Fight Club (film): Difference between revisions

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[[Rule Number One|The first rule of]] [[Fight Club]]: you do not [[Describe Topic Here|talk about]] Fight Club. The second rule of [[Fight Club]]: '''[[Department of Redundancy Department|you do not talk about Fight Club]].''' We intend to break both of those rules right now.

 

 

The story itself follows the life of a man discontented with his life, which seems only to revolve around his dreary corporate job, support groups for diseases he doesn't have, and endless consumerism. During a business flight, the man meets a charismatic free spirit named Tyler Durden, and they eventually start a "support group" -- the titular "Fight Club" -- where other unhappy, unfulfilled men can get together and ''beat the ever-loving shit out of each other'' as a form of "therapy." Fight Club eventually escalates as Tyler turns from the man's best friend into a [[Sensei for Scoundrels]] -- and, eventually, into an [[Evilutionary Biologist]].

 

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* [[And Some Other Stuff]]: As noted above, frozen orange juice concentrate and gasoline doesn't really make homemade napalm. Several of the recipes were changed so that people wouldn't actually blow things up.

* [[Anti-Hero]]: The Narrator is [[Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes|Type I]]. Tyler is a [[Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes|Type V]].

* [[Bad Guy Bar]]: Lou's Bar.

* [[Battle Strip]]: No shirt, no shoes while fighting.

* [[Beauty Is Never Tarnished]]: Subverted hard and then Lampshaded.

* [[Belligerent Sexual Tension]]: Marla and the Narrator.

* [[Better Living Through Evil]]: Tyler helping the Narrator.

* [[Black Comedy]]: the ultimate "Should I Be Laughing?" movie!

* [[Briar Patching]]: Subverted; see [[Wire Dilemma]].

* [[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.

* [[Cluster F-Bomb]]

{{quote|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]]''.

* [[The Commandments]]: The rules of Fight Club.

* [[Cut Himself Shaving]]

{{quote|'''Tyler:''' He fell down some stairs.

'''Narrator:''' [[Department of Redundancy Department|I fell down some stairs.]] }}

* [[Dark Messiah]]: Tyler.

* [[Department of Redundancy Department]]: "The first rule of Fight Club is you [[Masquerade|do not talk about Fight Club]]. The second rule of Fight Club is you '''do not''' talk about Fight Club!" Justified in-universe, since Tyler isn't joking -- you really shouldn't be telling anyone.

* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]: The Ho Yay between Tyler and the narrator is very much intentional.

* [[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 [[Completely Missing the Point|setting up Fight Clubs.]]

* [[Everything's Better with Penguins]]: Slide!

* [[Evilutionary Biologist]]: Tyler Durden. Sort of. More of an Evilutionary ''Sociologist'', all things considered.

* [[Fan Disservice]]: Lots of half-naked, sweaty, bloodied men. One of whom is [[Meat Loaf]]. With Boobs (capitalization justified).

* [[Fan Service]]: Lots of half-naked, sweaty, bloodied men. One of whom is [[Brad Pitt]].

* [[Fight Clubbing]]: The [[Trope Namer]].

* [[Foreshadowing]]: Especially obvious with lines such as, {{spoiler|"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?"}} When the Narrator fights himself in his boss' office, he muses, {{spoiler|"For some reason, I was reminded of my first fight with Tyler."}}

* [[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 end 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!"

* [[Hollywood Nerd]]: The narrator is a Type 2.

* [[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.

{{quote|'''Narrator:''' And clean food, alright?

'''Waiter in the Tyler-staffed restaurant:''' In that case, may I advise against the lady eating the clam chowder? }}

* [[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".

* [[The Immodest Orgasm]]: Courtesy of Marla.

* [[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. {{spoiler|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. [http://www.eeggs.com/images/items/611.full.jpg You can see it here.]

* [[I Surrender, Suckers]]: Tyler's fight with Lou.

* [[Jekyll and Hyde]]: Marla seems to feel this way about the Narrator: "You're Dr. Jekyll and Mr. [[Jerkass|Jackass]]."

* [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope]]: One interpretation of the third act of both film and book.

* [[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.

* [[Looks Like Cesare]]: Marla Singer.

* [[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.

* [[Manipulative Bastard]]: Tyler.

* [[Marshmallow Hell]]: [[media:bitchtitsbob.jpg|This is Bob.]] [[Fan Disservice|Bob had bitch tits.]]

* [[Meaningful Echo]]: A lot of them, too many to cite. Possibly as much as ten percent of the script.

* [[Medium Awareness]]: ''Lots'' of deliberate film artifacts, including "cigarette burns" and sprocket holes. And, of course, a [[Brick Joke|nice fat cock]].

* [[Memetic Mutation]]: 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.

* [[Mind Screw]]: The movie is weird from the start, but after a certain point, [[Nothing Is the Same Anymore|everything gets thrown out the window]].

* [[Nietzsche Wannabe]]: Tyler ''sounds'' like one at first glance, but it soon becomes apparent that he's ''anything'' but a true nihilist.

{{quote|'''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-Holds-Barred Beatdown]]:

** The "fights" in the film are usually sloppy brawls or lopsided beat-downs, particularly "Jack" vs Angel Face, and Tyler vs "Jack".

** Lou beating the shit out of Tyler, who refuses to defend himself [[I Surrender, Suckers|until Lou turns his back.]]

* [[No Name Given]]: Ed Norton's character is known in the script only as the Narrator, and is never given a name in the film.

* [[Once More, with Clarity]]: Towards the end of the film, {{spoiler|the Narrator figures out Tyler Durden exists as a hallucination of his id. Once this happens, the film shows previous scenes involving both the narrator and Tyler -- without Tyler in them.}}

* [[Only a Flesh Wound]]: Near the end of the movie, {{spoiler|a major characters gets shot through the cheek, but seems to come out of it fine, except for the (plot-important) mental shock.}}

** ''Fight Club'' subverts this by showing numerous name-brand products and companies -- while holding them up as examples of the failure of modern society. One notable scene involves Ed Norton's apartment morphing into the not-IKEA "Fürni" catalog page he ordered his furniture from. In the [[DVD Commentary]], the filmmakers wondered what 7-UP thought about their glowing logo providing a silhouette for Tyler's gun. Hell, the Narrator himself says it outright: "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 dislodged street sculpture, the producers needed permission to use the Starbucks logo. According to the [[DVD Commentary]], they tried to use it ''anywhere they could manage'' when they received permission.

* [[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 {{spoiler|they're actually [[Not So Different]].}}

* [[Revised Ending]]: In the book, {{spoiler|the protagonist tries to destroy one building, but fails when Tyler botches the explosive mixture (which the book foreshadows in the opening chapter). The Narrator ends up in a mental institution -- though he considers it Heaven -- and some of its wardens are members of Project Mayhem, who patiently wait for Tyler to return from the depths of the Narrator's mind. The book also explicitly says the mental split happened the moment the Narartor fell in love with Marla -- the Tyler psyche loved her, while his regular psyche hated her -- while the movie only hinted at this.}} In the movie, {{spoiler|the Narrator manages to regain his sanity, but eleven buildings end up annihilated by Tyler's explosives, with the Narrator and Marla hold hands while watching in awe. [[Freeze-Frame Bonus|Big black cock]], roll credits.}} [[Chuck Palahniuk]] liked 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]]: {{spoiler|[[Ho Yay]] between Tyler Durden and the Narrator is something akin to this.}}

* [[Second Person Narration]]: The "You wake up at SeaTac" scene.

* [[Secret Other Family]]: The narrator's father, repeatedly.

{{quote|"Fucker's setting up franchises."}}

* [[Shirtless Scene]]: The sixth rule of Fight Club says "no shirts, no shoes". Bob averts this rule without comment. [[media:bitchtitsbob.jpg|Guess why?]] (It also saved money on makeup effects.)

* [[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.

** How much can you know about yourself if you've never been in a fight?

** When you wake up in a different place at a different time, can you wake up as a different person?

** Mischief. Mayhem. Soap.

** Works great even on blood stains.

** Übermut. Chaos. Seife. (Mischief. Mayhem. Soap.)

* {{spoiler|[[Tomato in the Mirror]]}}: A classic example.

* [[Trailers Always Lie]]: Most of the trailers made the film look like a straight-up fighting movie, which didn't help it at the box office.

* [[Trickster]]: Tyler.

* [[Ubermensch]]: 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.

* [[The Unfettered]]: Tyler Durden

{{quote|"I look like you want to look, I fuck like you want to fuck, and most importantly, I am free in all the ways that you are not."}}

* [[We Are Everywhere]]: Tyler Durden delivers one to the man who planned to investigate Fight Club:

{{quote|'''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. […] 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.''}}

* [[Wham! Line]]: {{spoiler|"Why do you think I blew up your condo?"}}

* [[Wire Dilemma]]: "[[Briar Patching|Oh, heavens, no, not the green one -- anything but the green one!]]"

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Fight Club]]

[[Category:Film]]