2014 - The Fault in Our Stars
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Directed by: Josh Boone Written by: Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber Produced by: Wyck Godfrey, Marty Bowen Production year: 2013 Original release: June 6, 2014 Running time: 2 hours, 6 minutes Other cast: Shailene Woodley, Nat Wolff Misc: IMDB | Amazon | iTunes |
Two teenage cancer patients begin a life-affirming journey to visit a reclusive author in Amsterdam.
Production Images
Trailer
Trivia
- The title is a variation on a quote from Act I, Scene II of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: Cassius says “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves…”
- Shailene Woodley insisted that her friend Ansel Elgort read not just the script but also the novel before his first meeting with the filmmakers. “I thought, ‘If I tell her I haven’t read it, she’ll be mad during our audition and it would be a mess,'” Elgort recalls. “So I literally read it for Shailene”.
- In Divergent (2014), Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort play brother and sister, while in this movie, they play boyfriend and girlfriend.
- In the book, Gus says that he was originally interested in Hazel because she looked like his ex-girlfriend, who died from a brain tumor. He explains that his ex was very mean to him (called him “stumpy,” etc.) because she didn’t know what she was saying (due to the tumor). In the movie, his ex is not mentioned.
- The character of Augustus Waters originally had deep blue eyes according to John Green’s novel but in the film, Ansel Elgort retained his natural, hazel colored eyes.
- The book that the two main characters discuss, analyze and center around is called ‘An Imperial Affliction’ by Peter Van Houten. This book does not exist in reality.
- Brenton Thwaites, Ansel Elgort, Nat Wolff, Nick Robinson and Noah Silver were considered for the male lead.
- In Gus’ room, a sign of a car about to hit a cow with the word BEWARE can be seen. This may be an allusion to John Green’s other novel Paper Towns, in which the characters nearly run into a cow.
- In the egg throwing scene, a street sign shows the street they are on as being Eaton Road. This being possibly deliberate by the filmmakers to reference the Divergent Series in which Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort also star which features a character named Tobias Eaton, or just a happy coincidence.
- The screenplay for this film was featured in the 2012 Blacklist; a list of the “most liked” unmade scripts of the year.
- All scenes set in Amsterdam, apart from everything that is filmed inside the Anne Frank house, were actually filmed in Amsterdam.
- The t-shirt Hazel is seen wearing the night Gus dies is the same Gus wears the first time they meet.
- A scene in the book but absent in the film had Gus and his mother in a shouting match. This would have taken place just before Gus and Hazel were seen at the airport departing to Amsterdam. If this scene was included, it would have provided the earliest hint of Gus’ cancer relapse.
- When Hazel is in the ICU, her nails are painted a dark blue color (as mentioned by Gus in his eulogy letter at the end of the movie). However, when you are in the hospital, especially with breathing problems, you are not allowed to have your nails painted (so the oxygen saturation reader can pick up the oxygen levels through your nail). If you are rushed to the ER like Hazel was, they immediately take off the nail polish - at least one nail without nail polish is needed -index, middle or ring — if not possible, your big toe’s nail is used.
- In Amsterdam, when Augustus Waters reveals that the cancer had relapsed and has spread like a ‘Christmas Tree’, he and Hazel were sitting on a bench on the side of a canal. It actually went missing some days after the shoot in Amsterdam. The Amsterdam city spokesman Stephan van der Hoek promised to install a new one.
- Gus died at 18 in the movie, but he died at 17 in the original novel.
Spoilers: These quotes may give away important plot points.
Character Quotes
- [last lines]
Augustus Waters: [voice over, from his eulogy to Hazel] Mr. Van Houten. I’m a good person, but a shitty writer. You’re a shitty person, but a good writer. I think we’d make a good team. I don’t wanna ask you for any favors, but if you have the time - and from what I saw you had plenty - please fix this for me: It’s a eulogy for Hazel. She asked me to write one, and I’m trying, but I just… I could use a little flair. See, the thing is… we all wanna be remembered. But Hazel’s different. Hazel knows the truth. She didn’t want a million admirers, she just wanted one. And she got it. Maybe she wasn’t loved widely, but she was loved deeply. And isn’t that more than most of us get? When Hazel was sick, I knew I was dying, but I didn’t wanna say so. She was in the ICU when I snuck in for ten minutes and I just sat with her before I got caught. Her eyes were closed, her skin pale, but her hands were still her hands, still warm, and her nails were painted this dark blue black color, and… I just held them. And I willed myself to imagine a world without us and what a worthless world that would be. She’s so beautiful. You don’t get tired of looking at her. You never worry if she’s smarter than you, ’cause you know she is. She’s funny without ever being mean. I love her. God, I love her, I’m so lucky to love her, Van Houten. You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world, but you do have a say in who hurts you. And I like my choices. I hope she likes hers. Okay, Hazel Grace?
Hazel Grace Lancaster: Okay. - Hazel Grace Lancaster: [about egg throwing] Guys, I think we should wait until dark.
Augustus Waters: It’s all dark to Isaac.
Isaac: Dude, I’m not deaf, I’m just blind, so I can hear when you make fun of my disability. - Augustus Waters: I am in love with you. And I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed. And that one day all our labor will be returned to dust. And I know that the sun will swallow the only earth we will ever have. And I am in love with you.
- Augustus Waters: Your hands are so cold.
Hazel Grace Lancaster: Oh, they’re not so much cold as just under oxygenated.
Augustus Waters: Hazel Grace?
Hazel Grace Lancaster: Hm?
Augustus Waters: I love it when you talk medical to me. - Augustus Waters: Hello, are you Monica’s mother?
Monica’s Mom: I am…
Augustus Waters: Hello, ma’am. Your daughter, she’s done a great injustice, so we’ve come here seeking revenge. You see, we may not look like much, but between the three of us we have five legs, four eyes and two and a half pairs of working lungs, but we also have two dozen eggs, so if I were you, I would go back inside.
[Monica’s mother looks freaked and goes back inside]
Isaac: Did… That actually worked?
Augustus Waters: Yep.
Isaac: That was the stupidest speech I’ve ever… That actually worked? - Hazel Grace Lancaster: Really? That’s disgusting!
Augustus Waters: What?
Hazel Grace Lancaster: What? Do you think that is cool? Or something? You just ruined the whole thing.
Augustus Waters: The whole thing?
Hazel Grace Lancaster: Yes, this whole thing.
Hazel Grace Lancaster: Even thou you have freaking cancer, you are willing to give money to corporation for a chance to acquire even more cancer? Let me just assure you that not being able to breathe? SUCKS. Totally disappointing. Totally.
Augustus Waters: They don’t kill you unless you light them. And I’ve never lit one. It’s a metaphor, see: You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don’t give it the power to do its killing. A metaphor. - Patrick: Your turn, Gus.
Augustus Waters: Yeah, sure. I’m, uh, I’m Augustus Waters. I’m 18 years old. I had a touch of osteosarcoma about a year and a half ago. And I lost this baby as a result.
[pulls up his right trouser leg to reveal a prosthetic leg]
Augustus Waters: And now I’m part cyborg, which is awesome. But really I’m just here at Isaac’s request.
Isaac: Yeah.
Patrick: And how are you feeling, Gus?
Augustus Waters: I’m grand! Yeah. I’m on a rollercoaster that only goes up, my friend.