Yeah, that’s straight out of the novel, in fact, this script follows the novel fairly closely. The book actually starts up quite slow with the nurse in Costa Rica and the Tina incident. You don’t actually meet any of the main characters (with the possible exception of Ed Regis) until a few chapters in.
Yeah I read the book shortly after seeing the film way back when but I don’t rememeber the particularities of the story.
I think this type of story telling works well in books because you can have your plot simmer and slowly come to a boil whereas in films, you need to use your time wisely.
Comparing this script with the final film shows the filmmakers understood this and changed things around to make it flow better.