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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.
 
''Fight Club'', a 1999 movie directed by [[David Fincher]] and [[The Film of the Book|originally based on]] [[Fight Club (Literaturenovel)|a 1996 novel]] by [[Chuck Palahniuk]], ended up becoming [[Adaptation Displacement|more famous than its literary inspiration]] (and even the author liked it better). It spawned two notable [[Me Me|memes]]: one involves the first two rules of Fight Club, while the second involves the oft-repeated claim of a mix of gasoline and frozen orange juice concentrate making anything but the world's third-worst screwdriver.
 
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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* [[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 Onon the Fourth Wall|flashback humor]]."
* [[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.}}
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* [[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."
* [[Everything's Better Withwith Bob]]: Robert Paulson
* [[Everything's Better Withwith Monkeys|Everything's Better with Space Monkeys]]
* [[Everything's Better Withwith Penguins]]: Slide!
* [[Evil Feels Good]]: Tyler
* [[Evilutionary Biologist]]: Tyler Durden. Sort of. More of an Evilutionary ''Sociologist'', all things considered.
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* [[Freudian Threat]]: The threat to cut off someone's balls happens a few times.
* [[Female Gaze]]: related to the [[Fan Service]] in the form of Tyler Durdan.
* [[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.
* [[Funny Background Event]]: The narrator sighs as he sees his new acquaintance Tyler shimmy up to an expensive convertible and drive away. As the narrator turns towards the camera in a fug of jealousy and self-loathing, the car owner is seen frantically pursuing Tyler down the street.
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* [[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]]."
* [[Journey to Thethe Center of Thethe Mind]]: Inverted in the opening credits. Fincher said he wanted to show the reaction of fear as it, all the way from one neuron in the brain firing off to sweat rolling down the Narrator's forehead.
* [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope]]: One interpretation of the third act of both film and book.
* [[Leaning Onon 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.
* [[Life Will Kill You]]
{{quote| '''Tyler:''' "On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero." }}
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* [[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.
* [[Mental Story]]: In large part, but a lot of interesting stuff happens in reality, too.
* [[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]].
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** 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, Withwith 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.}}
* [[Only Known Byby 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."
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* [[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 [[wikipedia:Masculism|masculist]] works in recent pop culture history.
* [[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]].
* [[Rule of Cool]]: Tyler's clothes
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** 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.
** Tyler shows up this way in a few scenes before his first proper scene, generally as a way to trip out the audience.
* [[Sure, Let's Go Withwith That]]: One of the potential recruits for Project Mayhem has bright yellow hair. When the [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]]-equivalent starts cutting the recruits down, he rips into the blonde's hair color, as he can't find anything else to riff on.
* [[Tagline]]:
** How much can you know about yourself if you've never been in a fight?
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** Pitt and Norton mostly ad-libbed the scene in Lou's Bar. Fincher cut together the final version of the scene from thirty-eight separate takes.
** When the Narrator punches Tyler in the ear, Pitt's reaction was genuine; Norton actually punched him straight in the ear.
* {{spoiler|[[Tomato in Thethe 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.
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