The first rule ofFight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club, and the second rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club. But we're going to break both of them.Fight Club is a 1999 movie directed by David Fincher, originally based on a 1996 novel by Chuck Palahniuk. The movie is a lot more famous, though, and even the author said it was an improvement. It spawned two notable memes. One revolves around the famous line used at the start of this page. The second is the oft-repeated claim that mixing gasoline and frozen orange juice concentrate makes anything but the world's third-worst screwdriver.The story itself is about a man discontented with his life, which seems only to revolve around his dreary corporate job, support groups for diseases he does not have, and his endless consumerism. He meets a charismatic free spirit named Tyler Durden and together they start a "support group" where unhappy, unfulfilled men like themselves can get together and beat the ever-loving shit out of each other as a means of "therapy." This eventually escalates as Tyler turns from the narrator's best friend into a Sensei for Scoundrels and eventually, into an Evilutionary Biologist.
Contains examples of:
And Some Other Stuff: As noted above, frozen orange juice concentrate and gasoline doesn't really make homemade napalm.
Arc Words: Too many to count, this trope being a core part of Palahniuk's writing style. "This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time.", "On a long enough timeline the survival rate for everyone drops to zero," and "I know this because Tyler knows this" are three of the most well-known examples. There's also mentions of "space monkeys," and the "I am Jack's *insert characteristic here*," a reference to a pamphlet that described internal organs in the first person.
Broken Record: "His name is Robert Paulson. His name is Robert Paulson."
Bullet Time: The narrator's dream of sleeping with Marla. Director Fincher was apparently embarrassed at the idea of directing a traditional sex scene, so he devised a more abstract way of presenting the material.
Call Back: An easy one to miss on your first viewing is the opening scene, when Tyler asks the narrator if he wants to say anything to "mark the occasion". The narrator replies that he "Can't think of anything." The film then goes back and works towards How We Got Here; when the scene plays out again, the line becomes "I still can't think of anything," which Tyler lampshades with "Ah, flashback humor."
Cavalry Betrayal: Once he realises the full extent of Project Mayhem's plans the narrator goes to the police and tells them the whole story, only to discover that the detectives he's talking are part of a Fight Club themselves, and they almost castrate him.
Chekhov's Gag: The cock that Tyler puts onto family friendly films reappears in the end of the film.
Narrator: God dammit! Fuck you. Fuck Fight Club, fuck Marla, I am sick of all your shit.
Coming of Age Story: One of the weirdest examples of this trope in cinematic history. It helps if you bear in mind that Fincher's biggest influence while making the film was The Graduate.
Do Not Do This Cool Thing: The story is supposed to show how awful and self-destructive Fight Club, Project Mayhem and basically anything at all to do with Tyler Durden is, but some fans instead think it's glorifying violence and Tyler is living the life they all want to live, to the point where some people are setting up Fight Clubs. Alternatively, the story is supposed to mock both ways. It's meant to scorn the normal corporate suburban life and how people need to learn to let go a little more, but also show the dangers of living completely like someone like Tyler. Both the book and the movie show that you can and need to find a balance, and not become a person solely focused on their appearance, money, and job, but not become a self-destructive nihilistic nut like Tyler. Project Mayhem was an exaggerated version of the very real Cacophony Society, which the author was a member of. The Cacophony Society was formed out of a group known as the Suicide Club (though they did not actually commit suicide) and is more or less the evil twin of Improv Everywhere, where they play pranks to make people unhappy rather than happy.
Enforced Method Acting: When Tyler asks the narrator he wants to be hit as hard as he could, the narrator winds up and... hits him in the ear. Brad Pitt was told Ed Norton would hit him in the shoulder. "Ow! Motherfucker! Why the ear, man?!" is a legit reaction. Apparently Norton and Pitt also got drunk before shooting the scene in which Tyler and the narrator drunkenly fling golf balls at the paper factory opposite Tyler's house. Pitt's amused giggle certainly sounds quite realistic. It was early in the morning and they were aiming the golf balls at the catering truck.
Estrogen Brigade Bait: Brad Pitt is most talked about in this film in regards to how attractive he is than in most of his films.
Foreshadowing: Moreso in the book than in the movie. Especially obvious with lines such as, "I know this because Tyler knows this", "If you could wake up in a different time, in a different place, could you wake up as a different person?"
Freeze Frame Bonus: Tyler pops up in the film several times before his introduction proper, sometimes just for one or two frames. In-universe, Tyler amuses himself by splicing single frames of porn into children's films (this happens to the film itself immediately prior to the credit sequence).
Freudian Threat: The threat to cut off someone's balls happens a few times.
Hit Me Dammit: "I want you to hit me as hard as you can!"
Ho Yay: All over the place, and in fact is an important part of the plot, since much of the conflict may stem from the Narrator's sexual confusion. The phallic imagery gets so out of control that at many points it's not even imagery. It should be noted that the Ho Yay was taken down a notch in the movie. invoked
I Ate What?: The movie has several references to people urinating or worse into food, based on stories told to the author by waiters who spoiled the food of bad customers.
If You Can Read This: The newspapers all have the same nonsense text, whether the headline is "Fountain Befouled" or "Feces Catapault Seized" or "Stolen Lab Monkey Found Shaved".
Important Haircut: The members are all shaved when they get recruited. Also, Tyler himself gets one before launching Project Mayhem.
Impossibly Cool Clothes: Tyler's ability to pull off increasingly flamboyant, off-the-wall outfits attests to his "I'm everything you ever wanted to be" charisma.
Interface Screw: Fincher gets in another meta-gag with the Blu-Ray release. When you initially boot it up, the menu for Never Been Kissed comes up for a few seconds. The DVD has Tyler vandalizing the opening FBI warning.
Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Done enough times to make the camera a supporting character. In at least one montage the narrator directly addresses the camera to tell us about Tyler.
Made of Iron: Lots of characters, but particularly Tyler.
Maniacal Laugh: Tyler Durden's, several times but especially, and most disturbingly, during his fight with Lou. This laughter is also used at the beginning of the DVD menu.
Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Darkly subverted with Marla. Tyler is sort of a Manic Pixie Dream Guy.
Masquerade: If you're not allowed to talk about Fight Club, you might never know who is in on it and who isn't. This is especially true for the book, in which the narrator mentions that nobody knows whether a prank pulled in public was pulled by Project Mayhem or not because the first rule is you do not ask questions. This is lampshaded in both the book and movie when police officers the narrator is counting on to save him from castration appear to be part of Project Mayhem.
Meaningful Echo: A lot of them, too many to cite. Possibly as much as ten percent of the script.
Memetic Mutation: The much referenced and parodied "The first rule of fight club..." line, as well as "You are not a unique and beautiful snowflake..." Played darkly with in the In-Universe example, "His name is Robert Paulsen", when the Narrator first realizes that no matter how much he tries, any members of Project Mayhem not present at the birth of a rule will just become the Misaimed Fandom of the mutated meaning.
"On a long enough timeline, the ______ drops to zero." Often used in regards to music quality of bands who start out good but degrade as new albums are released.
Mental Story: In large part, but a lot of interesting stuff happens in reality, too.
Nietzsche Wannabe: Tyler sounds like one at first glance, but it soon becomes apparent that he's anything but a true nihilist.
Tyler Durden: Listen up, maggots. You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else.
No Communities Were Harmed: The Narrator's hometown is never given, but clues suggest that it is Wilmington, Delaware. Other cities are mentioned by name as locations of satellite Fight Clubs. A review of the book claimed that the core story was set in New York, despite this never being explicitly stated in the novel. Palahniuk was perhaps making a statement on the increasingly generic nature of modern American society, or something. It's worth noting that Fincher's Se7en also takes place in an unidentified metropolitan area.
For the sake of argument, it's worth noting that Fincher intended to shoot it in Delaware, but ended up shooting it in Los Angeles instead.
The movie is explicitly set in Delaware, at least, though perhaps not Wilmington - The Narrator and Tyler namedrop Delaware City and New Castle County as being close-by, but New Castle is referred to as being to the north, when NCC is the northernmost of Delaware's counties and Wilmington is at Delaware's northernmost tip. (If not Wilmington then it would have to be a fictional city, as there are no cities in Delaware of nearly that scale below New Castle)
No Name Given: Ed Norton's character. Brilliant subversion, actually.
Once More With Clarity: most of the way through the film when the narrator discovers that he and Tyler are the same person. Scenes previously shown with Tyler are shown again with the narrator.
Only a Flesh Wound: Near the end of the movie, a major characters gets shot through the cheek, but seems to come out of it fine, except for the (plot-important) mental shock.
Only Known by Their Nickname: Jaret Leto's character is credited as "Angel Face". And of course the nameless Narrator has become known as "Jack" to fans, after one of the movie's most memorable running gags.
Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Helena Bonham Carter's English accent comes through at times, most obviously in the scene in which the narrator explains that he actually quite likes her.
Painting the Fourth Wall: Many scenes, especially the "Let me tell you about Tyler Durden" scene. Also: "Ah, flashback humor."
Pay Phone: The Narrator calls Tyler on a payphone after his apartment is blown up. Tyler doesn't answer, but calls the payphone back to talk to him. A few years later this scene would probably never have happened.
With the big twist it could have happened even if the phone wasn't really connected as it's all just an illusion of 'Jack'
Pimped Out Dress: Marla compares a bridesmaid's dress to a rape victim. She's that kind of weird. Since it's heavily indicated that Tyler isn't her first abusive partner, she probably knows what she's talking about here...
Product Placement: Subverted. Many, many products are shown but they are held up as what is wrong with society. One notable scene involves Ed Norton's apartment morphing into the not-IKEA "Fürni" catalog page that he ordered everything from. In the DVD commentary, the filmmakers laughingly wonder what 7-UP thought about their glowing logo providing a silhouette for Tyler's gun. Also: "When deep space exploration ramps up, it'll be the corporations that name everything. The IBM stellar sphere, the Microsoft galaxy. Planet Starbucks."
To shoot a scene where Project Mayhem destroy a Starbucks shop with a piece of street sculpture, the producers needed permission to use the Starbucks logo. Once they had it, according to the DVD Commentary, they tried to stuff it in absolutely anywhere they could manage, just for a laugh.
Rated M for Manly: One of the themes of the movie is that society has neutered the male nature and made traditionally male impulses and activities shameful or discouraged — the Fight Club itself is, in part, a way for the characters to subvert society's expectations by releasing their impulses in secret (emphasis is put in dialogue on the Club being "for men only"). This makes it one of the most notable masculist (yes, there is such a thing) works out there.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Tyler is impulsive and rash, whereas the Narrator is a calm and cool corporate executive. Their different personalities are, of course, all mixed-up in the heat of the fight, and then we find out that they're actually Not so Different.
Revised Ending: In the book, The protagonist tries to destroy one building, but fails when Tyler botches the explosive mixture. The Narrator ends up in a place he describes as being Heaven, but is really a mental institution, and some of its wardens are members of Project Mayhem, convinced that Tyler some day will return from the depths of the Narrator's mind, and are patiently waiting for it. In the movie, the Narrator manages to regain his sanity, eleven buildings are destroyed by Tyler's explosives, and the Narrator and Marla hold hands while watching in awe. Big black cock, roll credits.Chuck Palahniuk likes the movie's ending more than his.
Rule Number One: There are eight rules, though people only remember the first two (which are the same rule) due to Memetic Mutation.
Screw Yourself: Ho Yay between Tyler Durden and the Narrator is something akin to this.
Shirtless Scene: Many. The sixth rule of Fight Club: No shirts, no shoes. Of course, Big Bob is spared the "no shirts" rule without comment. Guess why?◊ It also saved money on makeup effects.
Shoo Out the Clowns: Bob, the testicular cancer survivor. Look, our comical friend Bob joins Fight Club, and he's awesome! Look, Bob gets shot in the head! The remainder of the film is much more somber.
Subliminal Seduction: Tyler inserts single frames of pornography into children's films, and later threatens to reveal this to the public unless the boss of the projectionists' union pays him off. Additionally, Pitt appears for four fifths of a second in a couple of scenes before his character is introduced into the film, generally as a way to trip out the audience.
Sure, Let's Go with That: When recruiting new members for Project: Mayhem, one of the potential recruits has bright yellow hair. When the Drill Sergeant Nasty-equivalent starts cutting them down, his bright blond hair is the only thing he can really riff on.
None of the characters appear to have mobile phones. The narrator calls Tyler on a payphone and Tyler *69s him to see who called, (except not really).
Tyler asks the narrator to photocopy the rules of Fight Club on the copier in his office, rather than simply asking him to type them out and print them.
One of Project Mayhem's pranks involves them pouring petrol into the tube of a CRT monitor so that it explodes when turned on - when's the last time you saw one of those? Another one involves them using electromagnets to wipe the tapes in a video rental shop. The second one is particularly amusing as David Fincher gave interviews around the time of the film's release in which he specifically mentions DVDs.
One that they actually managed to avoid while adapting it for the screen - in the novel, the narrator writes haikus and faxes them to everyone in his office. This was changed to e-mail in the film.
Throw It In: Tyler and the Narrator's scene in Lou's Bar was mostly ad-libbed. The scene, as it is in the film, was cut together from the 38 takes Fincher shot.
Additionally, when the Narrator punches Tyler in the ear, Pitt's reaction was genuine; Norton really did punch him straight in the ear.
Trailers Always Lie: One of the reasons the film bombed at the box office. A lot of the trailers made it look like a straight-out fighting movie. Well, it is a fighting movie but...not.
Übermensch: Tyler. Charismatic? Check. Atheistic? Check. Has agenda intended to tear down the existing establishment (mindless consumerism coupled with a society where masculinity cannot be expressed openly) with a new paradigm after rejecting all previous moral codes and overcoming the inherent nihilism? Check. Has a Last Man equivalent (and in the protagonist, no less)? Check.
We Are Everywhere: Noteworthy because it's delivered to the man charged with taking them down at his own reception.
Tyler Durden: Hi. You're going to call off your rigorous investigation. You're going to publicly state that there is no underground group. Or we are going to take your balls. Look, the people you are after are the people you depend on. We cook your meals, we connect your calls, we guard you while you sleep. Do not fuck with us.''
Western Terrorists: Project Mayhem. A rare case in that the fact that the terrorists are Western is the entire point.
Wham Line: "Why do you think I blew up your condo?"
Writer Revolt: The executives felt that Marla's line after she has sex with Tyler ("I want to have your abortion") was too offensive, and asked director David Fincher to change it. Fincher changed it to "I haven't been fucked like that since grade school" and refused to change it back. Also, the movie contains a great deal of product placement, nearly all of which is smashed, blown up, or otherwise vandalized over the course of the movie.
You Are Too Late: Project Mayhem's plan to destroy a series of office buildings works, and the Narrator is too late to stop it. Although it's an odd case, as he was also the one trying to do it.
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