If you’ve always wanted to see Thor actor Chris Hemsworth as a megalomaniac eccentric, you don’t have to travel to Asgard. The Spider Head (OT: Spiderhead) has been streaming on Netflix since this week new sci-fi movie starring Hemsworth as antagonists. We have already explained the ending of The Spider’s Head elsewhere. However, it is worth a closer comparison to the Netflix film, with 3 major differences.
This is the Spider Head template (and you can read it here)
The spider head is based on a short story by george saunders, which was published by the New Yorker in 2010. You can read Escape from Spiderhead for free at the magazine. Also in the story there is an inmate named Jeff and a scientist/adman named Abnesti, there are MobiPaks and Dunkelfluxx and Heather who dies in an experiment.
Check out the trailer for Spiderhead:
The Spider Head – Trailer (German) HD
However, the story is characterized by an extremely subjective narrative perspective. For example, when Jeff is given the equivalent of verbalicide, the narrative itself also becomes monosyllabic. Definitely worth reading them. This is also due to the 3 big differences compared to the film.
The spider head differs from the template Escape from Spiderhead in these 3 points
Difference 1 – Jeff: Jeff has a history of violent outbursts in the original. At one point he is described beating another boy with a brick. In the film he is in prison because of a car accident for which he is responsible, drunk as he was.
Difference 2 – Abnesti: The film reveals that Abnesti is the head of the company and is responsible for everything. Not in the short story. In the film, Hemsworth’s character becomes a clear antagonist, which also gives the Australian the opportunity to really go crazy as an actor. In the original, it remains unclear to the end whether Abnesti really has to justify himself to a committee, what the name of the company in the background is, etc. You don’t learn anything about him as a character.
Warning, there are spoilers for The Spider Head.
Difference 3 – The End: The ending of The Spider’s Head is very different from the original. In the film, Jeff and Izzy manage to escape and Abnesti dies. In comparison, the short story increases the darkfluxx dose. Again, Jeff refuses to torment a young woman he likes (her name is Rachel). However, Jeff takes the Darkfluxx himself. In agony, he rams his head against the corner of a table and dies. He sacrifices himself for Rachel.
The template is much more inscrutable than the Netflix film
The “escape” of the short story title Escape from Spiderhead is taken literally in the film. The template, on the other hand, ends with a kind Monologue from posterity, in which Jeff reflects on his life and violent nature. He concludes with a confession of happiness, because Jeff, he says, is happy because for the first time in years he has given up killing and will forever give up.
For the film adaptation, the sometimes very vague short story is fed with more twists, a more strongly formulated character ensemble and, in the form of Miles Teller’s Jeff, a toned-down main character. That The end of the film can be described as happythat of the short story is clearly more ambivalent.
The Spider Head is currently streaming on Netflix.
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