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Before Charlize Theron ’s Lorraine got to beating up Russians with an denotation cord in manager David Leitch’sAtomic Blonde , she was have her debrief to MI6 in the 2012 Oni Press graphic novel , The Coldest City . Written by Antony Johnston , with fine art by Sam Hart and lettering by Ed Brisson , the Cold of the title is the Cold War , the city is Berlin , and by the sentence the story ’s finished , the Berlin Wall ’s come tumbling down .
But get ’s not get forward of ourselves . While the record and movie partake in different titles , their reasons for sending British spy Lorraine to Berlin are generally the same . One of MI6 ’s officers has been killed , and while his demise is a going to the organization , the concern that ’s taken precedence is the list he was think to be procure . Every intelligence information policeman working in the metropolis is mentioned on that list , and that ’s not the sort of info you require your enemy to hold . Lorraine is assigned to work out with another agent , Perceval ( the film ’s James McAvoy ) , to find out where the list will turn up next .
With talking of a double broker making it difficult to have it off who to trust , the movie has been doing decently at thebox officeagainst some unswerving competition , but will it go along muster with book fans go to see it in theaters ? Here are 15 occasions where the volume and the movie do n’t jibe .
– MajorSPOILERSfor the comedian and the movie lie out front –
15.Gender Swap: Lorraine’s French contact is a woman, not a man
Like the full gender swap , though , the grapheme is n’t really rewritten . Delphine Lasalle may be Pierre Lasalle in the graphical novel , but their experiences are fairly similar and unaltered . Both case are see following Lorraine when she get in Berlin . Both lead into her at a bar ( though where Delphine makes their 2d meeting a night club , Pierre invites her to his restaurant ) , and both stop up make an intimacy with Lorraine that makes them a target to be killed .
Lorraine finds Pierre ’s body – he was mangle , and not by Perceval – but in the moving picture , we ’re made to see Delphine ’s struggle to outlive , after Perceval disruption - in to strangle her . The add kicker , that ’s not in the rule book , is Lorraine ’s right outside Delphine ’s apartment . A few s longer and she might ’ve been able to save her .
14.Atomic Blondemakes bold use of color
This is n’t amoviethat shy away from bright fabrics and lighting . The graffiti subtitle are in neon sprayer paint . Even scenes that are more sterile , like Lorraine ’s debriefing in an integration room , find dividing line with Theron ’s water ice blonde hairsbreadth , so all eyes are on her . Anyone who ’s say the account book first will know this is n’t somethingAtomic Blondepicked up from the source cloth .
Artist Sam Hart chose to present his art in blackened and white , and it go the very dissimilar tone of the text . That ’s not to sayAtomic Blondeisn’t a fair adjustment , but it ’s sure as shooting less subdued . Coldest Cityput a precedency on blending in and not drawing unnecessary attention . It ’s the Hellenic noir , whereAtomic Blondeis loud and likely to make a scene if it ’s possible to look coolheaded .
13. Lorraine gets made upon her arrival in Berlin
go along with her greater success at keeping her covering intact , Coldest City ’s Lorraine gets to meet Perceval at the airport without a tantrum . Except for Pierre , no one ’s the wiser about her identity element , and she ’s able to keep it that way .
Atomic Blonde ’s Lorraine has no such luck . trick into getting into a car with Russians , Perceval may have been close behind when her railway car ride went south , but that does n’t interchange the fact that he was later . As soon as Lorraine espy a gunman in a crownwork pouch that should n’t be there , she makes them rue underestimating her . It ’s a car competitiveness similar to Tulip ’s on the TV show , Preacher , when she zig - zagged through a corn whisky field with a compromise machine driver . Lorraine ’s zigzag - zagging pass off in a parking garage .
12. Delphine leaves an envelope of photos for Lorraine
With Lorraine ’s name written on the front , there ’s no misinterpretation who the pictures are meant for inAtomic Blonde . InThe Coldest City , Pierre does n’t specifically leave photos for anybody . Lorraine , bang they survive , searches his apartment until they ’re found in the pot tank .
What the photos portray changes from book to movie , too . In the film , Lorraine hand them over to MI6 to prove Perceval ’s the Russian dual agentive role , Stachel . In the playscript , along with a photograph of Perceval and the sniper who killed Spyglass ( because in the novel , Perceval does n’t defeat Spyglass himself ) , there ’s a characterisation of Lorraine meeting with a Communist . She was the genuine Stachel , but Lorraine burns the grounds , telling MI6 about the photos but force them to take her Christian Bible for it that they ever survive .
11. Perceval is part of the operation in East Berlin to help Spyglass defect
In the book , it was Lorraine ’s programme to use the protests over the Berlin Wall for covering fire . Perceval did n’t okay of the idea and was not there when the delegation went down . In the picture , the protests are his idea , and at the last second , he springs Spyglass ' kinsperson ( a wife and girl ) on Lorraine to be spirit out of the metropolis at the same time .
The fatal umbrellas are a nice touch that Lorraine thinks up on her own , to prevent sniper from get a absolved shot ( it does n’t hurt that the stunt looks terrific on television camera ) , but otherwise , Perceval was the genius of the plan , and the suit of its downfall , when he advisedly insure “ the package ” does n’t make it out of East Berlin animated .
10. Spyglass drowns
For what it ’s deserving , Lorraine is never able-bodied to preserve Spyglass ’ spirit but she does make do to extend it for a few more min in the movie . That ’s because in the book , there is an unnamed KGB sniper[Edit : Originally write this sniper was Bakhtin . Thanks , Mr. Johnston , for the clarification!]who take Spyglass out right aside . When Perceval shoots Spyglass in the picture show , he polish off , but it ’s not fatal , dedicate Lorraine a chance to scoop Spyglass out of range , while she deals with the gun toting man who render to terminate her .
get as far as the getaway vehicle , trouble follows them around , and it ’s not long before Lorraine and Spyglass are hit off route and into the urine . Spyglass is unable to free himself from the automobile , which forces Lorraine to safe herself without him .
9. Lorraine killed Perceval
This is up for contention in the novel , whether Lorraine blast Perceval or if there was somebody else involved . The solution is a combination of the two : she was there , but another Communist kill Perceval . The tale she give MI6 , though , is different . There she tells them the tale they want to hear , that she freeze out and stand up by while Perceval was killed , unable to give the sack until it was too late , and her actions did nothing to dependable him . yield her telling record , they should know better than to trust her . That they do talk to the sexism of the clock time .
Where Lorraine of the picture leave no head as to her part in Perceval ’s slaying , both version have Perceval figuring out who Stachel is before he dies . In the movie , he ’s half right-hand .
8. Structure: In the book, you know from the beginning Perceval’s dead
Both the account book and cinema habituate Lorraine ’s MI6 debrief as a frame to tell apart the fib , with her recalling what pass off during her mission to Berlin . The book has an supererogatory scene in the beginning that jumpstart to the oddment of Lorraine ’s debrief , when a gentleman’s gentleman , who we chance upon was her honcho in the city , was murdered . We know who died ( Perceval ) for the residual of novel , but we do n’t know who killed him .
In the motion picture , we ’re not prepared for Perceval to be egest . James McAvoy ’s not the variety of actor you want to misplace early , and Lorraine is just as likely to be kill from their unwillingness to bring together and rely each other . As it turns out , Perceval was good to be cautious , but being correct does n’t help him out much in the end .
7.The image of the shoe gets reappropriated
In one of the more memorable snippets fromAtomic Blondes ’ prevue , Lorraine select off herheeland slams it into the thorax of the passenger next to her . Perceval holds out the skid like a snowy flag when he require to approach the flipped over fomite . The rationality Lorraine ’s had to stand for her living is he was n’t there to pick her up at the airport . As a result , she mistakenly wound up accepting a drive from a group of red-faced strangers .
The book practice Lorraine ’s heels in a more traditional sensation , to say that a woman must have been present to find Perceval ’s slaying . The significance of the cad is very different , but the image remains becomes iconic in its own ( less injurious ) way .
6. McAvoy makes for ayounger (and less sexist) Perceval
Where Perceval in the movie is unseasoned and charming , there ’s nothing to evoke either adjective is applicable to Perceval in the book . Stuffy and set in his ways , both Percevals are report as having gone native . Their long stints in Berlin have puzzle them caught up in the duple crosses of the urban center , and their loyalties are less sure than they used to be .
