‘The Woman in Cabin 10’: Movie vs. Book Differences
- Ruth Ware’s mystery novel The Woman in Cabin 10 was released in 2016.
- Now, it’s been adapted into a movie starring Keira Knightley and Guy Pearce.
- Find out about the differences between the book and the film—including major changes to the ending. Spoilers ahead.
The Woman in Cabin 10 is a 2016 thriller by Ruth Ware. And now, it’s also a 2025 Netflix release. Keira Knightley stars in the adaptation as Lo Blacklock, a journalist who is invited on a trip on a luxury yacht with an extremely wealthy couple: Richard Bullmer (Guy Pearce) and Anne Lyngstad (Lisa Loven Kongsli).
Quickly, things go horribly wrong. Lo wakes up in the middle of the night to see what appears to be a person falling over the side of the yacht and blood smeared on the divider between her balcony and that of the room next door—cabin 10. When Lo tells the yacht’s crew and the other passengers what happened, no one believes her, because cabin 10 was empty and no known passengers are missing.
All of this is the same in the book and the movie. But there is a lot that is different, from where Lo works to pretty much the entire ending. Read on to learn about some of the main differences between Ware’s mystery novel and its adaptation.
Lo is single.
In the book: Lo has a boyfriend, Judah. This comes into play, because he is later falsely notified that she has died.
In the movie: The Judah character is gone, Lo is single and she’s never believed by anyone to have died.
Lo is traumatized from a past assignment.
Book Lo and Movie Lo both board the yacht while dealing with trauma.
In the book: Lo has just had her apartment broken into.
In the movie: Lo is attempting to take a lighter, more relaxing assignment after recently covering some traumatic hard news.
Lo has a different work situation.
In the book: Lo is a travel writer who works for a magazine and she’s hoping to get a promotion.
In the movie: Lo works for British newspaper The Guardian and usually covers serious news stories—not ones about a rich couple and their charity that involve luxury travel.
Lo encounters Carrie in a different way.
In both the book and the movie: The woman in cabin 10 is revealed to be Carrie, a woman who is working with Bullmer to pretend to be his wife, Anne, who is dying of cancer. But before we get to that reveal, Lo crosses paths with Carrie.
In the book: Lo thinks that Carrie is a regular guest on the yacht, like her, and borrows some mascara from her.
In the movie: Lo briefly enters cabin 10 by accident, thinking its her own room. There, she sees Carrie, a guest she hasn’t come into contact with before.
Carrie isn’t having an affair with Bullmer.
In the book: Carrie is having an affair with Bullmer and has already posed as Anne publicly before. She thinks that this is because—while they are in love—he cannot be with her publicly until Anne passes away. Bullmer has told her that the real Anne is only going to be on the yacht trip for one night, after which, she will leave and Carrie will pretend to be Anne, allowing them to spend time together.
In the movie: Carrie is a woman being paid a large sum of money by Bullmer to pretend to be Anne, so that she can sign Anne’s will, leaving Anne’s wealth to Bullmer instead of to charity, like the real Anne wants.
Carrie doesn’t throw Anne overboard.
In the book: Bullmer gets Carrie to throw Anne overboard it after he gets in a fight with her when she discovers their affair.
In the movie: Anne finds Bullmer with the fake Anne preparing for their ruse. He then kills her and throws her overboard.
Lo is more confident.
In the book: Lo isn’t a reliable narrator. She drinks a lot and is mixing alcohol with antidepressants. Not only do the people around her think that she might be unwell, but she questions her own reality and whether she really witnessed someone going overboard.
In the movie: Lo remains confident in what she saw and never gives up when it comes to collecting clues and information about what happened.
The ending is completely different.
Since the setup is different in the book versus the movie, it’s not surprising that the ending is pretty different, too.
In both the book and the movie: Carrie locks Lo in a room near the engine of the yacht, but eventually comes around and begins working with Lo when she accepts that Bullmer is just using her and will probably have her killed, too.
In the book: Lo and Carrie switch clothes prior to the boat arriving in Norway, so that Lo can try to safely leave as Anne. But, while trying to flee, Lo accidentally falls off the side and ends up swimming to shore. It’s unclear at first what happens to Carrie, but it’s later revealed that Bullmer’s body was found with a deadly gunshot wound, letting Lo know that Carrie must have shot him. Carrie also wires Lo a large amount of money, which lets Lo know Carrie has survived.
In the movie: Lo is able to swim to shore, but only after getting into a physical fight with the captain of the yacht (John Macmillan) and Bullmer’s doctor friend (Art Malik) who tries to give Lo a lethal injection. After all, Lo is the only one who knows the truth about the situation. Lo is saved by her ex-boyfriend, Ben (David Ajala)—this character is featured in the book, too, but not in this capacity—but Ben dies when the doctor stabs the injection into him instead.
On land in Norway, Bullmer takes Carrie-as-Anne to sign Anne’s will, which she does. But then, at the gala, Lo interrupts the evening to reveal that Anne is not… Anne, and Carrie reveals her true identity.
Bullmer tries to flee while holding a knife to Carrie’s neck and threatening to kill her if the crowd doesn’t let him through. But, suddenly, he is shot by Sigrid (Amanda Collin), his and Real Anne’s head of security, who now understands what’s been going on. Lo delivers a final blow with some sort of tool she picks up off the ground, and he falls off a ledge and dies.
Flash forward and Lo has written an article about the events, but chosen to focus on Anne’s life and philanthropy. Lo receives a message from Carrie, telling her that she is doing well and would like Lo to visit her sometime. Might I suggest Lo go to a spa or on a beach vacation instead? Alone, perhaps?
