okay, just gonna dump my thoughts about the Stay script here. this will probably be long and all over the place, so I'm gonna put a read more here ^^
the script is quite different from the finished film, which I actually rather like. the changes they ended up making made sense and for the most part I'm glad they were made as I feel like they add a lot to the film.
take for example Lila more or less being just Sam's girlfriend in the script, whereas they actually made her an artist in the movie. that made her feel more necessary to the story, in the script she was kind of just...there.
the script felt much less trippy than the movie does, the whole bit about Sam entering the apartment over and over and walking down an endless staircase chasing after Athena were both not in the script, but I really like that they added those sequences into the movie as that made it feel a lot more dream-like.
I also found it interesting that in the script Henry watched a polar bear swimming at the zoo instead of a manatee. wonder why they made that change in the end.
what probably surprised me most about the script was that Athena actually survived the crash and was there with Sam and Lila trying to save Henry. they didn't elaborate on it, but I do wondered how she was well enough after that horrific accident to walk and be so lucid when Henry's parents both died and he got flung out the windshield. it didn't feel all that realistic, so I'm glad they changed that in the movie, especially because I feel like that made Henry's final moments where he proposes to who he thinks is Athena a lot more impactful (that's a scene that didn't appear in the script)
I'll put screenshots of some scenes/lines that stood out to me below what's written below a screenshot are my thoughts on it
I wholeheartedly agree with this lol. maybe I'm biased here because I adore Henry, but he really does have a magnetism to him, doesn't he.
I posted these earlier today but I'm gonna put them here again because I think this scene is hilarious and I really wish it had been in the movie lol.
just. I'm gnawing at the bars of my enclosure.
I think it's rather interesting that Henry starts to realise quite early on that everything is just a dream, though he doesn't know why exactly he's dreaming in the first place.
I really liked this little detail
this bit also cracked me up
another thing I found really interesting in the script was that Sam was actually the one with the past suicide attempt, not Lila, and that Beth saved him. I honestly wouldn't have minded them keeping that in the movie, it would've probably given him more insight into Henry's mental state, especially since the reason he states for his attempt was that nothing felt real to him, much like what Henry describes.
the "I'm dreaming you" crushed me tbh I honestly really like how aware Henry is in the script and how terrifying that realisation is not only for him, but also the people around him. he doesn't know why he's dreaming and Leon realises he's probably not real, his existence depends on Henry's. I imagine that's really scary. I really liked how this scene was handled in the movie, but the version in the script is really impactful too, albeit in a slightly different way.
I knew that the painting was supposed to be the view from that perspective, but seeing it spelled out just. hurts. a lot. especially when the script later points out in the final scene that it's the view Henry sees from where he's lying and bleeding out. my heart :(
I didn't screenshot this entire scene so I'll paraphrase a bit here, but the whole sequence at the bar might just be my favourite out of the entire script and I'm a little sad that it didn't make it into the movie.
He goes to this bar and the bartender congratulates him cause it's his birthday. Henry orders a shot on the house, realises it's the bar where Dylan Thomas had his last drink. the barkeep and him talk about Thomas a bit, Henry is told how Thomas downed eighteen shots at the bar and then dropped dead, so Henry downs his shot and says he'll need eighteen more for the record.
then what's in the screenshot above happens. the song he's talking about is repeatedly mentioned throughout the script and eventually revealed to be the last song they listened to in the car before the crash and it still plays when Henry's lying there dying. (I'm not sure if they used the song in the movie? it's been a few weeks since I've last seen it lol)
anyway, him saying he wants company just made me so sad :((( I just want to hug him, man ;n;
enter a group of German tourists. they drink together, the Hauser guy recites a Thomas poem and for some reason Henry gets the idea to play Russian roulette with them lmao. only that he's the only one playing.
this scene just had me on the floor in more ways than one. I was fully expecting at least one of the Germans to die. Henry hitting them with the "Welcome to America" line killed me lmao. I am deceased.
I am genuinely so sad this wasn't in the movie, I really would have loved to see it. give me more of Henry being a bit of a menace, please :')
yeah this whole scene on the bridge before Henry shoots himself just took me out. I am in so much pain. It already hurt a lot to watch in the movie but this is somehow even worse?? Henry saying he's afraid and Sam practically begging him not to go...like part of Henry has accepted what happened and that he has to let go, that he won't make it, but another part of him personified by Sam is so scared and doesn't want to leave. doesn't want to die.
I am not okay. :)
I'm crying just reading this again man. he says it in the movie too, but there he says it while he's still in the dream. this hits more because it's in the real world again. one of the last things Sam told him in his dream was that he's not sure what's real anymore either and Henry uses the last of his strength to say that to the real Sam, even though he has no idea what it means....AUGHHHHH IT HURTSSSSS
I think it's cool we learn his actual name, though Foster sounds cooler imo.
In conclusion: this hurt to read, I am obsessed with this movie and love Henry to pieces. 10/10 would recommend