| In the Book |
In the Movie |
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Jonathon is rich as a result of his success. He has a nice house on a ranch on which he raises beef cattle and eats better than some executives. |
Jonathon is well off, he has nice property and rides horses. |
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Jonathon shows a group of rookies at training camp how to take out a biker that bears down on him. |
Jonathon invites a large man from Manila to skate around the rink and "take him out" during a rookie training session. He drops to a knee as the rookie skates up behind him; tripping to the floor.
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Mr. Bartholomew was recently demoted in the Energy Corporation and is sort of a father figure to Jonathon; he offers to help him obtain films on history to learn. Jonathon wants more, he wants power. There is no conspiracy to kill Jonathon in the game. |
Batholomew is never demoted. He is the central figure in the Executive conspiracy to have Jonathon killed during a Rollerball game. The extreme violence in Rollerball was devised to show that an individual doesn't matter. Jonathon's heroism is defeating the purpose of Rollerball. |
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Jonathon was a corporation child; the bastard of an executive. He learned Roller Ball Murder in university. |
This back story is not mentioned.
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Ella left Jonathon to marry an executive. Ella and her executive husband had applied to have a child but were denied. |
Ella was taken away from Jonathon because an executive wanted her. No mention of children applied for. |
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Jonathon can read, but since he left university all books are gone and converted to tapes that people listen to or watch. |
Jonathon appears to be illiterate. He wants to read, but finds out all books are gone and converted to tapes.
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A special on TV will be made about Jonathon's career and shown to demonstrate how the Energy Corp takes in orphans and takes care of them. |
The special on TV will be shown to celebrate Jonathon and announce his retirement. Jonathon refuses to retire, so the rules are changed to make his death in the game more likely. |
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Jonathon asks Cletus to bring Ella to him. Ella visits and they spend an enjoyable time together before she leaves. |
After Jonathon refuses to retire and survives the Tokyo game, Ella is sent to him in an attempt to convince him to retire. He refuses and says she is just a reward sent by the Corp.
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Daphne is a replacement concubine for Mackie. Jonathon appears to like them both. |
Jonathon tolerates Daphne; she is a replacement for Mackie when she is sent away. Jonathon meets Mackie later on at the party held in his honor; she tells him she is with an executive now. |
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This does not happen. |
The TV special about Jonathon is shown; without his retirement announcement. Jonathon is watching it at a party where he talks to a former concubine who belongs to an executive now. Some of the party goers leave the mansion and entertain themselves by shooting large trees with a small pistol that makes the trees burst into flames.
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This does not happen in the book. |
Mr. Batholomew speaks with other executives and discusses why Jonathon needs to die during a game after he refuses to retire. People must be shown that the individual doesn't matter. |
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This does not happen in the book. |
Jonathon attends a pre-screening of the special about his career along with Daphne. He is told that he will announce his retirement when the special is aired.
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Moonpie is killed during the Tokyo game. |
Moonpie is severely injured during the Tokyo game. Jonathon refuses to allow the Japanese doctor to shut off life support and instead has him sent to another facility where he will be kept alive while in a coma. |
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This does not happen. Daphne and Jonathon get along well. |
Daphne threatens Jonathon by telling him that he should retire. Jonathon throws her to the ground, tells her that she should fear him and cuts her cheek with a spike on one of his Rollerball gloves.
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The oval track is 50 yards long and 30 yards wide. High banked. The bowling ball sized ebonite (hard rubber) 20 pound balls are fired at 300 mph. |
The circular track is 547 feet wide and banked at 18 degrees. The steel plated 21 pound, 3.5 inch wide ball is fired at up to 135 mph. |
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Each team has 20 players; 10 skaters, 5 runners and 5 bikers on 175cc motorcycles.
Play lasts for two hours with no substitutes, no penalties (including deliberate killing) or rest periods. |
Each team has 10 players on the rink at once. 5 skaters, 2 skater/catchers, 3 bikers on 125cc motorcycles. There are 5 substitute skaters and 3 substitute bikers.
There are 3 periods, 20 minutes each with 2 minute rest breaks.
Penalties include hiding the ball, skating in the wrong direction, using the ball as a weapon, skaters/bikers deliberately injuring each other
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Scoring. The runners use lacrosse like paddles to bash other players and to catch the ball. A point is scored when a runner passes the skaters on the other team and hands the ball off to a biker. The runner can catch a ride with a biker. The skaters try to stop the runners from scoring; brawling is normal. |
A point is scored when a skater is able to throw the ball into one of 21 inch goals. The skater has to keep the ball in plain view after he gets it from a catcher for one track revolution and score prior to the 3rd trip around the track or else the ball is dead and a new one fired. Fighting is usual. |
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Jonathon E has been playing Roller Ball Murder for 15 years and is the best at it. He hears of games (but does not play in) in Manila or Barcelona in which there are no time limits and they play until the runners are dead/injured and no scoring is possible.
There are some mixed teams of men/women with tear away jerseys which result in exposure/nudity of the player.
Jonathon knows they'll change the rules until they all "skate on a slick of blood". |
Jonathon E. has been playing Rollerball for 20 years and is still on top. The teams are male only. The rules are changed in an attempt to kill or injure him to take him out of the game.
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Cletus is a retired Roller Ball Murder player and friend of Jonathon's. He is on the rules committee and attempts to keep some of the more insane suggestions as no time limits becoming a new rule. |
Cletus is a friend and tries to find out why the executives are scared of Jonathon. |
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Jonathon E is large, 6' 3" and 255 pounds. |
James Caan is much smaller.
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3 games are described, 2 others are mentioned. Houston defeats an unnamed team, then plays in Mexico City (oblong balls introduced), then Tokyo (3 oblong balls in play at once). An all-star game in New York with no time limit is to be played. The story ends prior to the start of the game. |
Houston is shown playing 3 games. They defeat Madrid (with no recent rule changes), defeat Tokyo (no penalties) then defeat New York (no penalties, no time limit). The movie ends with Jonathon scoring the only goal and with one survivor on each team. |