It also rushes through the characters' relationships with each other. For instance, Duddits goes from a close childhood friend in the group to just a kid they helped and knew for a while. It loses the friendship the main group had with the young man. Over all, the film loses a lot of the depth of the characters, which makes the viewer lose any interest or care in them.
Theme is a big topic in which the novel was rich and the film was poor. The novel had a very complex and versatile theme. In the story, seemingly unconnected events take place that happen to reunite these childhood friends who lost touch after some time of being apart. As the story unfolds, however, deep revelations are made. The biggest one involves the group of friends and Duddits. As Jonesy is trapped inside of his own mind while Mr. Grey (an alien) controls his body, he suddenly finds himself in a long hallway. As he is running down this hallway, he begins to realize where it leads: to Duddits. Then it dawns on him. The reason his friend shared such a deep connection with each other and most importantly with Duddits was that they really were all connected in a physical sense. They all shared a telepathic link that could not be severed as long as Duddits was around. In a sense, they were all strands of a mental dream catcher, and Duddits was the center of their dreamcatcher, always keeping them together. It was not only an intriguing twist, but it was a really neat way to tie in the title of the novel into the content. The title made much more sense. The film, on the other hand, completely sets aside this major theme. Remnants of it do exist. The characters still share the telepathic link, but it is not nearly as pronounced as it is described in the novel. The film goes the route of action-filled and gore-filled in order to entertain audiences instead of making them think and ponder the implications. It is because of this that the film does not really have much depth when it comes to theme.