Netflix's White Noise: 5 differences between the novel and film

The 2022 absurdist comedy-drama film White Noise was adapted from Don DeLillo's 1985 novel of the same name.

The novel won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction and is a textbook example of postmodern literature. It is often deemed to be DeLillo's greatest book and helped him reach a larger audience. It was initially supposed to be named Panasonic, but Panasonic Corporation objected.

Time included the book in its list of "Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005." In 2021, it was announced that Noah Baumbach would write and direct the adaptation for Netflix, starring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig.

The film premiered at the 79th Venice International Film Festival on August 31, 2022, and was released in select theaters on November 25, 2022. It hit Netflix on December 30, 2022. Despite staying true to the original story, the director made a couple of tweaks to his version.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for both the White Noise novel and film.

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Wilder is not the biological child of Jack and Babette in the White Noise novel

1) Wilder is actually Babette's son in the novel

We are made aware that both Jack and Babette have been married before and have stepchildren. This happens when Prof. Murray Siskind meets them in the store. Jack explained that Heinrich and Steffie were from two of his previous marriages, while Denise was from Babette's previous marriage. Wilder was Jack and Babette's biological child.

But this is not the case in the novel. In the book, Wilder is just Jack's stepson. He was two years old and was born off of Babette from a past relationship.

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2) Prof. Murray Siskind is not African American in the book

We were introduced to this character at the very start of the film when he was explaining car crashes in movies to his students. He is a black man and a colleague of Jack's who later developed an interest in "Elvis studies."

The movie kept the "Elvis studies" part as it was, but Siskind was Jewish in the book.

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3) The palm-sized pistol was given to Jack by his father-in-law in the novel

In the film, as Jack and his family reached the summer camp for quarantine, Siskind handed him a palm-sized pistol to protect himself and his family from the dangerous survivalists in the camp. He later shot Mr. Gray with it at the motel.

In the book, this pistol was given to Jack by his father-in-law, Vernon Dickey, who visited the family in Blacksmith.

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4) In the book, Gladney steals his neighbor’s car to travel to the Mink’s motel

The film showed Jack Gladney borrowing Murray Siskind’s car to travel and shoot Mr. Gray in Mink's motel, but in the book, Jack stole his neighbor’s car.

Moreover, Mr. Gray's real name in the book is Willie Mink. Lastly, Gladney did not discover the motel's whereabouts through a phone call, as shown in the film. In the book, Gladney drives aimlessly until he comes across the Mink's motel.

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5) Babette did not show up at the hotel in the novel

After shooting Mr. Gray at the motel, Jack placed the gun in the corpse's hands to make it look like a suicide. But Mr. Gray had just passed out. Babette suddenly showed up, and both she and her husband got shot. The trio then drove to a hospital run by German atheist nuns and got treated.

In the book, Babette does not show up at the motel. Everything after that happened exactly like in the book, minus Babette. After saving Willie (Mr. Gray), Jack returned home to watch his children sleep.

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White Noise is streaming on Netflix worldwide.