The Relic (1997) – What Happened to This Adaptation?

The 90s was a great time for adaptations. Jurassic Park is the gold standard, of course, but there was so much more. That book’s author, Michael Crichton, also had Sphere and Congo get greenlit and released while we would see non-horror output like Forrest Gump (yeah, really. Look up that strange book) and Shawshank Redemption, which account for the greatest film of all time… and Forrest Gump. On the horror side we would have Silence of the Lambs, the wonderful IT TV miniseries, Exorcist III, and a fun little monster movie throwback called The Relic. At the time, I just thought it was a cool creature feature designed specifically for 12-year-olds like me but looking back all these years later I found out it was an adaptation of a book by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child in what would be the first of 22 separate stories for one of the chief protagonists. That’s all well and good but how well does The Relic adapt Relic? Be careful what crates you open up from the jungle as we find out what happened to this adaptation.

The Movie

When the book Relic came out in 1995 it was quickly snatched up by Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall who know a thing or two about producing big movies. From there it would be produced by Gale Ann Hurd and Sam Mercer and released by Paramount Pictures. The director chosen was Peter Hyams and he has quite a fun career resume. He also did End of Days and the only other thing even close to horror would be A Sound of Thunder but some of the other movies he has done that I really like are The Presidio, Outland, which is High Noon in space, Running Scared, and Time Cop, with a special shout out to Stay Tuned. While his career ended about 10 years ago, his cinematic catalogue is both fun and eclectic.

Hyams wanted Harrison Ford to be Lt. Vincent D’Agosta but that would eventually fall to Tom Sizemore where he got to do some of his best leading work. The character of Dr. Frock could have also been played by a more recent heavy hitter as Alec Baldwin, Al Pacino, Christopher Lloyd, and Robert DeNiro were all considered but it eventually went to James Whitmore. Whitmore is Brooks from Shawshank but also a two-time Oscar nominee who would be in a million other things including other great creature feature, 1954’s Them, a personal favorite of mine. Sizemore passed in 2023 but had a hell of a career, and life for that matter, for better and for worse. Just some of my other favorites include True Romance, Saving Private Ryan, and Strange Days. Rest in Peace sir.

The rest of the main cast stars Penelope Ann Miller, Oscar winner Linda Hunt, and Clayton Rohner in supporting roles. Hunt has no other horror releases but has great turns in the God of War video game series, Silverado, and Kindergarten Cop. Miller has been around for what seems like forever but never broke through to that upper echelon even with roles in Carlito’s Way and Chaplin to name a few. Another star for the movie is behind the scenes and he’s used to that. Stan Winston helped create the creature effects for the movie and they look great, at least when they are practical and maybe not in the high-definition view of a Blu-ray. The movie was filmed at an actual museum but not at the one it takes place at. The Museum of Natural History in New York was offered seven figures to shoot there but between fears of children being scared and the reputation of management given in the book (one of the authors used to work there and wasn’t kind in the novel apparently), the producers moved to Chicago to shoot at the Field Museum of Natural History and also a soundstage in LA for tunnel scenes where Sizemore got the flu twice.

The movie was also written by 4 screenwriters and while that is usually a death sentence, it worked out fine here. Ric Jaffa, Amy Holden Jones, John Raffo, and Amanda Silver collaborated on the project and combined, they have things like Jurassic World, the new Planet of the Apes movies, Indecent Proposal, the remake of The Getaway, The Slumber Party Massacre, and Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. The movie was supposed to be released in 1996, but special effects postproduction would push it to January of 1997 where it would be a bit of a flop, grossing 48 million on its 40-60 million dollar budget.

The Book

Relic was written in 1995 by Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston in what would become a series starring the main detective, Pendergast. This would be the start of an absolutely epic amount of collaborative works between the two that would lead to many opportunities. They each have their own books too, including a lot of non-fiction from Preston, but their main output has been together and mostly with Pendergast. Surprisingly, they only have today’s movie as adaptations of their work, but George Clooney was once attached to a project called The Monster of Florence, based on a book Preston wrote with crime reporter Mario Spezi. If that movie had been made, Clooney would have been playing Preston himself.

Preston has done a lot of neat extra-curricular stuff, like being involved in the previously mentioned Italian Serial Killer case and going on an expedition in 2015 to one of the last unexplored places on earth. He later became president of The Authors Guild in 2019. Child has written mostly in the techno horror realm when not writing with Preston.

What is the same?

The story follows the exploits of an anthropologist on an expedition in South America looking into a tribe and their culture and monsters. When his ship comes back into harbor he is nowhere to be found with no sign except his crates. A dock worker is killed and then a guard at the museum that the anthropologist worked at is also killed and Vincent D’Agosta is brought onto the investigation to see what is going on. Dr. Green and Dr. Frock are questioned about the case as well as their missing peer but disregard the whole thing initially. The Museum also wants to keep the case under wraps as they are hosting a big gala and opening a new exhibit showcasing superstition and myth from across the globe.

They look over the crates that were sent to the museum, but they are filled with only plants as packaging without any actual items. These plants are later revealed to be rich in a specific type of protein and some DNA left behind by the killer reveals itself to be part human. This leads the museum scientists to hypothesize that not only is the killer an ancient creature, but it is also in fact their former colleague who sent the plants as food. Furthermore, all of the deaths involved the hypothalamus gland being removed which also ties into the plant’s protein. The gala moves forward as planned but a series of events leads to the power being shut down as well as the security gates going into lockdown.

Many guests escape but a lot of them and museum staff are trapped along with D’Agosta. The creature, who has human intelligence along with a gaggle of other animal DNA, stalks the guests throughout the museum and kills both staff and regular guests. A SWAT team comes in to try and save the patrons but is slaughtered by the creature after it takes out the guests and staff in the main lobby. Most of the civilians are led out danger via the sewer that crosses the street while Dr. Green is able to help kill the creature.

What is Different?

The overall story is very similar but there are a few key differences. The movie moves pretty quickly from the doctor story back to the museum part but the book takes a gap of seven years between the jungle portion and the museum portion. There is also a lengthy epilogue in the book that sort of deconstructs the details not given during the main story including what the creature is exactly and what happened to the team sent there. Further along in the epilogue is when a character finds out that the creature WAS the research scientist, Whitney in the movie and Whittlesey in the book. He also learns how to create and perfect the mutagen and plans to sell it as a drug followed by controlling an army of creatures. The museum staff also knew about what was going on, at least to a degree, and covers it up in the novel while the movie has them as just blissfully and stubbornly unaware.

Regarding the characters, there are a lot of changes ranging from very minor to completely plot changing. Two kids go missing and are killed in the book but found alive in the movie. Frock dies in the movie but goes on to be one of the villains in the sequel book called Reliquary. One of the main characters of the book and one that would go on to star in a lot of future books, Pendergast, is nowhere to be seen in the movie. The majority of his role is handled by D’Agosta played by Sizemore and the D’Agosta character from the book is now a younger police officer named Hollingsworth who does a lot of what D’Agosta does in the book. The creature’s death in the book happens when Pendergast shoots it in the eye which also hits the brain while the movie has Dr. Green final girl it up and blow the thing to bits after tricking it in the offices part of the museum.

Legacy

I had no idea the movie was based on a book, let alone that it had a sequel and a character that would go on to have a hell of a run in their own series. The book is a pretty easy read and it isn’t the best thing I’ve read, for this show or in general, but by those terms it’s not the worst either. The movie holds a special place in my heart, as I saw it in theaters as a 12-year-old and had an absolute blast with it. I still had a great time with the movie now and enjoyed it more than I thought I would on this viewing. The book is a fine book but if I’m looking to consume this story, I’ll stick with the much shorter movie version even if it is smaller scale and a little dumbed down. If you want a cool literary duology featuring a mythic creature and its origins, check out the two books but if you want to see a fun and at times schlocky creature feature that gives the late Tom Sizemore one of his best roles.

A couple of the previous episodes of What Happened to This Adaptation? can be seen below. To see the other shows we have to offer, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!