On Aug. 20, The Map That Leads To You hit Amazon Prime, starring KJ Apa and Madelyn Cline. The movie — based on a book of the same name by Joseph Monninger — is about recent college grad Heather (Cline), who goes on a Europe trip with her besties, Amy and Connie, where she meets Jack (Apa) and the two fall in love. Spoiler Warning: Spoilers for The Map That Leads To You follow. Their romance is cut short for a while after Jack, who is following his great-grandfather’s journal as a map, leaves Heather at the airport despite telling her he’d go with her to New York, where her new job is. Throughout the film, Jack is cagey at times, weird about photos (with one exception), and receives phone calls from his doctor’s office. We find out before Heather does that Jack’s cancer has returned. Watching their love story unfold is beautiful and bittersweet.
If you read the book like I did, you might’ve noticed moments were removed, locations changed, and character details were altered. If you can’t remember all the changes or are just curious about the differences, here are all the major differences from book to screen for The Map That Leads To You.
The last stop on the girls’ trip was changed in the movie.
In the book, Amsterdam is the last stop on the girls’ Europe trip, not Barcelona. Heather, Connie, and Amy already visited Amsterdam and Paris at the start of the movie. The train they are on when Heather meets Jack is heading to Barcelona. This change alters where the festival and Connie’s wedding are respectively held.
Heather and Jack’s first kiss takes place somewhere different.
Instead of kissing on the train platform after their conversation on the train, Heather and Jack kiss on a tower after parting with Amy, Connie, and Raef (Jack’s friend and travel buddy).
Jack’s and Heather’s backstories were changed.
In the movie, Jack is from New Zealand, not Vermont. He says he was on the same track as Heather, bound to work in a corporate banking job. In the books, Jack studied journalism and worked at a small newspaper before leaving to follow his great-grandfather’s journal.
Heather’s backstory changed as well. In the books, she is from New Jersey, not Texas, she has a cat named Mr. Periwinkle (who sadly dies), and her mom was still alive, communicating with her frequently. In the movie, we find out that Heather’s mother left her and her father. This change made me feel for her even more after Jack leaves her at the airport instead of boarding the plane — especially during the conversation in the kitchen with her dad. (I’m not crying, you are.)
Also, unlike in the book, the beginning takes place at Connie and Raef’s wedding and flashes back in time to their Europe trip — the prologue where Heather’s mom takes a photo of the girls on their college graduation day isn’t adapted. Additionally, Heather’s father isn’t well-connected to the corporate world, which helps her in part with securing an investment banking job post-grad and she doesn’t mention an ex-boyfriend as she did in the books.
Some storylines were removed from the movie.
When movies are adapted from book to screen, it’s not uncommon for some parts to not make the cut — for the sake of the movie’s runtime and overall pacing. One scene I’m glad wasn’t adapted into the movie was when two drunk men at the party pee on the floor, to everyone’s disgust, and they all continuously try to move away from them before Jack is able to stop them. Yeah, I’m definitely OK with that being left out. Also, after the party, there’s no scene at the basement jazz club. Some scenes were added or modified— in the book, Jack and Heather don’t visit a friend of Russell’s.
A confrontation with Victor didn’t happen in the book.
In the book, after Amy’s belongings are stolen, there isn’t a confrontation with Victor. So, Jack doesn’t take Victor’s stolen money to fund their adventures after confronting him at his apartment and finding Amy’s belongings.
Heather & Jack follow his great-grandfather Russell’s journal solo
Connie and Raef do their own solo traveling in the movie and so does Amy, leaving Heather and Jack to follow Russell’s journal alone. The girls FaceTime each other throughout the second half of the movie and meet up in New York after Heather begins her job. The next time they are in person together is at Connie’s wedding.
Heather has only a page of the journal in the movie
Jack lets Heather keep a page of the journal — the one discussing the festival in Santa Pau. In the book, Heather has the entire journal after Jack leaves her at the airport. In both, she refers to the entry about the festival after receiving his letter revealing he is sick to her, and she sets out to find him — although the letter in the book is different and doesn’t include the “dancing in the face of death” line.
There’s no Tom
Tom is Jack’s “friend” who has cancer. Instead of having Jack refer to himself by mentioning Tom, the movie has Jack vaguely mention his health scare that made him leave his job and start following Russell’s journal.
There were soooo many changes (including minor ones) made while adapting this from book to screen. It’s up to the viewers (and readers of the book) on whether the changes were good ones or not.