The biggest change between the book and the movie was fairly well-known before the reboot ever hit theatres: Ellie is the child who's hit and killed by a truck during her birthday party, rather than her younger brother. Although it's little Gage who comes back from the dead in both the novel and the 1989 film, there's something about an older kid trying to kill you that's just more believable. Just ask Judson Crandall.