Bruce Willis’ Action Comedy ‘Red’ Is Very Different From the DC Comic

Back in 2010, audiences were blown away by a Bruce Willis-led action comedy that starred a band of retired CIA black ops agents who found themselves in the middle of a government conspiracy. Red was generally liked by critics and audiences alike, praising the stellar cast (which also included John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, and Morgan Freeman), the pulse-pounding action, and the well-rounded characters. Willis played Frank Moses — a man who has learned to live with his retirement until a hit team arrives at his front door — and Willis does so with his usual charming style. But did you know that Red was originally a comic book? That’s right. Written by Warren Ellis with art by Cully Hamner, Red was published under the WildStrom imprint of DC Comics, and it differs vastly from the feature film.

Bruce Willis’ ‘Red’ Character Is Quite Different From the DC Comic

In 2010’s Red, Bruce Willis’ Frank Moses is a fairly likable guy who engages in a mundane and routine lifestyle. He’s fallen into a rut, but his saving grace is the regular phone conversations that he has with his call center agent Sarah Ross (Mary-Louise Parker), who sends him new pension checks whenever he tears the old ones up. Since they began their over-the-phone back-and-forth, Frank has slowly fallen in love with Sarah, but everything changes when a hit is ordered on Frank, and he is forced to not only go underground but to save his own life. Not only that, but he’s responsible for saving Sarah’s life too, since the CIA knows about her after monitoring Frank’s calls. This differs incredibly from the three-issue comic series, which introduces us to a Paul Moses (not Frank) who is a loner unable to fully connect emotionally with anyone.

In the film, Frank Moses seems bored more than anything else. While there’s a part of him that regrets his actions from back in the day, he doesn’t seem to dwell on them. This is unlike his feature film counterpart, Paul Moses, who is actively haunted by his actions, killing men and women (though he refused to kill children) for the United States under the banner of the CIA. Paul wrestles with his own status as a monster, and blames the government for making him into one. He’s been doing the job since he was 19, and though he was at first promised a peaceful retirement, he jumps back into action to take revenge on those who would force him to kill again. In contrast, Frank Moses largely gets back in the game to clear his name and save Sarah (Paul also has a relationship with a call center employee named Sally, but it’s not romantic), making his motivations in the 2010 film a bit more noble and understandable.

Paul Moses is also a bit more ruthless compared to Frank Moses. Though both are effective killers, Frank doesn’t go out of his way to make sure his targets are dead, while Paul does. He also doesn’t seem to have a death wish. If anything, Frank sees the events of Red as his way to starting a new life (hopefully with Sarah) and fights for their survival to see that happen. This isn’t the case with Paul Moses, who is purely back in the game for vengeance. The last page-sized panel of the 2003-04 Red comic series centers on Paul as he stands in a hallway at Langley, met by a band of law enforcement agents and officers, after he’s first taken his revenge on those who ordered his death. “I’m the monster,” he says as he faces them fearlessly. “Do your best.”

The ‘Red’ Movie Has Many More Characters Than the DC Comic

But the changes made to Paul/Frank Moses aren’t the only major differences between the Red comic series and the movie that spawned from it. While the film is an ensemble that includes other R.E.D. (Retired: Extremely Dangerous) operatives, such as Joe Matheson (Freeman), Marvin Boggs (Malkovich), and Vicky Winslow (Mirren), the comic book focuses entirely on Paul Moses. No other R.E.D. characters are introduced or even hinted at. In fact, it’s implied that Paul was the CIA’s only operative of that nature for decades, having toppled governments, assassinated foreign leaders, etc. This is perhaps the change that makes the 2010 film a better story. By adding other characters into the mix, there’s more room for comedic effect and the stakes can be raised a bit higher than before. Since we care about Frank’s friends and the supporting cast, we don’t want to see them killed in the process.

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Additionally, while the entire plot of the Red comic series centers on the CIA ordering Paul Moses’ death because the new Director of Central Intelligence, Michael Beesley (who does not exist in the film), is afraid of the assassin after visiting Room R, the movie takes a different approach. Here, Frank and his friends are ordered executed after a reporter discovers a conspiracy that involved the young Vice President, Robert Stanton (Julian McMahon), years before, which was effectively cleaned up by Frank, Marvin, Joe, and their allies. Arms tracker Alexander Dunning (Richard Dreyfuss), who was also involved (though his name is redacted from the record), ordered the hit to clear any connection to himself and the VP. Frank’s entire mission in Red isn’t just to survive and enact revenge on Dunning, but to clear his name and the names of his friends, which changes Red from a simple revenge-fueled action thriller into a conspiracy-driven one. Sounds a bit like how 2 Guns was adapted from its own comic series a few years before.

“Yes, RED the film is very different,” comic writer Warren Ellis told fans ahead of the picture’s 2010 release. “Not least because it needed to generate more material than the book itself actually constituted.” Ellis went on to defend many of the changes, noting that the translation of a 66-page comic book into a 111-minute motion picture would naturally need to be adjusted to make something worthy of the big screen. Ellis continued to praise the cast, noting that Red featured just about everyone you would want to see in a movie of that magnitude and style. Ellis reassured audiences that, although Red isn’t as grim as its source material, it works for the story they aimed to tell. He also made it clear that the basic tenets of the WildStorm series were still in there. “I can accept that they wanted a lighter film, and, as I’ve said before, the script is very enjoyable and tight as a drum,” he noted. “They haven’t adapted it badly, by any means.”

Bruce Willis’ ‘Red’ Got a Sequel, But the DC Comic Didn’t

Unlike Warren Ellis’ comic book, Red the movie got a sequel a few years later. 2013 brought us Red 2, which continued the adventures of Frank Moses and his surviving allies as they dealt with a new nuclear threat. The sequel wasn’t as well-received as the original film, though it certainly has its moments. For a while, there was even a television series and a third feature film in development, though neither project materialized. Red got a movie sequel, but the comic book never continued, leaving us to wonder what happened to Paul Moses at the end. While we still don’t have that answer, there was a prequel book made. Actually, there were a few prequels made, some of which tied into the movie series, while one tied back to the original WildStorm comic.

Ellis didn’t return to pen the project himself (though he gave his blessing), but artist Cully Hamner returned for double duty on Red: Eyes Only, a new Paul Moses adventure. Eyes Only told the story of Paul’s initial retirement before the 2003 miniseries, and in 48 pages, showed us what the CIA assassin could do in his prime. The comic book prequel hit shelves a few months after the feature film made it to theaters, but it wasn’t the only one. A few months earlier, just weeks before Red premiered in October 2010, DC Comics published four movie tie-in prequels, each following a different member of the cast: Frank, Joe, Vicky, and Marvin. Once again, Ellis remained distant from any more Red comic books, though Hamner returned to help color the drawings by the rotating bunch of artists working on the story. Along with Red: Eyes Only, the prequels were later collected into a trade paperback titled Red: Better R.E.D. Than Dead.

Whether you prefer the Red comic book for its bleak and gritty take on the political thriller or the 2010 movie for its hilarious look at the bonkers world of espionage, both certainly have their merits. Though the film adaptation — which was directed by Robert Schwentke from a screenplay by Jon Hoeber and Erich Hoeber — is likely the most popular of the two, Warren Ellis’ original comic book was quite the trendsetter. Still, Bruce Willis’ Frank Moses will go down in the actor’s career as one of his best action heroes, and perhaps one of the most noble assassins on the big screen. Yes, there are quite a few differences between these two stories, but both center on the truth that although Moses is retired, he remains extremely dangerous.

Red is available to watch on Netflix in the U.S.

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