Several important sequences are omitted from the film adaptation, including: a previous meeting between Joker and his squad at the movies, the slaughtering of rats at the camp by Joker and his friends as Rafter Man watches, Rafter Man's lapse into cannibalism, a description of a tank running over a girl and a water buffalo, and a flashback revealing the origins of the nickname Rafter Man (actually named Lance Corporal Compton). In the book, Rafter Man is later run over and killed by the same tank that ran over the girl and water buffalo, and Joker is reassigned to Cowboy's squad as a rifleman for wearing an unauthorized peace button on his uniform.