Opening with the line:  “The world was beginning to flower into wounds”, it is difficult to ignore the world of Crash.  

It is at times like this, during the adaptation, that Cronenberg must have been most challenged.  Having subtracted Elizabeth Taylor as a theme throughout the story, Cronenberg was robbed of the central force that drove Vaughan to pursue Ballard.  Vaughan needs Ballard in order to get access to the actress, since Ballard is currently working with her.  Within the movie, as it stands, the force that draws them together is somewhat vague. 

In the novel Ballard has agreed to help introduce Vaughan to the actress, and this draws Vaughan to the studio day after day.  Foreboding about Vaughan hangs over Ballard, as Vaughan seems to lack any real sense of self-awareness. 

Vaughan is back at Ballard’s offices, trying to persuade him to locate a Producer who could perform the actual introduction.  Vaughan wants Taylor to complete one of his questionnaires:  “Ballard, she’s central to the fantasies of all the subjects I’ve tested.  There’s a limited amount of time, though you’re too obsessed with yourself to realize it.  I need her responses.”

“Vaughan, the likelihood of her being killed in a car crash is remote.  You’ll have to follow her around until doomsday.” 

This comment by Ballard shows how naïve he has thus far been.  Indeed, as alluded to by Vaughan, he is so obsessed with himself, with how these events were affecting his marriage to Catherine, and to his sexual feelings toward Vaughan, that he was still failing to see the bigger picture.  Elizabeth Taylor, with her huge celebrity status, hangs over Vaughan and indeed forms something central to his neurosis. 

Ballard is more intensely drawn toward a sexual liaison with Vaughan.  Despite the turns when he insinuated himself into Ballard’s life, Ballard can think only of how he might have sex with this crazy prophet. 

When they do eventually leave the office the only cars left in the parking lot are Vaughan’s vehicle and the one owned by Catherine.  She has come to meet Ballard, but when the two men are leaving they see that a police car has parked nearby, and the cops are questioning Ballard’s wife. 

This scene appears in the movie, but since Cronenberg cut out the scene where Vaughan visits Ballard in his offices, it is Vaughan himself who is cornered in the parking lot by the police.  Once again, Cronenberg uses dialog verbatim:  “They want to question Vaughan about an accident near the airport.  Some pedestrian – they think he was run over intentionally.”

“Vaughan isn’t interested in pedestrians.” 

Then, interestingly, Cronenberg changes some of the dialog and actions, utilising a casual nuance from the novel.  In the text Catherine suggests Ballard drives Vaughan, since he seems upset by the questioning, saying she will follow them.  Then, after seeing Ballard himself is not particularly focused, suggests she comes along too.  This is similar to the movie, but in that case it is Vaughan who invites Catherine along with a simple:  “You coming?”   

In the novels version of events, it is wifely concern for her husband that draws Catherine into the situation.  She see’s that both men have been affected by the days events, and decides to go along as chaperone.  In the movie version, this invite from Vaughan is more of an order, an instruction for a conquest.  Such is the shift in tone between the two mediums.