# Adaptations: movies that ended drastically different from their literary counterpart **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 1, 2004, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adaptations-movies-that-ended-drastically-different-from-their-literary-counterpart/272377 "2004-11-01T18:44:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adaptations-movies-that-ended-drastically-different-from-their-literary-counterpart/272377/41 "2004-11-01T22:00:06Z")
_Hannibal_’s novel ending outraged many fans, and would have sunk the movie, so they gave the movie a more upbeat ending. In the novelLector succeeds in brainwashing Clarice, using drugs, hypnosis and at one point making her think she’s talking to her deceased father. She happily dines on her former harrasser’s frontal lobes and becomes Lector’s willing lover. ---
**Author:** ![Tentacle\_Monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba9def/32.png) [@Tentacle\_Monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tentacle_Monster)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adaptations-movies-that-ended-drastically-different-from-their-literary-counterpart/272377/42 "2004-11-01T22:00:43Z")
I can’t believe nobody’s mentioned _The Running Man_. The compleat list of what _The Running Man_ (the Arnold movie) and _The Running Man_ (one of Stephen King’s _Bachman_ books) have in common: 1. Some of the character names. 2. The concept that it would be televised. 3. Put it in ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adaptations-movies-that-ended-drastically-different-from-their-literary-counterpart/272377/43 "2004-11-01T22:03:40Z")
Somehow, I was always under the impression RAH wrote the “Destination Moon” short story after the screenplay, or at least simultaneously with the screenplay… Sir Rhosis ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adaptations-movies-that-ended-drastically-different-from-their-literary-counterpart/272377/44 "2004-11-01T22:05:27Z")
In the Cut. Drastically different ending. Say what you want, but I kind of liked this flick. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adaptations-movies-that-ended-drastically-different-from-their-literary-counterpart/272377/45 "2004-11-01T22:28:55Z")
> [@Tentacle Monster](#): > > I can’t believe nobody’s mentioned _The Running Man_. > > The compleat list of what _The Running Man_ (the Arnold movie) and _The Running Man_ (one of Stephen King’s _Bachman_ books) have in common: > > 1. Some of the character names. > 2. The concept that it would be televised. > 3. Put it in SK’s short story The Lawnmower Man and the film have the following in common: 1. Erm… 2. Hi, Opal. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adaptations-movies-that-ended-drastically-different-from-their-literary-counterpart/272377/46 "2004-11-01T22:32:44Z")
It’s up for debate how “literary” some of these are, but… _The Firm_ the movie ends with Mitch and wife riding into the sunset back to practice law at a real firm, while the book has a great getaway through Florida strip motels and absconding to the Caribbean with mob and FBI money _Cider House Rules_-[spoiler]the movie condenses into two years a story that takes place over thirty or more years in the novel\* _Night of the Iguana_- the movie has most of the same characters as the play but a completely different storyline (the biggest change: the play is set ca. 1940 and the movie was set contemporary with its filming in 1964) _Frankenstein_- the b/w 1931 classic has almost nothing to do with the book (it’s set in a different time, has a totally different feel, the monster is an incommunicative revenant, the Arctic chase is gone, etc.- some remakes were closer but still strayed significantly (especially in asinine sideplots) _Gone With the Wind_- Rhett leaves Scarlett in both, but much sooner in the book (they are already separated when Melanie dies) ---
**Author:** ![antisuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@antisuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antisuck)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adaptations-movies-that-ended-drastically-different-from-their-literary-counterpart/272377/47 "2004-11-01T22:38:11Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > _Hannibal_’s novel ending outraged many fans, and would have sunk the movie, so they gave the movie a more upbeat ending. I was going to mention _Hannibal_ if nobody else did, but it is interesting to me that I would have framed my post in an entirely different way; I **loved** the ending to the book, and the changed ending utterly ruined the film for me (other failings aside). Perhaps it should be said, though, that I very much enjoyed the book as a whole. I understand many found the book to be rather overwrought and baroque, and I can understand an attraction to the somewhat more restrained tone of the film, and more conventionally pleasing ending. ---
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adaptations-movies-that-ended-drastically-different-from-their-literary-counterpart/272377/48 "2004-11-01T22:42:13Z")
All this mention of _Minority Report_ and none of _Total Recall_? Another in which the whole movie is different than the short story. In fact, the short story almost doesn’t have an ending, just a prophecy. If you want to consider mythology, I submit > [@](#): > > Clash of the Titans . Although Perseus does rescue Andomeda, he doesn’t do it by riding Pegasus. ---
**Author:** ![Avarie537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/48db29/32.png) [@Avarie537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avarie537)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adaptations-movies-that-ended-drastically-different-from-their-literary-counterpart/272377/49 "2004-11-01T22:46:47Z")
Not exactly a fine cinematic experience, but **The Horse Whisperer** movie version ending was drastically different from the book. I don’t really remember how either one of them ended right now, but I know it wasn’t the same! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adaptations-movies-that-ended-drastically-different-from-their-literary-counterpart/272377/50 "2004-11-01T23:11:27Z")
Yep. In the book The Horse Whisperer, the title character dies in the end. **From Russia With Love**. In the Fleming novel, Rosa Klebb manages to kick Bond in the shin, and Bond collapses, apparently doomed. (Although Fleming resuscitates him for more adventures, in a laughable _deus ex machina_: MI6 gives him the antidote to the poison in time. Yeah, right!) ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adaptations-movies-that-ended-drastically-different-from-their-literary-counterpart/272377/51 "2004-11-01T23:13:36Z")
I’ve always found the ending of the 1940 film version of \*\*Rebecca \*\* disappointing: [spoiler]In the original novel, the “perfect” marriage of Maxim and Rebecca de Winter is in fact a complete sham. In reality they loathe each other. Rebecca is flagrantly unfaithful to Maxim and he kills her after she leads him to think that she may be carrying another man’s child. There’s no doubt in the reader’s mind that Maxim is a murderer. The film version makes Rebecca’s death an accident, with Maxim no longer a murderer.[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adaptations-movies-that-ended-drastically-different-from-their-literary-counterpart/272377/52 "2004-11-01T23:19:28Z")
> [@Odinoneeye](#): > > If you want to consider mythology, I submit . Although Perseus does rescue Andomeda, he doesn’t do it by riding Pegasus. Or _Troy_, in which Agamemnon and Menelaos die in battle and there is no Cassandra. ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adaptations-movies-that-ended-drastically-different-from-their-literary-counterpart/272377/53 "2004-11-01T23:32:29Z")
Both stage and film versions of _My Fair Lady,_ while retaining the structure and a lot of the dialogue of Shaw’s _Pygmalion,_ change the ending: in the musical, Eliza goes back to Higgins at the end, but in the original play she leaves him for feckless but loyal dork Freddy Hill. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Death](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecccb3/32.png) [@Evil\_Death](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Death)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adaptations-movies-that-ended-drastically-different-from-their-literary-counterpart/272377/54 "2004-11-02T00:07:56Z")
> [@Peter Morris](#): > > SK’s short story The Lawnmower Man and the film have the following in common: > > 1. Erm… > 2. Hi, Opal. Which is why King successfully sued to have his name removed from it. **Sampiro** - I know nothing of this book called “Troy” of which you speak. However, in The Iliad, the poem on which Troy is solely based, Cassandra barely exists as a character. Her part in the siege of Troy is in the works of Euripides, Vergil and Aeschylus. Criticise for the rest if you like, but not for that. ---
**Author:** ![audit1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@audit1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audit1)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adaptations-movies-that-ended-drastically-different-from-their-literary-counterpart/272377/55 "2004-11-02T00:25:44Z")
**Ice Station Zebra** The film diverges from the book once the sub arrives at the station. In the book the USS Dolphin arrives at the station rescues the survivors and finds the satellite. A fire breaks out aboard the sub and the spy has to identify which of the survivors is the saboteur in a scene right out of every mystery novel. No Soviet paratroopers, no standoff. ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adaptations-movies-that-ended-drastically-different-from-their-literary-counterpart/272377/56 "2004-11-02T00:40:07Z")
_Fried Green Tomatoes_ though quite faithful to the book, did modify the end just a touch. [spoiler]In _Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe_ Jessica Tandy’s character, Ninnie Threadgoode, does die in the end. In the movie, she lives and goes to live with Kathy Bates. I guess there are two reasons to do this. 1) It was really too sad for the movie and 2) the end of the movie _implied_ that _maybe_ Jessica Tandy was really Idgie. Although, those who were listening carefully at the start of the film will hear Ninnie say she is Idgie’s sister-in-law which is consistent with the book. Ninnie was a big-boned girl who married Idgie’s brother. [/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Ilsa\_Lund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a6a055/32.png) [@Ilsa\_Lund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ilsa_Lund)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adaptations-movies-that-ended-drastically-different-from-their-literary-counterpart/272377/57 "2004-11-02T00:42:51Z")
> [@Cunctator](#): > > I’ve always found the ending of the 1940 film version of \*\*Rebecca \*\* disappointing: > > [spoiler]In the original novel, the “perfect” marriage of Maxim and Rebecca de Winter is in fact a complete sham. In reality they loathe each other. Rebecca is flagrantly unfaithful to Maxim and he kills her after she leads him to think that she may be carrying another man’s child. There’s no doubt in the reader’s mind that Maxim is a murderer. > > The film version makes Rebecca’s death an accident, with Maxim no longer a murderer.[/spoiler] Ehhh, that was for the censors. There wasn’t supposed to be much doubt in anyone’s mind that Maxim killed her. At the very least it was meant to be very ambiguous. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adaptations-movies-that-ended-drastically-different-from-their-literary-counterpart/272377/58 "2004-11-02T01:09:00Z")
I don’t remember much (o.k., virtually nothing) about the James Fenimore Cooper **The Last of the Mohicans** , except that the fate of the sisters was quite different from what was invented in the Michael Mann movie. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adaptations-movies-that-ended-drastically-different-from-their-literary-counterpart/272377/59 "2004-11-02T01:24:59Z")
> [@](#): > > Cal , Destination Moon was not based on the book Rocket Ship Galileo. It was based on a short story of Heinlein’s titled, umm, “Destination Moon.” Not sure what all anthologies it’s in, but I read it in Requiem , a book of lesser known Heinlein works, plus essays about RAH, collected after he died. Along with the story, Heinlein went into great detail explaining how the movie was made, quite interesting. The movie is as faithful to the plot (and science known at the time) as it could be. Nope. Everyone, Heinlein included , says that he based DM on his first juvenile, Rocket Ship Gaileo. IIRC, “Destination Moon” was a piece written to hype the film. ---
**Author:** ![Catalyst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@Catalyst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catalyst)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adaptations-movies-that-ended-drastically-different-from-their-literary-counterpart/272377/60 "2004-11-02T01:27:39Z")
_Fight Club_ – the book and movie end completely differently, and some of the background detail is a bit different. Off the top of my head: [ul] [li]Tyler and “Jack” meet for the first time on a beach a few years earlier, not on a plane.[/li][li]Tyler and “Jack” get their human fat from Marla’s mom, not by robbing a lyposuction clinic (initially, at least; they might have done that later).[/li][li]The recipes for explosives and napalm that Tyler gives are different in the movie, supposedly because of concerns that the ones in the book would actually work.[/li][li]The big one: The buildings Tyler and Project Mayhem have targeted do not blow up because Tyler used an explosive recipe that doesn’t work.[/li]The book continues past the events in the movie; specifically, “Jack” is institutionalized, and just when it seems that things might turn out okay, an employee addresses him as Tyler Durden.[/ul] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adaptations-movies-that-ended-drastically-different-from-their-literary-counterpart/272377.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adaptations-movies-that-ended-drastically-different-from-their-literary-counterpart/272377.md?page=4)