Fight Club (film): Difference between revisions

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=== ''Fight Club'' contains examples of the following tropes. ===

* [[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]].

* [[Arc Words]]: Too many to count, this trope being a core part of Palahniuk's writing style (Palahniuk referred to them as "choruses".) "On a long enough timeline the survival rate for everyone drops to zero," and [[Foreshadowing|"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 and "We have just lost cabin pressure."

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

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

* [[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.

* [[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, [[Leaning on the Fourth Wall|flashback humor]]."

* [[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.

* [[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.]]

** 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.<br />Project Mayhem was an exaggerated version of the very real [[wikipedia:Cacophony Society|Cacophony Society]], which the author was a member of. The Cacophony Society was formed out of a group known as the Suicide Club ([[The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything|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.

* [[Empty Fridge Empty Life]]: "Yeah, I know, I know, a house full of condiments and no real food."

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

* [[Everything's Better with Monkeys|Everything's Better with Space Monkeys]]

* [[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).

* [[Hit Me Dammit]]: "I want you to hit me as hard as you can!"

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

* [[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.

* [[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?

* [[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".

* [[I Just Want to Be Free]]: The catalyst which starts the whole thing off.

* [[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.

** ''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]].}}

* [[Refuge in Audacity]]: [[Rule of Three|Tyler]]

* [[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]].

* [[Rule of Sexy]]: Tyler.

* [[Screw Yourself]]: {{spoiler|[[Ho Yay]] between Tyler Durden and the Narrator is something akin to this.}}

* [[Sensei for Scoundrels]]: The trope was originally titled [[The Tyler Durden]], which still exists as a redirect.

* [[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

* [[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!]]"

* [[You Are Too Late]]: {{spoiler|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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