Ready Player One. Poster of the 2018 movie and cover of the 2011 book
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Ready Player One
Ernest Cline, 2011
movie vs book
Steven Spielberg, 2018

In 2045, people seek to escape from reality through the virtual reality entertainment universe called the OASIS, created by James Halliday and Ogden Morrow of Gregarious Games. Wade Watts’s avatar Parzival, an avid Gunter, participates in the first challenge, an unbeatable race, alongside his best friend Aech, and Art3mis, a female avatar who Parzival has a crush on.


X-Men: Apocalypse. Poster of the 2016 movie and cover of the 1964 comic book, X-Men
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X-Men
Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, 1964
movie vs comic book
Bryan Singer, 2016

In 3600 BCE, the powerful mutant lord En Sabah Nur, hailed as a god named Apocalypse, rules ancient Egypt until he is entombed alive during a rebellion. In East Berlin, shape-shifting mutant Raven frees Kurt Wagner, a teleporting mutant, from an underground cage match with Angel and attempts to organize for black marketeer Caliban to transport him to America.


Joe. Poster of the 2013 movie and cover of the 1980 book
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Joe
Larry Brown, 1980
movie vs book
David Gordon Green, 2013

Joe Ransom is foreman of a Texan tree-poisoning crew. A 15-year-old drifter named Gary asks Joe for a job, and impresses him with his industriousness. The next day, Gary brings his alcoholic father, Wade, to work, but Wade’s poor attitude and laziness gets them fired. Joe witnesses Wade beat Gary and take his money.


The Stanford Prison Experiment. Poster of the 2015 movie and cover of the 2007 book, The Lucifer Effect
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The Lucifer Effect
Philip G. Zimbardo, 2007
movie vs book
Kyle Patrick Alvarez, 2015

Stanford University psychology professor Philip Zimbardo conducts a psychological experiment to investigate the hypothesis that roles in social situations, rather than individual personality traits, cause participants’ behavior. In the experiment, Zimbardo selects eighteen male students to participate in a 14-day prison simulation to take roles as prisoners or guards.


The Tender Bar. Poster of the 2021 movie and cover of the 2005 book, The Tender Bar: A Memoir
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The Tender Bar: A Memoir
J.R. Moehringer, 2005
movie vs book
George Clooney, 2021

J.R. is a fatherless boy growing up in the glow of a bar where the bartender, his Uncle Charlie, is the sharpest and most colorful of an assortment of quirky and demonstrative father figures. As the boy’s determined mother struggles to provide her son with opportunities denied to her, J.R. begins to gamely pursue his romantic and professional dreams, with one foot persistently placed in Uncle Charlie’s bar.


Dark Places. Poster of the 2015 movie and cover of the 2009 book
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Dark Places
Gillian Flynn, 2009
movie vs book
Gilles Paquet-Brenner, 2015

Libby Day is a lifeless woman who survived the massacre of her family in their farmhouse in the countryside of Kansas when she was eight. She’s been living on donations and lectures ever since. With donations drying up, she is hard up for cash when she is approached by Lyle Wirth to make a personal appearance at his True Crime club.


Asphalt City. Poster of the 2023 movie and cover of the 2008 book, Black Flies
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Black Flies
Shannon Burke, 2008
movie vs book
Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire, 2023

Ollie Cross drives an ambulance on the streets of New York alongside Rutkovsky, a seasoned veteran who is one of the city’s finest medics, as he prepares for his ambition to attend medical school.


X-Men: Dark Phoenix. Poster of the 2019 movie and cover of the 1985 comic book, Dark Phoenix Saga
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Dark Phoenix Saga
Chris Claremont, John Byrne, 1985
movie vs comic book
Simon Kinberg, 2019

In 1975, eight-year-old Jean Grey is involved in a car crash while driving with her parents. They are both killed instantly, leaving her an orphan. In 1992, the X-Men respond to a distress signal from the Space Shuttle Endeavour, which has been critically damaged by solar flare-like energy. While saving the astronauts, Jean is struck by the energy.


The Yellow Birds. Poster of the 2017 movie and cover of the 2012 book
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The Yellow Birds
Kevin Powers, 2012
movie vs book
Alexandre Moors, 2017

Two young U.S. soldiers, Bartle (aged 21) and Murph (aged 18) navigate the terrors of the Iraq War under the command of the older, troubled Sergeant Sterling. All the while, Bartle is tortured by a promise he made to Murph’s mother before their deployment.