Warning: Major spoilers for The Long Walk aheadFrancis Lawrence’s adaptation of Stephen King’s acclaimed novel The Long Walk makes several narrative departures from the source material, and as a result it boasts an ending even stronger than King’s original conclusion. Starring Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson, The Long Walk chronicles a dystopian future in which young men take part in a grueling contest to the death for money and a single wish.

The desolate America of The Long Walk has bred a culture of desperation and financial insecurity, which is the driving force behind the 50 boys participating in the Long Walk. As a result, the race presents a paradoxical scenario in which each of the participants can only succeed if they outlast their comrades, but support from those same comrades is key to lasting longer.

Stephen King’s original ending saw the story’s protagonist, Ray Garraty, outlast everyone else and win the contest, but near death and hallucinating, he breaks into a run, chasing a shadowy figure. The Long Walk features a twist ending involving Ray (Hoffman) and Pete (Jonsson), the final two contestants, but that departure from the source material made for an even better ending than the original.

The Long Walk’s Twist Ending Is Completely Earned

In the movie’s ending, Ray and Pete both attempt to sacrifice themselves so that the other can win, in the ultimate testament to the bond they developed during the course of the Long Walk. While Ray wins the contest in the novel, he successfully sacrifices himself in the movie so that Pete wins.

It’s a stunning twist that honestly could have gone very wrong, but Lawrence nails it because of how well-earned the ending is. It isn’t a cheap pivot meant to throw off readers of the novel and provide shock value. Rather, it’s a sensible and even natural final result of the genuine relationship between Ray and Pete that grew over the course of the Walk.

During the Walk we learn that, despite having a brutal and tragic upbringing, Pete is a genuinely good person who finds beauty in the world when he should be bitter, angry, and jaded. Ray is also a good person, but he is driven by vengeance against the twisted overseer of the contest, known only as the Major (Mark Hamill).

Pete has nobody in his life, while Ray has a mother he hopes to take care of with his winnings from the Long Walk. Pete attempts to simply sit down and allow Ray to win, only to have Ray pull him up and push him forward. Ray stops walking, and is killed almost immediately, providing a moment of genuine surprise for anyone who read the novel.

Ray knows that he would have never made it as far as he had without Pete, who quite literally carried him forward on multiple occasions in his darkest moments. He knows Pete will do good for others with the money, and deserves it because of how pure his intentions are. As heartbreaking as Ray’s decision is, it makes complete sense in the context of the conversations the pair had during the movie.

The ending hits even harder than King’s original ending because, while it maintains the horror and tragedy of the contest, it infuses even more heart into the relationship between Ray and Pete. In the novel, Pete doesn’t even make the final two, whereas the movie allows them to have an incredibly powerful final interaction before the contest ends, proving that the contest couldn’t rob them of their humanity.

Pete’s Murder Of The Major Makes Complete Sense

The other significant departure from the novel comes after Pete is crowned the winner. With victory secured, Pete uses his one wish the way that Ray originally intended to use his: to obtain a gun with which to kill the Major on the spot. As the overseer of the contest, and seemingly a key figure in America’s nightmarish post-war government/dictatorship, the Major is one of the most influential figures in the country.

Ray intended to kill the Major as recompense for the Major’s murder of his own father, who defiantly refused to bend a knee to the new regime, and also taught Ray using banned materials and philosophies. Pete, on the other hand, recognizes that killing the Major could be a symbolic act of defiance that helps break the country free of the yoke of desolation and poverty.

In memory of Ray, and as the ultimate method of doing good for others as he intended, Pete kills the Major in cold blood, theoretically ending the Long Walk for good and ending the Major’s reign of terror. On the surface, it seems like a pivot from Pete’s nature as far as valuing beauty and peace, but in reality it’s a completely natural move given how much the Long Walk affected him.

While most of the other 49 compeтιтors died as a result of the physical toll the Walk took on their bodies, Pete was never broken. However, the emotional toll of watching his friends pushed to their limit and then butchered is what finally broke him, with Ray’s tragic death as the final straw.

Pete winning and killing the Major in Ray’s honor and an attempt at ending the contest is an even better ending than Stephen King’s original haunting conclusion to The Long Walk. The emotional impact of the ending, earned over the course of the movie’s narrative, is what takes it to a level even King’s ending never reached.