| In the Book |
In the Movie |
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The world is infected by vampires. |
The creatures are not vampires. They are cannibalistic zombies who have an aversion to light. |
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The story takes place in the suburbs of Los Angeles. |
The setting in New York City.
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The story takes place in 1976-78. |
It is 2012. |
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Neville discovers his dog after humanity has been wiped out; he spends weeks gaining his trust. |
The dog is named Sam, and is Neville's family dog.
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Neville is the only man left on earth. Everyone else is a vampire. |
There is 1% of the population that is immune to the virus. |
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Neville has no special training and he never clearly states his profession. He teaches himself everything about viruses so he can try and figure out a cure to the vampirism. |
Neville is a military virologist.
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Neville was bitten by a bat during his time in the army. He believes this led to his immunity to becoming a vampire. |
His immunity is not discusses. |
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Vampires wait outside Nevilles house for him. His neighbor even calls his name. |
They don't know where he lives.
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There is an evolved type of vampire that is not mindless. They have learned to control themselves and are quite advanced. |
They don't exist. |
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Neville's wife and daughter become infected and die. His wife returns as a vampire. |
They die in a helicopter crash when they are being evacuated from the city.
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The origins of the vampire plague are unknown. The bacteria that causes it was spread through spores hidden in dust storms caused by bombings. |
The infection was created through an engineered version of the measles virus meant to treat cancer which mutated into a deadlier strain. |
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Neville kills the vampires with wooden stakes, before discovering that oxygen in their circulatory system can kill them. The vampires produce a "skin-glue" that makes them impervious to bullets. |
Neville hunts the infected with a rifle, which is effective against them.
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The stray dog Neville encounters returns one day with signs of infection. Neville forces it into his home, but is forced to put him down after a week. |
Sam is mauled by infected dogs. Neville takes her back to his lab, but Sam is affected that same evening, forcing Neville to kill her. |
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Neville encounters a woman named Ruth walking around in the daylight and tries to call out to her. Ruth is scared, and Neville has to subdue her before being able to convince her to trust him. |
Neville goes into a suicidal rage after Sam's death and tries to run over a multitude of infectees, but is saved by the intervention of Anna, who comes to live with him with her son.
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Ruth turns out to be a spy for a society of people who have been infected but invented a pill to ward off the effects of the vampire pathogen. Before returning to them, she tries to warn Neville to flee before they come to kill him, as they have come to hate him for killing untold numbers of their would-be kind. |
Anna is a refugee en route to a colony of healthy humans who happened to run into Neville after hearing his radio broadcast. She is sent away by Neville with the cure before he sacrifices himself in fulminating a horde of infected. |
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The disease is incurable or at least Neville is captured and dies before he can find one. |
Neville finds a cure.
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He is a legend among the vampires, because he is the only human left and he hunts and kills so many vampires during the day. |
He is a legend because he is the source of the cure. |
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Neville kills himself with poison after being captured by the human like vampires. |
He sacrifices himself with a grenade to allow other humans to escape his lab with the cure.
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