Hideo Kojima Champions the 2025 Stephen King Film Everyone Slept On
Hideo Kojima finally weighs in on 2025’s widely panned Stephen King adaptation, saying it deserved better — and his verdict is already stirring up gamers and cinephiles alike.
One of the more unexpected movie takes this year just came from Hideo Kojima, and honestly, I get it. The guy behind Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding watched Francis Lawrence's The Long Walk on a plane and decided to plant a flag. Given how often he weighs in on films and how far his posts travel, that got people talking.
Hideo Kojima just weighed in
Kojima posted on December 9, saying he finally caught The Long Walk mid-flight and came away impressed by how Francis Lawrence handled it. He even framed it as a thematic broadside at grown-ups, which... is a pretty fun way to describe a Stephen King adaptation about kids pushed to the brink.
"I watched The Long Walk on the plane. It was great. Director Francis Lawrence is clever. It is a meta, philosophical film about friendship and growth and also a declaration of war against the adults."
He also admitted he went in expecting something closer to The Running Man: a TV-obsessed, reality show-style sci-fi story like those 80s media satires. Instead, the movie swerved into something quieter and more reflective, which is exactly the kind of curveball this material needs.
What King's book is vs. what the movie does
If you haven't read the novel: it's about teenagers forced to keep walking down a road. If you stop, you get shot. Last one left wins. It's brutal by design, and the 'road' works as a pretty stark metaphor for pushing through pain and trauma because stopping isn't an option.
King's original ending is as bleak as it sounds. The final boy doesn't even realize he has won; he just keeps walking until he fades from view. The 2025 film changes that. Lawrence nudges the finale toward human connection and sacrifice, keeping the intensity but aiming for something a little more hopeful without pretending the story isn't a nightmare.
Stephen King actually liked the changed ending
King is famously tough on adaptations, especially when they tinker with his endings. This time, he was into it. Lawrence told Entertainment Weekly that the author signed off on the shift:
"Luckily, he [Stephen King] really liked the ending, I think, because we stayed true to its spirit. I think he was willing to go for it."
That approval is not nothing. King liking an altered ending is like a solar eclipse: rare, surprising, and people remember it.
So why didn't it blow up?
Short answer: it did fine, not great. The Long Walk cost around 20 million and pulled in 62 million worldwide, so it made its money back with room to breathe. But it never quite broke through to the mainstream conversation.
And you can see why. The premise is punishing, the violence is aimed squarely at teenagers (because that's the point), and Lawrence shoots it with a relentless, on-the-move style that sticks close to the kids and rarely lets up. It's effective, but also exhausting by design. Not exactly a Friday night crowd-pleaser.
Still, if we're talking about pure execution and staying power, I'd have it in the year's top five. It takes a notoriously grim book, keeps its spine, and finds a way to end on something humane without betraying what King wrote. That balance is tougher than it looks.
The quick-hit details
- Directed by: Francis Lawrence
- Cast: David Jonsson, Cooper Hoffman, Mark Hamill
- Release date: September 12, 2025
- IMDb: 6.8/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
- Budget: 20 million
- Worldwide box office: 62 million
- Production: Vertigo Entertainment
- Where to watch: Apple TV