Charlie St. Cloud Case

The movie Charlie St. Cloud was based off of the book The Life and Death of Charlie St. Cloud. In both the movie and the book it's a romantic drama about a young man who lost his brother in a car accident. Even though the book and the movie have a lot of similarities, there is also a lot differences.

Some of the main differences between the movie and the book are the ages of the characters, Charlie's college plans, and the times he gets to meet with Sam. In the book Charlie is 15 years old and a junior in high school, while his brother is 9. In the movie Charlie is 18 years old and a senior in high school about to graduate and go to Stanford for a full-ride scholarship for sailing.

One day after Sam couldn't find his glove and was late to playing catch with Charlie, they had a talk and made a deal that they would meet for 1 hour every day up until Charlie had to leave for college. Charlie told Sam he would help him get better and teach him the fundamentals of the game so Sam can make the majors. Charlie also told Sam that if he was ever late again or made him wait again, the deal was off and Sam eagerly agreed.

In the book the town they live in is called Marblehead, a small town in Massachusetts. In the movie Charlie, Sam, and their mother live in Quincy, Washington. The day of Charlie's high school graduation, Charlie is driving his mom and Sam, while they are talking about Charlie going to Stanford next year for college. Charlie insists on taking a year off of school to help save up enough money for the rest of the tuition so his mother doesn't have to work double shifts but she tells Charlie "You can't put life on hold, it wont wait for you" and she encourages him that it's going to be okay and that she wants him to go to college the upcoming fall.

After Charlie's graduation, you see a few of his good friends talking and playing around with Charlie and Sam. One of Charlie's friend tells him he better be going to the "last hooray" party later on that night because it might be the last time they see each other for a while. His friend then tells Charlie how they are getting deployed a few months early and they have to leave for the Army a week after summer starts. In the movie Charlie agrees to go to the party and heads home. While Sam and Charlie are playing catch, their mom Claire, tells Charlie that she picked up a extra shift that night and he is on "Sam Duty". Charlie begins to try and explain to his mom that he has plans but she runs off trying to catch the bus. Later that night Charlie is making dinner for Sam while he is watching the Red Sox game. Charlie knows Sam always gets into the games, because it's his favorite team, and realizes that Sam isn't paying any attention to Charlie. Charlie then tells Sam his dinner is ready and tries to sneak out of the house to go to the party. Charlie starts his car and sees Sam blocking his way. Sam tells Charlie he can't leave him there because he is on "Sam Duty" and asks Charlie to take him to his friends house to finish watching the game. Charlie finally gives in and Sam gets in the car. During the car ride in the movie, Sam questions Charlie on if he can't wait to get out of this town and away from him. Charlie reassures Sam that he will never leave him for good and while still driving they jokingly start punching each other. Sam get's a little bit carried away punching Charlie, which looks like he's letting his frustration and anger out and Charlie yells at him to stop because they're driving. They stop at a red light and the car behind them rear ends them, sending them into the intersection. A car coming from the other side t-bones their car, leaving the screen blank. Charlie wakes up in an ambulance after the paramedic shocks Charlie back to life. Charlie looks around and sees a body bag with Sam's hand hanging out, Charlie hysterically starts crying and yelling "That's my brother!" In the book, Charlie wasn't sneaking out to go to a party after graduation. Charlie and Sam used their neighbor's car to go watch a Red Sox game and that is when the car accident happened.

During Sam's funeral in the movie, Charlie was about to put Sam's baseball glove inside the grave when he looked up and thought he seen Sam off into the woods. Charlie kept the glove and ran after who he thought was Sam, but was just some flowers. He kept running and got to the canyon, where he sat down and cried. While he was at the canyon, he heard Sam's voice,