Fight Club

15 October 1999139 min

Mischief. Mayhem. Soap

Plot:

A ticking-time-bomb insomniac and a slippery soap salesman channel primal male aggression into a shocking new form of therapy. Their concept catches on, with underground "fight clubs" forming in every town, until an eccentric gets in the way and ignites an out-of-control spiral toward oblivion.

Where to Watch:

Cast & Crew

Brad Pitt

Tyler Durden

Edward Norton

The Narrator

Meat Loaf

Robert "Bob" Paulson

Jared Leto

Angel Face

Zach Grenier

Richard Chesler

Holt McCallany

The Mechanic

Christina Cabot

Group Leader

Tim DeZarn

Inspector Bird

Ezra Buzzington

Inspector Dent

Bob Stephenson

Airport Security Officer

Production

Arnon Milchan

Executive Producer

Costume & Make-Up

Michael Kaplan

Costume Design

Rhona Meyers

Key Costumer

Art

Alex McDowell

Production Design

Jay Hart

Set Decoration

Sound

Steve Boeddeker

Sound Effects Editor

John King

Original Music Composer

Visual Effects

Carlos Saldanha

Animation Supervisor

Directing

Writing

Jim Uhls

Screenplay

Fun Facts of Movie

  • Author Chuck Palahniuk first came up with the idea for the novel after being beaten up on a camping trip when he complained to some nearby campers about the noise of their radio. When he returned to work, he was fascinated to find that nobody would mention or acknowledge his injuries, instead saying such commonplace things as “How was your weekend?” Palahniuk concluded that the reason people reacted this way was because if they asked him what had happened, a degree of personal interaction would be necessary, and his workmates simply didn’t care enough to connect with him on a personal level. It was his fascination with this societal ‘blocking’ which became the foundation for the novel.
  • Author Chuck Palahniuk has stated that he found the film to be an improvement on his novel.
  • (at around 34 mins) When The Narrator hits Tyler Durden in the ear, Edward Norton actually did hit Brad Pitt in the ear. He was originally going to fake hit him, but before the scene, David Fincher pulled Norton aside and told him to hit him in the ear. After Norton hit him in the scene, you can see him smiling and laughing while Pitt is in pain.
  • (at around 38 mins) In the short scene when Brad Pitt and Edward Norton are drunk and hitting golf balls, they really are drunk, and the golf balls are sailing directly into the side of the catering truck.
  • After the copyright warning, there is another warning on the DVD. This warning is from Tyler Durden, and is only there for a second. “If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this is useless fine print is another second off your life. Don’t you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can’t think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all who claim it? Do you read everything you’re supposed to read? Do you think everything you’re supposed to think? Buy what you’re told you should want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you’re alive. If you don’t claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned… Tyler”
  • (at around 54 mins) When Tyler catches The Narrator listening at the door as he has sex with Marla, he is wearing a rubber glove. This was Brad Pitt‘s idea, and caused a great deal of controversy with President of Production at Fox 2000 Pictures, Laura Ziskin. She was horrified when she saw the scene and demanded that it be removed. However at a subsequent test screening, the appearance of the glove got the biggest laugh of the whole movie, prompting Ziskin to change her mind.
  • Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter spent three days recording orgasmic sounds for their unseen sex scenes.
  • (at around 52 mins) The original “pillow talk”-scene had Marla saying “I want to have your abortion”. When this was objected to by Fox 2000 Pictures President of Production Laura Ziskin, David Fincher said he would change it on the proviso that the new line couldn’t be cut. Ziskin agreed and Fincher wrote the replacement line, “I haven’t been fucked like that since grade school”. When Ziskin saw the new line, she was even more outraged and asked for the original line to be put back, but, as per their deal, Fincher refused.
  • In an infamous incident, the Friday that the film was released theatrically in the United States, Rosie O’Donnell appeared on her TV show and revealed that she had seen the film earlier in the week, and had been unable to sleep ever since. She then proceeded to give away the plot twist ending of the film and urged all of her viewers to avoid the movie at all costs. Edward Norton, Brad Pitt and David Fincher discuss this incident on their DVD commentary track, with Pitt calling ‘O’Donnell’s actions “unforgivable”. I, wholeheartedly, agree with Pitt.
  • (at around 1h 15 mins) When a Fight Club member sprays the priest with a hose, the camera briefly shakes. This happens because the cameraman couldn’t keep himself from laughing.
  • During the shooting of the film, Helena Bonham Carter insisted that her makeup artist (Julie Pearce) apply all of her eye makeup with her left hand, because Bonham-Carter felt that Marla was not a person who would be particularly skilled at (or concerned with) correctly applying makeup.
  • (at around 10 mins) The visible breath in the cave scene is recycled Leonardo DiCaprio breath from Titanic (1997), which was composited into the shot.
  • Brad Pitt and Edward Norton both really learned how to make soap.
  • Throughout the film, Tyler Durden can be seen to be wearing Blue-Blockers, a type of sunglasses commonly used by insomniacs to filter out blue light, which is detrimental to the production of melatonin, a chemical essential for sleep.
Tyler Durden appears in the film five times before we clearly see him on the moving walkway at the airport. In the first four appearances, he flashes on screen for a single frame (1/24 of a second) and only when The Narrator has insomnia: Narrator is always shown furrowing his eyebrows, presumably because he sees Tyler.
  • (at around 4 mins) At the photocopier at work; When Narrator says “Everything’s a copy of a copy of a copy”, right after he says the “copy” the first time.
  • (at around 6 mins) In the corridor outside the doctor’s office, when The Narrator learns about the testicular cancer support group.
  • (at around 7 mins) At that group’s meeting, standing just to the right of the group leader when he says, “…ourselves up”.
  • (at around 12 mins) As The Narrator first sees Marla leaving a meeting but doesn’t follow her. Right as he says, “next group”.
  • (at around 20 mins) He can also be seen as a waiter in the presentation video of the hotel (he is the furthest waiter on the right).
  • (at around 7 mins) The Group Leader begins his speech at the Testicular Cancer support group by saying, “I look around this room and I see a lot of…”. Later, (at around 1h 9 mins) when Tyler makes his ‘Middle children of history’ speech, he begins, “I look around this room and I see a lot of…”
  • (at around 20 mins) When The Narrator is describing his job, Inspector Bird (Tim DeZarn) states that the father’s fat burned into the seat. This may have given The Narrator the idea to make bombs out of human fat. See quotes.
  • (at around 23 mins) On the airplane The Narrator mentions that they have the exact same briefcase. And although Tyler opens his, we never see the contents of The Narrator’s. Also in this scene when The Narrator meets Tyler, he asks him what his name is, but then he never offers, nor is asked about, his own name.
  • (at around 28 mins) When Tyler Durden calls The Narrator back in the phone booth, the camera slowly tracks in towards the phone. On the left of the phone, a notice can be seen saying “No incoming calls allowed.”
  • (at around 31 mins) As The Narrator and Tyler leave the bar, there is a payphone outside next to the doorway. Tyler reaches into the coin return slot and retrieves the quarter. Illustrating the fact that The Narrator never called Tyler. The quarter was retrieved because it had never been spent. Although, this one is debatable: The Narrator called Tyler but hung up before Tyler answered. You get your money back when this happens. The payphone only takes the quarter of someone (or an answering machine or voicemail) answers, completing the connection. if there’s a busy signal or no answer, then you get your change back. Tyler didn’t actually answer. He dialed *69 to call back the narrator at the payphone.
  • (at around 32 mins) Tyler’s job as a ‘projectionist’ mirrors the fact that he himself is a projection of The Narrator.
  • (at around 37 mins) When Tyler and The Narrator are fighting and gather a crowd, no one intervenes, but instead look rather bemused.
  • (at around 44 mins) When Tyler gets on the bus with The Narrator, he only pays the fare for one person, although Tyler was behind him, and the camera was behind Tyler, so Tyler was blocking the view of The Narrator. Plus, Tyler may have been paying for both.
  • (at around 45 mins) When Tyler and The Narrator are on the bus, the long-haired guy pushes past Tyler without a word, then says “excuse me” as he pushes past The Narrator.
  • (at around 46 mins) When The Narrator is getting stitched up at the hospital he says, “Sometimes Tyler spoke for me”. So Tyler tells the doctor “he fell down some stairs”, then The Narrator repeats it to the doctor.
  • (at around 49 mins) When Marla leaves The Narrator’s house for the first time, he states that it is his house and not Tyler’s, also enforcing that they are the same person and Tyler’s house is actually his.
  • (at around 50 mins) When Tyler shows up at Marla’s apartment, she recognizes him immediately even though she has never seen him before.
  • (at around 54 mins) When The Narrator passes by Tyler’s room, listening to Tyler and Marla having sex, Tyler opens the door. After The Narrator & Tyler finish talking, Marla, on the floor in the room, says “Who are you talking to?”, indicating Tyler is talking to himself. Also, after having sex, Marla & Tyler enter the kitchen at different times and are never in the same room. So The Narrator, Tyler, and Marla are never ALL together, indicating The Narrator and Tyler are the same person.
  • (at around 55 mins) The Narrator wanders the house while Tyler and Marla noisily have sex upstairs. When the detective calls and The Narrator answers the phone, the sounds of the lovemaking instantly stop.
  • (at around 1h 12 mins) When Lou sees the Fight Club members in the basement of his restaurant, Lou punches Tyler in the stomach. When Tyler gets punched, you can see The Narrator double over slightly as if he too was punched in the stomach. A few shots later, Lou kicks Tyler in the face while he is kneeling, and in the background we see The Narrator’s head go back at the moment of impact.
  • (at around 1h 17 mins) As The Narrator is beating himself up in his boss’s office, the film freeze-frames and he states “For some reason, I thought of my first fight … with Tyler.”
  • (at around 1h 20 mins) When Tyler and The Narrator hit the first car with baseball bats, Tyler hits first, but the alarm is triggered only after The Narrator hits.
  • (at around 1h 35 mins) When the airport employee “lends” Tyler the car, he’s actually looking at The Narrator when he says “Mr. Durden.” The Narrator and Tyler then get in through the same door.
  • (at around 1h 41 mins) After the crash where Tyler was driving, Tyler pulls The Narrator out of the driver side of the car.
  • (at around 1h 44 mins) Marla Singer comes by the house and the narrator thinks she’s there to visit Tyler. When he explains to her that Tyler isn’t there, she looks at him confused and has no idea what he is talking about.
  • (at around 1h 51 mins) The plot twist is finally revealed.
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