Naturally, a lot of dialogue was originally closer to the novel and was shortened or simplified in the end product; similarly, the order of many scenes was switched around to make for a better narrative flow, but I'll only note differences that I think are interesting or significant in some way. If there's ever anything you've wondered about a scene or line, feel free to ask and I can check if the script elaborates on it. No guarantees that JAL's thinking aligned with how TA ultimately decided to do a scene, of course. Apologies in advance if I get any terminology wrong. I don't know much about filmmaking, so I'm only basing this on how it's presented in the book. Note that when I write "the film" here, I mean how things are in the finished movie vis-à-vis in the screenplay.
- The screenplay notes the passage of time by prefacing each scene with "EVENING/DAY [number]". The screenplay has the story take place over a total of 19 days, which can be contrasted with the book's 24 days (October 21 - November 13).
- The screen direction always refers to Eli as "she". For simplicity's sake and to be consistent with the text, I'll do the same here.
Day 1 - The screenplay has the opening credits set to exterior shots of Blackeberg, unlike the snowfall in the film.
- In the opening scene of H&E moving in, the shot inside the car shows Håkan (who's driving) giving Eli a pleading look which Eli ignores. In the film they start off friendlier, with Håkan giving a smile which Eli appears to reciprocate. Also, Lacke is not included here, only making his first appearance later with the rest of the restaurant gang.
Day 2 - 3 - The deleted scene of Oskar and the bullies in the bathroom while the policeman shows his car to the rest of the class is included. The pissball and Oskar's nosebleed appear as they do in the novel. Something to note is that the screenplay has Martin as the most reluctant of the bullies (corresponding to Micke in the novel) and Andreas as the well-behaved star pupil who's secretly a sadist (Tomas in the novel). In the film, Martin and Andreas' names were switched around. This will have some significance later on.
- As in the novel, Oskar shoplifts candy after school. The scene ends with him sitting on his bed and eating the candy with a vacant stare, before cutting to Håkan waiting for a victim in the wood with a similar blank stare on his face, "as though he were a product of Oskar's imagination" according to the screen direction.
- The murder scene is immediately followed by Håkan asking for Eli's forgiveness for failing to bring back the blood; specifically, he kneels outside the locked bathroom door, repeatedly pokes himself with his knife, and begs Eli not to leave him. The scene ends with the door being unlocked but before Eli appears. At this point the audience has not yet gotten a clear view of her, as she and Oskar only meet on day 3 after Oskar's conversation with Yvonne and the scene of him working on the scrapbook.
Day 4 - Here is the full dialogue between the gang at the Chinese restaurant. The line from Morgan which I've bolded here (and is similar to a line from the novel) is cut out (or at least difficult to hear) in the film, which makes the dialogue a bit confusing.
LARRY: ... in any case, it is my opinion that the death penalty is not compatible with a society based on the rule of law since-
MORGAN: What rule of law? That's just some nonsense they've drilled into our heads to keep us in check. Sort of like the Russians.
JOCKE: What, are you saying there aren't any Russians now?
MORGAN: There are, but it's like adders or something. Who the hell has ever been bitten by an adder?
LACKE: That guy there. Think he's moved in at my courtyard. Shouldn't we ask if he wants to sit here?
MORGAN: Why? His wife's left him, the cat's dead and life is hell. I know it all already.
LACKE: Maybe he'll buy us a round.
MORGAN: In that case it's a different story. Then he's allowed to have cancer as well.
VIRGINIA: You're pretty creepy, you know that?
MORGAN: Yep. You'd better stick to Lacke. - Lacke mentions that Håkan has moved into "number 75", the same address he lives at in the novel. In the film it's changed to number 15. The name Janne is not mentioned at this point in the script (for those who find it significant that it's also the name of Erik's drinking buddy; I'm personally not sure, but that's another discussion).
- In the second O&E encounter, the starving Eli almost (and reluctantly) kills Oskar, similar to the novel; she starts to lean down toward his throat before he unwittingly saves himself at the last second by turning around and asking if she wants to borrow the Rubik's Cube. This part was cut from the film, but otherwise the two versions of the scene are identical.
- During the argument betwen H&E, the scene direction has Oskar reading the classic children's book Tordyveln flyger i skymningen ("The dorbeetle flies at dusk", 1978) by Maria Gripe.
- The following is the screenplay's version of the dialogue between H&E after Eli kills Jocke. The screen direction notes that only the bolded parts should be clearly audible. The dialogue in the film is almost impossible to parse but is clearly longer and different from this.
HÅKAN: ... am I supposed to be some kind of cleaning staff here now?
ELI: He's lying under the bridge by the restaurant.
HÅKAN: So what am I supposed to do? Should I burn him there, or what am I supposed to do?
ELI: You'll have to solve it.
HÅKAN: You are a devil, do you know that? - Håkan hides Jocke's body by weighing it down with concrete blocks from a construction site, not that roadside reflective stick-thing which I don't know the name of. Afterward, Håkan turns his face up toward some falling snowflakes and lets them melt against his skin. The latter is possibly meant as another thread connecting Håkan and Oskar, mirroring the later scene when Oskar is walking home from PE with his wet pants, turns his face up at the snowflakes and catches some on his tongue. Or maybe not.
Day 5 - 9 - The screen direction notes that there should be shots of the city/suburb showing the passage of time over several days between the third O&E encounter (Eli giving back the cube) on day 5, and the whipping scene and Oskar telling Eli about his Morse code idea on day 10. This aligns with how the novel has a gap of four days (October 24 - 28) between those events. The film does not have this.
Day 10 - In the whipping scene, Andreas hitting Oskar in the face causes him to fall to the ground. While the others leave, he stays lying in the snow and places his hand over the pocket where he keeps his knife. Then the scene direction says this:
Followed by him making up the excuse of falling on a rock and talking to Yvonne at dinner. At that point, the scene direction again mentions his gaze. This will come up again later.His gaze is empty. He's a chalkboard on which anything can now be written. Hold on that gaze. - The "Hit back" scene ends on Oskar doing a trick jump off of the swing set like in the novel, followed by the deleted bulleribock scene. Unlike the version that was filmed (where they sit atop a pile of snow), the script has them playing it while walking, with longer dialogue:
While I don't have any particular feelings about this scene specifically (neither how it appears in the screenplay or the version that was filmed), I do think the film is lesser for not including any of the playful bantery side of their relationship.[...]
OSKAR: Eight you said, eight it was, bulleri-bulleribock. How could you feel that?
ELI: It was eight, wasn't it? But I don't know anything. How are things going with the cube, by the way?
Oskar pokes her, starts walking.
OSKAR: You're cocky.
Eli laughs, catches up with him, pokes him back.
ELI: You're the one who's cocky.
Oskar is about to poke again, but Eli runs away. Oskar laughs.
OSKAR: Hey!
Day 11 - The screen direction has Ávila as being in his fifties. The novel doesn't specify his age beyond mentioning that he's old enough to have been in "the war".
- The screenplay is explicit about Håkan's feelings toward Eli: after asking her not to meet with Oskar, and before he leaves with the acid, he says that he loves her, asks if she loves him back, and forcefully grabs her head to try and kiss her.
- For those who've wondered about the shot of Eli sitting in front of the wall. In the script, she hears Oskar tapping to her but keeps her hand placed on the wall, racked by hunger. From the context of the preceding scenes it's IMO also clear that she chooses not to reply out of respect for Håkan's request.
- Lacke's "Why would a kid want to kill Jocke" conversation with Virginia happens as they're walking home right after Gösta shows the site of the murder, not later in bed as in the film.
Day 12 - There is a brief scene of a policeman visiting Håkan at the hospital, like Gunnar's conversations with Håkan in the novel.
- Instead of hearing it from the radio news, Eli finds out where Håkan is by spotting a newspaper while sitting "crouched like a bird of prey" on a branch outside the pool building.
- The script gives a detailed description of Eli's wings after she kills Håkan:
ELI stands on the edge of the roof dressed in only underpants. In the whirling snow. Her clothes lie tossed aside next to her. She closes her eyes. Something which costs her energy starts to happen. The skin on her arms and thighs starts to melt, stick together. It becomes runny and sticky. Then she lifts her arms above her head. A membrane unfolds, tenses. It stretches from her knees to her wrists. It has an appearance and consistency resembling soap bubbles, or insect wings.
Eli falls forward. - When Eli is playing bulleribock with her fingers on Oskar's back in the bed scene, there is a brief insert:
Think cutting this was a good call. That said, I think it's interesting how it sort of connects to the membrane/paper wall motif that JAL was very occupied with in his early writing.THE THIN WALL
Here a shot should be inserted. Possibly the shot of a couple of fingers pressing against skin, but seen from inside. Something wants to penetrate through, something wants to come in. Erotically loaded or not erotically loaded.
Day 13 - The scene on the ice only includes Conny and Martin, not Andreas.
- In the screenplay, Oskar hits Conny with a wooden board he finds at a construction site, the same site where Håkan got the concrete used to weigh down Jocke's corpse. In the film, of course, Oskar instead uses the stick Håkan used to push down Jocke. I think the fact that TA made sure to keep a visual connection between them in these two scenes, albeit in a different form, lends support to the idea that there is intended to be a "passing-the-torch" link between them.
- In the novel, Oskar aims to hit Jonny's shoulder and only hits him on the ear because Jonny tries to duck at the last second. Similarly, in the screenplay, Oskar accidentally hits Conny's ear because Conny turns his head toward the children screaming at the discovery of Jocke's body. In the film, it rather appears as though Oskar intentionally aims directly at Conny's head, and the children only start screaming a few seconds later.
- Similar to the novel, the screen direction has Oskar's face show a mix of emotions when he looks at the injured Conny: fear, satisfaction, and a faint realization (and brief consideration) that he could hit him again. When his teacher looks up at him she sees "that foreign [thing/expression] in his face" and almost becomes afraid. Contrast this with the film where Oskar only shows satisfaction with no hint of regret.
- While preparing to go to the evening training session (and while Yvonne is arguing with Erik), Oskar takes out the pissball from his pants and throws it in the trashcan. So that's that.
- After Eli escapes from the basement incident:
ELI runs. [...] She knows that she has lost. That it's over with that dream now.
- When Lacke runs after Virginia out from Gösta's place, Morgan tells Larry that they should follow in case things get out of hand (compared to the film's rather flimsy excuse of Larry wanting his lighter back).
- Like in the novel, Eli's attack on Virginia takes place on the path through the park, rather than on the main square. She is also depicted as more hostile, being about to attack Lacke in her monstrous form before running when she hears Morgan and Larry approaching.
Day 14 - A neat detail that was cut: after Virginia is attacked by the cats and falls down the stair, Lacke runs down to her and sees the wounds on her face immediately start healing.
- While Oskar is sitting in his room in Erik's house, looking at the note from Eli, a drunken Erik briefly comes in and is upset that Oskar doesn't want to join him and Janne in the living room.
- Lacke says that the cottage he wants to buy for himself and Virginia is in Spillersboda.
- Just like the novel, Oskar says that he'd go crazy trying to reassemble the egg puzzle, and Eli replies "Think of the guy who made it" and makes a silly face. I only mention this because it's another example of Eli's humor that JAL wanted to have in the film but which didn't make it.
- The fight scene plays out very similar to the novel: Eli tries to give Oskar money, he gets angry at her lies, they wrestle on the couch, and afterward Eli shows Oskar her teeth and says that her name is Elias before Oskar falls asleep.
Day 15 - As I assume most here know, the "Who are you?" scene was supposed to end with Eli kissing Oskar and showing him the memory of Eli's castration, done in a series of foggy close-up shots.
- As in the novel, Oskar plays a romantic song by Vikingarna (rather than Per Gessle) to Eli, who (explicitly stated by the screen direction to be in response to the song) drops her bathrobe to show her lack of genitals. This is followed by dialogue that's much like in the novel, only with a slight difference:
Compare this to the novel's Att du tycker det är jobbigt, "Because you think it's complicated" (not a perfect translation). The screenplay version could be interpreted as Eli herself thinking that a relationship between boys is wrong.ELI: Are you ... sad?
OSKAR: Why would I be?
ELI: Because ... I don't know ... because it's ... wrong. Your friends- - Another similarity and difference to the source material: Eli borrows a summer dress from Yvonne's wardrobe, but then comes this exchange not found in the novel:
OSKAR: Why do you pretend you're a girl?
ELI: It's easier that way. Most of the time. - When Eli escapes back to her apartment, she acts more playful than in the film: she kisses Oskar on the cheek, asks if he wants to see her tomorrow and, when he hesitates, adds that it's her birthday. (Oskar protests that he thought she didn't know her birthday, to which she says "No, but it could be".)
- This is followed by a scene much like the novel's of Yvonne talking to Oskar, who is in bed, and asking if he wants her to read him a story; to quote the screen direction, Oskar's "last attempt to hold onto a normal existence", which eventually passes when he decides he doesn't belong there anymore. (I'm guessing this scene is the origin of the bedroom pictures of Oskar and Yvonne seen here.)
Day 16 - Following Virginia's death, Lacke visits her apartment and sees that she's hung a blanket in front of the kitchen window. This is what inspires him to investigate Håkan and Eli's apartment when he sees their similarly-covered windows.
- The confrontation between Oskar and Lacke is more dramatic: Lacke manages to cut open a gap in the window covering and lets through enough light to sear Eli's leg, and Oskar stabs his knife into Lacke's arm to make him stop. While Eli is killing Lacke, Oskar locks the front door, then goes to the living room, puts his hands over his ears and hums the Vikingarna song from earlier to himself. Eli comes out, sits down on the floor, leans her head against his lap, and he strokes her hair:
[Oskar's] eyes far away. His eyes. That final change has now occurred.
- Instead of silently accepting Eli saying she has to leave, Oskar insists he wants to come with her, but Eli refuses.
Day 18 - The screenplay has Martin (=Micke), not Andreas (=Tomas), call Oskar and get him to come the training. Similarly, it's Martin who greets Oskar in the changing room before letting Conny, Jimmy, and Andreas in.
- Just like in the novel, the other boys stay in the room during the events at the pool, and the massacre only happens because Martin invites Eli.
- There's an ambiguity at the end of the massacre here which I think is interesting:
Day 19OSKAR breaks the water's surface and takes a deep, gasping breath, like a newborn. Screams are heard. Blood flies in the air. A bit of it hits Oskar's face. He closes his eyes briefly. Smiles. Opens his eyes again. Looks with love and ecstasy at someone in front of him.
Maybe we also see ELI look at Oskar in the same way. Maybe not. - The last scene plays out almost the exact same as it does in the novel, with the (here unnamed) conductor Stefan punching Oskar's ticket. The only difference is that the conductor mentions that the train is headed south to Malmö, instead of west to Karlstad.
