
coffee. She was really fun andwe were getting on great. She asked
what I did for a living. Itold her I was training to be a doctor,
which she didn't react toomuch. You think? Fair enough. About
15 minutes later, she stood upand said, I'm so sorry, I can't do
this. I literally leftstraight away, ran out of the cafe.
I was so confused. Later on,she texted me saying, I'm sorry,

(36:14):
but my ex was a doctor and hewas a nightmare. The sight of your
sensible shoes just gave me a flashback.
Jesus.
Good luck with everything. Inever heard from her again.
Sensible shoes?
I don't get that, but that'sdid that.
Was that on the ick list byany chance? Probably the never ending
ickless that I see.
Jason Mitchell says halfwaythrough a meal in a posh restaurant

(36:35):
on our second date, and shecasually mentioned she was still
technically, technically engaged.
Gee, that's okay. It wastechnically. Actually, no.
Technically married.
You can't be technicallyengaged. That's insane.
I have to think of my feet. SoI went to the toilet and I climbed
out the window.
Nice.
Sometimes think that's worthdoing just for the story. Even if
you don't have to climb out,just do it.

(36:56):
That's amazing.
Could have just walked out thedoor and said, screw you. I'm not
after this.
Yeah, yeah.
But yeah, climb out the window.
Brilliant. Love that.
I hope it wasn't on the third.
Floor that I feel like this isa brand new podcast. Let's have a
spin off. Let's just do these.
Yeah. If anybody wants to sendus any stories, we'll read them out.
This is good. Daniel Reeves.On a Tinder day, I turned up 20 minutes

(37:16):
late only to realize that wasI was at the wrong restaurant. When
I got to the right restaurant,she wasn't there. I guess I'll never
know if she didn't turn up orleft because I.
Was late before midnight,before sunset.
Yeah.
What could have been? Couldshe be the one that got away?
Oh, I'd have nightmares. IHate that.

(37:36):
I'd have to know, like, yourown fault.
But yeah, my. I don't have awhole story like that. But you. I
think I told you this. I waschatting to a guy, to a girl, to
a girl on a dating app and itwas going well. And then she was
like, hey, this is reallyweird, but I went met my friend for
lunch and I was talking aboutyou and showed her your profile and
she's really, really into you.Can we just switch and I give you

(37:56):
her details? And I was like,oh, yeah, I've got to do that, because
if I didn't and you know, in20 years, I'll be, oh, what could
have happened? And then wechatted for a while and she turned
a bit psycho. And then I waslike, damn it, I can't go back to
a friend now and just be like,oh, it turns out your friend's psycho.
Can we.
You can try.
Never happened. And maybe wecan pick up where we left off.
A female is emailed in.Females. Listen to the show.

(38:17):
I've heard of a female. My momwas a female.
We need more females.
Is that like our 2%?
It's too much of a sausagefest for my liking.
Do you want me to get somemore, like, female films, if there
is such a thing? No, no, no.
We know.
I'd like more ladies to listen.
I need to find a future Mrs. Horn.
Okay.
Hashtag the Horn section.

(38:38):
Yeah.
Sophie Clark has emailed. Shesaid on a bowling date, I slipped
on the lane in front ofeveryone. I think you know that.
Like a line.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I slipped over in front ofeveryone and it was really embarrassing.
My boyfriend at the timedropped his drink because he was
laughing so hard, but heslipped and broke his ankle.
Oh.
We've been together andmarried for eight years.

(39:00):
There's the key.
That's a meet cute. That's adorable.
Meet cute. Yeah, that's good.
We love that.
I just imagine this picturethat. That's so good.
He laughs so much that he isthe one who ends up injured.
Yes. I'd like someone tocreate the image of that. The digital.
That image in our head. Justbring it to life. That'd be cool.
Congratulations on. You're ouronly story tonight that's been successful.

(39:21):
Yeah.
In a bad date stories.
Yeah. All the guys are like,my. My date in nightmares. And this
one female listener that we'vegot, he's like, oh, I've got a nice
story.
And it's a proper meet cute.
Bring the positivity, please.
And last One James Piet says,I was so nervous before a first day.
I had one too many drinksbefore he arrived. I threw up within
five minutes of meeting him.Fair play to him. He allowed the

(39:43):
day to continue, which Ithought was amazing, and the day
actually went really well. Butrightfully so. He ghosted me.
Rightfully so.
He accepted it.
If they'd have been the one,then, you know, maybe they'd have
accepted that initial.
Oh, that's good. Thanks,James. That's good.
Thank you for your stories.Thank you for sharing.
This is good.

(40:03):
Okay, so them stories broughtso much more joy than that film.
Yeah.
We needed last episode.
Definitely.
My lecturer at college took agirl on a date to watch Downfall.
Do you know that movie?
No.
It's a story about Hitler. Wewere just like, what the. Did you
do that?
Yeah, exactly. Movie.

(40:25):
I always remember. I can'tremember who it was. Was saying he
was with his girl. I think itmight be a comedian he's with. He's
watching Schindler's List withhis girlfriend.
You're thinking of a Seinfeld episode?
No, I don't think so.
They're making out inSchindler's List and his parents
end up finding out.
No, no, no.
You sure? This is literally aSeinfeld episode.
Don't question my Seinfeld.
Okay, Okay. I thought thatit's like he was.

(40:46):
Watching Schindler's List withhis girlfriend, and it finished and
she goes, should we watch the bloopers?
Oh, my God. If she meant thatin a funny way, then yeah.
If she was trying to be funny.
She'S trying to break thetension and break the sadness and
the depth and despair.
Yeah, that's a keeper.

(41:07):
Anyway, let's move on to thisweek's question of the week. So I
didn't want to. I didn't wantto bring us all down with a question
of what would you do about thelong walk? Or anything like that.
So. But let's. Let's flip iton its head. If you were doing the
long walk, which celebritywould you want with you and why?
Oh, I don't know if I'd wantsomeone strong that could basically
carry me or someone who couldjust make me laugh.
Well, I've already thought ofthis. I would want Arnie as the Terminator

(41:29):
because he could just push mealong or carry me. No, carry. Well,
you can't carry me, but pushme along. And then when I. When it
comes to the end, it was justme and him. I'd say, kill yourself,
and he would.
So you could just terminatehimself. You could take Fictional.
I take Bumblebee.
Nice.
Just get in the car. Oh, youhave to walk, wouldn't you? That
would suck.
Can the Terminator selfterminate? I don't think he can.
Can he?

(41:49):
Well, he just took that thingout of his chest.
I know, but would he? If he'snot, you'd have to be John Connor,
though.
That's. That's my choiceanyway, I'm sticking to it.
I just want someone funny.I'll take Rick Mayall.
Yeah, morale. I mean, moralewould get you through a lot of it.
So I'm going to take SandraBullock to apologize for the fact
that we've rated this on thehead of the net.
If it's Sandra Bullock, it'sdown to you two. Are you killing

(42:11):
her to win?
No, she can win. It's fine.
Are you going to say that?
That's fine, but think of thegood times we'll have had on the
walk. Right. And I kind ofapologize for the fact that we bumped
the net underneath this verydepressing film.
So, listeners, that is thequestion. If you were doing the Long
Walk, which celebrity wouldyou want with you and why? You did
well on the last one.
So actually I take Andrew Tatebecause then death would be a lovely
freedom.

(42:32):
Oh, you're thinking about itin a different way.
You wouldn't mind killing.Yeah, that makes sense. So that's
the question. If you can emailus hello, Movies in a nutshell dot
com. Or hit us on our socials.They're on the show notes. We'll
put it out on the socials whenthis episode goes out anyway, so
you can answer that way. Okay,this takes us on to next week's movie,
which is me.

(42:52):
Is it you?
Yes, I'm October. Okay, firstmovie of October. I'm going back
to 1990 and an actor wehaven't done yet. I don't believe
Robin Williams.
Oh, my God. My mind is reelingat what film she might be going for.
1990s, 1990.
Have we, have we done Robin?We haven't. Have we?
No, we haven't. One was Hook.Is it Hook?

(43:12):
Is it good? Who Hunting?
No, it's gonna. We're justgonna name no lesser known film called
Awakenings.
Robert De Niro.
Yes.
If I've seen it, I've seen itonce. A long, long time ago. Or I
just aware of what it is.
No, never heard of it.
Yes.
Yeah. I'll be honest, I don'tthink I've heard of this one.

(43:34):
This is one of those filmsWhere I just happened. You know when
you're flicking through. I waslike. I was probably like 17, 18.
I was looking for the channelswhen I should have been asleep.
Yep.
And it just died. And I waslike, oh, this looks interesting.
And I watched it. I only sawit the once. I've still never seen
it since, but it just stuck inmy mind. Certain scenes are, like
ingrained in my mind. I don'tknow why.
Is it like a drama? Robert DeNiro's in it.

(43:55):
Yeah, it's quite. It's drama.Yeah. Yeah. 1990 awakenings. I'm
not gonna give too much away.So, yeah, that's it. That's next
week's movie. So if you wantto get in touch with us, you could
email us.Hello@moviesinachell.com. our website
is moviesinnutshell.com butalso now you can send us a voicemail.
If you go tomoviesinnutshell.com, there's a little
bit at the bottom or dependingon your mobile or desktop, or at

(44:16):
the side that says set as avoicemail. So if you click on that,
it opens a thing called speakpipe. Literally, you just press record
and open up the mic on yourphone. Just give us a message, whatever
you want to say. It'll comestraight through to us here.
So if people want to confesstheir undying love for Darren as
fans or hate.
If you want to tell Darrenthat you're a listener, go ahead,
tell me. Telling you to listento your heart's content. But yeah,

(44:37):
you want to say anything youwant to say. Feedback. You don't
have to type. You can justrecord it into your phone. It'll
come through to us here.
This is very modern and we can.
Play them on the show.
Nice.
Oh, that is modern.
It's a quick, easy way to getin touch with us. Well, I'll put
a link to that in the. In thesocials as well after this as well.
Can we send our own messages?
In fact, that's my mission.You two are going to send us a message.

(44:57):
Yeah, I got.
It's busy day for next time.
For next time.
That's your challenge.
Yeah.
Okay, this episode isofficially over. This is Mark say
goodbye down saying goodbyefor now.
And I can't remember anyquotes from this film.
Goodbye. You're fired, Paul. Fired.

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The Long Walk - In A Nutshell(Cinema Trip)

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