If The Long Walk horrified you, check out these dystopian survival stories

The Long Walk is easily one of my favorite underappreciated Stephen King novels, so the film adaptation was one of my most anticipated films of 2025. It did not disappoint at all, and it really captured the harrowing atmosphere of the book. This says a lot, because it's difficult for dystopian fiction to truly stand out in modern times, but The Long Walk manages to be both standout fiction and relevant, especially for an adaptation of a novel that was published in 1979.

Watching The Long Walk sent me down a dystopian survival rabbit hole, too, and the genre is truly stacked with some fantastic films and shows. They all left me feeling just as hopeless as The Long Walk, but in the best way possible.

The Running Man

Watch The Running Man on Netflix and Paramount+

Another Stephen King adaptation, though arguably much sillier than The Long Walk movie. Still, the book it's based on, which was also written by King, is much more horrifying, though the film does manage to capture the dystopian setting in a believable way. The premise is simple but disturbing: Ben Richards (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a contestant on the eponymous game show, where he must survive being hunted by brutal professional killers in order to gain his freedom.

As a fan of the novel, I wish the movie had followed the book more closely, but it's still a worthy dystopian survival film with some enjoyable action scenes. There's also another adaptation scheduled for release late in 2025, which appears to be more faithful to the source material. Additionally, it's directed by acclaimed director Edgar Wright and stars Glen Powell in the leading role.

The Hunger Games

Watch The Hunger Games on HBO Max

It's difficult to compile a list like this without mentioning the franchise that helped popularize dystopian survival stories for a modern audience. The Hunger Games is pretty harrowing stuff for young adult fiction. Focused on a group of young participants who must survive and kill each other until only one is left standing, The Hunger Games sticks pretty close to the same dystopian tropes that make The Long Walk so compelling.

Of course, The Hunger Games is a bit lighter compared to the works of King, but not by much. These movies do not pull punches when it comes to thematic value, level of violence, and complicated morality. There's also a sense of not knowing who to trust, which gives it a paranoia-fueled thriller feel to the whole thing.

Squid Game

Watch Squid Game on Netflix

While other movies and shows on this list seem preoccupied with the potential for dystopian futures, Squid Game is rooted firmly in the present, and it's all the more terrifying for it. This Netflix original was a big hit for the streamer, and for good reason. A group of desperate volunteer contestants participates in a secretive game where the winner receives a large sum of money.

Alliances are temporary; the games themselves are tense and unpredictable, and the characters are richly written. The last two seasons do not quite capture what made the first season so great, but this is still a great Netflix thriller that's worth the binge.

The Road

Watch The Road on Tubi

Based on Cormac McCarthy's fantastic novel of the same name, The Road is more post-apocalyptic than other entries on this list, but it still captures the hopelessness that the best dystopian fiction brings to the table. How does a man (Viggo Mortensen) and his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) survive in a world that is all but dead? It's not a new question for stories like this, but it's answered in a way that is purely of McCarthy's known style.

The movie isn't quite as compelling as its source material, as is often the case, but The Road is great filmmaking with S-tier acting from the central cast. It's also one of those movies that I can only watch once every few years, because it hits me right in the emotions like a ton of bricks.

Fallout

Watch Fallout on Amazon Prime Video

Another post-apocalyptic story with all the trademarks of great dystopian fiction, Fallout is a little more tongue-in-cheek than most shows or movies in this genre. It makes sense, as the games it's adapted from are the exact same way. Taking place in a world decimated by nuclear explosions years in the future, Fallout tells the story of Lucy (Ella Purnell), a naive vault dweller who searches for her father in the vast wasteland of the former United States.

Like the games, this Amazon Prime Video original proved to be a big hit with audiences, and the second season is set to be released toward the end of 2025. While there are a lot of heavy themes present here, from anti-war sentiment to the struggle to survive, Fallout is funnier and more action-packed than you'd probably think.

Dystopian fiction remains a sobering reflection of modern society

Probably one of my favorite aspects of dystopian stories is how they comment on the pitfalls of modern society and showcase a fictional future that could very well become reality. That doesn't exactly make it the most accessible genre, especially when the real world can be scary enough as it is. Which is why I like to balance shows and movies like this by binge-watching comfort shows when life gets just a little too overwhelming.