'Unbroken': What Changes Were Made from the Best-Selling Book?

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Miyavi and Jack O?Connell in Unbroken

Louis ?Louie? Zamperini?s life story is almost too incredible for the movies. The real-life figure at the center of the Angelina Jolie-directed film Unbroken ? which hits theaters Christmas day ? Zamperini was an Olympic runner and World War II aviator who managed to survive a plane crash, 47 days adrift on the Pacific in a shark-encircled life raft, and over two years in a series of brutal Japanese internment camps. The Army Air Corps actually declared him dead in 1943, but Zamperini (who?s played in the movie by Jack O?Connell) defied all expectations.

The movie is based on Laura Hillenbrand?s best-selling 2010 book about Zamperini, also called Unbroken. It?s a wide-ranging narrative that dramatizes the astonishing sweep of Zamperini?s life, from his young days as the thieving son of an Italian immigrants to his later years as a born-again Christian who managed to forgive his Japanese tormentors. (He passed away in July at the age of 97.) But Hillenbrand?s book is so packed with details from Zamperini?s amazing life, many moments didn?t make it to screen. Here are some major changes that fans of the book may notice. (Warning: Spoilers to follow)

Zamperini?s running career

Jolie?s movie focuses mostly on Zamperini?s wartime service, so viewers only get an abbreviated version of his track career. Zamperini was a promising miler who many assumed would one day be one of the world?s best. When the 1936 Berlin Olympics rolled around, Zamperini was only a teenager, still young for a middle-distance man, and not yet developed enough to make the U.S. team in the 1,500-meter race. Instead, Zamperini seized a long-shot chance in the much-longer 5,000 meter race ? though the dramatic Olympic trials he endured, in the midst of a withering New York City heat-wave, is missing from the movie.

The Olympics

Though Jolie?s movie dramatizes Zamperini’s race in Berlin, we miss some of the more vivid details of his Olympic experience. Among them: The bacchanal steamship cruise across the Atlantic during which he and the other athletes ate and drank themselves silly, and Zamperini’s post-race carousing that found him boozing all over Berlin (not to mention stealing a Nazi flag from the Reich Chancellery).

The details of his 5,000-meter race are true: Zamperini really did run an astonishing final lap and beat the rest of the American entrants. But the movie skips one of the more indelible moments in Hillenbrand?s book ? perhaps because it?s so incredible, jaded moviegoers might not have believed it. Adolf Hitler was actually in the stands watching Zamperini’s race. Afterwards, Zamperini climbed up towards Hitler?s box, and asked none other than Joseph Goebbels to snap a picture of the German chancellor. He then shook hands with the führer himself who said, ?Ah, you?re the boy with the fast finish.?

Zamperini?s World War II service

Some of the best moments of Jolie?s Unbroken are the battle scenes aboard Zamperini?s frightfully rickety B-24 bomber, in which he served as a bombardier. (Note to Hollywood: How about a whole movie about a WWII bomber crew? It?s been almost 25 years since the great Memphis Bell!) The movie?s timeline is definitely abbreviated, but we still get the big moments, such as the horrific bombing run that left the plane so damaged, the crew only barely managed to land it.

The terrifying ocean crash itself later on in the film is also faithful to the book, as are most of the details of Zamperini?s time adrift in the raft. (To be clear: He really did drag sharks out of the water by their tails.)

Watch our video about the shark scenes:

Capture by the Japanese

In the book, there are a few striking moments of kindness that the movie skips: For instance, when Zamperini and his friend Phil (played by Domhnall Gleeson) are first captured off their raft, they?re well-fed and well-cared for in a hospital for a few days before they?re returned to the Japanese military.

For the most part, though, the details of Zamperini’s imprisonment and the brutality of his captors is faithfully depicted. The movie actually cuts certain gruesome moments, such as the terrifying ?medical? experiments Phil and Zamperini underwent. And if anything, the depiction of Zamperini’s chief tormentor Bird (played by Miyavi) is more nuanced in the movie: In the book, Bird is deeply disturbed psychopath who takes an almost sexual pleasure in the violence he dispenses.

Notably missing from the movie is the mysterious Jimmie Sasaki, a Japanese student Zamperini first befriended while attending USC before the war. A possible spy and a definite fraud, Sasaki would later feature in one of the book?s most shocking scenes, when Zamperini meets Sasaki again during his internment in Japan.

Watch our video interview with Miyavi:

After the war

The movie ends with Zamperini’s homecoming, and only glances at his post-war life in the (very long) end-credits summary. The book, however, delves into all of those details, including Zamperini?s quick marriage to wife Cynthia, and the years he spent drinking himself into a stupor while suffering from severe rages and post-traumatic stress. Zamperini eventually found salvation through Christianity and the sermons of Rev. Billy Graham.

As for Bird, the book?s explanation of what happened to him is both fascinating and infuriating. After the war, he was a wanted fugitive for his crimes, but he managed to elude investigators, even convincing them that he was dead. He re-emerged only after a blanket U.S. pardon of many Japanese war criminals, and went on to a successful career in business. Decades later, he was interviewed by CBS News; in his interview, he was mostly unrepentant, and later refused to meet with Zamperini as part of the broadcast. He eventually died in 2003.