The Stand By Me Movie Made A Change To Stephen King's Story That He Wished He Had Written

This post contains spoilers for "Stand By Me" and its source material.

Stephen King's "The Body" ends with an emotional gut-punch. The novella unfolds from the perspective of Gordie, who recounts his enduring friendship with three boys — Chris Chambers, Teddy Duchamp, and Vern Tessio — in Castle Rock. A local gang accidentally discovers the dead body of a missing kid, and the trio decides to find it to become famous.

Unfortunately, things go horribly wrong while they're camping out, and Chris ends up pulling a gun on the gang out of fear. The kids drift apart after the harrowing incident, but Chris and Gordie remain close friends. However, in a heartbreaking turn of events, we learn that Chris has been fatally stabbed in the present day, while Vern and Teddy have also suffered accidental deaths. This tragic twist casts Gordie as an adult desperately chasing nostalgia, as these memories — no matter how painful — are all he has of his dear friends.

Rob Reiner's adaptation of King's novella, "Stand by Me," alters a few details, including who reaches out for the gun before the climactic confrontation. Reiner spoke to Variety to commemorate the film's 30th anniversary and explained how this minute change recontextualizes everything. Turns out, King himself is a fan of this narrative tweak:

"In the book, when they have the face-off at the end and they stare down the gang of older boys who want to take back the body, it was Chris Chambers who picks up the gun. As we were going through, [producer] Andy Scheinman said, 'What if Gordie picks up the gun?' Keeping with the whole idea that it's Gordie's journey. When we screened it for Stephen King. He says, 'When you had Gordie pick up that gun, I thought, why didn't I have that?'

"The Body" is retroactively revealed as a deeply personal elegy, as these memories are a way for Gordie to remember/honor his friendships through the lens of grief-fueled nostalgia. We don't learn about the deaths until the very end, which compels us to re-evaluate every detail via the context of Gordie's emotional state. Reiner, however, opens the film with a newspaper article about Chris' (River Phoenix) fatal stabbing, which prompts Gordie (Wil Wheaton) to recount the fateful childhood incident that took place in 1959. As the emotional shock of Chris' death is not delayed or withheld from us, Gordie's narration takes on a distinct quality, but doesn't have the same impact as "The Body."

Reiner's decision to have Gordie grab the gun instead of Chris also shifts the onus to the storyteller, as some amount of guilt or regret plagues the adult Gordie (Richard Dreyfuss), who is recounting this tale to get closure. While this adds pathos to Gordie's relationship with the past, which he dreads and yearns for at the same time, "Stand By Me" ends on a bittersweet note. "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?" Gordie muses, clinging to the nostalgia of having good childhood friends who've shared the same formative experiences as you. Although Chris is gone, Vern and Teddy are still alive, which offers a sliver of hope.

In stark contrast, "The Body" leaves Gordie with nothing except vivid memories that will haunt him forever. Yes, there's sincere nostalgia for freedom associated with growing up in a small town, but the bleakness of adulthood has caught up to everyone, from which there is no escape.