Ridley Scott's new film The Dog Stars, adapted by screenwriter Mark L. Smith from Peter Heller's 2012 novel, departs from its source material in several key ways, reshaping the story's plot while keeping its post-apocalyptic core intact. The film follows Jacob Elordi as Hig, a mechanic-turned-pilot and one of the few survivors of a flu pandemic and a follow-up blood disease, as he navigates a ravaged Colorado alongside ex-military misanthrope Bruce Bangley (Josh Brolin) and Hig's German shepherd, Jasper. The novel's renewed attention has translated into real numbers: demand for the book spiked 268.5% on the library app Libby the week of the film's release.
In the book, Hig's 1956 Cessna 182 — described as cream and blue and nicknamed 'The Beast' — is used mainly to patrol the perimeter of the shelter he shares with Bangley. When Hig needs distance from Bangley, the film has him instead flying supply runs to Mennonite families led by a character played by Benedict Wong, delivering medical aid from a Denver hospital despite the risk of contagion.
Jasper's Death and the Push to Fly Further
The fate of Jasper diverges sharply between versions. In Heller's novel, the aging, mostly deaf dog dies peacefully in his sleep while camping and fishing with Hig in the mountains, undone by a cold night under frost. In the film, Jasper is killed by a stray bullet during an attack by invaders, after Bangley waits too long to fire because Hig had failed to spot the threat during air surveillance. In both versions, Jasper's death is what finally drives Hig to fly beyond the shelter in search of the source of a signal he once picked up from Grand Junction airport.
Meeting Pops and Cima
The introduction to Cima (Margaret Qualley) and her father, Pops (Guy Pearce), also plays out differently. In the novel, Hig lands near their farm and is immediately shot at by an aggressive Pops, a situation Hig worsens by provoking him with scrawled notes before the two eventually reconcile. In the film, a donkey named Sarah leads Hig to the ranch, where he first encounters Cima before Pops emerges from the shadows with a rifle, ordering Hig to unload his weapons.
The novel has Pops and Hig methodically calculating fuel, cargo and weight so Pops can drive to the highway and rejoin Hig and Cima in the Cessna once it burns off enough fuel after takeoff. The film replaces this with a chaotic escape, as a hostile group attacks the farm and the trio scrambles to clear a runway by chopping down trees and throwing aside rocks before taking off.
From 'The A-rabs' to the Reapers
The novel's antagonists are referred to as 'The A-rabs,' a group that has infiltrated the country and caused unrest. The film renames them the Reapers, a face-painted horde whose graffiti Hig documents early on before they later assault both Cima and Pops' camp and Bangley, who is left alone when Hig searches for Cima and Pops. The novel, told entirely from Hig's point of view, never shows the attack on Bangley directly, while the film depicts it in full, including sequences shot in night-vision radar. Bangley survives the ordeal in both versions.
The Grand Junction Twist
Both versions send Hig, Cima and Pops to Grand Junction after hearing a transmission from an older woman's voice, but what they find there differs drastically. In the book, a trip wire nearly brings down the Cessna as they land, and the group discovers — and kills — an elderly couple living in the radio tower amid an overwhelming number of cats. The film reimagines the sequence around Allison Janney's Darlene, a former flight attendant turned leader of a cult-like group occupying the airport, who agrees to let only Cima stay because of her medical skills.
Photo: Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
