Book vs Movie | The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks

The Longest Ride is one of my favorite Nicholas Sparks books. The combination of two different love stories, in two different time periods, is what puts it in my top 5 books he’s written.

There are many people who believe books are always better than the movie (I usually agree), but I thought the book and the movie of The Longest Ride we equally great.

So I wanted to share the three major differences between The Longest Ride book and movie.

IRA’S RESCUE

Ira’s rescue is what causes a chain reaction of differences between the book and the movie. In the book, Ira crashes down an embankment during a snowy night and is wounded and stuck in his truck. While inside he imagines that his late wife is talking to him, telling him to think back to certain moments in their life together. This was Ira’s way of holding on until someone found him. Sophia and Luke don’t find Ira until close to the end of the book.

The movie, on the other hand, has a much more dramatic rescue. Sophia and Luke rescue Ira when they were heading back from their first date. They pulled Ira out of his truck right before it burst into flames and rushed him to the hospital. The rescue was much more dramatic than the book portrayed it.

This difference worked though because the movie made it much more believable than if we had to watch Ira talking to his deceased wife. It also worked because it led to a different storyline between Ira and Sophia. Which leads me to the next difference.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN IRA & SOPHIA

In the book, Sophia and Ira didn’t really know each other. Sophia only read his letter to him once when he was in the hospital. This was the only interaction she had with Ira in the book. With that being said, I really enjoyed that the movie gave Ira and Sophia a chance to get to know each other.

She visited him often in the movie and was able to hear the story between him and his wife first hand; both by reading Ira’s letters and listening to him talk about the life he had with Ruth. This added so much more to the movie and I actually preferred this storyline than what was written in the book.

SOPHIA’S EX BOYFRIEND

Sophia has an ex boyfriend in the book named Brian. You can tell he’s a total tool and is extremely jealous of Luke. Both Luke and Brian get into a few fights in the book. However, the movie completely removed this character and honestly, I was fine with that. Brian was a total jerk and it would have taken away from the Ira/Sophia relationship in the movie.

Well, those are the major differences I noticed between The Longest Ride book and movie. Even though there were some big differences, both the book and movie were amazing! Nicholas Sparks really knows how to create a story and he has a great team that makes his stories come alive on screen.

Photo Links: Book vs Movie Photo, Ira’s Rescue, Relationship Between Ira & Sophie

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