I thought it was a faithful adaptation until Kurtz (Curtis) is introduced as a character. From that point on it is nothing like the book.
If you don't want to read the spoilers, basically the movie misses out on a lot of violence. Some of the violence in the movie, is much more graphic in the book. Some of the violence is cut from the movie entirely.
Scenes are drastically shortened, or cut out entirely, in the movie so they could cram the 600+ hardcover pages into 2 hours. The portion of the story where Henry is a prisoner is much longer in the book with some good scenes missing including Henry causing a revolt amongst prisoners as well as guards. The chase at the end misses some good scenes with Mr. Gray; he uses his telepathic abilities to kill a cop in a truck stop restroom and nearly kills a convenience store clerk when he stops to buy a few items.
Other scenes are changed. In the book, Duddits's mom is reluctant to send Duddits out with Henry. In the movie she is almost eager to send him, "telling him to save the world".
In the book Kurtz is much more menacing and is not Owen's friend like in the movie. In the book, Kurtz was involved in the chase at the end, but in a car, not a helicopter like in the movie. In the book Duddits is not an alien.
Basically, it's probably about what I'd expect from an adaptation like this. A miniseries would have had a better chance to be a faithful adaptation. There is just too much to the book for a 2 hour movie to do it right.
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Pyro-Maniac500
11 years ago
Thanks a bunch for your great response but I have a question, if Duddits isn't an alien in the book, how do they defeat mr. gray at the end?
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seahawksfan
11 years ago
That is where I guess the filmmakers decided they wanted to provide some explanation for Duddits's powers. In the book there is no explanation given; there often isn't in Stephen King novels.
While Mr. Gray is trying to drag the dog into the water supply, Jonesy and Henry take advantage of his distraction and, with the help of Duddits, mentally overpower Mr. Gray and confront him in the hospital room in Jonesy's head. Henry and Jonesy then smother him with a pillow.
It's also worth noting that in the book there really is no Mr. Gray, or at least not as we see him in the movie (which they created based on his descriptions in the book). Nobody really knows what Mr. Gray really is, but the alien life forms gathered information telepathically on what people expect them to look like and that is the result.
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atd8vii (592)
6 years ago
- Were they actually called shit weasels in the book?
- Did Henry really answer his gun like a phone as well?
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