A Walk Among The Tombstones: Book Vs Movie Differences

Here are the main changes between A Walk Among The Tombstones’ book and the Liam Neeson fronted movie. Liam Neeson had a bizarre rebirth as an action star thanks to 2008’s Taken, where he played a retired special forces operative who cuts a bloody path through Paris to rescue his kidnapped daughter. The movie’s lean plot, a wealth of action and Neeson’s commanding presence made it a surprise hit and it received two sequels.

Liam Neeson then became the go-to leading man for action thrillers for a period, leading to The A-Team, Run All Night and several others. In 2014 he played ex-cop Matt Scudder in A Walk Among The Tombstones, and this character comes from a series of neo-noir books from author Lawrence Block. The first big-screen adaptation of these novels was 1986’s 8 Million Ways To Die, which cast Jeff Bridges as Scudder. Despite a screenplay by Oliver Stone and a great supporting cast, it was a critical and financial bomb.

A movie version of A Walk Among The Tombstones had been in development for years before the Scott Frank directed version, with Harrison Ford once in line to play the role. While the broad strokes of A Walk Among The Tombstones are taken right from the book, there are several key differences in the movie. While the film is more of a thriller than an action movie, a few setpieces were added like the graveyard shootout and the final fight to beef up the action quota.

A Walk Among The Tombstones made the movie version of Scudder more of a loner, whereas in the book he has a relationship with a prostitute named Elaine and friendships with other characters who were trimmed out. Actress Ruth Wilson (Luther) filmed a major supporting role that was later cut as it was felt Scudder needed to be alone. Scudder’s attendance at AA meetings was a bigger part of the novel, while the movie shows the first meeting between the ex-cop and his young friend/assistant TJ, but in the novels, he was introduced in an earlier book.

As previously mentioned A Walk Among The Tombstones dials up the action from the novel, which includes giving the two main villains more development. Their crimes – which include kidnapping and dismembering women – are described in more brutal detail in the book too. Drug dealer Kenny Kristo (Dan Stevens, The Guest) and his brother Pete (Boyd Holbrook) were Lebanese in the novel and whereas the movie ends with both men dead – with Pete dying during the graveyard shootout and Kenny being murdered offscreen – the book plays out much differently.

A Walk Among The Tombstones’ movie finale sees Scudder and Kenny tracking down kidnapper Albert after the gunfight, with the latter having killed wounded partner Ray. Scudder leaves to send TJ away while Kenny plans a gruesome fate, only for Albert to kill him and Scudder – who’s returned – to face him in a final battle. In the book, Scudder leaves and Kenny enacts his revenge alone, blinding and dismembering Ray – who killed Albert in this version – but leaving him alive, though he later dies in hospital.

Other notable changes in A Walk Among The Tombstones includes (slightly) updating the setting to 1999. The movie ends on a more hopeful note than the novel, with Matt coming back from killing Albert to see TJ asleep and having drawn a version of himself as a superhero with a sickle emblem on his outfit – a reference to his sickle cell anemia. Overall the book is the superior version and is far more fleshed out, though the movie did a decent job capturing its gritty tone.

About The Author

Padraig Cotter
(3486 Articles Published)

It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

See also  5 Ways Hilary Duff Is The Definitive 2000s Tween Queen (& 5 Ways It's Lindsay Lohan)

He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

More From Padraig Cotter