‘A House of Dynamite’ and ‘The Long Walk’ - A Nightmare Sequence vs. A Nightmarish World

In the last few days, two films became available online, one on Netflix, the other on Digital. I won't say both of them were disappointments, but what was the point? The most recent one, ‘A House of Dynamite’ by Netflix, has divided the opinions across every movie geek, audience, and even the critics. I myself ended up exploring the main point and theme of the film after watching it. Generally, I never do it, but I thought I might have missed something, but I found out I wasn't the only one. I know people are sharing a lot of opinions about the ending, but I will get into it in the latter part of this article. As a starting point, ‘A House of Dynamite’ is neither a good film nor a bad film, nor even an average film. I will call it a 'Nightmare Sequence.' However, the nightmare wasn't mine or yours; it was the writer's, who woke up from it because it was too scary to see what lies ahead.

With ‘A House of Dynamite,’ at least we get to see almost 100 minutes of thrilling drama even though, the same 15-18 eventful minutes have been repeated multiple times, but with Stephen King's ‘The Long Walk,’ we keep expecting something exciting to happen, but we end up with an ordinary, unexciting lesson, which again made me wonder, what was the point?

‘The Long Walk’ is a more than 300 mile journey for the characters where their life depends on it, in turn, it is also a 100 minute frustrating journey for a hopeful audience that keeps expecting that there must be some point where these characters add someting interesting, create some events, do some rebellion, afterall, it;s a movie set in a dystopian world. Apart from a few minor hiccups, everything that happens in this long film is itself mentioned in the official plotline: "A group of 100 teenage boys compete in an annual contest known as 'The Long Walk,' in which they must maintain a certain walking speed or get shot." This is exactly what happens in the entire film: one contestant gets shot every few minutes until one remains at the end. The survivor was the one who had the most lines in this film. I keep wondering how, after walking so much, one person can talk so much with this insane amount of energy. He is certainly not a real person, and this might be the twist. I ended up with a huge disappointment.

I think the point of ‘The Long Walk’ was to have no point at all. It was a complete film with not even a small twist and exactly as straight as the official logline. If you watch the first 15 mins, go for a break, come back for the last 15 mins, only the number of on-screen contestants will decrease, but you won't miss a thing; they were not supposed to survive.

The nightmare sequence - ‘A House of Dynamite’ was much more eventful. Every minute makes you feel the urgency. If there were no option to pause, I wouldn't have thought to even attend an urgent nature's call. Unlike Stephen King's adaptation, ‘A House of Dynamite’ keeps us on the edge for almost 100 minutes with thrilling drama, only to leave us feeling like waking up from a nightmare where we missed the finish. The main point is - Almost everyone, including me, has dreams and nightmares that don't end on a conclusion, and we try to sleep again to find out what happens next, but we never get a chance. The problem with ‘A House of Dynamite’ is that it doesn't even give you that option, a dream or nightmare gives you in your sleep, a choice to go back to sleep. Was that the point? - You can't revisit a nightmare, or did the writer actually have this nightmare and decide to bring it on screen? There is no definite ending because when the writer went back to find out, there was nothing.

Out of the two, ‘A House of Dynamite’ was more entertaining, but ‘The Long Walk’ has a point to make. ‘A House of Dynamite’ is a nightmare sequence in real life, and ‘The Long Walk’ is a real-life scenario in a nightmarish world. The first one gives you thrilling moments and events in a pre-apocalyptic world, while the other gives you a reality check in the post-apocalyptic world. Despite having a lot of on-screen talent, there is no savior in ‘A House of Dynamite’  and no rebel in ‘The Long Walk’. Let me know in the comments if you still don't get the point.