Adaptational Heroism / Live-Action Films

Adaptational Heroism in Film.

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• Ironically two of Julie Andrews' most famous roles were the result of this:
  • Mary Poppins is far more strict and stern in the original novels. The film makes Mary Poppins more of a Sugar-and-Ice Personality, to the degree that the original author thought Mary Poppins was too nice in the film.
  • Another Julie Andrews role — The Princess Diaries. Clarisse in the novels is an Evil Matriarch. In the films, she becomes a Cool Old Lady.
• In most film adaptations of And Then There Were None, Vera and Lombard are both revealed to be completely innocent of the crimes they were accused of (and in the latter's case, it's usually because he's not the real Lombard but his friend or a detective impersonating him to find out who sent the letter to him).
• Annie (1982): In the bridge scene, Annie is able to be rescued due in part due to two separate heroic acts not in the original musical.
  • The first is by the other orphans. After Molly overhears Rooster talking about his plan, they try to get out and warn Annie, but are caught and locked in a closet. With no other choice, they pull off a daring escape through a roof hatch and walk all the way to Warbucks' house in order to raise the alarm. While they don't manage to arrive in time to prevent Annie from being taken, their warning is the reason Punjab is looking for her and therefore able to execute his nick-of-time rescue.
  • Ms. Hannigan, of all people, gets the other one. When it hits her that Rooster is legitimately going to kill Annie, she realizes she can't let him do it and intervenes to stop him. He quickly overpowers her, but the delay buys Annie just enough time for the rescue to arrive.
• Apt Pupil: Although he is still a youth obsessed with Nazi crimes in both versions, Todd is a lot less nasty in the film version than he is in the novella. In the book, he is a budding sociopath who fantasizes about raping a captive woman in a concentration camp and, together with Dussander, becomes a serial killer wherein he murders hobos before he murders his guidance counsellor and finally goes on a killing spree that ends in his death. In the film, Todd comes across as more disturbed and immature than Ax-Crazy and sadistic, and doesn't have anything as explicit as a rape fantasy during his dreams about the camps (imagining himself as an inmate instead), he and Dussander only kill one homeless person who found out Dussander was a former Nazi, and Todd simply blackmails his guidance counsellor and goes to college after Dussander dies.
• The title character of the Artemis Fowl books started as an outright Villain Protagonist who comes into contact with the fairy world once he seeks them out himself, abducts one of them and holds her for ransom, in the film adaptation he's a Kid Hero who stumbles into the world of the fairies purely by accident.
• Atomic Blonde sees this with lead character Lorraine Broughton — sort of, given the Gray-and-Grey Morality of the Cold War. The original graphic novel, The Coldest City, sees her comic counterpart as a double agent for the KGB, but the film sees her real employer being the CIA.
• Battle Royale:
  • Kinpatsu Sakamochi was a sadistic rapist who often cracked jokes at the expense of the students that died in the Program. Kitano, his counterpart from the film, while still no saint, is shown to be more sympathetic. He often dealt with students that disrespected him and a daughter that wanted nothing to do with him. He even tried to make sure Noriko won because she was the only student that showed respect for him.
  • Hirono Shimizu, while not evil in the novel, isn't very nice either. In the manga, she is open to the idea of joining Shuya's rebellion and it was taken even further in the film when she called Mitsuko out for killing Megumi, the latter of whom she bullied in the novel.
• Beauty and the Beast: In the original animated film, LeFou was a sycophantic Plucky Comic Relief sidekick to Gaston who is directly involved in his raid on Beast's castle and comes dangerously close to murdering Lumiere with a torch. In this Live-Action Adaptation, Lefou may have retain his sidekick role, but he displays a real moral compass and betrays Gaston after he leaves Maurice for dead. Also, Maestro Cadenza is the movie version of Maestro Forte that is heroic and loyal.
• Judah Ben Hur from Ben-Hur. In the novel, the plot is kicked off when Judah accidentally knocks a roof tile on the head of a Roman centurion and gets arrested. In the 1959 movie, Judah's sister is the one who dislodges the roof tile, but Judah deliberately takes the blame in an attempt to spare his sister. In the novel, when Judah is on a sinking slave ship, and finds himself unchained, he gets the hell off the ship. In the movie, Judah takes the opportunity to punch out a guard, steal his keys, and free all the other slaves on the ship, before escaping himself.
• Blood & Chocolate (2007) gives this treatment to a few characters, as well as making them nicer than their book counterparts in some instances:
  • Zigzagged with Aiden. In the book, he turns on Vivian when he learns of her true nature, spreads lies about her to his friends and eventually tries to kill her (though that was because he thought she'd murdered multiple people, he refuses to listen to her side). In the film, after getting over the initial shock he accepts Vivian just the way she is and helps her bring down Gabriel. On the other hand, he also pretty much stalks her before they begin dating (he follows her around and approaches her at work despite her telling him she's not interested), which Aiden never does in the book.
  • Astrid is an extreme case. In the book she turns out to be one of the main villains, framing Vivian for murder due to sexual jealousy and resentment. Here, she's Vivian's loving mother figure and eventually helps her stop Gabriel.
• Blue Is the Warmest Color: In the comics, Clémentine's parents are homophobic bigots who eventually kick their daughter out of their home when they discover her relationship with Emma. In the movie, while Adèle does hide her relationship with Emma to her parents, they are never hinted to be homophobic.
• The Boogeyman (2023):
  • In the short story, Lester Billings is an abusive bigot who deliberately lets the Boogeyman kill his son to buy himself some time. There's no evidence of this here, and he's at worst guilty of not believing his children until it was too late.
  • In the short story, Dr. Harper was merely a disguise for the Boogeyman to kill Lester. Here, he's a normal psychiatrist who is at worst a flawed but loving parent.
• The Bravados: Gus Steinmetz is a kindly Papa Wolf and honest businessman in the film. In the book, Gus is a greedy and petty Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who's almost as unsympathetic as Zachary and Taylor. When Douglas gets the better of him in business prior to the beginning of the book, Gus spends a year acting like Douglas's friend and acting supportive when Douglas courts his daughter, then has him thrown in jail over an overdue loan the first chance he gets. He also hires Lujan to do some work for him, then tries to cheat him out of his fee and has him arrested for theft when he takes what he was promised when Steinmetz isn't around.
• Brick Mansions: Tremaine is a lot more sympathetic than Taha, the Big Bad from the French original that he is largely based on. Taha was a complete lunatic of a drug kingpin who regularly murdered his own followers, and threatened to destroy the city with a stolen bomb just to extort a ransom from the government. Tremaine is an ex-soldier who is actually shown to sincerely care for his men, and whose motives for threatening to blow up the city are based on his legitimate grievances with the corrupt government for abandoning the district.
• Cinderella:
  • In contrast to his portrayal in the animated film, the King is much more friendly to his subjects.
  • Anastasia and Drisella are also far less heinous than in the animated Disney movie. They make mean remarks to Cinderella at times but otherwise, leave her alone and sometimes, they are even civil and semi-friendly to her when they are in a good mood. Lady Tremaine is Cinderella's primary bully. However, this is actually closer to the depiction of the step-sisters in the classic Charles Perrault version of the tale, complete with them apologizing to and being forgiven by Cinderella in the end.
• Cloud Atlas:
  • The Union is portrayed as an actual rebellion. Contrast to the book in which it's just staged by Unanimity so that they can distract the people from the actual problems going on in the government.
  • Timothy Cavendish is given this too, seeing how his more racist and misogynistic aspects of his personality aren't even brought up in the film.
• In the novel Congo, Karen Ross is a Jerkass Corrupt Corporate Executive who only wants to get to Zinj to get ahold of its diamond mines and causes the destruction of the site when she makes a controlled detonation during a geological survey that triggers a volcanic eruption. In the movie, she travels to Zinj in search of her Canon Foreigner boyfriend who works for the same company and disappeared during a previous expedition there, and the volcanic eruption is a coincidence.
• The 1990 film version of Cyrano de Bergerac made Christian, the Unknown Rival to the titular character in love, more heroic and sympathetic than in the original play (though he was already an alright guy) by having him rescue his love Roxane when her attempt to charm her way through enemy lines doesn't work, unlike the play.
• The Darkest Minds: In the books, the Children's League turns out to be not very different from the government. Here though, while they still have a bad reputation, it's portrayed as false and they're heroes. Ruby joins them at the end.
• The Deep (1977): Kevin is The Mole in the book but a stalwart ally in the film.
• In the film version of The Devil Wears Prada, Miranda Priestly is portrayed more sympathetically than in the book. In the original novel, she is a horrible person and Andy deeply dislikes her. In the film, Miranda has a more sympathetic portrayal and Andy, at times, comes to respect her. Interestingly, the sequel novel makes it clear that Miranda is just an absolutely horrible human being altogether and anyone who allows themselves to be fooled into thinking otherwise is delusional.
• Diary of a Mad Black Woman: It is downplayed but present and an unusual mix of the character being more moral but more of a jerk. In the original play, it was revealed that Charles had been physically abusing his wife, Helen; it’s unknown how long, but it was implied for at least a few years. In the movie, it’s implied that Charles was never physically abusive to Helen during their marriage and only became physical with her when he forced her out of their house. However, Charles is still very much crueler to Helen than in the play, forcing Helen out of the house they lived together and without financial support, while in the play, he lets her keep the house with $2,000 a month.
• The films based on Diary of a Wimpy Kid apply this to several characters, most notably Rodrick. In the books he was just a one-note Big Brother Bully who only existed to torment Greg; in the films he's a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who is initially still a bully to Greg, but he undergoes Character Development and becomes a Cool Big Bro. Combined with Adaptational Attractiveness, is it any wonder why he has so many fangirls?
• In Divergent,
  • In Divergent, Molly is much less antagonistic in the film than she is in the novel. She's still portrayed as a tough fighter, but otherwise lacks the openly sadistic and cruel streak of her book counterpart, and even compliments Tris for standing up to Eric during the knife-throwing.
  • Nita in The Divergent Series: Allegiant does not try to rebel against the Bureau for mistreating the genetically-damaged like she does in Allegiant. While she does assist Tris and co. against the Bureau's orders, it's because she (and everybody else in the Bureau) knows that David is up to no good, not because of a personal vendetta that Tris is sympathetic with.
• Christie is far less cruel and murderous in DOA: Dead or Alive than she is in the games, and is generally much friendlier and more approachable. The movie also downplays her backstory as an assassin, instead depicting her as a Classy Cat-Burglar.
• In Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula is the Big Bad through and through and lacking in absolutely any sympathetic traits. In Dracula Untold, he remains The Hero driven to protect his family and his homeland, despite implications this movie would have been his Start of Darkness. The movie also combines aspects of both Dracula, the fictional vampire, and Vlad III Dracula, the historical ruler of Wallachia, resulting in a Historical Hero Upgrade for a truly horrifying war criminal. This rubbed a lot of viewers the wrong way, and might have been part of the reason for the movie's extremely negative reception.
• Dragonball Evolution: Downplayed. Bulma's motive of wanting to power the Earth with the dragon balls is more noble than her original anime counterpart, who wanted to wish for "a perfect boyfriend" (though she does gloat about being famous over it). Which becomes even funnier since her eventual love interest is a megalomaniac, egotistic, stuck-up Conquering Alien Prince that's massacred countless people.
• East of Eden does this to Kate, Cal's mother. In the original novel, Kate (or, rather, Cathy) is a vicious, manipulative murderess without conscience with several bodies on her hands and not an inkling of love for her estranged family. In the film, Kate's still cold, detached, and left her family while leaving them to bear the consequences, but she's no longer a villain or even an antagonist, simply the owner of a brothel who's implied to heavily regret having ever left her sons in the first place.
• In the 1982 film of Evil Under the Sun, Mrs Castle, originally nothing more than the rather strict hotel owner, is given the name Daphne and combined with the character of Rosamund, becoming Kenneth's love interest and Hercule Poirot's main assistant during the investigation. She also helps him trap the killer at the end by taking his signature.
• The 1981 film adaptation of Endless Love portrays David as a flawed but sympathetic Anti-Hero who is well-intentioned in spite of some of the questionable things he does, unlike the mentally deranged Stalker with a Crush he is in the book. Him burning down the Butterfields' house is more of an impulsive and tragic mistake than the Moral Event Horizon that it was in the book. The 2014 remake plays away with this completely and makes him into a typical romantic male lead.
• Fear Clinic: In the original web series, Andover was more of a Well-Intentioned Extremist, keeping a woman as a prisoner (due to the fear chamber not working on her), as he tried to perfect it, partially for her own good and partially for his own benefit. Here he stays within legal, ethical boundaries and probably wouldn't think of holding anyone against their will.
• First Blood does this with is the signature character, John Rambo. In the original novel, Rambo was a purely villainous character, driven insane by the trauma of his experiences in Vietnam. The film, meanwhile, portrays Rambo in a much more sympathetic light, with a stronger emphasis on Gray-and-Gray Morality that makes the fugitive veteran more nuanced and understandable than just an Ax-Crazy Cop Killer. In fact, because he was portrayed much more sympathetically on celluloid, not only is Rambo Spared by the Adaptation, but he also ended up becoming the star of a one of the most well-known action franchises of the 1980's.
• Future Cops is basically a comedic parody film of the Street Fighter where they got the alignment of some characters reversed. One of the heroes, Ti Man, played by Andy Lau, is based on Vega/Balrog (The guy with claws), who in the game proper is actually a sadistic, dangerous The Fighting Narcissist and one of the game's villains.
• The Adventures of Galgameth is a Foreign Remake of Pulgasari by the same creator. However, whereas Pulgasari is more a neutral force following orders and ultimately has to be destroyed due to becoming a threat himself, Galgameth is actively heroic and goes out of his way to protect people and dies in a Heroic Sacrifice to save Davin. Justified, as Pulgasari was made by Shin Sang-ok while being held captive in North Korea and forced to make movies under threat of death, and is widely considered a stealth Writer Revolt against them, while Galgameth was made years later of his own free will.
• Godzilla:
  • Godzilla (2014), unlike most versions of Godzilla who are usually antagonistic (and a huge case with his original incarnation, a Tragic Monster), but not as much as his Showa incarnation from Godzilla Raids Again through Destroy All Monsters who had a hefty dose of Characterization Marches On. Despite his actions in Hawaii (where he swamps Waikiki beach, the most densely populated area that time of night), he avoids attacking humans as he can and most of his rampages is due to the Mutos posing a threat while maintaining his Destructive Hero status per his previous incarnations. And, to be fair about the Waikiki Beach incident- There’s no way he could have known how many humans would have been congregated there, and he didn’t kill anyone intentionally or directly- the tsunami caused by his displacement of seawater did.
  • Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack!. King Ghidorah is known throughout the films as Godzilla's archenemy. The Showa Era depicted him a complete villain who gleefully destroyed planets while the Heisei Era was a living weapon of conquerors from the future. However, the version seen in this Millennium Era film is an ancient dragon who served as one of the guardian monsters of Japan, awakening to fight Godzilla to save the world, not to destroy it.
• In Gone in 60 Seconds (1974), Maindrian Pace is an unrepentant thief (although one with some standards - namely, stealing only insured cars and not dealing with drugs), while in the 2000 remake "Memphis" Raines is still an unrepentant thief but he quit before the film started when his mother begged him to to try to prevent dragging his brother Kip down the same bad road and gets back in the saddle when Raymond Calitri makes clear that, unless Raines steals fifty cars for him, he will kill Kip.
• In the Fingersmith novel, Sue Trinder's family and criminal cohorts are aware of — and the true masterminds behind — the plan to switch Sue and Maud at the insane asylum, since Maud is actually their biological daughter. In the film adaptation The Handmaiden they are completely unaware of the plan, and assist Sook-hee (Sue Trinder) when she lets them know what has occurred.
• The Harry Potter film adaptations:
  • Happens inadvertently to Narcissa Malfoy. In both the books and films, she is very concerned about her son's life and betrays Voldemort in the end, but the film leaves out scenes showing her haughty racism and general Rich Bitch attitude before her Heel–Face Turn.
  • Although Rufus Scrimgeour was never a villain, in books six and seven he's treated as something of an opportunistic antagonist who really only wants to work with Harry to make himself look good. In the film series, he's introduced briefly in the seventh movie, where he cryptically tells Harry and the gang that he doesn't know what they're up to, but that they can't fight Voldemort alone. And then he dies off-screen.
  • In the books, Severus Snape is a Jerkass whose true loyalties and motives remain ambiguous until the final novel reveals he has been protecting Harry all along. In the movies, he's still unpleasant and occasionally mean, but many of his nastier moments are toned down or removed, and he has a few Pet the Dog moments, such as risking his own life to shield Harry, Ron and Hermione, the three students he most despises, from werewolf!Lupin. The films also only imply (rather than outright state) that Snape unwittingly set the Potters up to die by telling Voldemort about the prophecy, which did not specify the child it was referring to. The film also cuts the scene between Snape and Dumbledore where he clearly indicates that he only cares about Lily's life and no one else's.
  • Barty Crouch Sr. in the books is a Knight Templar implied to have a bad case of He Who Fights Monsters that developed after his fall from grace about fifteen years prior. He and Harry barely interact, and his neglect of his son is highly implied to be one of the reasons Barty Jr. joins Voldemort; Barty Sr.'s cold reaction to the news at Barty Jr.'s trial despite his wife's hysterics is noted as the point where the public started to turn on him. In the film, he and Harry share a pleasant conversation shortly before his death, and in a flashback scene the moment when he says "you are no son of mine" is depicted as a horrified reaction to the many atrocities his clearly deranged and monstrous son has committed rather than a cruel dismissal.
  • A small case in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The centaurs have it in for Hagrid after he stops them killing Firenze in the book — and Harry and Hermione suffer from guilt-by-association after they carry off Umbridge. This is left out of the film and the centaurs don't go after Harry and Hermione, merely carrying off Umbridge.
  • Draco's scene where he gives Harry his wand was left out of the final cut of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but footage of the scene does exist and Draco never did anything like it in the books.
  • All of James' jerkass moments were removed from the Snape's memories part of the last movie. In fact, his first meeting with Lily is very cordial rather than in the book where James and Sirius, still only on the train to their first year at Hogwarts, are teasing and taunting Snape in front of Lily, who grows so angered with them that she suggests they leave. She doesn't get over her first impression of him for the next five years.
• In the novel version of the The Help, Skeeter Phelan is a segregationist who finds the thought of an interracial romance to be "horrific, disastrous." She's still a sympathetic protagonist, but she's nevertheless a somewhat ambiguous character. In the movie, by contrast, there is much less moral complexity, and Skeeter is never portrayed as a segregationist.
• In the film version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, the title character gets a sympathetic backstory for his hatred of Christmas thanks to the feature-length film needing to indulge in a lot of Adaptation Expansion. Interestingly, his sympathetic backstory results in Adaptational Jerkass on the part of the Whos of Whoville.
• Several film adaptions of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, most blatantly the Disney movie, apply this trope to the principal characters (Quasimodo, Esmerelda, and sometimes Phoebus) and invert it with Claude Frollo (omitting his capacity for compassion and creating selfish motives for his initial actions). In the 1923 version, however, this trope is played straight with Claude, whose evil side is given instead to his brother Jehan.
• In almost every version of The Iliad ever put to film, the Greeks (the heroes of the poem) become the villains, and the Trojans (the villains of the poem) become the heroes. This is particularly galling in the case of Paris, who in the epic, was a sniveling, backstabbing coward, who hid inside the city and let his brothers do all the real fighting. But Hollywood wants a love story, and Paris' promotion to romantic lead inevitably includes a batch of good qualities that weren't present in the epic poem, and the quiet ignoring of the fact that his "love interest" was essentially roofied by a goddess. To a lesser degree it also applies to his brother Hector, who, while more conventionally heroic in the poem, was still a) willing to dismember a man's body and hang it from the walls, and b) too afraid to face Achilles in direct combat.
  • The 2004 version, Troy, also gives Achilles something of a hero upgrade, turning him from a nihilistic narcissist into a troubled, but genuine, hero.
  • Paris also gets a further one in Troy; since that film mostly eliminates the role of the gods in the conflict, his relationship with Helen becomes a legitimate seduction with her as a willing participant. She also tells him later that she was miserable with Menelaus, further solidifying the idea that her interest in Paris is genuine.
• It (2017)
  • Butch Bowers in the book was a psychotic and racist ex-vet who shaped his son Henry Bowers into The Bully that he is. In the film, Butch is a decent police chief who actually prevents Henry from harassing the Losers Club and even stops him from trying to shoot a cat. It's somewhat implied Butch is still abusive to Henry as he punishes him by shooting a gun at his feet and a Deleted Scene confirms it. However, Word of God claimed that the test audience didn’t react the way he expected them to when they saw that scene and as a result, it was cut and his father appeared more heroic as a result.
  • Among the Losers Club, Eddie Kaspbrak and Stan Uris are much heroic and brave, with their negative qualities lessened. Stan in particular not only stands up for himself against his domineering family, but his Dirty Coward suicide from the book is changed to a Heroic Suicide in the sequel.
  • Played with regarding Tom Rogan in Chapter 2. When Beverly tells him about Mike's call from Derry, instead of flipping out like in the book, he is caring and understanding. However when Beverly is about to leave, Tom grabs her arm, revealing he's just as much a violent douchebag as in the book and even tries to violently rape his own wife rather than let her go see this "Mike".
• Into the Woods:
  • Rapunzel's Prince, contrasting his brother's Adaptational Villainy. It's clear that he truly loves Rapunzel, and he stays faithful to her for the entire film (unlike his stage show counterpart, who tosses her aside during their marriage to pursue Snow White). He's even willing to go out and search for Rapunzel while blind.
  • A small case for the steward. In the stage show, he kills Jack's mother by clubbing her over the head. In this, he only pushes her to the ground and she hits her head off a log. He's shown to instantly regret it as well.
  • One moment for the Witch. In most productions when Rapunzel chooses to stay with her prince, the Witch tries to attack both of them. In the film, she only goes for the prince and even pulls Rapunzel back.
• In the 1982 film adaptation of Ivanhoe, Sir Brian died heroically. Though he could easily have defeated Ivanhoe, who was fighting as Rebecca's champion, he let himself be struck down for Rebecca's sake.
• James Bond
  • From Russia with Love: While Kerim Bey wasn't exactly a bad guy in the book, the movie cuts out most of his more unsavory traits, such as his cheerful endorsement of the "Not If They Enjoyed It" Rationalization.
  • You Only Live Twice: In the original novel, Tiger Tanaka was essentially a proud Axis gangster who ended up on the "right" side as a quirk of postwar politics. The movie does away with this and makes him the genuinely friendly and heroic head of a Japanese secret service.
• Most of the human characters in Jaws. The humans in the novel are unlikable. Martin and Ellen Brody have an unhappy marriage and Ellen is cheating on Martin with Matt Hooper, Hooper is a snobby Ivy League alumnus, and the mayor actually has ties with the Mafia. The movie changes this by making Martin and Ellen Brody Happily Married and Ellen's affair with Matt Hooper is omitted, Brody gets to kill the shark himself, Hooper is portrayed as a charming, rugged, good-humored character, and the mayor at first is a Hate Sink but then regrets allowing the beaches to stay open. Quint in the books is a strictly money driven character who doesn't have much of a backstory, where in the movie he is a World War 2 veteran who survived the sinking of the USS Indianapolis and a suave sea captain who's full of charm and personality.
• In the 2016 Live-Action Adaptation version of The Jungle Book, Mowgli is made less of a Bratty Half-Pint his '67 version was. In his selfish desire to remain in the jungle, the '67 version foolishly ignores the threat of Shere Khan upon him after he's taken away from the wolf pack he grew up in to the safety of the Man-Village. The '16 version makes by himself the decision to leave the pack and go to live somewhere else in the jungle in order to spare his adoptive family from Shere Khan's wrath. While the '67 version ends up confronting Shere Khan (partly) by chance, the '16 version eventually rushes to confront the tiger in order to avenge Akela's murder and end Khan's tyranny over the jungle.
• John Hammond of Jurassic Park is an interesting case in that both versions of him, the original novel version and the much more well known film adaptation, are thinly-veiled versions of Walt Disney. In the original novel, Hammond is compared to Disney in-text very early on when an EPA agent approaches Alan Grant about him and Grant blows off his warnings, remarking that "John Hammond is about as sinister as Walt Disney", the joke being that that's exactly true, since the book goes on to reveal Hammond as a self-interested Jerkass who dismisses all his mistakes and lapses of judgment as not his fault, as some countercultural portrayals of Disney suggest he was. That said, the popular perception of Disney had shifted back towards the Cool Old Guy Eccentric Millionaire by the time Steven Spielberg adapted the novel into the film, so Spielberg deliberately based Hammond off the kinder interpretation of Disney, due to feeling a personal kinship with him. Not only was Hammond Spared by the Adaptation, he even got to appear in sequels as a Big Good. However, the most overt invocation of Disney in the movie is also one of Hammond's more callous moments.
  Hammond: All major theme parks have delays. When they opened Disneyland, nothing worked!
  Malcolm: Yeah, John, but when the Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't eat the tourists.
• Kick-Ass:
  • The film version makes both Big Daddy and Red Mist much more sympathetic than in the original comic. Film Big Daddy is profoundly messed up but very much a Tragic Hero, whereas in the source material his apparent backstory was just a lie and he's actually a vigilante in it for kicks. The film version of Red Mist strips him of his Dirty Coward personality from the comic and plays up his loneliness.
  • Kick-Ass' Love Interest Katie is a kind, compassionate young woman, whereas her comic counterpart is an absolute bitch. At least in the first film. When the sequel rolled, she Took a Level in Jerkass, closely matching her comic counterpart's personality. She jumps to conclusions over a misunderstanding and dumps him, after revealing she had been cheating on him from the start.
• Kingsman: The Secret Service:
  • In The Secret Service, Professor James Arnold was the Big Bad. Here, he was kidnapped by the villains, although he does agree to join them afterwards, seeing as how he had a chip in his head.
  • Merlin remains loyal to the Kingsman, unlike Rupert Greaves, his equivalent character in the comics, who joins forces with the villain and attempts to poison the protagonist. This element of his character is given to Arthur in the film.
• The Land That Time Forgot:
  • Captain von Schoenvorts is a thoughtful U-Boat officer who treats his men fairly, forbids the killing of survivors after sinking the British ship, and works loyally and faithfully alongside Tyler and Bradley in Caprona, and who ultimately dies tragically thanks to the betrayal of his treacherous second in command Dietz. This is in direct contrast to the novel where Baron von Schoenvorts whips his own men for minor offenses, intentionally has the U-Boat fire on survivors of the ship they sank, betrays the British crew in Caprona and uses them as slave labor, and dies as a result of some severe Laser-Guided Karma.
  • A more minor example is Benson. In the film, he's just one of the British crew and a definite good guy who gets killed in a fight with some Sto-Lu warriors. In the novel, he is a traitor helping the Germans, and dies aboard the U-Boat long before the characters even get to Caprona.
• Last Exit To Brooklyn: In Hubert Selby's novel, both Harry Black and Tralala have absolutely no redeeming qualities. In the film adaptation, while Harry arrives late at the strike because he's preoccupied with his clandestine homosexual affair, he does fight the strikebreakers bravely when he shows up (in the novel, he remains on the sidelines while other union members are killed and maimed). Similarly, in the film, Tralala is something of a Hooker with a Heart of Gold who is moved by the young sailor's feelings for her and comforts a young boy with a crush on her. In contrast, the novel's Tralala is an amoral sociopath who is just as violent and inhuman towards others as her pimps.
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen:
  • Cleverly subverted with Griffin the Invisible Man. In both the comic and source material he was a sociopathic murderer (and even a rapist in the comic). Since the movie was going for a Lighter and Softer approach, they made this into a twist; the Invisible Man in the film is revealed to actually be Skinner, a thief who stole some of Griffin's invisibility serum and was turned transparent like him. Thus the original character is left intact while the audience doesn't have to stomach having a rapist on the same team as the heroes.
  • Played straight with Captain Nemo, Mr. Hyde, and the British Intelligence in general. In the comics they were morally ambiguous at best, but the film presents them as more conventional heroes since, again, they were going for a more light-hearted style.
• Little Shop of Horrors: While Seymour Krelbourn isn't exactly a villain in the play, he's still portrayed as an extremely selfish person who willingly allows two people to die to feed an obviously untrustworthy Man-Eating Plant and in doing so impress a girl. It's thus portrayed as Laser-Guided Karma when his trusting the plant costs the girl's life and his own. In the film, Seymour's more negative traits are downplayed, and his responsibility for the deaths is decreased — the first is due to being frozen with shock, and the second is a straight-up accident. Additionally, one of his victims — Mr. Mushnik — is made a lot less likable. This may have worked against the film retaining the original Downer Ending of the musical, hence the Focus Group Ending.
• In The Long Goodbye, Eileen Wade isn't the murderer, unlike in the book.
• In The Lord of the Rings, Bree is filled with shifty-looking characters, but none of them ever do anything. In the books, Aragorn believes it's Bree-men and not the Nazgûl who sack the Hobbits' rooms and loose their ponies, and later, with the Rangers away at war, at least a couple of them (Harry Goatleaf and Bill Ferny) join up with bandits from the south to cause trouble in and around Bree. In fact, the films' Harry Goatleaf dies challenging the Nazgûl at the Bree-gate in contrast to being implied to be in league with them in the book.
• In the book of The Lovely Bones Abigail has an affair with the detective investigating her daughter's murder. She additionally doesn't return home until Buckley is all grown up. The film leaves the affair out and Abigail returns while Buckley is still a child.
• Maleficent provides a previously unseen tragic origin for the title character, causing her to come off as much more sympathetic than she did in the original Sleeping Beauty film. Same goes for her Dragon, Diaval, who in the original was petty and cruel. Here, his loyalty to Maleficent is highlighted and he's given more character traits and screen-time, causing him to come across as a far better person.
• Mary Shelley's Frankenstein significantly toned down Frankenstein's worst actions in the novel by having Justine lynched by a mob as soon as she's accused of William's murder, which was actually committed by the Creature. In the novel, Frankenstein stays silent for weeks while she's judicially tried, convicted and executed, while Wangst-ing about how horrible the situation is for him.
• The Mask:
  • The Mask itself. In the comic books, it is deliberately malevolent, corrupting and compels its wearers to commit atrocity after atrocity with the immense power it gives them, before the wearer dies and The Mask goes to its next "master". In the film, The Mask simply removes all inhibitions from the wearer, letting the wearer do whatever they want. This is why Stanley Ipkiss becomes a wisecracking mischief-maker, but the villain lets loose with all of his evil.
  • Stanley Ipkiss in the film is a lovable loser with a lot of nevertheless redeeming qualities who ultimately learns to stop relying on The Mask to solve his problems, rises to the occasion, and gets the girl. In the comics, he's a right-wing lunatic who uses The Mask as his personal hitman to kill those who wronged him for increasingly trivial reasons (such as suffocating his elementary school teacher), goes on a violent rampage against the police, and is ultimately shot and killed by his girlfriend.
  • The Mask in the film is a gangster with a heart of gold despite shoving exhaust pipes inside the bottoms of two mechanics, which is only because they ripped off Stanley, and other than that, he is pretty much harmless and shows himself to be such a charming wild man, as shown when he’s with Tina. The Mask is also adorable when he’s around Tina despite being somewhat sleazy towards her at first and saves her from being killed by eating the bomb next to her. In the animated series which is set after the film, he decides to become a superhero to protect the people in his city while in the comic, his counterpart Big Head is a supervillain who likes hurting and killing people.
• In the novel of Matilda, Hortensia bullies Matilda and Lavender. In the film, she is friendly and protective of them.
• While still antagonistic towards Thomas in The Maze Runner, Gally is significantly less psychotic than his book counterpart. He brings up logical and reasonable accusations towards Thomas and is much more sympathetic. Until the whole "let's leave Thomas and Teresa to die in a failing attempt to save ourselves" thing.
• In the Men in Black films, Agents Jay, Kay, and Zed are heroes. In the obscure comic book the movies are based on, the organization is downright sinister, K basically made J An Offer You Can't Refuse to get him to join and considers him a very disposable pawn, and J is pretty much the only 'good guy' in the bunch.
• Les Misérables (2012):
  • Inspector Javert gets an added Pet the Dog moment and presents him as a Well-Intentioned Extremist who believes that locking up anyone considered a criminal is best for them, struggles with his beliefs, and zealously enforces the law out of duty and without malice. In the original novel, Javert is a Knight Templar and the narration describes his incorruptibility and devotion to his work as a kind of evil because consequently, he lacks empathy for and demonstrates borderline sadistic glee in punishing people driven to crime by their circumstances. The musical and film adaptations focus more on Javert's obsession with catching Valjean specifically, rather than criminals in general, but adaptations still (depending on the production) present him as a fairly malevolent character.
  • In the novel, Eponine and her parents bullied Cosette. In the film, Eponine is only briefly seen as a child and doesn't interact at all with Cosette. As an adult in the novel, Eponine is incredibly bitter over her situation and is jealous over Marius's love for Cosette. In the film, she comes across as merely broken-hearted that Marius does not love her. Eponine hiding Cosette's letter to Marius comes across as an act of despair in the heat of the moment, rather than as an actual attempt to sabotage the relationship between Marius and Cosette. Also, in the film, she screams to alert Cosette and Valjean that her parents are outside the house while, in the novel, she only threatened to do so, making Eponine come across as more heroic. Marius and Eponine's friendship is emphasized and given importance, while in the book, Eponine was a bit of a Stalker with a Crush. While Marius loves and cares for Eponine to an extent (though it is largely pity), it's only as a friend, which makes Eponine's sadness that he doesn't love her the same way she loves him all the more poignant.
• In Mortal Engines, Magnus Crome is as culpable as Valentine over developing MEDUSA as a weapon for London. In the film adaptation he's still by no means a good person, but he's oblivious to Valentine's plans until the weapon has been completed, and is killed by Valentine when he tries to put a stop to it.
• Mr Arrow goes from a useless drunk in Treasure Island to an uptight but generally righteous character when he's played by Sam the Eagle in Muppet Treasure Island. He's not only Spared by the Adaptation, he helps save the day and reclaim the Hispaniola in the climax!
• My Sister's Keeper greatly humanizes the Knight Templar Parent that Sara was in the book. While she's still abusive in the film, some of her worse moments from the book are left out. And since Kate dies instead of Anna unlike in the book, Sara and Anna eventually mend their differences as implied by the end. The film has also has several happy moments between the family, establishing that Sara does indeed love her other children too.
• The Natural: In the original novel, Roy Hobbs lets the fame get to his head and eventually accepts the Judge's bribe to deliberately lose the game. In the film, however, he remains true to his morals and refuses to take the bribe.
• The 1991 remake of The Night of the Hunter has the kids' father murdered in his cell by the Big Bad rather than hanged for a bank robbery gone wrong, making it possible that it didn't go as wrong as in the original book and movie (i.e., that the father has no blood on his hands).
• The protagonist of Oldboy (2003) is very much a vengeance-driven Anti-Hero with more than a few questionable actions under his belt, with his most moral actions revolving around his Morality Pet Mi-do. The protagonist of Oldboy (2013), while still very brutal, is driven by the need to protect his daughter instead of just personal revenge, though inversely he was also far more of an asshole in the past.
• Mr. Curry from the Paddington Bear books is less mean and just more grumpy in the film adaptation Paddington (2014). Averted in Paddington 2, where he is much more of a jerk, going out of his way to try to turn public opinion against the wrongfully-convicted Paddington, for which Mr. Brown gives him a few choice words.
• Porter from Payback is actually a take on Parker, the amoral and often vicious Villain Protagonist of Donald Westlake's long-running Parker crime/noir novels. Porter is an Anti-Hero and no saint by any means, but despite the tagline of the film proclaiming "Get ready to root for the bad guy," Porter is downright cuddly compared to his literary counterpart. (This is especially true since Payback is adapted from The Hunter, the first of the Parker novels, where Parker was at his most loathsome^note Westlake originally intended for Parker to die at the end of that first book, so there was no need to worry about things like Parker being likable or having justified motives before he developed more of a moral code and professional standards.) Just for some quick examples, Parker has been willing to threaten children to get his way, was planning to double cross his partner Mal in The Hunter but Mal beat him to the punch, and when he encounters his wife again, Parker talks her into overdosing and mutilates her body. Porter on the other hand declines to kill someone just because there are some school children nearby (saying he won't kill somebody in front of kids), gives no sign that he would have betrayed Val or any other partner he was working with, and when he encounters his wife again Porter intends to force her to get clean and kick her drug habit. She overdoses only because she has an additional stash hidden in the apartment and dipped into it while Porter was asleep.
• In The Phantom of the Opera (1962), the Phantom doesn't kill anybody, unlike in the original novel or most adaptations. He's also less romantic in this version, and seems to have no particular attraction to Christine.
• Mewtwo from Pokémon Detective Pikachu is far more benevolent than any of its previous incarnations in the Pokémon series, learning from Harry that not all Humans Are Bastards. It's not only grateful to Harry and Pikachu helping him out, but it also helps Tim and Pikachu (the latter again) out in return. It's also driven by a wish to be free and alone, as opposed to its rage and hatred against humans like its other incarnations. However, this is subverted if you consider the movie to be a Stealth Sequel to Pokémon: The First Movie, as Word of God does, because this is in line with Mewtwo's post-Character Development personality.
• Pride and Prejudice:
  • In the novel, Mary Bennett is a bookworm and a bit of a Shrinking Violet — but she is also very ignorant, rude and loves to lecture people. Many of the novel's film adaptations file off the unlikable parts of Mary, leaving her looking more sympathetic. The 2005 film is a notable example, especially the scene where she cries into her father's arms that she practised the piano all day but couldn't perform at the ball. Mrs Bennett too in the 2005 film, who gets a couple of Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other moments with her husband.
  • Bride and Prejudice does similar things with Mrs Bennett's Expy Mrs Bakshi. While still presented as pushy and over-the-top, she gets a few Pet the Dog moments. Caroline Bingley's equivalent Kiran is softened greatly too — as she's shown to sincerely enjoy herself at the party where she's introduced, and appears friendlier than her book counterpart.
  • Depending on the adaptation, Mr Collins will sometimes get this or Adaptational Villainy. The 2005 film portrays him as awkward but sincere, while Lost In Austen leans more towards some kind of sexual predator.
• In Prince Caspian, Queen Prunaprismia is stated to have disliked Caspian and wholeheartedly supports her evil husband Miraz. In the film, however, Prunaprismia is portrayed in a more positive light. She shows sympathy for Caspian, and she expresses horror at the fact that Miraz murdered his brother. (The BBC adaptation, on the other hand, increases her villainy by depicting her as a harpy who shows open hostility towards Caspian.)
• In the novel The Quiet Earth, Api turns out to be psychopath, and tries to kill the protagonist before being killed himself. In the movie, he's a genuinely good guy, and is even ready to perform a Heroic Sacrifice before Zac does it for him.
• Resident Evil Film Series:
  • Resident Evil: Apocalypse turns game villain Nicholai Ginovaef into a good guy.
  • Resident Evil: Retribution apparently pulled this on Albert Wesker.
  • Nemesis from Resident Evil 3: Nemesis was basically The Terminator: merciless, unkillable, and hell-bent on killing Jill, and with Combat Tentacles and a nasty case of chapped lip to sweeten the deal. Nemesis from Resident Evil: Apocalypse was once Matt Addisen, pulls a Heel–Face Turn and has a Heroic Sacrifice when Alice gets through to him.
  • In Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, Dr. James Marcus only developed the T-Virus to treat his daughter, and as soon as things went wrong he wanted to shut it all down. In the games, Dr. Marcus was obsessed with his research and he had no issues using unwilling test subjects for his experiments.
• In Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City:
  • Brian Irons goes from a psychotic serial rapist/killer who is on Umbrella's payroll to a mere jerkass who nevertheless aids Leon and Claire during their escape from the city.
  • Albert Wesker goes from the evil mastermind behind pretty much everything to an amoral mercenary simply looking to make an extra buck under the table; he saves Jill's life at one point and later directs the other survivors to a train they can use to escape as he lays dying.
• The original story of The Scarlet Pimpernel has Marguarite denounce the Marquis, accidentally sending him and his family to their deaths in revenge for his attack on her brother; the 1982 film adaption has her innocent of this action, framed by Chauvelin instead (for whom this trope is inverted).
• In the television show Firefly, Simon hired professionals to break his sister out of the government "school" where she was trapped. In the film Serenity, the beginning of the movie has a flashback to that moment where he's actually playing a direct role in her rescue himself. In the show, his role was limited to financing the operation because he lacked the expertise to break her out himself, and more importantly, his face was already known to the security because he had tried to break her out on his own once before (and failed). In that scene, he's also a lot smoother and comfortable with action than the brave but bumbling doctor of the show.
• Many of Frederick Chilton's Kick the Dog moments in The Silence of the Lambs were cut out of the movie, presumably for time. He still comes across as a bit of a creep, though.
  • Buffalo Bill gets this too. The movie doesn't imply that he's killed anyone but these 5-6 women, whereas the book states that he murdered his grandparents at 12 and has been killing women for years before this particular spree.
• In Silent Hill, Dahlia Gillespie, who was one of the major villains in the first game, plays a minor role as a member of the religious cult led by Christabella, who, unlike Dahlia in the original game, genuinely loved Alessa and felt guilty for her suffering.
• In Silent Hill: Revelation 3D, Pyramid Head is the hero who shows up at the last minute just in time to save the day in the film's climax. In the games, he was The Dreaded antagonist who instilled fear in and out of universe while relentlessly stalking the player to kill them. But the movie recreates him as Heather's protector instead of James' punisher.
• Sodom and Gomorrah: Lot and the Hebrews are portrayed as despising slavery, saying it's an abomination (even freeing slaves where they can). In the Bible, they display no such sentiments, and own slaves themselves (not Lot personally, but Ahraman does, along with Hebrews generally). This was ubiquitous among Middle Eastern cultures then. Lot is also portrayed as very protective with his daughters. In Genesis, he offers them instead of his guests to the Sodomite mob for rape.
• Solo: Enfys Nest's gang, the Cloud-Riders, were a straightforward gang of pirate marauders in Legends - here they're a group of nascent Rebels who try to seek to protect the innocent both from the Empire and from criminals like Dryden.
• In the first film version of The Stepford Wives, Walter was all too happy to replace his real wife with a robot, in one of the movie's most chilling plot developments. In the remake, Walter is portrayed as frustrated by his marriage but goes against the plot, which, in this movie, is brainwashing his wife into obedience and helping Joanna save the other wives from their husbands' control.
• In Alfred Hitchcock's film version of Strangers on a Train, Guy changed from a tragic demoralized anti-hero to an unambiguous hero, who did not succumb to Bruno's pressure to murder his father.
• Street Fighter: Balrog, one of the villains in Street Fighter II, is a hero and a friend of Chun Li and E. Honda.
• Switch (1991) is an unofficial remake of Goodbye Charlie. In both an unapologetically sexist male womanizer is shot dead and reincarnated as a beautiful woman but in the older film he/she is firmly in Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist territory. In the newer film the reincarnated hero/ine is a much more likable character, actually learns a lesson or two and ends the film on a somewhat happy note.
• In The Talented Mr. Ripley, although Tom Ripley commits the same murders as he does in the book, he is presented as much more emotional and caring, with his sociopathy significantly toned down. As a particular example, Ripley in the books is introduced pretending to be an official with the electric company/other creditor organizations, and calls random people up to pressure them about (nonexistent) bills, partly so he can support himself on their money and partly for his own amusement. In contrast, Ripley in the film works as a waiter and engages in relatively innocent deceptions in which he lies about his background. He also benefits from he fact that Dickie, his first victim, gets a considerable dose of Adaptational Villainy, going from an Upper-Class Twit in the book to a caddish borderline sociopath in the film.
• Tekken (2010) changes Heihachi Mishima from a Corrupt Corporate Executive to a much more sympathetic character who is revealed to have saved Jun Kazama from Kazuya.
• In The Thin Red Line, Witt is a wise, kind character and a Messianic Archetype; in the book the film is based on, he's racist, volatile and no better or worse than the rest of C-for-Charlie.
• Timeline: Arnaud is changed from a cruel, ruthless warlord into a noble warrior who fights for justice.
• Happens in the film adaptation of Twilight: Eclipse. Remember the infamous Forceful Kiss between Jacob and Bella? In the book, Bella's boyfriend Edward doesn't make much of a fuss over it, her dad Charlie approves of Jacob's actions, and Jacob himself is a Jerkass over the whole thing. In the adaptation, Edward is furious with Jacob, Charlie is shocked when he finds out about it and Jacob acknowledges that what he did was wrong.
• Total Recall (2012) sees, in addition to Hauser having a genuine Heel–Face Turn, the resistance not be involved in the same attacks against Cohaagen's men they were in the 1990 film.
• In the original Village of the Damned (1960), David is the ringleader of the "cuckoos" who apathetically murdered people of the village. In the 1995 remake, this role is instead given to female child Mara. David gains a subplot revolving around his lack of a counterpart, leaving him vulnerable to human empathy and ultimately pulling a Heel–Face Turn.
  • Children of the Damned was a sequel (kind of) to the original Village of the Damned, that took a much more sympathetic view of the "cuckoos". Granted, these were different individual kids, but clearly a manifestation of the same force that had created the originals. Here, they come across as unsettling, but essentially innocent, and just trying to survive in a world that fears them — sort of like an early version of the X-Men or some of the Scanners.
• Wanted: The Fraternity in the film adaptation are much less villainous than the Fraternity in the original comic book. They weren't merely corrupt assassins, they were supervillains who engaged in murder and rape on a regular basis (Fox, for example, introduces herself to Wesley by killing a room full of innocent bystanders). Even Wesley himself didn't shy away from engaging in these atrocities either.
• Warcraft (2016) zig-zags this with regards to orcs. While "heroic orc" is a Warcraft mainstay, the game on which the film is based had them be truly villainous. In the film, they're more heroic, and if not, then at least misguided.
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit:
  • The source for the film, the obscure Gary K. Wolf novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, casts Jessica as a standard-issue Femme Fatale who is married to Roger against her will and regularly cheats on him. The film subverts this in a memorable fashion by having her turn out to be quite a nice lady who's genuinely in love with her husband; as she phrases it herself, "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way."
  • Roger himself gets a heroism upgrade too. In the book, he really IS guilty of the murder Eddie's investigating and even intended to frame Eddie for it. In the film, he's completely innocent of any wrongdoing.

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