Fight Club (film): Difference between revisions

 

* [[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.

* [[Ambiguous Situation]]: Subverted then played straight towards the end. (When you start to rethink the scenes)

* [[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."

* [[Cavalry Betrayal]]: Once he realises the full extent of Project Mayhem's plans {{spoiler|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]]: {{spoiler|The cock that Tyler puts onto family friendly films reappears in the end of the film.}}

{{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]]''.

* [[Dissonant Serenity]]: When Lou brutally beats up Tyler Durden when they first meet, smashing open his mouth and nose, Tyler is... laughing his ass off.

{{quote| "You don't know where I've been!"}}

* [[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 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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.

* [[Escapism]]: Why the Fight Club's are invented and {{spoiler|Tyler is}}

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

* [[Evil Feels Good]]: Tyler

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

* [[How We Got Here]]: Thrice, actually. {{spoiler|first scene-last scene, the 'help yourself group' and the travelling scenes}}

* [[Hypocritical Humour]]: to summerise: "We were shaving our head and cutting our nails for [[Fight Club]], this is entirely different from people who shave their head to be ''Cool''"

{{quote| '''Narrator:''' And clean food, alright?<br />

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

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

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

* [[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".

* [[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.}}

* [[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.

* [[Percussive Therapy]]: A big part of the movie's premise.

* [[Product Placement]]:

** ''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.

* [[Rated M for Manly]]: ''Fight Club's'' story imparts the idea of society neutering male nature and discouraging traditionally male impulses and activities by labelling them shameful. The Fight Clubs (before Project Mayhem) exist as a way for the characters to subvert society's expectations by allowing them to release their impulses in secret (the dialogue makes sure to emphasize the Club's male-exclusive status). This theme makes ''Fight Club'' one of the most notable [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masculism masculist] works in recent pop culture history.

* [[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]].