With dramatic Egyptian sceneries and mind boggling twists the new mystery thriller “Death on the Nile,” the sequel to the 2017 movie “Murder on the Orient Express,” came to the theatres on Feb. 11, 2022. The film features a  cast filled with vast backgrounds such as Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Annete Benning, Letitia Wright, and Emmy Mackery. The film is an adaptation of the book, “Death on the Nile,” written by Agatha Christie in 1937. The book was originally adapted into a movie in 1978; however, the 2022 adaptation edits the plot and characters to make it more up-to-date with modern standards.

The film begins entirely differently from the book with the introduction of Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) who suffered a blow to the face during World War I. Regardless, his wife, Katherine, supports him during his lows, accepting his scars. 

Although Katherine accepts Poirot for who he is after the attack, when Poirot is troubled with the insecurities of the scars, Katherine advises him to grow a mustache to cover up the scars caused by the attack. Although this might seem like a small remark or awkward moment in the movie, it is essential to Poirot’s character. For example, Katherine’s comment on the mustache to cover up his insecurities about scars symbolizes the love that they share, which fuels Poirot’s thought process through the movie. His relationship with Katherine allows him to empathize to figure out the sudden murdery mystery plot.

Like the book, the main plot of the movie revolves around a mysterious set of deaths occurring on the Karnak cruise ship. However, the 2022 film differs from the book with the amount of characters included. Rather, the film either merges a combination of characters into one or replaces a character completely. 

For example, the characters Louise Bourget (Rose Leslie), Andrew Katchodurian (Ali Fazal), and Mrs. Bowers (Dawn French) remain the same as their characters from the book. Meanwhile, the other characters are vastly different from their book personalities. 

In the book, the two characters who are equivalent of Bouc (Tom Bateman) and his mother Euphemia (Annette Bening) are Tim Allerton and his mother Mrs. Allerton. Unlike in the movie, where Bouc and Poirot have a strong friendship, Tim Allerton has never met Poirot before. 

In the book, Rosaline Otterbourne (Letitia Wright) is Salome Otterbourne’s (Sophie Okonedo) daughter. In contrast to her original famous book writer personality in the book, Salome is a famous  jazz singer, struggling to make profit. 

Also included is Marie Van Schuyler (Jennifer Saunders) who, unlike the movie, is not Linnets’ godmother and a communist, but rather a wealthy American. Furthermore, there was another merge of two characters from the book: Marie Van Schuler, a wealthy American, and Mr. Ferguson, a vocal character with a passion of hatred for the wealthy. Merging these two characters portrays the contrast that they shared within the same person. Schuler’s wealthy nature and Ferguson’s passion for their hatred comes together to form a new Marie Van Schuler character who portrays the irony of this situation.

Excluding Poirot’s sidekick Colonel Race really takes away from the dialog that the duo shares in the book. This choice also takes away from the audience understanding Poirot’s thinking throughout the case.

The cast of the movie followed the description of the original book characters. Emma Mackery was able to give justice to the big eyes and short brown mop of a hair description that Christie had given Jacqueline De BelleFort in the book. Furthermore, the movie included representation of brown actors with the introduction of the Indian actor Ali Fazal. Hollywood’s new phase of introducing actors from different film industries, which began with Deepika Padukone in “xXx the return of Xander Cage” and continued with Harish Patel in “Eternals,” adds Ali Fazal to the list of actors from Bollywood. Using Indian actors from Bollywood rather than Hollywood gives the characters more authenticity. It also provides for a new perspective to Hollywood cinemas as Bollywood actors bring something new to the table.

The movie was a mix of modernity with the incorporation of a LGBTQ+ couple and more nostalgic incorporations such as Christie’s image with the costume and design of the set that represented a 1930 day in Egypt perfectly. 

Although vastly different from the book’s plot and characters, the 2022 movie was able to achieve a 83% audience score on Rotten Tomato. Keeping Christie’s main plot, the movie is able to slowly reveal each character’s personality as Poirot investigates the case. Throughout the case, although the audience doesn’t realize who the criminal is, they find out intricate details about each suspect’s life. The movie keeps the audience at the edge of their seats with unexpected twists and thrills and takes us through the not-so-glamorous life of Linnet Ridgeway.