Book v. Movie: Dr. Robert Laing
Movie:
We don't know much about his past only that he is a lecturer at a medical school in anatomy & physiology. We also know his sister and his entire family are dead. Last of his bloodline. And he moved to the High-Rise after that.
Lied to his med school student, Munrow, who lived a floor about him and made a huge deal about it, about finding a tumor in his brain scan, causing Munrow to commit suicide. My favorite thing he does in the movie did not happen in the book. I am in favor of this adaptational change because the circumstances behind the suicide were less interesting to me in the book.
The upper floor residents are more deliberate in insulting and humiliating him at a party. In the book, they don't go through inviting him to a party with the goal of mocking him by lying about the party dress code and trapping him in an elevator. Though they do try to gang up on him.
He hangs around Richard Wilder and the lower floors more. He seems to like Richard Wilder more than the book version, as evidenced by that montage where they're doing shenanigans together. It's also implied that he was sent as a mediator of sorts to the lower floors by Royal to prevent uprisings.
Toby is more relevant to Laing's interactions in the movie. In the book, he's just mentioned briefly as widower Charlotte's "sickly" son who probably has nothing wrong with him. I support this adaptational change because it reveals to us that Laing is the type to beef with a child and those exchanges are gold. Laing also does this thing were Toby tells him he sucks and he's basically like "You're right." It's a great dynamic. LOL.
He is sought after by Royal for Richard Wilder's psychiatric evaluation and to lobotomize Wilder. He ends up refusing to lobotomize him.
He fucks Wilder's pregnant wife, Helen.
I think his Laing did keep the core vibes, but he's more sensitive and soft to put it mildly. And he's tweaked a little because the movie is very into using TH to market itself. He has a scene where he cries a little over being called the best amenity of the building by Helen, when I can't see book!Laing crying over this because he's rather cold. Also, he never gets referred to as an amenity in the books. I also can't really see book!Laing refusing to lobotomize Wilder if he'd been asked to do so.
He becomes obsessed with paint. I love this! lol. This does not happen in the books. The movie gave him more weird quirks like this one.
Charlotte shows more lasting interest in him in general. She does show interest in the book, but it's more in the movie. She kinda takes on the roles of Alice (who is dead in this) and Eleanor.
He ends up with Charlotte Melville providing her with some cooked dog leg, and he's waiting for the same stuff to happen in the second Royal tower to "Welcome the residents into this new world." Charlotte asks who he's been speaking to. He says it's the building. He also has been talking in third person.
He gets attacked more by the upper floors more than in the book. In the book it's some random accountant who they attempt to throw off the building after attaching paper wings on him for "Flying school", here it's Laing getting saved by Royal after he refused to lobotomize Wilder, deeming Wilder the sanest man in the building.
He interacts more with Royal than in the book and are seemingly drawn to each other in a non-antagonistic way. He does not get invited to the dinner party in the book, but in the movie he does.
Book:
We actually know about his past, though there's not too much focus on it. We know his mother was a drunken widow and that he was raised by a parentified older sister. He has some major mommy issues sprinkled throughout.
His more ambitious ex-wife who was also a doctor left him for his lack of ambition. He is just getting over a recent divorce.
His sister is not dead. Her name's Alice Frobisher, she's married to a drunkard called Alan Frobisher, and she lives some floors above Laing.
Laing is avoidant of Richard Wilder, declining Wilder's invitations to his party, and doesn't really hang around the lower floors. He's more snobby and doing his own thing.
Laing does not kill a medical student of his. The guy that commits suicide is a jeweler he personally doesn't know.
The building that reduces everyone to their basest impulses makes him and his sister give in to incestuous urges they didn't have before coming to the high-rise.
He kinda just does his own thing. Finds a secret place to hide with his sister and Eleanor, who are both sickly and dependent on him for survival, and he plans to exploit the fuck out of this dynamic.
He plans to drug his sister, Alice Frobisher, and some a movie/show reviewer/critic called Eleanor Powell who are convalescing from illness/starvation because they revealed their intentions of wanting to get rid of him, and he's been stashing some secret ampoules of morphine as his secret weapon.
He has less to do in the book, he is one of the 3 main characters and POVs, but he is the one with less to do, which is why I think he got weird quirky sidequests like the paint in the movie. He kinda disappears for a large portion focused on Wilder's struggle to the top and Royal's schemes and hatred of his own residents.
The women don't cannibalize him, like they did with Wilder, because they assume he's the slave/servant of Alice & Eleanor.
Same:
Steele, the sadistic orthodontist played by Reece Shearsmith from Taskmaster, and him have an uneasy relationship.
He likes to sunbathe in the nude in his balcony (yea, it was not made up to market towards TH fans. LOL. ), he's a slacker, the ultimate conformist, and a slut. These are his core characteristics.
Anthony Royal does invite him for squash sessions and he does get to meet him formally.
He brings a dying Anthony Royal to the pool because he wanted to die there.
He eats the dog.
He's SO eager to please.
He just wants to disappear in the background and do his own thing.
He gets left alone by the upper floors because he "knows his place."
