Changes In The Netflix Book Adaptation

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for the movie Uglies.

Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies has made it to the big screen at long last.

After its publication in 2005, the first novel of four by the author gathered a big readership as a precursor to YA dystopia stories like The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Maze Runner and more. The story follows Tally Youngblood, who lives in a society that values face symmetry over anything else. All citizens within the society receive a mandatory surgical operation that makes them “pretty,” evening out their facial flaws and physiques.

Throughout the books, Tally gets an outside perspective on the operation that she once wanted more than anything else, first from a community of rebels who have escaped various cities to live a simpler life in a community they call The Smoke. The Netflix film, directed by McG and adapted by Jacob Forman, Vanessa Taylor and Whit Anderson captures the first book’s plot as Tally (Joey King) originally leaves her city to rescue her friend Shay (Brianne Tju) but discovers more than she bargained for in the process.

Several major changes were made to the plot within the film.

Thoreau Book

Walden Pond, a book by Henry David Thoreau, who is quoted in Westerfeld’s follow-up novel Pretties, became a prominent tool passed between recruited Smokies from Shay and her friends. Viewers later learn that the book came from David and his parents, and it encourages civil disobedience and radical thinking through isolation in nature.

Rangers vs. Smokies Burning Orchids

In the book, Rangers who are Pretties that focus on keeping the white tiger orchid weed at bay around the cities with flamethrowers, are Pretty. In the film, the Rangers are combined with the Smokies, who take over the task of burning the flower fields and attempting to keep the invasive flower from ruining the ecosystem.

Hoverboards in The Smoke

Tally uses a hoverboard, which stays afloat as long as metal exists underneath it, to get to The Smoke both in the book and film, but once she arrives in the film, hoverboards aren’t used in the reclusive community. Westerfeld’s book still contains instances of hoverboarding, and David even knows how to do so although he grew up outside the city.

Peris’ Surgery Extension

Peris does not become a Special in the books. Shay does, after they make her pretty. Peris sort of fades out of the storyline in the books as Tally battles the society that forces people to conform to certain aesthetic standards.

In the film, Peris expresses to Dr. Cable that he felt good going back to Uglyville, and she took that as a signal that he still had his old sentiments about the place and Tally despite having had the operation, meaning the brain lesions weren’t working on him.

Peris Killing David’s Father Az in Front of the Smokies

The way in which Az (Jay DeVon Johnson) is killed in front of his wife and David is different in the book besides the fact that Peris does it since he became a Special. In the books, Az’s death happens because he is forced to undergo surgery. Dr. Cable experimented with a way to change his memories because she thought that he would still talk about the brain lesions that come with being pretty after having focused on them for so long.

The cure is in the form of pills

The cure is two combined liquids in the film versus pills that Maddy (Charmin Lee), David’s mother, makes after stealing nanosynth from Dr. Cable’s lab. In the book, the cure takes the form of physical pills, and Maddy labors over it.

Peris falling to his death (?)

Of course, Peris could very well not be actually dead, but the fall he takes at the end of the film looks pretty fatal. In the books, his fate is very different since he doesn’t end up confronting Tally once he becomes Special. He remains Pretty.