One hundred boys start the annual walking contest in Stephen King’s novel The Long Walk.
Originally published in 1979 under King’s pen name Richard Bachman, the novel imagines a totalitarian future United States where teenage boys enter a deadly endurance competition. The walkers must maintain a minimum speed, and those who fall below the limit receive warnings before being eliminated.
The contest continues until only one participant remains. Although the premise resembles a conventional sporting event, the novel’s rules make it a grim examination of obedience, entertainment, state power, and the pressure to continue despite exhaustion.
The Long Walk is distinct from King’s later dystopian novel The Running Man, which was also published as a Bachman book. The two novels share bleak future settings, but The Long Walk focuses on the participants’ continuous march rather than a televised pursuit across a country.