One of the things that sometimes bug me, as both a booklover and a movie addict, is watching an adaptation of a novel that I've read and then finding that it has a different ending. Actually, that's not true: It bugs me if the ending is worse. It doesn't bother me at all if the movie ending turns out to be better.
The difference I seem to remember the most--spoiler alert!--happened when I watched the movie The Mist years ago, after reading the Stephen King novella. In the written version, after the survivors of the monster attack at the supermarket escape and manage to also avoid the other creatures in the area, they drive away toward a possible safe zone, still together and alive and hopeful. But in the movie, their getaway car runs out of gas with creatures lurking everywhere, the leader of the survivors kills the four others in the group, including his son, in order to spare them a gruesome death, and--now out of ammunition– he exits the car to be killed himself … when a military team appears out of nowhere and tells him rescuers are on the way. A real downer of an ending, and I've found that many others agree. But in retrospect, it was probably the perfect ending because it created such emotion on the part of the viewer. It was certainly memorable.
Anyhow– you see my line of thinking, here– I have dutifully come up with twenty well-known novels and movie adaptations, all of which I have read and watched, where the endings were changed. There are of course many, many more, but these came to mind.
Here's my list (I'm hoping I've remembered the details correctly)--and, for what it's worth, I've placed an asterisk beside the versions I preferred. Be aware, more spoilers are here, in abundance:
- The Natural — Book version: Baseball star Roy Hobbs strikes out in a crucial game and is disgraced. Movie version*: Hobbs hits a home run that wins the pennant, and is hailed as a hero.
- Cujo — Book: The little boy in the car, Tad Trenton, dies. Movie*: He survives.
- Jaws — Book: Hooper (the young oceanographer) dies. Movie*: Both Chief Brody and Hooper are alive, and swim together to shore.
- The Firm — Book*: Mitch McDeere scams the firm out of millions and escapes to the Caribbean with his family and the money. Movie: Mitch makes a deal with the mafia and with the FBI, destroys the firm, and remains a lawyer, in a different city.
- The Shining — Book*: Jack Torrance blows up the hotel and dies in the explosion, and Dick Hallorann survives. Movie: Jack kills Hallorann and then freezes to death in the maze.
- Double Indemnity — Book: Neff and Phyllis escape together and commit suicide on their way to Mexico. Movie*: Neff and Phyllis shoot each other, and Neff confesses to his boss before dying.
- Breakfast at Tiffany's — Book: The two lovers don't wind up together. Movie*: They do.
- Hannibal — Book: Lecter and Clarice run off together. Movie*: Lecter escapes and leaves Clarice behind.
- The Shawshank Redemption — Book: Red is searching for Andy following their prison break. Movie*: Red finds and joins Andy in Mexico.
- Strangers on a Train — Book: Guy kills Bruno's father and goes to prison. Movie*: Bruno dies at the amusement park and Guy is cleared of his wife's murder.
- Forrest Gump — Book: Jenny marries someone else, and Forrest moves to New Orleans with Lt. Dan. Movie*: Forrest and Jenny get married, she dies, and Forrest raises their son.
- Rebecca — Book*: Manderley burns down and Mrs. Danvers's fate is uncertain. Movie: She dies in the fire.
- Black Sunday — Book*: The blimp carrying the bomb is diverted from the stadium, but the hero dies. Movie: The hero survives.
- The Grapes of Wrath — Book: Sad ending, with the Joad family still suffering. Movie*: Hopeful ending, with the Joads safe for the moment, and pressing on.
- Jurassic Park — Book: The island is destroyed by bombing, and Hammond dies. Movie*: The T-Rex saves everyone from raptors at the welcome center, and Hammond survives.
- The Notebook — Book: The couple reunites and lives. Movie*: The couple reunites and dies peacefully.
- LA Confidential — Book: The villain (Capt. Smith) survives and gets away with his crimes. Movie*: Exley kills Smith in a shootout at the Victory Motel.
- And Then There Were None — Book*: All the guests, and the judge, die. Movie: Vera and Lombard solve the mystery and survive.
- First Blood — Book: John Rambo dies. Movie*: Rambo lives (thus enabling four sequels).
- Planet of the Apes — Book: Hero and his companion escape the planet and go back to Earth. Movie*: Hero discovers that he's been on Earth all along.
I discovered, when I checked the placement of my asterisks, that I seem to prefer either twist endings or happy, neatly-wrapped endings (but not always). My question for you is, do you agree with any of my preferences? What are some novel vs. movie endings that you remember, and which versions did you like, or hate? As I said, I've left out a lot of them.
Okay, back to my books and videos. See you in two weeks.
Not sure I agree with you that the ending of the novel Grapes of Wrath is sad. That last scene of RoseaSharon caring for the ill man is supposed to represent the possibility that people will work together and defeat etc. etc. - in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteAnd your summary of the ending of the book Planet of the Apes kind of leaves out a major point, doesn't it? In both of these cases I think they found an ending that gave the same emotion as the book, but worked better cinematically.
Rob, one thing we can agree on is that MOST of my summaries leave out important points.
DeleteYes, I think I recall that the travelers in PotA returned home to find that Earth had suffered the same fate. As for Grapes of Wrath, I do agree that both endings are hopeful, each in its own way. I just remember that I liked the movie's ending a lot more.
Thanks as always, for the thoughts!
Rob, Steinbeck's editor and publisher wanted him to change the ending because they felt it was too random. Steinbeck refused, saying that the point was that Rosasharn was feeding a complete stranger and that we all must help each other.
DeleteGlad to have my opinion confirmed by a competent authority.
DeleteAs always, a nice column, John!
ReplyDeleteYour reference to Strangers on a Train reminded me of another famous Patricia Highsmith book, The Talented Mr. Ripley. I never saw the movie version but the recent Netflix mini series Ripley would get my asterisk. Highsmith had a curious approach with the Ripley novels of abrupt endings - stopping the book almost mid-sentence. The Netflix version, while introducing some neat extra "talents" of Ripley also fashions a very nice twist ending. And wow, the series itself is one of the most beautifully filmed and produced that I have seen. So asterisks all around!
Hey Dale! Whoa--I have not yet watched the Netflix version of Ripley. Now I will. (I did like the Damon/Paltrow version, years ago.)
DeleteI'd never thought much about the Highsmith endings until you mentioned that, but you're right! I'm not sure I could make kind of thing work well.
Thanks for the thoughts--and the recommendation!
John, for me if a book or movie ends with my beloved protagonist kicking the bucket, I feel tricked! Here's why: I need hope at the end of a tale. I always have - but more so now that I went through a long period of despair when my first husband died. Hope is what I'm after when I read. Hope is what I try to give my readers. In these times, we're not even sure the world will still be here in 6 months...so to change an ending so it gives hope, that is fine with me. But not the other way around...
ReplyDeleteMelodie, I agree completely. I like hopeful/upbeat endings, and always have, and most of the stories I write end that way (even though I know that might sometimes make them predictable). I also avoid reading/watching stories/novels/movies that are known to be depressing all the way through. Leaving Las Vegas seemed that way, to me, even though I realize the female lead "learned a lesson" at the end.
DeleteThere's already enough misery in the world.
Hi John, fun article! My immediate thought was "Marathon Man." The book ends with Babe shooting Szell. After an immensely compelling reading, the novel's end is a bit ho hum. In the movie, Babe doesn't shoot Szell, telling the greedy Nazi he can keep every gem that he can swallow. An unhappy Szell swallows a few, then realizes maybe Babe can't bring himself to shoot Szell. Szell attacks, bringing out the blade with which we previously saw him eviscerate Babe's brother. But things go wrong for Szell, who (driven by his immense greed and a briefcase full of gems) tumbles down a set of stairs, then finds that he's impaled himself on his own knife. And he dies. Not sure if this is a cliche' set of events, (and even if it is now, maybe it wasn't in 1976 when the movie came out), but I thought it was dynamite compared to the book's ending. (I still highly recommend both, regardless.)
ReplyDeleteI'm with you, Dan! Loved that book (probably because I was such a William Goldman fan), and loved the movie also. The huge twist in the very middle of the novel was great, and I thought the movie ending was perfect.
DeleteSo many things about that movie were perfect, including the best torture scene I've ever seen. "Is it safe?" (What a way to remember Sir Laurence Olivier, right?)
The one that sprang to my mind as having an ending changed for the worse was A New Leaf, where Elaine May took her name off the film because the producers insisted on giving it a happy ending instead of letting Walter Matthau go ahead and kill his rich wife as planned. I didn't know what it was based on, so I googled it, and guess what? The source was "The Green Heart," by Jack Ritchie, a short story that first appeared in AHMM.
ReplyDeletePS Like you and Mel, I usually want the happy ending, but in this case, I see Elaine May's point. It took the bite out of the whole story. As one who's been known to write a murder-last short story or two, I know when it's inevitable and necessary. (Both descriptors needed since Hollywood evited, er, avoided it, yet it was needed.)
DeleteBefore John, my fellow Ritchie-head can answer... In the original story the protagonist reluctantly decides NOT to kill his wife, so the movie is actually true to its source! Fun fact: "The Green Heart" was made into a musical. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=allKWSwR278&list=RDallKWSwR278&start_radio=1
DeleteLiz, I never thought about A New Leaf--that's a great example of a big change of ending. I actually read "The Green Heart" years and years ago because I love everything Jack Ritchie wrote, and never discovered the movie version until much later--I think the change in title was one of the things that threw me off. And yes, I agree that May's version was better. That movie was early 70s, right? Wasn't May one of the first female directors?
DeleteI need to find A New Leaf and watch it again. Thanks!
To Anonymous (who I suspect is Rob Lopresti, the only other person I can think of who's as crazy about Jack Ritchie as I am): Yes, I had heard that "The Green Heart" was also made into a musical--would love to see that. And thanks for pointing that out, about the original ending. That story has had a lot of iterations!
DeleteYeah, John, that was me.
DeleteI found the musical when I was googling too, and that wasn't just a musical, it was a musical written by the brilliant and hilarious Charles Busch.
DeleteLiz, I really gotta see that.
DeleteThe Natural book and movie seem like entirely different beings to me. The book an existential myth, the movie a classic story of love, sin, punishment, redemption. Different tones entirely. It was like the filmmakers took the rough plot outline from the book and started over. But my memory is flawed. Haven't read the book or seen the film for a loooong time. On another note, the one movie that followed the book, including the ending, as closely as the Hays Code and time restraints would allow is The Maltese Falcon. I think the legend is, when John Huston was looking for an idea for his first directorial effort Howard Hawks advised that he take Hammett's book and film it exactly as written, which he pretty much did. The result -- still one of the best all time movies of any genre.
ReplyDeleteThe two versions of The Natural ARE entirely different, Floyd. (I honestly didn't much like the book, and I LOVED the movie. Actors, plot, music, everything about it.)
DeleteOther books/movies that were almost completely different: Dances with Wolves, Forrest Gump, Willy Wonka, etc.
So glad you mentioned The Maltese Falcon. Other movies that were almost identical to the source material (at least in my memory) were, off the top of my head, The Silence of the Lambs, Lonesome Dove, To Kill a Mockingbird, Rosemary's Baby, Mystic River, Deliverance, The Godfather, and The Green Mile. Not *exactly* the same, no, but extremely faithful to the original.
Crazy stuff.
Rob Lopresti here again... Movies that changed the material drastically: Eight Million Ways to Die invented a main villain who didn't exist in the book. And The Postman took a brilliant novel by David Brin and made it unrecognizable. (Well, the first 20 minutes are fine...)
DeleteWhoa, The Postman--good one! To me, that book and its movie were totally different.
DeleteI've read the book Eight Million Ways to Die, long ago, but haven't yet seen the movie. (Maybe that's for the best.)
Trust me, whatever you did instead of watching Eight Million was two of the best hours you ever spent. As I have said there is a scene between Scudder and the villain (who does not exist in the novel) and halfway through the suspenseful music stops, as if the composer said "To hell with it." I don't blame him
DeleteSounds like you've saved me some time, Rob. For once I made a good decision.
DeleteAlong with its other sins, Eight Million Ways to Die moved the story from New York to LA, which is like casting the Devil as God in a medieval mystery play. Matt Scudder out of Lawrence Block's New York is Matt Scudder naked, ie not Matt Scudder at all. He even attends an AA meeting on the beach. I saw the movie almost 40 years ago, but some things you can never unsee.
DeleteI would've thought that with Lawrence Block, Jeff Bridges, and Andy Garcia (even though the actors were young then), the movie would've worked. Glad both of you set me straight.
DeleteYou forgot Carrie's ending (the 1976 film) is also different from the book. My mother felt The Mist's ending was "the most tucked up ending ever." She loved it. In my case, I have objective take on it, inspired by a friend who entered writing contests. He mentioned how the source material sticks to a dark and/or more realistic ending is because the written word allows more distance. between the reader and the work. A visual image is something you can see, which explains the happier and/or twist endings.
ReplyDeletePlus, film has the wider audience, so there's that :-)
Good point, Justin. You (and your friend) might be right, there. I actually liked the movie ending of Carrie, which had her hand coming up out of the rubble, sort of like the dream of the hand rising from the water at the end of Deliverance.
DeleteThanks as always for the comment!
John, John. Deliverance is not the original source. The Lady of the Lake has been sticking her hand up out of the water for hundreds of years in Arthurian legend and Celtic and French mythology.
DeleteLiz, you have accused me falsely--I never said Deliverance was the original source. But I'll take James Dickey over Arthurian legend any day.
DeleteSpeaking of Arthurian legend, the young adult novel AVALON is superb. Has anyone read it? It starts out as a typical (well-written) teen-angst-over-starting-a-new-high school-story...and then things get cray.
DeleteAnna, I'm not familiar with that one. (I remember The Mists of Avalon," Marion Zimmer Bradley I think.) I'll check it out!
DeleteRob yet again... Another movie that changed the ending: Fletch. I HATE that movie.
ReplyDeleteAgreed once again. Hated Fletch. I never could understand others' enthusiasm for that one, especially the movie.
DeleteOops. Sorry. This time Anonymous is me.
DeleteNot a book (play, actually), but up until the mid 1800s, the ending of Shakespeare's King Lear was often changed so Cordelia survived and married Edgar, with Lear's blessing before he died. I don't think any film adaptation I've seen of the play ever went that far off the rails.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that, Steve. Wonder why the ending was changed at all (?)
DeleteThe novel Planet of the Apes was written by Pierre Boulle. He also wrote Bridge Over the River Kwai, another example of a changed ending. I think the producers had little choice on that one. It was a Chekhov's gun kind of thing: in a movie the thing had to go boom.
ReplyDeleteI'm finding out all kinds of new things, here. Yep, show 'em the bridge in Act 1, it's gotta blow up in Act 3.
DeleteBridge Over the River Kwai — I'm been humming Colonel Bogey's March this afternoon, but Rob beat me to the punch! Great minds and all that… (a toast to Rob!)
ReplyDeleteLawnmower Man — I argue the movie plot came from Frankenstein, which shared nothing with the Stephen King short story.
John, I'd like to mention an unusual polar opposite, a popular film that visually appeared utterly unlike its stage play source, yet matched word for word. Of course I'm referring to William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
Okay, now you've got ME humming it. YES to River Kwai, and also to Lawnmower Man. I remember not liking that story much anyway, and the movie made it truly silly--and unoriginal. (But I like almost everything else SK wrote.)
DeleteInteresting, Leigh, about the stage play vs. the movie. You and Rob (and Steve too) are always pointing out things about movies, novels, and stories that I didn't know. And there are many of those . . .
They always change the ending to Stephen King's IT when they film it. If you filmed it, it could be labeled child porn. The movie endings have ALL been better than the book ending.
ReplyDeleteI generally despise “Hollywood Endings” in film versions of books I admire. To me, the worst offender was Altman’s ending to “The Long Goodbye”.
ReplyDeleteI especially hated Altman’s ending of “The Long Goodbye”.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure this is the first time anyone ever complained about something in a Robert Altman project. (Ha.)
DeleteWhat? The little boy in the car died? I've read CUJO twice and didn't recall that. Movies sully the waters.
ReplyDeleteYep, he died. Dehydration, I think. REALLY emotional ending for me, since we had two young boys around the time I read it. Enjoyed the movie ending a lot more.
DeleteCatching up on this late, but so much appreciate! I didn't know that The Mist had a better ending in the novella. Tara's birthday is Halloween, so I always get her a couple of movies on DVD—and the Halloween after we'd hosted Stephen King at a festival at George Mason, I picked up some adaptations of his work. After we finished it, Tara gave it away, saying she didn't even want the disc in the house—that's how much we hated it.
ReplyDeleteAlso adding to the list The Long Goodbye—an adaptation significantly different from the book and with a very different ending, yes! (Nothing can beat Chandler's novel, but I'm also a fan of the film, unlike many fellow writers I know.)
Thanks for this!
Hey Art! Yep, that ending to The Mist (movie version) was tough to watch, and just frustrating. But again, it was so memorable that it seems everyone I know was talking about it, at the time.
DeleteI once heard that the best movie adaptations of Stephen King novels/novellas were the ones about prisons: The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. And there's some truth to that--though I also loved Misery and Stand by Me.