'The Time Traveler's Wife' - Book vs. Movie (Spoilers)

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS FOLLOW. It's been a long wait for fans of Audrey Niffenegger's best-selling novel, but the movie adaptation of 'The Time Traveler's Wife' is finally in theaters, with Eric Bana as the time traveling Henry DeTamble and Rachel McAdams as his devoted wife Clare Abshire.

Beyond wondering how Bana and McAdams carry off their roles as the couple with a complicated romantic past and future, fans may be curious to know how the movie departs from the book. As in any book adaptation, some supporting characters (the DeTambles' landlords Mr. and Mrs. Kim, Henry's friend Ben, Clare's friend Helen) and scenes (Henry beats up a boy who abused the teenage Clare) fall by the wayside; but there are other, more significant differences as well.

Whether you've just seen the movie and can't quite remember the details of the book, or you're trying to prepare yourself before hitting the theater, we've broken down the biggest differences between the book and the movie -- including the ending. SPOILER ALERT: If you don't want to know the ending, stop reading now. We mean it -- right now! Fine, you've been warned ...



Henry's First Time Travel
Book: Henry's first trip through time is on his fifth birthday. After taking a trip to the Field Museum of Natural History with his parents, he goes to bed but soon finds himself back at the museum, where he's met by his 24-year-old self. Adult Henry brings him cookies and a T-shirt, explains to him that it's a little earlier in the evening on that same day, and gives him a tour.
Movie: Henry's first trip through time is near Christmas; he is six years old and riding in a car with his mother when her car spins out on the highway. He finds himself back in his living room, watching his mother reading to him. He then returns to the highway only to see his mother's car being hit by a truck. Adult Henry appears, wraps him a blanket and attempts to comfort him before vanishing. (In the book, Henry recounts to Clare this same story of his mother's death, but it was his second time traveling experience, and his older self did not appear.)

Clare at 18
Book: Henry's last visit to the young Clare is on her 18th birthday, and they make love for the first time. They then don't see each other for two years, when they meet up in the present day.
Movie: Henry's last visit to the young Clare is when she's 18, and they kiss for the first time after a fight. (This scene occurs in the book, but when Clare is 15.) They then don't see each other for two years, when they meet up in the present day and make love for the first time.

Ingrid Carmichel
Book: Before he meets Clare in the present day, Henry has a tumultuous relationship with Ingrid Carmichel. He breaks things off with her after meeting Clare. Ingrid eventually commits suicide, taunting Henry (who is 43 and has time traveled into the past) with a gun and then shooting herself.
Movie: The character Ingrid does not exist. Upon their first adult meeting, Clare finds lipstick in Henry's bathroom cabinet (as she does in the book), but he informs her that his relationship with the unnamed lipstick owner is long over.

Clare's Diary
Book: When Clare and Henry meet as adults for the first time, Clare gives him her diary, which contains a list of all the dates he'd visited her in her childhood. She tells him that he had memorized the dates from that list and periodically revealed them to her, so that she'd know when to expect him.
Movie: Clare writes down the dates of Henry's visits in her diary as they happen, and though she shows him the diary upon their first adult meeting, she doesn't give it to him. Later, she gets upset when she finds him looking through the diary for the dates, though it's implied that eventually she does let him have either the diary or the list.

Gomez
Book: Gomez, the boyfriend of Clare's best friend Charisse -- and close friend to the adult Henry -- is in love with Clare, and she sleeps with him once in college when she's drunk (before she's met Henry as an adult). He tries to seduce Clare after Henry dies, but she calls him by Henry's name and he backs off, offended. Gomez is described by Clare as "beautiful" and by Henry as "a pretty fine specimen of guyhood."
Movie: Gomez and Henry are close friends, but no mention is made of any feelings Gomez might have for Clare. The character is played by Ron Livingston, who is ... funny.

Henry's Frostbite Injuries
Book: Henry gets frostbite during one of his travels and has to have his feet amputated.
Movie: Henry gets frostbite during one of his travels and is confined to a wheelchair for several months. His feet are not amputated.

Henry's Death
Book: Henry, time traveling after his frostbitten feet have been amputated, is accidentally (and unknowingly) shot by Clare's 15-year-old brother Mark during a hunting expedition. Clare, who is 13, sees Henry, but he puts his finger to his lips and she goes back to the house. It is not until adulthood that she realizes what she witnessed.
Movie: Henry, time traveling while crippled from his frostbite injuries, is shot in that same hunting accident, but when Mark is a grown man. Clare is not present.

Henry and Alba's First Meeting
Book: Henry meets his daughter Alba for the first time at the Art Institute of Chicago when she is 10 years old. Alba's teacher informs Henry that Alba's father is dead, so Alba calls Clare on the phone to convince her teacher (who knows that Alba is a time traveler) that Henry is, in fact, who he says he is. Clare speaks to Henry on the phone and rushes to the museum to see him, but he vanishes -- telling Clare he loves her -- when she is only a few feet away.
Movie: Henry and 10-year-old Alba meet at a natural history museum. She sneaks away from the group to spend time with him, and it is she, not her teacher, who tells Henry that in her present time, he is dead. She does not call Clare or otherwise tell her of Henry's visit .

The Ending
Book: After Henry's death, Clare finds a letter from him asking her not to wait for him, and revealing that she'll see him one last time in her old age. As the years pass, Henry visits Alba frequently, but never Clare. The novel ends with Clare and Henry's final meeting, when Clare is 82 and Henry is 43.
Movie: There is no letter, and no scene in which Clare is old. In the movie ending, Henry visits nine-year-old Alba in the meadow behind Clare's childhood home; while they talk, Alba tells Charisse and Gomez's kids to run and inform Clare that Henry is there. Clare rushes to the meadow to see him (this is in an approximate re-creation of the museum scene from the book), and they are able to embrace and kiss before Henry vanishes.