Thrillers in Films

Thriller is one of the most enjoyable and sought after category of literature. This has led many thrillers to be turned into films. Despite the difficulty of discussing all the thrillers and their movie versions choronologically, we would try to have an overview of some of them.

Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Identity was made into a movie, that used many of the standard conventions of thrillers. It also received a good response, with the twin sequels The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. But the first film departed significantly from Ludlum’s storyline. The theme of conspiracy has been well preserved in them.

The Manchurian Candidate is adapted by George Axelrod from the 1959 novel of Richard Condon. It is a classic related to the Cold War. The story involves kidnapping and brainwashing of the American soldiers by Communists and how they were soon reintegrated into American society as sleeper agents.

The Day of the Jackal (1971) is a thriller by Frederick Forsyth. The story is about a killer and his sensational act of killing Charles de Gaulle, the President of France. He was contracted by the French terrorist group in the early 1960s. The film with the same name was a great success.

The Hunt for Red October , a well praised novel by Tom Clancy, is about a great adventure of Soviet submarine-captain Marko Aleksandrovich Ramius and CIA analyst Jack (John) Patrick Ryan, which depicts the interaction and arguments between the two remarkably. The film also followed the style efficiently.

Jurassic Park,a novel by Michael Crichton, showed the thrilling events in an entertainment park, when some genetically recreated dinosaurs broke through the 40,000 volt electric fence. It was featured in two back-to-back blockbusters.
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, portrays Robert Langdon, investigating a murder in the Louvre Museum. The title of the novel refers to the victim found in the pose of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous drawing, the Vitruvian Man, with a cryptic message written beside his body and a symbolic diagram drawn on his stomach with his own blood. The film with the same name raised much controversy and was also banned for some days.