The Life Of Chuck: How Mike Flanagan’s Movie Compares To The Original Stephen King Book

Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Life of Chuck.Mike Flanagan’s 2025 movie The Life of Chuck is an adaptation of the 2020 Stephen King novella of the same name, which was published in the collection If It Bleeds alongside “If It Bleeds”, “Rat,” and “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone,” the latter of which has also been adapted into a movie. The Flanagan movie stars Tom Hiddleston as Chuck Krantz, an ordinary accountant whose life and death have a huge influence on the world around him. The star-studded cast of the movie also includes Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Mia Sara, Carl Lumbly, Nick Offerman, Matthew Lillard, Jacob Tremblay, and Mark Hamill.

The filmmaker has set a precedent for adapting literary works, though great liberties were taken for his Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor (which were respectively adapted from Shirley Jackson’s 1959 novel of the same name and Henry James’ 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw). However, Flanagan has previously adapted two movies from Stephen King books, taking different approaches. 2017’s Gerald’s Game was very faithful, but 2019’s The Shining sequel Doctor Sleep, blended a somewhat faithful adaptation with elements from Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 Shining adaptation that were not present in the novel.

The Life Of Chuck Is An Extremely Faithful Adaptation

Many Elements Of The Novella Are Brought To Life

The 2025 Mike Flanagan movie has proven to be a very faithful adaptation of the novella. The 110-minute runtime of the movie has ample room to adapt the story in detail, as in its original publication it only ran for roughly 60 pages. Therefore, the major beats of the story are all present in the movie, including the three acts that are presented in reverse chronological order, the details of the impending universal collapse in Act 3, the exact way Chuck’s fateful dance plays out in Act 2, and the majority of the glimpses into Chuck’s childhood in Act 1.

Additionally, there are entire conversations and lines of dialogue that are lifted more or less word-for-word from the source material. This includes the majority of Marty (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Felicia’s (Karen Gillan) phone conversation in Act 3, a great deal of Nick Offerman’s narration, and much of the philosophy that Miss Richards (Kate Siegel) shares with young Chuck (Benjamin Pajak) when he asks her about the Walt Whitman line “I contain multitudes” in Act 1.

The Life Of Chuck Movie Adds One Eerie Element In Act 3

Felicia’s Hospital Is A More Important Location

While The Life of Chuck is faithful, some small changes have been made which do enhance or slightly alter the original story’s exploration of its themes. The biggest change in Act 3 is an added moment in the hospital where Felicia works, where all of the heart monitors at the empty beds begin to beep at the same time, at the same rate. This creepy scene hints at what will ultimately be revealed, which is that the fate of the universe in Act 3 is inextricably linked to the life force of Chuck Krantz as he draws his last breaths.

On top of adding more atmosphere to the apocalyptic goings-on of Act 3 and providing one more hint about its central mystery, one major reason that this scene exists is that the movie puts an added emphasis on Felicia’s perspective. In the novella, Act 3 is largely told from the perspective of her ex-husband Marty, so her experience is kept at a distance. This change from the source material allows the movie to be more expansive, including adding a character to the Life of Chuck cast, namely Felicia’s coworker Bri (Rahul Kohli, who has worked with Flanagan multiple times before).

The Life Of Chuck Movie Has More Monologues

They Flesh Out The World Around Chuck

One other major addition that the movie makes is giving multiple characters monologues that they do not have in the novella. While these additions have no impact on the ending of The Life of Chuck, they do expand the universe around Chuck, explaining more about the people in his life than the source material does. This includes his grandfather Albie’s (Mark Hamill) monologue about math explaining why Chuck ultimately goes into accounting and the estate lawyer’s (Carl Lumbly) monologue about the weather adding depth to Albie’s demise.

This decision is in keeping with the creative decisions that Mike Flanagan has made with multiple works in the past. His landmark Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House contained a memorably powerful monologue, and he has found many different ways to allow actors to deliver similarly stirring performances in his subsequent projects. For instance, monologues became a major element of his original horror series Midnight Mass, which followed Hill House to Netflix by three years. They have become something of a trademark for Flanagan, allowing him to put his stamp on The Life of Chuck without changing too much.

Albie Gets An Expanded Role In The Life Of Chuck Movie

Mark Hamill Gets Meaty Moments To Play

A series of small but substantial changes were made to the character of Albie, as well. In addition to adding his monologue about math and a moment where he shoves Chuck in order to protect him, but ends up hurting him and regretting it, the movie adds a scene where he accidentally witnesses the ghost of his own future death, which gives him a sense of clarity about his impending demise. This expanded role may have been the result of major star Mark Hamill taking on the role, but it does add depth to Chuck’s relationship with his grandfather regardless.

One Major Element Of Chuck’s Book Backstory Is Removed

The Meaning Of “Little Sister” Is Changed

The biggest element of Chuck’s backstory that is not present in the movie is the fact that he used to dance with the younger sister of one of his bandmates in high school, which is why he calls Janice (Annalise Basso) “little sister” while inviting her to dance in Act 2. He still calls her this in the movie, but the explanation has been altered to him mimicking his grandmother (Mia Sara) when she asked him to dance by calling him “little brother.” This makes the moment more of a passing of the torch than a recapturing of his youth.

Which Version Of The Life Of Chuck Is Better?

They Are Ultimately Very Similar

Because both the novella and the movie tell the same story in the same order, both are valuable to audiences in the same way. However, if one might be widely considered better than the other, it is probably the movie. The movie draws more connections between the stories, further emphasizing the novella’s themes of the ways that an ordinary person’s life has a ripple effect. For instance, there are repeated appearances of the movie musical Cover Girl that are absent from the novel and keep the motif of Chuck’s love of dancing aloft throughout the Stephen King movie.

Additionally, the movie version of The Life of Chuck foregrounds female characters in a way that the original novella doesn’t. In addition to giving time to Felicia’s perspective in Act 3, this includes having Chuck’s wife (Q’orianka Kilcher) being present in the Act 3 scene by his deathbed rather than his brother-in-law, beefing up the character of the dance teacher Miss Rohrbacher (Samantha Sloyan) in Act 1, and making the street drummer (Taylor Gordon) female rather than male in Act 2. This allows the world around Chuck to have even more texture than it did on the page.

The Life of Chuck

8/10

Release Date

May 30, 2025

Runtime

110 minutes

Producers

D. Scott Lumpkin, Elan Gale, Trevor Macy, Molly C. Quinn, Melinda Nishioka