Books
These 7 Iconic Book Scenes Didn't Make It Into The Movie Versions
Adapting a book into a movie is no mean feat. On the one hand, literature and film are very different mediums. What works on the page might not work at all on the screen. Change is inevitable, especially since a large portion of the audience has never read the book in question and couldn't care less that it was Dobby and not Neville who gave Harry the Gillyweed in the Triwizard Tournament. But on the other hand, that means that a lot of the book's most iconic scenes are going to wind up on the chopping block. For better or worse, here are several iconic book scenes that weren't included in the movie adaption.
Now, look, to be perfectly frank, I tend to be one of those irritating people who prefers the book to the movie as a rule. I will always point it out if the movie or TV show has omitted something vital from the original text. Watching Game of Thrones with me is a nightmare. So yes, I think film adaptations sometimes fail to bring crucial book moments to life. But even I can admit that sometimes they just have to cut an iconic scene that would otherwise be too dark, disturbing, or random to include. Here are a few of the most iconic scenes that didn't make the leap from page to screen:
Tom Bombadil
In The Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo and his friends famously run across an omnipotent forest hippie named Tom Bombadil, who just kind of hangs out with them for a while. The Tom Bombadil scenes are notable in the book, since he's the most ancient being in Middle-Earth and the one ring has no power over him. He didn't make it into the movie, though, since he has almost nothing to do with the plot.
Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow,Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow.None has ever caught him yet, for Tom, he is the Master: His songs are stronger songs, and his feet are faster.
Peeta loses his leg
In both the book and the film, Peeta injures his leg while competing in the Hunger Games. But in the book he actually loses his leg—it's amputated and replaced with a fancy, Capitol prosthetic, which becomes a plot point in Catching Fire. In the movie he just gets better. The movie also cut out the whole scene in which it's heavily implied that the Capitol uses the corpses of children to create its horrifying mutant dogs.
I watch as Peeta positions his artificial leg. “Bad day, huh?”
The entire end of 'The Golden Compass'
The film adaptation of The Golden Compass was clearly banking on a sequel that never came, because the movie just leaves out the climax of the book. The final scene is pretty significant — SPOILER: Lyra's best friend Roger dies, her villainous mother shows us, her father rips a hole in reality, and Lyra and Pan walk through the portal into another dimension.
So Lyra and her dæmon turned away from the world they were born in, and looked toward the sun, and walked into the sky.
Pinocchio murders Jiminy Cricket
In the original classic, The Adventures of Pinocchio, the titular puppet smashes his talking cricket friend with a hammer. It's a pretty memorable moment in the book, but for some reason Disney decided to cut it from their adaptation (we can all agree that the cricket is annoying, though, right?).
At these last words, Pinocchio jumped up in a fury, took a hammer from the bench, and threw it with all his strength at the Talking Cricket.
Perhaps he did not think he would strike it. But, sad to relate, my dear children, he did hit the Cricket, straight on its head.
With a last weak “cri-cri-cri” the poor Cricket fell from the wall, dead!
The car crash in 'My Sister's Keeper'
In My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult, Anna Fitzgerald is supposed to donate her kidney to save her older sister, Kate, who has leukemia. But Anna decides to sue for medical emancipation instead, so she can make her own choices about organ donation. But then Anna is in a terrible car crash. She's declared brain dead, and her kidney goes to Kate anyway. It's a heartbreaking tale of familial love and thorny morality... except that the movie left out the car crash scene, changing the ending so that Kate dies and Anna survives. Uh... it feels like you missed the point, movie.
If you have a sister and she dies, do you stop saying you have one? Or are you always a sister, even when the other half of the equation is gone?
All the scenes with S.P.E.W.
There are so many great Harry Potter scenes that didn't make the movies. Peter Pettigrew's death. Nearly Headless Nick's Deathday Party. Just about all of the decent moments between Harry and Ginny. But perhaps the worst offense was the fact that the movie cut out all of the S.P.E.W. scenes, thereby weakening the story's political undertones and utterly ruining Ron and Hermione's first kiss. In the book, they kiss because Ron has finally proved himself as a caring young wizard who doesn't support the subjugation of the Wizarding World proletariat. In the movie it's because... they're both scared? Weak, movie. Very weak.
“The house-elves, they’ll all be down in the kitchen, won’t they?”
“You mean we ought to get them fighting?” asked Harry.
“No,” said Ron seriously, “I mean we should tell them to get out. We don’t want any more Dobbies, do we? We can’t order them to die for us -”
There was a clatter as the basilisk fangs cascaded out of Hermione’s arms. Running at Ron, she flung them around his neck and kissed him full on the mouth. Ron threw away the fangs and broomstick he was holding and responded with such enthusiasm that he lifted Hermione off her feet.
The Sewer Orgy in 'It'
OK... I think we can maybe forgive Hollywood for leaving this one out? In the book, after defeating Pennywise, the members of the Losers' Club get lost in the sewers. Young Beverly decides that the only way to unite all the kids again is to have a drawn out, underage orgy. It might work as a written scene, but both film adaptations of It decided to forego any depiction of children having sex.
Mike comes to her, then Richie, and the act is repeated. Now she feels some pleasure, dim heat in her childish unmatured sex, and she closes her eyes as Stan comes to her and she thinks of the birds.
