SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for The Woman in Cabin 10 on Netflix.

Ruth Ware’s thriller novel The Woman in Cabin 10 has come to life as a Netflix film directed by Simon Stone, who co-wrote the screenplay with Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse.

The mystery movie stars quite a glamorous cast including Keira Knightley, Hannah Waddingham, Kaya Scodelario, Guy Pearce and more. The film takes some detours from the book, but the heart of the story is still there with a few modern updates.

The story follows Knightley’s journalist Laura Blacklock as she accepts an assignment to cover a cruise of sorts, but things quickly go south when she inadvertently discovers a murder plot onboard. The guise is that Pearce’s Richard Bullmer thought up the journey for his dying wife Anne Lyngstad (Lisa Loven Kongsli) to honor her before she gives away all of her money to a foundation he has established in her name. Turns out there are more sinister plans afoot.

Find 10 changes made in The Woman in Cabin 10 film from Ware’s book below:

  • No robbery in the beginning

    In Ware’s book, Laura “Lo” Blacklock (portrayed by Keira Knightley in the film) experiences a burglary and a robbery before she goes on the yacht trip. It sets her nerves on edge before her travel and adds layers to her experience of the inciting event of the story. The robber steals her purse with her phone, wallet and more inside, throwing off her next day at work.

    There is no robbery or burglar at the beginning of the movie, though Lo has a different unnerving flashback that creeps up on her of a woman dying. The victim was a source of Lo’s in a big story, and she carries guilt from the results.

  • No Judah

    David Ajala as Ben in 'The Woman in Cabin 10'
    Image Credit: Parisa Taghizadeh/Netflix

    Also in Ware’s book, Lo is dating a man named Judah Lewis, aka Jude, who travels a lot for work. The robbery sends her to his apartment seeking company and comfort, but he wakes her up later and frightens her in the process because she screams and he tries to stop her from doing so.

    Jude is also Lo’s anchor while she is gone on the cruise because he figures out that something is awry when he doesn’t hear from her. Lo had a romantic history with photographer Ben (David Ajala) in the book, and this carried over to the film.

  • Lo’s background – career and mental health

    L-R: Keira Knightley and Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Rowan in 'The Woman in Cabin 10'
    Image Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

    In Ware’s book, Lo writes for the travel magazine Velocity, but the film portrays her to be a more traditional journalist who writes hard-hitting news stories. She still takes the pitch to board The Aurora boutique yacht destined for Norway and the Northern Lights, though. She takes the assignment more as a buffer in between her last piece, which involved the woman mentioned above.

    Lo also takes antidepressants in the book, which complicates her perspective a bit in terms of people believing her claim that someone was murdered. The pills aren’t present in the film. Both stories show Lo resolutely asserting what she saw happen when a woman was pushed overboard.

  • The Guests

    (L-R) Kaya Scodelario as Grace and Keira Knightley as Lo in 'The Woman in Cabin 10'
    Image Credit: Parisa Taghizadeh/Netflix

    The group of guests on the cruise with Lo in the film are somewhat different from the book’s ensemble. The cast includes a mix of names from the book and new ones as well as certain characters from the pages but also others who were not in the book. There are more journalist types like the woman Tina West, and Cole Lederer is actually the photographer. Ben is another writer in the book, but his role was combined. Owen White is a UK investor Chloe Jenssen-Wylde is a model, and from her description in the book, she could be likened to Hannah Waddingham’s character. Archer is a food critic in the book.

    In the film, Kaya Scodelario plays a social media influencer there with her fake boyfriend via a PR campaign. Hannah Waddingham plays Heidi and David Morrissey plays Thomas heath. Daniel Ings plays Adam Sutherland, Art Malik plays Dr. Robert Mehta and Paul Kaye plays musician Danny Tyler, whose presence adds some flare to the trip. Tyler is not in Ware’s novel. Christipher Rygh plays Lars Jensen, a man steeped in the field of facial recognition technology.

  • The way Lo stumbles upon the titular woman in cabin 10

    In the book, Lo innocently knocks on the door to Cabin 10 to ask if she can borrow some mascara since hers had been stolen with her purse. This is when she encounters the mysterious woman hiding out there who she later thinks was killed. The woman seems annoyed when she knocks, but lends her a pink and green tube and tells her not to bother returning it.

    In the movie, she more runs into the room’s open door to avoid Ben as he walks down the opposite end of the hallway before dinner. Here, she runs into the woman coming out of the shower.

  • Facial recognition software

    A big wrinkle in the plot’s main event is the addition of facial recognition technology that aided Richard (Pearce) in finding a replacement for his wife Anne Lyngstad-Bullmer. Carrie (Gitte Witt) does look uncannily like Anne, and Lo discovers that she’s been disguised as her, which leads Carrie to trap Lo for a bit.

  • Ben dies (Dr. Robert is in on the plan)

    L-R: Keira Knightley as Lo and David Ajala as Ben in 'The Woman in Cabin 10'
    Image Credit: Parisa Taghizadeh/Netflix

    One guest, Dr. Robert Mehta (Art Malik), is in on the plan to swap Anne out for the other woman, and because of this, he prepares lethal doses of injectible medication to give originally to Anne, who is already dying. He then is instructed to give it to Lo, but unfortunately, the needle gets used on Ben instead, and Ben dies.

  • The Gala at the End

    The film culminates in a Gala where Anne is set to be honored and make a big speech about how she will leave her savings to her foundation. This is where Richard’s swapped double will instead bequeath the money to him, which is the driver behind this whole arrangement.

    At the Gala, Lo and Carrie plan to uncover what Bullmer is trying to do as Lo approaches the stage to read Anne’s original dedication speech. Bullmer tries to shut it down and ultimately reveals that Carrie is not Anne, escorting her away under threat of death.

  • Bullmer’s fate

    In the book, Richard Bullmer’s death is made out to seem like he took his own life as divers recover his body with a gunshot wound through the temple that is seemingly self-inflicted. In the film, his own head of security Sigrid Nilssen (Amanda Collin) hastens to unlock a shed near the gala as the event unravels and shoots Bullmer from afar with a long gun, killing him.