‘It Ends With Us’: 8 Major Changes Between Colleen Hoover’s Book & Movie

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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us and the film adaptation.]

Colleen Hoover’s #1 New York Times bestseller It Ends With Us has made the leap from book to the big screen. The highly anticipated film stars Blake Lively as Lily Bloom, Justin Baldoni as Ryle Kincaid, and Brandon Sklenar as Atlas Corrigan.

Millions around the globe have read Hoover’s It Ends With Us (over 8 million copies have been sold and counting), so fans are going to be on the lookout for major book changes in the film. The movie is mostly a faithful adaptation of the source material, but there are several notable book-to-screen changes. TV Insider is breaking down the biggest book moments that were modified for the film adaptation.

The cast is aged up

In Hoover’s novel, Lily is 23 years old, and Ryle is 30 years old. In the movie, the characters are aged up into their 30s. Hoover addressed the age change in a recent interview with TODAY.

“As an author, we make mistakes,” she said. “There’s no 28-year-old neurosurgeons, you know? You go to school for 15 years. And so to make corrections to what I messed up in the book, we aged the characters up somewhat.”

Ryle’s proposal to Lily

In the film, Ryle proposes to Lily while visiting Allysa (Jenny Slate)and Marshall (Hasan Minhaj) in the hospital. The big moment plays out differently in the book. Ryle pops the question after Lily meets his mother at Allysa’s apartment. Ryle and Allysa’s parents are not included in the film.

The casserole incident change

The casserole incident in the book is the first time Lily experiences Ryle’s abuse. He hits her and knocks her down after she laughs at him for burning him taking a casserole out of the oven.

In the film, the casserole is actually a frittata, and Lily doesn’t laugh at him for burning the dish. He smacks her in the face after burning his hand. The way the scene is shot makes you question whether Ryle hit her purposefully or unintentionally as he reacted to burning his hand.

There’s no magnet scene

The magnet scene in Hoover’s novel is a major moment in Ryle and Lily’s relationship. After reading Lily’s journal and an awards article where Atlas hints at his past with Lily, Ryle discovers Lily’s Boston magnet that says, “Where everything is better.” Atlas gave Lily the magnet when they were 16 years old.

The magnet symbolizes Atlas and Lily’s hope for a better future. Atlas is eventually inspired to name his restaurant Bib’s [Better in Boston], a reference to the magnet.

The adaptation doesn’t include the magnet and changes the name of Atlas’ restaurant from Bib’s to Root. Instead of cornering Lily about the magnet, Ryle goes straight into forcing her to read the article in which Atlas alludes to Lily and assaults her by biting the area around her heart tattoo.

Emerson reveal

One of the most significant book-to-screen changes is how Lily finds out about what happened to Emerson, Ryle, and Allysa’s older brother. In Hoover’s novel, Ryle is the one to tell Lily that he accidentally shot and killed his brother when he was six years old.

The movie has Allysa break this devastating aspect of the Kincaid past to Lily. The scene is combined with the moment where Allysa tells Lily, “If you take him back, I will never speak to you again.”

Lily’s letters to Ellen DeGeneres

The book features Lily writing letters to Ellen DeGeneres during her teenage years to express the turmoil going on inside her house and her budding relationship with Atlas. In the film, eagle-eyed viewers will spot one of Lily’s journal entries with “Dear Ellen” at the top, but that’s most we see of Lily’s journal entries to the former daytime host.

There’s a Finding Nemo poster in Lily’s teenage bedroom, another Easter egg for fans of the novel. Lily and Atlas watch Finding Nemo together in the book, but they watch an episode of Ellen in the movie.

Lily loves DeGeneres so much that her daughter’s middle name is Dory. It’s unclear if Emerson gets that middle name in the film.

Assault aftermath

In the film adaptation, Lily runs to Root after Ryle attacks her. Atlas takes Lily to the hospital, where she finds out she’s pregnant. This isn’t exactly how it goes down in the book.

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Lily calls Atlas after the attack in the novel from the apartment she shares with Ryle. He comes to pick her up and takes her to the hospital.

The ending

The epilogue of It Ends With Us takes place 11 months in the future. Lily is out with Emerson when she runs into Atlas at the farmer’s market. She has to quickly hand over Emerson to Ryle, but afterwards, she runs back to find Atlas. She tells Atlas that Emerson’s middle name is Dory, and they share a long-awaited kiss.

The film actually flashes forward a couple of years to when Emerson is a toddler. Ryle and Emerson are not included in the final scene with Lily and Atlas. They reconnect at the farmer’s market, but that’s where it ends. Lily and Atlas don’t kiss in the final scene, but there’s a sense of hope that these two end up together offscreen.

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