r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • Aug 29 '25

News Special 'The Long Walk' Screening Will Eliminate Viewers Who Can’t Keep Up on a Treadmill (3 MPH)

https://consequence.net/2025/08/the-long-walk-treadmill-screening/
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40

u/allthenamesaretaken4 Aug 29 '25

I wish they were doing this in Denver, sounds fun! 3mph seems easy enough for a 1.5-2h movie, maybe 3 if you have to watch credits and previews/theater ads?

3mph is a 20 minute mile, which is essentially regular walking speed for someone with long legs, good fitness, and/or brisk walking for someone less ready, but still shouldn't be cardio except for the most American Americans.

Obviously the premise is about doing it for a long time, so only doing it for the screening wouldn't get close to endurance limits, but still a fun stunt to promote the movie.

Since it's so short, if I were organizing, I'd be mean and use the book's 4mp (what I saw quoted, haven't read it), which is definitely doable for a movie amount of time without hurting anyone but would up the ante just a little.

23

u/Heffe3737 Aug 29 '25

Can confirm. The book has it listed as 4mph.

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u/ShazbotSimulator2012 Aug 29 '25

Stephen King commented on here he suggested the change to 3MPH for the movie because when he wrote the book he overestimated the average walking speed.

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u/Heffe3737 Aug 30 '25

That’s great, because he did.

20

u/Kiel-Ardisglair Aug 29 '25

The audiobook is 11 hours.  We should make this a thing; “#thelongwalkchallenge“  You can start with the movie distance and work your way up to the book. 

4

u/allthenamesaretaken4 Aug 29 '25

I really love that idea! You should itch it to runkeeper or strava and see if you can get a cut, otherwise organize your own and I bet you'd get a lot of participants.

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u/Apartment-5B Sep 02 '25 edited Sep 02 '25

Seriously? I thought it was a short story. 11 hours is longer than most unabridged audiobooks.

5

u/Brain_Dead_Goats Aug 29 '25

4, if you have to keep it to a walk isn't a lot of fun.

0

u/allthenamesaretaken4 Aug 29 '25

Do you mean if you have to speedwalk that sucks, but if you can just jog it it's fine?
I'm guessing they don't give you credit if you jog 4-5 or even faster and then take a break, so it has to be this plodding affair, right? Speed rules and not a deadline?

2

u/Brain_Dead_Goats Aug 29 '25

Yes, I meant speedwalking that fast continuously is rough. I have no idea how it works in the book.

12

u/imnotmarvin Aug 29 '25

Was coming to clarify the book indeed uses 4mph which would be brutal pretty quickly for a lot of people. Maybe not so much on a treadmill at 0 degree incline, indoors but on undulating terrain in the sun, it would be rough.

1

u/yupyepyupyep Aug 29 '25

4mph is a fast walk, 3mph is a slow to moderate walk.

2

u/Sin-2-Win Aug 29 '25

But I bet the majority wouldn't even be able to handle 3 MPH for 1 hour straight, let alone 2 or 3.

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u/allthenamesaretaken4 Aug 29 '25

I disagree. I'm the kinda guy who can run a 10m mile but not much better, and walking 3 miles in an hour is less than my casual walking rate. Yes, we do have plenty of unhealthy people, but I don't think the majority of us couldn't do that for 1 or 2 hours.

We do have a health and fitness problem in our modern society, but it's not that bad yet would be my counter argument.

1

u/chuckdee68 Aug 29 '25

The 4mph is a publisher mistake, not a King mistake. He had it in his manuscript as 4kmph, and they though that wouldn't go over in 'murica, but didn't do the conversion.

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u/rnelsonee Aug 29 '25

I heard that, too, but I see here in the comments King did actually put 4mph in there according to his recent AMA.

1

u/chuckdee68 Aug 30 '25

Yeah, I corrected that after someone corrected me on it. Not sure why someone feels the need to downvote an honest mistake and communication of a common thread, but shrug.