Published Jan 27, 2026, 7:00 AM EST
Ambrose Tardive is an editor on ScreenRant's Comics team. Over the past two years, he has developed into the internet's foremost authority on The Far Side. Outside of his work for ScreenRant, Ambrose works as an Adjunct English Instructor.
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These iconic movies, including Jaws and Blade Runner, started out as books, but their on-screen adaptations surpassed the literary source material. The oft-repeated axiom that “the book is always better than the movie” is really more like 90% true, and these are some shining examples of exceptions that prove the rule.
This is just a small sample size, of course. Hollywood has produced thousands of adaptations, and realistically dozens, even hundreds, are better than the original book.
Each of the adaptations listed here notably improves upon its literary origin in its own specific way that is worth taking a closer look at.
5 "Jaws"
Peter Benchley's Novel Published In 1974; Steven Spielberg's Movie Released In 1975
Despite its notoriously troubled production, Steven Spielberg delivered the best version of Jaws possible. The version which highlights why the story is better suited for the screen, though it was published as a paperback thriller first. The visual implication of the shark before it is fully seen, and the way the score heralds its presence, add up to an unparalleled adaptation.
The movie effectively streamlines the novel's plot, but where it truly excels is in the way it distills the book's tension into every moment. Jaws is a propulsive read, but what that amounts to is readers breezing through the text looking for the next juicy moment. Jaws, the movie, savors each iconic scene.
And, of course, like every great adaptation, Jaws' elevation of its source material hinges on generational performances. The cast, from its top-billed trinity to every supporting character, fire on all cylinders throughout. Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dryfuss took the characters on the page and made them film icons, something the novel couldn't match.
4 "Fight Club"
Chuck Palahniuk's Novel Published In 1996; David Fincher's Film Released In 1999
Original SR Image by Yailin Chacon.Like Jaws, Fight Club relies on star-making performances from its leads, Ed Norton and Brad Pitt, to turn a good novel into a great movie. Yet the real difference-maker is how the versions of Fight Club handle its big twist. Both rely on withholding information from the audience, but the novel and film mediums achieve this in different ways.
Chuck Palahniuk's novel is told from the first-person POV. David Fincher's adaptation retains an element of this in the form of voiceover narration, but the camera still presents a supposedly objective third-person viewpoint. This actually helps hide the Tyler Durden reveal in plain sight. It also allows for visual hints along the way that make the movie endlessly rewatchable.
There are signposts that point to the reveal in the book, but it simply hits differently on screen. As in, the twist has more impact. In Fight Club, the novel, it's the moment all the puzzle pieces click into place. In the movie, it's a "record scratch" moment for those who don't know it's coming, making it a GOAT third act surprise.
3 "Apocalypse Now"
Joseph Conrad's Novella Heart Of Darkness Published In 1899; Francis Ford Coppola's Film Released In 1979
Jaws and Fight Club make the source material their own in pivotal ways, but they are both direct adaptations in the sense that they hew closely to their books in certain regards, such as plot. Apocalypse Now is an "inspired by" movie, taking elements of the late 19th century novella "Heart of Darkness" and updating it to address 20th century concerns.
Francis Ford Coppola established himself as a rock star director with a direct adaptation, The Godfather, and its sequel The Godfather II. These industry-changing films gave Coppola carte blanche to do any follow-up project he wanted, and he chose one that drove him to the brink of ruin, in an odd mirror of the movie's plot and themes.
Apocalypse Now is a sprawling epic about American involvement in Vietnam, released just a few years after U.S. troops withdrew and South Vietnam fell. It is a borderline satire, and ultimately, an exhaustive summation of a decade-plus of social and political turmoil surrounding the war. All of which spins out of the bare bones of a book published 80 years earlier.
2 Forrest Gump
Winston Groom's Novel Published In 1986; Robert Zemeckis' Film Released In 1994
Believe it or not, Forrest Gump actually toned down its literary source material in some ways. The book included Forrest going to space, and briefly becoming an actor, among other things that didn't make the cut in the Tom Hanks film version. Yet the biggest alteration from the novel isn't plot. It's tone.
The original story, on the page, is overtly a comedy, with tragic elements that creep in as it progresses. The movie tweaks that. Forrest Gump retains the book's humor, often to laugh-out-loud levels, but it infuses every scene with a kind of sadness, or at least wistfulness, that is ultimately its signature.
From the cadence of Hanks' voice as Forrest Gump, to the emphasis on absence and loss as core themes, Forrest Gump is an underrated adaptation. And that's because the movie has so overpowered the legacy of the novel by taking everything it did right and further perfecting it on screen.
1 "Blade Runner"
Phillip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?" Published In 1968; Ridley Scott's Film Released In 1982
Ridley Scott's sci-fi cult classic Blade Runner famously took the title of an unrelated sci-fi story and slapped it on Phillip K. Dick's more unwieldy Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? Beyond that, it is fairly faithful to the book's plot, with notable exceptions, while excelling at capturing the feel of PKD's novel.
Electric Sheep is the author's warped take on sci-fi neo-noir, and filmmaker Ridley Scott nailed the atmosphere and energy of the novel with Blade Runner. The movie's themes might be murkier, especially given the multiple cuts released over the years, but it still does a remarkable job of replicating Phillip K. Dick's singular literary vision.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is one of many must-read novels by PKD, which are driven by his irreplicable voice on the page. Blade Runner loses that, but in the transmission to screen the story gained Ridley Scott's auteur vision of a dystopia, which made for a groundbreaking book-to-film evolution.
Movie(s) Jaws, Jaws 2 (1978), Jaws 3-D (1983), Jaws: The Revenge (1987)
First Film Jaws
Character(s) Martin Brody, Quint, Matt Hooper, Ellen Brody, Larry Vaughn, Len Peterson, Jeff Hendricks, Mike Brody, Dr. Kathryn Morgan, Philip FitzRoyce, Calvin Bouchard, Sean Brody, Michael Brody, Hoagie Newcombe, Carla Brody
Comic Release Date 218221
English (US) ·