Top 10 Differences Between Im Thinking of Ending Things Book vs Movie
Top 10 Differences Between I’m Thinking of Ending Things Book vs. Movie
Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 Differences Between I’m Thinking of Ending Things Book vs. Movie. For this list, we’ll be looking at some of the key changes that filmmaker Charlie Kaufman made in adapting Iain Reid’s novel for Netflix. Given the nature of the list, a MAJOR spoiler alert is in effect. Did you prefer the book or the movie? Let us know why in the comments below!
#10: The Young Woman Gets a Name
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Actually, she gets several of them! In Iain Reid’s novel, our protagonist is strictly nameless. In keeping with this, actress Jessie Buckley is credited as “young woman” in the film. However, Kaufman introduces an extra level of confusion by suggesting a number of conflicting names for the character. Early in the film, we’re led to believe that she’s named Lucy. Later, however, Jake calls her both Lucia and Louisa. On the car ride home, he also refers to her as Ames, and this time, even the young woman is confused by the name. As those who’ve read the book know, all the phone calls she receives are from herself. If this holds true in the film, then she’s also identified as Yvonne.
#9: The Janitor Appears Throughout the Film
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In the novel, we don’t meet the janitor until Jake and our protagonist enter the school. And when the young woman sees him at the other end of the hallway, she’s almost immediately filled with a sense of dread - though she doesn’t seem to know why. For us readers, the pieces begin falling into place thanks to the witness statements we’ve been reading; we know that something bad is coming. In the film, however, we’re introduced to the janitor almost right from the start. We see him going about his daily routine, both at school and in a soon-to-be-familiar home. In another deviation from the book, we also get much more overt foreshadowing that Jake and the janitor are one and the same.
#8: There Are No Witness Accounts
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Throughout Iain Reid’s book, the protagonist’s narrative is occasionally interrupted by witness statements from locals about a recent incident. They avoid specifics, but it certainly adds to the overall sense of dread. Slowly, it becomes clear that a janitor killed himself at the high school. It could be argued that the shots of the janitor, as discussed in the previous entry, replaced these in the film. It would have been interesting to see the statements delivered on-camera, but this likely wouldn’t have fit the overall tone and style of the film. Alternatively, this dialogue could have been delivered in fragments from a disembodied voice, but they were ultimately left out altogether.
#7: Dairy Queen Becomes a Fictional Local Chain
Of the many differences between the book and movie, this might be the one change with an obvious practical motivation behind it. Using name brands on-camera is always difficult. Notice how rare it is for characters to visit somewhere like McDonald’s in a movie? From a legal standpoint, it was likely much easier to have Jake and the young woman visit a fictional franchise. In doing so, however, the filmmaker also creates a number of opportunities to up the creepiness factor, developing both a jingle and an old cartoon to promote Tulsey Town. The effectiveness of Kaufman’s many changes is up for debate, but this one undeniably feels like an improvement.
#6: The Basement
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Easily one of the scariest moments in Iain Reid’s novel is when the protagonist goes down into the basement. Jake has explicitly told her not to. So vehemently, in fact, that you suspect the family of hiding something sinister. Have they kidnapped someone? Horror convention brings all types of tropes to mind. In the end, however, the young woman finds nothing but a dingy cellar-type basement, a furnace and some peculiar art. In the film, by contrast, she’s explicitly asked to go down there by Jake’s mother. Furthermore, Jake knows about it and allows her - despite expressing misgivings. The biggest change, however, is that the art in the basement resembles her own, but is attributed to another artist. She also finds janitor uniforms.
#5: The Age of Jake’s Parents
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When we meet Jake’s parents in the movie, they’re just about the age we imagined based on their descriptions in the book. We wind up spending far more time at Jake’s childhood home in the film, however, and this allows the visit to veer into even stranger territory than the novel. The evening is undeniably awkward in Reid’s book, but Kaufman makes it surreal by having the parents cycle through various ages - and out of order no less. They didn’t seem to be in the best of health when we met them, but before Jake and the young woman leave, they’ve each become senile and/or bedridden at least once. In Kaufman’s hands, the dreaded “meet the parents” visit becomes an actual nightmare.
#4: Lucy's Childhood Story
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Kaufman’s interpretation of this story is every bit as uncomfortable and disturbing as the source material, and he certainly upped the cringe factor! But when it comes to the moments of more overt horror from Reid’s novel, he left most of them on the cutting room floor. Among the most notable such omissions is the story from our protagonist’s childhood. She describes a memory from childhood in a way that is at-once casual but also spine-chillingly detailed. It involved a man standing at her bedroom window staring at her despite his head being above the frame. The way Reid writes the memory is evocative enough that it plays out in your mind as you read it. As such, it was a shame not to be able to see the real thing in this film.
#3: The Phone Calls & Lucy’s Stalker
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Kaufman may have added foreshadowing to the story, but he also chose to strip away some of the more literal plot points. One of the most compelling hooks that Reid introduces early in the novel are mysterious phone calls that Lucy has been getting. They usually take the form of voicemail messages from a man who’s always repeating the same ambiguous but undeniably sinister sentences. As if that’s not scary enough, the caller ID always claims that the calls are coming from the protagonist’s very own phone number. In the film, the young woman does get phone calls from the names that have been attributed to her, but we never get the backstory behind them. They’re mysterious, sure, but not especially scary.
#2: The Cultural References
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Among the most notable differences between the book and the movie are the specific conversations had by Jake and his girlfriend. In the book, they discuss a wide range of issues relating to philosophy, morality, literature and science. In the film however, Kaufman adds the poetry of William Wordsworth and John Cassavetes’ 1974 film “A Woman Under the Influence”. There are also continuous references to the musical “Oklahoma!” throughout the movie. We scanned Iain Reid’s book and wouldn’t you know it, filmmaker Robert Zemeckis’ name didn’t come up. Interestingly enough, it turns out that this was the one detail that Kaufman wasn’t responsible for. It was actually the film’s editor who picked Zemeckis, but everyone involved approved, including Zemeckis himself. Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions. Jake's Brother There’s No Mention of the Brother in the Film Whatsoever Jake's Father Is Far More Rude in Jake’s Bedroom By Contrast, in the Book, Jake’s Father Is at His Nicest There The Young Woman Isn’t Lactose Intolerant in the Movie This Is a Weird Detail to Have Dropped From the Book. Jake Likes Musicals in the Movie Jake Sings Along to an Old Country Song in the Book, But No Mention of Musicals. Jake's Parents Have a Dog In the Book, Jake Only References Having Had One in the Past
#1: The Ending
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As we’ve learned from Kaufman’s past works, he’s big into surrealism. Given how much of a mind-melting of a ride the book is, you wouldn’t think he’d need to change much, but he totally reworked the climax. Reid’s novel culminates in a good old-fashioned horror show as our protagonist looks for Jake in the school, seemingly tries to avoid a killer janitor and eventually comes to grips with the truth - they exist in the mind of the janitor. In the film, however, unlike in the book, she interacts directly with both Jake and the janitor in the school. These encounters culminate in a violent interpretive dance courtesy of doppelgangers. It leads to the same conclusion (ie. the death of the janitor), but the effect is entirely different.
