MovieChat Forums > And Then There Were None (2015) Discussion > Why change Christie's original ending?

Why change Christie's original ending?

posted 9 years ago by SohoLondon
57 replies | jump to latest

Such a classic, classic book and an ingenious premise by one of the all-time great crime writers. So why change her ending?

The killer certainly never revealed themself on the island nor talked to anyone as they were hanging. The ending of the book was a lot more mysterious as the ten murders on an island with no killer wasn't actually solved. There was even another chapter set in Scotland Yard where they were baffled and reveal a detail about the hanging chair that is one of the greatest details in the book.

Only when a letter was sent much later, featuring a forensic confession, was the killer revealed.

So much ingenious detail of how the mystery was engineered was just wiped out in favour of ponderous slow-motion scenes. A real shame as such an clever book should be portrayed as such, instead of being filmed as if Christie had only put a tenth as much thought into the plot as she actually did.

[–] MsELLERYqueen2 9 years ago

None of the adaptations follow her original ending. The Russian version comes pretty close. The others don't. I haven't seen this miniseries, but from your comments, it sounds like they messed up again. Why can't they get it right?

~~~~~
Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen 🎇

[–] maggieameanderings 9 years ago

MrsElleryQueen1976 said:
None of the adaptations follow her original ending. The Russian version comes pretty close. The others don't. I haven't seen this miniseries, but from your comments, it sounds like they messed up again. Why can't they get it right?

But neither did Christie. Agatha Christie herself changed the ending when she adapted her book for the stage. She made Vera Claythorne and Philip Lombard innocent and they survive their confrontation with the crazy killer judge.

I've never seen the Russian version, but I have seen the 1945 movie and it was adapting Christie's play not Christie's book.

As for getting it right, I think for the most part they did. Ten people come to the island. All ten people end up dead. (The order of death is the same as in the book though the manner of death was changed a little.) Nine out of the ten people are murderers (as defined by the book) and the tenth person is the murderer of the other nine. The tenth person then removes the chair from near Vera and commits suicide in a (unlikely) way that has the gun far from him so the wound wouldn't seem self-inflicted. Thus leaving a mystery.

That's the essence of the book and that's what this adaption was.

All they really changed was the way the mystery was explained. In the book it was Wargrave's words in a letter. Here it was Wargrave's words spoken out loud as he watched Vera hang herself before his eyes (as she did in the book).

[–] gb901 9 years ago

Terrible conslusion IMO: dance shooting himself and the gun miraculously being flung to the far end of the table! Christies idea of a device - similar to the sherlock homles story "The Problem of Thor Bridge" - was far more convincing and satisfying, as would have been the letter in the bottle!

[–] CharlesTheBold 9 years ago

Christies idea of a device - similar to the sherlock homles story "The Problem of Thor Bridge" - was far more convincing and satisfying, as would have been the letter in the bottle!
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That device sounded like a Rube Goldberg contraption and would have been laughable onscreen. The Conan Doyle's Thor Bridge version was simpler and more credible.

[–] gb901 9 years ago

[–] lxl-569-478705 9 years ago

I hate the ending (of this tv series), I had been waiting for 3 days for it, and it really let me down.

[–] CharlesTheBold 8 years ago

So what ending would you have preferred?

[–] moviefan098 9 years ago

nothing about a fake death is ingenious. it is deus ex machina as fck and was highly disappointing.

[–] ScorpionTDC 9 years ago

I prefer her ending, but I actually did quite like the show's version too. I can see where they might think that would lend itself better to TV

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[–] maggieameanderings 9 years ago

SohoLondon said:
Such a classic, classic book and an ingenious premise by one of the all-time great crime writers. So why change her ending?

In the book Wargrave watched as Vera hanged herself before his eyes. So that wasn't changed.

Aside from the ridiculousness of the gun being flung across the table (sans elastic like in the book), I was pleased with the ending. At least it kept the 10 dead people on an island like in the book instead of that god-awful ending Christie wrote for the play where Vera and Philip are both innocent and live which is what the movie adaption followed.

I know I watched this hoping that this was an adaption of the book and not an adaptation of Christie's play.

[–] dlynch843 9 years ago

Yeah, this really stank. Agree about those 'ponderous slow-motion scenes'.
Maybe the director thought he was being 'deep', but all those flashbacks were just tedious. I saw it here in the States and all those ads just trebled the tedium.

I recommend the 1945 version. Don't mess with Agatha's ending.

[–] maggieameanderings 9 years ago

dlynch843 said:
I recommend the 1945 version. Don't mess with Agatha's ending.

Okay, that's funny.

The OP is complaining about the end explanation of the mystery being different from the book, and you recommend a movie which has a totally different ending from the book ---- one in which there is no unsolvable mystery left behind for the police. That's because two of the characters don't even get killed.

If the OP didn't like this much closer to the book adaptation, the OP will just hate the 1945 movie.