MovieChat Forums > Wolfen (1981) Discussion > The ending: book vs. film (SPOILERS!!)

The ending: book vs. film (SPOILERS!!)

posted 10 years ago by darkmage7280
4 replies | jump to latest

Okay, assuming you noticed the SPOILERS -warning on the title, I won't be hiding any of my text in this post.
Now.
I got my hands on the book, and it's a fine read. Superior to the movie.
Now!
About the endings of the novel and the movie.

The novel ends with the Wolfen attacking Wilson and Neff in a skyscraper office, and the two officers manage to shoot several of the beasts. More cops arrive on the scene, and the surviving Wolfen flee. With the carcasses of the slain pack members the humans now have irrefutable proof of the Wolfen's existence, and the animals will be exterminated. The Wolfen acknowledge this, and let out a defiant howl, not intending to go out without a fight.

The movie ends with Wilson smashing the model of the development project. The Wolfen are satisfied that their hunting grounds are not being threatened, and run back home. They will continue to eat people, and Wilson and Neff will do diddly-squat about it.

As a horror movie, the film is okay. As an adaptation of the novel, it is truly lackluster, and the ending exemplifies this. In the book, the Wolfen are portrayed quite sympathetically: they are not evil monsters, but thinking and feeling beings. They don't hunt humans out of malice or cruelty, but simply out of desperation. Unlike the unstoppable and invincible beasts of the film, they are fully aware of their vulnerabilities in face of humans' technology, and use their cunning and their senses to tip the scales. They know humans are a lethal enemy, and do everything in their power to avoid detection. The killing of two police officers by two rash juveniles of the pack sets the events in motion.

In fact, both sides of the book are in a race against time: Wilson and Neff attempt to discover the nature of the Wolfen before they're killed, and the Wolfen attempt to stop them before they're exposed to the world, and the hunters will become the hunted. After all, for countless millennia wolves, lions, leopards and tigers regarded humans and our ancestors as simply meals on two legs. Then we developed weapons, and look what happened.

There is a sense of tragedy and sympathy about the Wolfen, but at the same time they ARE killing people, and we have as much a right to protect our species as the Wolfen have to survive. A bum or a drug addict has the same right to live as anyone else. The Wolfen might not agree, but their opinion wasn't asked.

And this, to me, is the biggest stumbling block of the movie's ending. Wilson and Neff are police officers, sworn to protect humanity. Yet in the end they let the Wolfen go about their business of killing people. Now, if the beasts were to return to the wilderness, I would (remotely) understand the cops' reaction.
But they don't. They will continue to prey on people, and Wilson and Neff are down with that. Police officers!
I get the whole "survival of the fittest" -analogy, but that's nature, not the human society, and if some outside force tries to impose those values on us, we should combat it.
I'm fully aware, thank you very much, that many politicians, businessmen and other people enforce the Darwinian principle, but even they occasionally get busted and punished.

[–] Oddark123 10 years ago

I like both but i agree the book ending is better.

However i'd also the more invincible element that the film chooses to give them allows it work as well. I suppose it could go either way, and in general i think if an adaption change can work, i'm not going to consider that a fault, even if i still think the book told the better story. Since hell if i didn't think that i'd be a Disney hater lol.

Gamefaqs has a far worse population than IMDB

[–] FlyingSaucersAreReal 10 years ago

Excellent post. That's exactly what I thought. The movie ends with Albert Finney smashing the development model and lecturing the audience about the ignorance of humanity. Yet the fact is that the Wolfen do kill people, including Finney's good friend. And they are going to continue to do it. We're they're natural prey. Of course we are going to fear them and want to kill them before they get some of us!

Nobody told me there'd be days like these
Strange days indeed -- strange days indeed - John Lennon

[–] camerica1978 8 years ago

I think I understand Finney's point of view (this isn't necessarily my point of view) in not exposing them. You say that we humans should definitely eliminate those who kill even the weakest members of society. But what about the genocides that have taken place recently? Where masses of people were killed, but nations with the capability to defend them did nothing. What about what happened in Rotherham, U.K., where the police and authorities ignored, even covered up, the child sex trafficking done by a Pakistani gang (estimated 1500 victims)?

Finney understood the Wolfen were intelligent, and that the human race had committed near genocide on them. I think he began to understand them as a separate nation of intelligent beings. We go to war with other nations, but we rarely desire to exterminate ALL of the enemy. After WWII, we helped rebuild Germany and Japan. So Finney is treating the Wolfen just like a hostile nation whom we are in a cold war with, just like when we got out of Vietnam. Maybe one day in the future, we could co-exist, give the Wolfen reservations to live on, sufficiently stocked with game animals, so they don't have to kill humans anymore.

Nations developing alliances with Wolfen would add valuable capabilities to society. How about a Wolfen detective? Able to track criminals by scent, and able to detect if suspects are lying. How about Wolfen medical nurses? Able to cheaply detect diseases that would otherwise require a lot of technology and cost. How about Wolfen bodyguards, or wilderness guides? How about Wolfen Search and Rescue Teams? How about a Wolfen/Human commune? The possibilities are intriguing.

[–] SetiXeper 7 years ago

Fact is we Wolfen don't exist so it's impossible to know if exterminating them would be realistic or not. Why assume the den in the Bronx is an anonymity, the exception and not the rule? Who knows if perhaps hundreds or even thousands of such packs exist in cities around the country and world. The real world similarity are Coy-wolves, an advanced hybrid of wolves and coyotes. Both species have been hunted to near extinction and had their native hunting grounds taken by farmers, ranchers, and by urban developers. Driven by desperation the two species who normally avoid one another have recently cross breed, the resulting hybrid is smarter, faster and more cunning than either predecessor. More aggressive also. Also unlike most hybrids Coy-wolves are not sterile but essentially a new species. A reaction to man's predatory attacks on their origin species. The Coy-wolf like the fictional Wolfen have quietly infiltrated human cities in North America. It's unknown their actual numbers but hundreds of packs have been identified from coast to coast and it's suspected that's just the tip of the iceberg. Unlike coyotes who don't attack humans, or wolves who don't either unless their den is threatened, Coy-wolves are very aggressive and not afraid of humans. They have been known to attack and kill humans for prey, and shouldn?t be approached unarmed under any circumstances. Coy-wolves are so cunning and stealthily they have been known to set up dens in close proximity to schools in parks around heavy human activity and remain undetected. They move around homes in suburban neighborhoods at night right under the noses of humans and other animals. Because of their vast numbers and the degree of infiltration eradicating them at this point would be a monstrous task, if at all even possible. If the fictional Wolfen are any kind of parallel, wouldn?t the same also be true? Finding a way to coexist would be (and in the case of the real world Coy-wolf, is) essential.