From a tongue-biting contest to an orgy in the sewers to yes, a giant space turtle,
there were all too many reasons why the ending of the "It" movies needed to be changed.
Director Andy Muschietti's adaptation of Stephen King's "It" was hugely successful
and made a massive pop culture impact — largely because the filmmaker and
screenwriters stayed as true to the source material as they could.
"Hiya, Georgie. What a nice boat."
But even with that mindset, there are massive, sweeping changes to update the
story, most notably the time period the two theatrical films take place in. In the book,
the kids' story takes place in the late '50s and the adults' story takes place in the '80s.
In the movies, they set the Losers Club's first encounter with Pennywise in the 1980s,
with the adults returning in the twenty-teens.
A book could be written on all the changes and why they were made,
but let's focus on the ending. There are three big things about the end
of Stephen King's book that have never been realized in any of the adaptations.
"Take your pick, bi, bi, bi, bi, Billy-boy!"
We'll start with the one thing from the book that everybody always talks about, and that's
the sex scene. After the Losers Club defeats Pennywise for the first time, they get lost
in the sewer and can't find their way out. Their solution is a head-scratcher, in that it involves
every member of the Losers Club – and this is really in the book – having sex with Beverly.
When this act is done, their bond is complete, a suppressing shadow is lifted, and they're able
to find their way out of the sewer and step out into the real world and their adulthood.
It's disgusting to imagine, but for decades, that's exactly what readers of
the book have had to do. King has defended this moment multiple times over the years,
acknowledging that sensitivity to adolescent sexuality is much stronger today than when
he first wrote the book. He also says he didn't even consider the sexual aspect of
the scene beyond that it solidifies the book's theme of moving from childhood to adulthood.
Writing to that theme is one thing, but asking seven child actors to bring that moment to life,
let alone asking an audience to watch it, is not an option. In the movie "It: Chapter One" this
moment of bonding, solidifying the characters' ability to remember enough in their adulthood
to come back and finally put an end to the evil clown, is changed to a simple blood oath.
"Swear if It isn't dead, if It ever comes back, we'll come back too."
A major component of the showdown between The Losers Club and the transdimensional
alien creature that likes to pose as an evil clown is called The Ritual of Chüd,
which is a kind of a psychic battle of wills. This aspect is totally ignored
in the 1990 mini-series and is handled with a sort of sideways approach in "It: Chapter 2."
The novel has a whole psychedelic sub-story that lays the foundation for The Ritual of Chüd,
including the reveal that a giant cosmic turtle is guiding The Losers Club in their
battle against Pennywise. (Again, this is really in the book.) The ritual itself sees
Bill taking a mind-journey to meet up with Pennywise where they stick their
tongues in each others' mouths, and bite down. The first to let go loses.
Weird, right? The only piece of advice this pre-teen kid has going into this mind fight
is from Maturin, the benevolent floating space turtle, who says:
"Once you get into cosmological s— like this, you got to throw away the instruction manual."
In the movie, the filmmakers reimagine this trippy encounter as a Native American
ritual involving a drum and some gold light, which… sure! Why not?
It all leads to the same place in the end. The only way to fight Pennywise is to not
be afraid of him, whether that means standing together as a group around a glowing drum or
to metaphorically bite its tongue and not let go. Fear is what It feeds on,
and if you take that out of the equation, you take away its power.
"That's why you didn't kill Beverly – because she wasn't afraid…and we aren't either."
Pennywise takes many forms over the course of the story and the entity's final form
is that of a spider. Now, this isn't exactly what It looks like. In the text,
King makes it clear that this is the closest thing to It's true face that the human mind can
take without breaking. In the miniseries we get a janky practical effect of a large alien spider,
and in the Muschietti film it's a CGI giant Pennywise with spider legs.
In this case, the miniseries hews closer to the book, but both leave out a fascinating element:
It is a she, and she is about to have a bunch of babies.
Defeating the giant spider isn't the end of the fight in the book. The surviving members
of The Losers Club also have to squash all the spider eggs, each one containing
a possible new It that will continue to feed on the residents of Derry and beyond.
Considering that this could have led to a sequel, it's surprising that Warner Bros
didn't insist on including this detail in "It: Chapter Two." Say the Losers stomped
on the eggs and think they got them all, but the audience sees one final egg left behind.
It hatches during the post-credits scene and blammo, the door is open for a sequel.
That is a lot to try to fit into the finale of a billion dollar franchise,
but it remains a one of many fascinating moments from the book that never made the cut in an