10 Movies That Changed the Ending of the Book They’re Based On

When a book gets turned into a movie, there are, of course, going to be some creative liberties taken. However, the amount of creative liberties varies from film to film. Some directors choose to include as many details from the book as possible, altering very little — if any — of the source material. Others deviate greatly from the original book, resulting in a movie that ends up telling a drastically different story than the novel it’s based on.

Oftentimes, the most significant changes happen at the end of the film. Crafting a satisfying ending has often been a challenge of filmmaking, and sometimes, the ending of a book just isn’t suited for the big screen. This has the potential to divide fans of the original book, as some may have wished to see a more faithful adaptation of the ending. Those who haven’t read the book are experiencing the story fresh for the first time, so they may not mind the changes as much.

A book’s ending may be changed because it’s too bleak, or because it’s too complex to express in a visual format. No movie can capture every single detail from the book, and the elements that are omitted can have an impact on what the ending is. Just because a movie changes the ending from the original book doesn’t make it bad — there are plenty of excellent films that benefit from the new interpretation.

Here are ten movies based on books with endings that differ from their original stories. (NOTE: Some spoilers follow for both these movies and their books.)

12 Unconventional Movie Endings