Faithful adaptation?

You'll be disappointed if you want to see the original story translated to the screen. There are lots of changes; the movie doesn't even take place on Earth, and the ending in particular is therefore of course different. In its details, it's no closer to (and is arguably even farther from) the PKD story on which it's based than are Total Recall ("We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" at least mentioned Mars ) and Minority Report.

However, I think the movie preserves the spirit of the story and is faithful to it in that sense. And it works well as a movie in its own right.

But my main interest in it is as a movie and not as a screen adaptation of a PKD story, so if it's the latter you're looking for, you might not want to rely too heavily on my opinion.

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The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

I think the story is very similar to the movie.

SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIE AND THE SHORT STORY AHEAD!!!!!!!!! DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT THEM SPOILED.

- Both start with an enemy soldier approaching the bunker with a message in his hand and getting cut to pieces by the screamers.

- Both have an officer leave the bunker to reach the enemy lines in response to that message.

- Both have that officer encounter the little boy, refuse to take him along, and then accept to have him tag along. (Jefferson doesn´t appear in the short story).

- Both have that officer reach the bunker and have the kid blown away, when it is revealed that he is actually a robot.

- Both have the girl living with the two soldiers, and both mention that the bunker has been infiltrated by the Davids and everyone has been killed.

- Both have one of the soldiers kill the other after mistaking it for the second variety.

- Both have the party return to the original bunker, and the officer requesting his subordinate to come out, to which he refuses, making it clear that he is a screamer.

- Both have the battle with the screamers, which is resolved with a major explosive (although in the story it is the girl who throws it).

- Both reveal that the wounded soldier is the second variety (a robot) at this point, and they have the girl and the officer go on alone.

- Both have them look for the rocket that will get them out of there, and both include the dilemma (for the characters) that the rocket has only one seat.

- Both reveal at the very end that the girl is also a robot.

- Both have the main character reflect at the end that the robots had already begun to kill themselves.

Of course, there are a few differences in the movie with respect to the story:
- The setting is different (a planet in another solar system, instead of Earth).
- The Alliance officer which has been replaced by a robot makes an appearance at the end of the movie (didn't happen in the story).
- Jefferson (the Alliance soldier) gets thrown into the mix in the movie, but that is understandable because he is a way for the audience to get valuable information.

Whether you'll like the movie, depends on your taste in movies. This is a low budget movie, and special effects are not its strong point. Some of the characters were a bit shallow (the acting was ok, considering that). Some of the sets I found a bit cheesy (the Alliance bunker, for instance, and the mess hall/ Cafeteria at the NEB headquarters), and others I though were quite well done (the abandoned city, the NEB bunker, etc.).

Having read the short story myself, I enjoyed the movie, in spite of its weaknesses (already mentioned), because it stuck so closely to the original plot, which is what I wanted to see.