Adapting Cloud Atlas (2012) from the novel of the same name, written by David Mitchell, posed creative challenges since the novel focuses on six separate storylines in six different time periods.  Each story in the novel terminated at its midpoint and moved on to the next until the sixth story played out halfway.  Then each story resumed from the midpoint to its completion.  This structure even Mitchell questioned as he wrote the novel, wondering if he could manage to make such a structure of nonlinear narratives work (Cloud Atlas - Behind the Scenes Featurette, 2012).

 

When the Wachowskis, along with third director Tom Tykwer, attempted to adapt the novel into a film, they created a new structure entirely.  While the six stories still remained, and mostly quite faithful in content if observed individually, they chose to make each story and their characters intertwined, which contrarily resulted in the film conforming to both adaptive theories of radical homage and faithful adaptation (Malchow, 2001). As Andy Wachowski said:

 

“You have to abandon this idea that  it’s  six  stories.  It’s one story.  So

the idea of thirty minutes a segment goes out the window because each

of the stories is reflecting on one another as you go through the entire

movie” (Cloud Atlas - Behind the Scenes Featurette, 2012).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With this new structure, they explored how a hero could be the villain in another storyline by having the same actor play multiple parts (Cloud Atlas - Behind the Scenes Featurette, 2012).  Similarly, objects, locations, and ideas could reoccur in entirely new or symbolic ways, such as the button stolen out of greed by Dr. Henry Goose and then found again by another of Tom Hanks's characters, Zachry, who makes it into a necklace, which breaks and saves his life at the end of the film, as seen in Figure 1.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                     

                     Figure 1. Stills taken from Cloud Atlas (2012).

 

This constant intercutting between time periods means that often questions are answered for one time period through an event that occurs in one of the other storylines (Anders, 2013).  The thread that binds those stories together and creates a complete arc is in the added element created for the film of a shooting star birthmark, which signifies a reborn character (Anders, 2013).  This birthmark is stamped upon individuals whose choices and actions reverberate through the film and change the course of the future.

 

Ultimately, the film deals with concepts of consequence and themes surrounding morals, enlightenment, and the ties that bind us all and the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer are able to reflect those themes through the changes they made when adapting the novel to the film, which they say they approached as though it were a piece of music, following a melody and creating notes and chords when intercutting the individual storylines (Faraci, 2012).  The interwoven stories give higher meaning to events and actions that were not present in the novel, the end result being a film that more deeply explores the same issues and themes that did appear in the original text, but with many more nuances and complexities (Cartmell, 1999).