Peter McVries (David Jonsson, center left) and Ray Garraty (Cooper Hoffman) become friends amid a brutal competition in the dystopian thriller "The Long Walk."
Tut Nyuot (far left), Charlie Plummer, David Jonsson and Cooper Hoffman hang out on a tank on the set of "The Long Walk."

“The Long Walk” features a group of guys who meet as strangers, go walking for hundreds of miles, and form lasting bonds along the way.

The actors starring in the dystopian thriller (in theaters now) had a similar experience, and thankfully didn’t get shot in the face for failing to keep up. For Cooper Hoffman, it cemented his love of movies with “intensely strong male friendships,” he says. “I find them to be very comforting.”

Based on the 1979 Stephen King novel, “The Long Walk" imagines an America ruled by an authoritarian regime where young men volunteer for a grueling annual walking contest. The last one standing wins great riches and a wish for anything they want. Everyone else meets a cruel fate: Competitors who fall under 3 mph and receive three warnings are executed by the villainous Major (Mark Hamill).

Even under such dire circumstances, the characters form relationships, most strongly between Ray Garraty (Hoffman) and Pete McVries (David Jonsson). Life imitated art, as the actors got to know each other on the road, talking music and movies, playing games and unleashing jokes. “We just laughed about stupid stuff. Our senses of humor are really silly and dark,” Jonsson, 32, says with a chuckle.

Hoffman, 22, recalls immediately knowing that his British co-star was “one of the most charismatic people I've ever met in my life. Even over Zoom, which is hard to do.” For his part, Jonsson describes Hoffman with “love and respect”: “Cooper's young, but he's way beyond his years as a soul.”

The movie’s most important aspect is “the central love story” between Ray and Pete, says screenwriter JT Mollner. “It's just about finding somebody to connect with in all the darkness and all the struggle.”

'The Long Walk' comes from the mind of Stephen King

“The Long Walk” was the first novel that King wrote, working on it as young American troops were sent off to war in Vietnam. He nailed “who our young men are – who they have been, who they can be, and what happens when you disenfranchise people,” says Jonsson, adding that the film feels “uncannily relevant” today.

The movie adaptation is also rife with metaphors about boys becoming men and overcoming life-or-death circumstances to make it out the other side.

“I’ve never been to war. I’ve never been drafted. I haven't lived through that, so I can't play that,” Hoffman says. “The thing I can play is a fear of a thing. In this case, it's the government having more power over me than I will ever have over them, and the naivete of a 17-year-old to go in and think they can change everything and then slowly, as the movie progresses, realizing that they can’t.

“The thing that was so beautiful to me about ‘The Long Walk' was just how much of an assimilation of life it is, which is also deeply saddening as well.”

The world is different than when Jonsson grew up in east London. “The Internet is just crazy now,” he says. What is similar, however, is “the insecurities that we all carry as young people. I got kicked out of school when I was 14 for fighting. ... We go through all those feelings and we need outlets for it. And in a world where there is no outlet for it except for this walk, they're going to do it because they’ve got to get it out.”

Cooper Hoffman finds a personal connection with his 'Long Walk' character

Hoffman isn’t that far away from his own teen years but male friends and role models were huge for him as a kid. “They'll mean something for my entire life,” says Hoffman, whose father was Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. “At 17, it's important. At 22, it still feels important, but for different reasons.”

Like Hoffman, his character’s dad died when he was younger and the tragedy spurs him to do the Long Walk. “It's hard not to look at it on the page and think about your own life and connect the two, but my father wasn't killed in front of me by a government official,” Hoffman says. “There's a different kind of anger that comes with that.”

He felt a greater kinship when Ray sees his mom and is like, “ ‘Oh, my God, I've done this thing. What am I doing here?’ I've had that thought a lot in my life,” Hoffman says with a laugh.

As a role model, Hoffman shouts out his own mom, Mimi O'Donnell. “She just kind of taught me everything. She held my hand through my teens,” he says. “I lost my dad when I was 9. I don't remember a lot of it because of how young I was. My dad was also on movie sets a lot, and when he was around, he was a loving, amazing father. But a lot of the reason why I am who I am today is because of my mother.”

Hoffman finds that movies are like “a pendulum,” and he thinks films such as “Stand by Me” and “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” that focused on strong male friendships are “swinging back” now.

“We need to see more of people connecting because that's what life is about, isn't it?” Jonsson adds. “You're just trying to connect. This film reflects that in such a gorgeous way but also brutal.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'The Long Walk' is brutal. It's also a stirring exploration of male friendship.

Reporting by Brian Truitt, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect