Book Synopsis:
Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk, follows the life of the novel's unnamed protagonist. An unstable insomniac with a penchant for admiring the pain of others, the unnamed protagonist quickly becomes involved in an underground fighting movement along with his unlikely companion, the violent, charismatic soap salesman Tyler Durden, in order to forget about his life's numerous problems. The rhythm that he so meticulously follows with Tyler, however, is disrupted when Marla Singer, the apathetic, dark-haired neurotic woman enters his life and leads him to a staggering realization that he and Tyler are not entirely what they seem.Paraphrased synopsis of our Adaptation:
The film will begin with Tyler and the Narrator together on the roof of an apartment complex. This scene will commence more or less as it did in the novel, with Tyler discussing life after death, and then continue to the Narrator’s life. This section of the movie will cover his insomniac tendencies, as well as his time in support groups with Marla and the eventual explosion of his apartment/meeting with Tyler. The first fight between Tyler and the Narrator will begin the fight club half of the movie, in which the buildup of Tyler’s army is shown. Specific highlights that we will be addressing include the incident with Marla’s liposuction stash, Tyler’s kiss, the wild highway ride with Project Mayhem, and the Narrator’s final confrontation with Marla. Finally, the plot twist is revealed and the movie returns to the final showdown between the two main characters, the result of which cannot be described here b/c spoilers. Marla will be an especially important aspect in the film, as she is essentially what leads the Narrator to his final conclusion as to how to rescue himself from his own life.
Themes that we will try to touch upon most will be the degradation of society through materialistic/consumerist ideals and the idea that you cannot be saved by anyone but yourself.
There will still be dark humor present in the film, but it will be considerably more dramatic than it's actual counterpart.
Storyline (Ike wrote a concise one but Kelsey made it flamboyant and too long) this is actually like 4 pages-ike please you’re lucky it’s only four pages i could’ve kept going for years-do it
The screen is dark and there’s no noise - slowly, the sound of police sirens rise and the narrator’s voice is heard; “The first rule about fight club is you don’t talk about fight club.” The screen lights up to show the with Main Character and Tyler on top of the skyscraper; a shaky camera closeup staggers between the hand holding the gun and the mouth the gun has been inserted to. “We won’t really die,” Tyler says, and his face is revealed. The camera zooms out and pans around the building, showing the explosions and flames erupting from the apartment complex windows. Tyler says some more things, and the camera returns to the narrator’s face - his eyes scrunch up, and just as you hear the finger press down on the gun’s trigger, he says “You wake up at Air Harbor International.”
The scene changes, and it’s the back view of a man sitting in a seat at an airport. The camera reverts to a ¾ view of his face; his eyes are clearly bloodshot with visible dark shadows beneath them. He checks his watch; the corner of his mouth twitches a bit, and he rolls his head into the back of the seat, closing his eyes. When he opens his eyes again, he’s in the same position, but on some sort of public transit, headed toward one of the support groups. Next is the scene in the support groups with Big Bob, where the Main Character then confronts Marla for being fake. He walks out into the night, at his high rise he finds out his house has blown up. There’s a whole scene where he’s giving half-hearted, disconnected responses to police questioning; lots of flashing lights, slower shutter speed. He then wanders into an office building across the street. He walks down a long hallway; it’s lit in pale-green flickering fluorescence, and it’s symmetrical, Kubrick-style. He picks up the phone, dials; the phone rings, and he says “Tyler?”
The scene changes to that of when the main character first meets Tyler on the beach. Next is when the main character moves into Tyler’s house and that night Tyler saves Marla. The Main Character, in a drugged-out haze, falls in and out of consciousness, his peace interrupted by the manic sounds of screaming and expletives coming from Tyler’s bedroom.
The Main character is walking home from work the next day and sees Anthony get run over by a car in his cameo. He’s about to walk past a bar when he looks in and sees Tyler sitting there by himself, not talking to anyone or drinking anything. Although Tyler hadn’t been looking out the window, he turns when the Main Character stops, and, smiling, gestures at him to enter the bar. The Main Character enters; they chat for a bit, and just as they leave, Tyler says “I want you to punch me as hard as you can.” They go outside and commence fighting; thus, Fight Club is born. The scene changes to Tyler standing on a dimly lit bar basement, looking out at a scant crowd of observers; he’s silent for a minute before he points to the audience and says “The first rule about fight club is you don’t talk about fight club.”
There is a montage observing the character fighting, being at work, with more people at fight club in every clip. Montage ends with the scene where the boss questions Main Character why he is printing out the rules for fight club. Rules flash onto screen from different directions like punches, in between which the Main Character smiles up at his boss, his teeth visibly bleeding, and gives offers his threatening testimonial.
In the next scene, the Main Character returns to the sallow, poorly-lit bachelor pad that Tyler calls his home/soap factory. He’s surprised to see that Tyler isn’t copulating with Marla in the back bedroom and is instead sitting on an overturned bucket, peering into the yellow glow of the refrigerator (this is another symmetrical scene. Basically every important scene will be glowing and symmetrical). Silently, the Main Character goes and stands by Tyler. Tyler is quiet for a while, staring at the soap mixture in the refrigerator, before he begins to recount the gruesome soap story. At the end, without looking up, he takes the Main Character’s hand and plants a kiss on it; consequently, he at last turns, and, looking up straight into the Main Character’s eyes, he dumps the lye onto his hand. The scene ends with the skin bubbling and the Main Character screaming.
The final scene of this part is when the Main Character is trying to find Tyler. Instead, he finds Marla, sitting in his kitchen with a bag of fat. She tries to put it into the refrigerator and finds that all of her fat is gone. Screaming about how the Main Character cooked her mother, she chases him around the kitchen, fat flying everywhere. The Main Character insists that it was Tyler’s doing, but Marla counters all of these accusations.
Intermission
The first scene of Part 2 is when the Main Character quits his job and basically vomits blood all over his boss. There’s a whole intense scene when he punches himself numerous times in the face, smiling all the while, threatening to tell his boss’s supervisors that he had been abused while on the job. Security drags him out; his boss, horrified, stands watching him from his door, blood staining his previously immaculate shirt.
The movie continues with Tyler and Main Character working at the catering business for the hotel. Tyler’s stunts get more and more large until the scene where he actually kills a person at the murder mystery dinner. Scene ends when people realize that the man is actually dead, Tyler walks out the back exit with Main Character running to catch up behind him. He throws a silenced gun into a dumpster “All a gun does is focus an explosion in one direction.”
Next Scene starts with Tyler saying “Project Mayhem is the complete and relentless destruction of civilization.” Tyler explains his plan to recruit people for the project and the movie shows people coming to the front of the house as the house changes as more and more space monkeys come. Main character talks to Marla about how he is lonely as he walks through the house’s garden. The space monkeys, meanwhile, are working in an almost mechanical fashion; they never seem to get tired, they never seem to sleep; there’s a brief scene where the Main Character is walking through the garden by himself, and his eyes keep shifting back and forth, observing the space monkeys as they all stop what they’re doing to gawk at him as he passes by.
In the next scene, the Main Character is at work; . The car crashes and Main character hits rock bottom. Main character seeks out Tyler for guidance but is unable to find him anywhere, after talking to the bartender in Portland and Marla he realizes that he is Tyler and passes out. He wakes up in a dream where he wakes up and Tyler is waiting, asks why he told people about him and explains the situation of Main Character’s dual personality.
When Main character wakes up, he still doesn't quite understand his situation. partly because he’s confused, but mostly because he’s in denial. He decides he needs to seek help and attends one last support group session; he’s disappointed to see that many people are missing, probably dead. Marla, however, is there without fail. As he enters the room, she first appears startled. However, her face hardens and she approaches him, slaps him across the face, and begins yelling hysterically about how he killed a man. Disturbed, he asks Marla to tell him what his name is - she replies “Tyler Durden.” He continues to say that that isn’t his name, hurriedly explaining to her what has happened. He asks Marla to keep him awake and sets off to end fight club and Project Mayhem. He fails by going into a club and trying to end it, then witnesses his workplace explode, escapes the space monkeys and finally feels so lonely he returns to the first fight club where he fights every single fight in the final montage with the fight number flashing on the screen alternating with footage where Main character is getting wrecked.
The Main Character opens his eyes to see himself where the movie started, with Tyler standing in front of him holding the gun inside his mouth. He looks around Tyler and sees Marla running to him telling him to stop, when he then looks back at Tyler it is only his own hand. Marla and the support group members insist that they can help him - “I don’t know if it’s love or anything, but I think I like you, too. You you. I know the difference.” The Main Character’s face, however, hardens with resolve, his hand tightening on the gun. The camera zooms out to the starting cinematic except with no tyler. The screen goes black- “Tyler you mixed the nitro with paraffin, didn’t you.” A gun goes off and credits roll.
Differences
We cut out the part with heaven at the very end because we agreed that part seemed to break the flow of the ending and didn’t make sense. Many minor encounters are left out also to keep the cost down like subplot about Tyler’s film job, most scenes in Main character’s place of work because they are not critical to the plot. A lot of the different support groups scenes and Chloe are cut because they would make the moviegoers feel bad and dig into that sweet $. Most explanation about the different committees and fight clubs is left out because they are not vital to get the idea of how they work. We added the scene with Tyler leaving the hotel where he killed a person at the party because it helps the viewer get a better grasp of Tylers personality which is vital when cutting so many scenes about him.
Ike
CHARACTERIZATION/CAST
Character: Main Character
Cast: Jesse Eisenberg
I chose Jesse Eisenberg to play the main character because the character in the story seems to be intelligent, but not a very big or intimidating person. The main character is similar to Jesse Eisenberg in “Social Network” where he plays Mark Zuckerberg. The main charactor is very scathingly anylitical of people to the point of being anti-social. The main character is also almost always cool, and calm with his situation. He expresses most of his disappointment in speeches to another character like that when he threatens his boss, or almost identical to those that Jesse Eisenberg dishes out whenever people question Mark’s motives. Both characters are similar as they reject expectations of society and those near them, but are not strong enough to directly confront. In the scene where the main character beats himself up in his boss’s office.
The main character is important to the story because he is… The main character. It is fundamental to the storyline that Main character is seemingly a normal person that is totally changed based on his circumstances “I am Joe’s Blood-Boiling Rage...I used to be such a nice person”(97-98). Many of his statements referring to joe shows that the Main character is infact just an average joe who’s lack of care from others leads him to become the cynical embodiment of anarchy. “...I’m crying. How everything you ever love will reject you or die. Everything you ever create will be thrown away. Everything you’re proud of will end up as trash”(200-201).
REVIEW
10/10- HOW DO YOU CHANGE THE RATING!
I think that the movie would have been better if they had actual actors instead of cardboard cut outs with mics, additionally the poster advertising the film was absolutely horrid. The commercials before the movie were the best part. The only thing remotely fight club about the movie was the fight I had with the ticket counter to get a refund. Didn’t actually watch the movie, total waste of time.
Kelsey
CHARACTERIZATION/CAST
Character: Marla Singer
Cast: Rooney Mara
I chose Rooney Mara for the part because not only is she one of my favorite actresses, but I believe she fits the “Marla Singer vibe.” She’s proven in films such as the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the (rather disappointing) Nightmare on Elm Street remake that she’s fit for the role of dark, mysterious girl with a chip on her shoulder. Marla is an important character in Fight Club because she’s essentially the anchor for the narrator, keeping him tied to himself and separated from Tyler. This is observed in the quote “Marla’s coming toward me, just me because Tyler’s gone. Poof. Tyler’s my hallucination, not hers,” (204). She is portrayed as heavily unstable when, in reality, she is much stronger than Tyler or the Narrator combined; most importantly, she is the only person who is ever able to differentiate between Tyler and the Narrator. “Marla likes Tyler. ‘No, I like you,’ Marla shouts. ‘I know the difference,’” (205). She’s extremely important to both Tyler and the Narrator, and is ultimately what brings them together and keeps them apart.
Quotes that reveal character and the development thereof include “‘The girl in 8G [Marla] has no faith in herself [...] and she’s worried that as she grows older, she’ll have fewer and fewer options,’” (61). When Marla is first introduced, she’s worried that she’s already hit the fabled “rock bottom” and that she is unlikely to succeed in any corner of life. However, nearing the end of the story, Marla is the one who is taking control of the Narrator’s life, which is slowly spiraling out of control. She initiates meetings with him, literally attempts to slap sense into him (when previously he was the one doing sense-slapping), and tries to save the Narrator, entirely reversing their roles from the beginning of the book. “‘We followed you,’ Marla yells. ‘All the people from the support group. You don’t have to do this. Put the gun down,’” (204). Marla has grown into a sensible, cautionary, compassionate individual where she was once apathetic and joyless. Basically, she’s literally the best character.
REVIEW
I, for oen, did not understand “fight Club” at all. What was happening? where did tyler go sometimes? I thought this was very poorly done . I’m not sure where the appeal was in this movie. I found it very trite and childish and immature. I am a big fan of more…… mature, intellectual themed cinema. I like “Pride and PRejudice,” “and the movies by Audrey Hapburne. I am not about this sh*t! What was this? I was all blood and gore and no substance! Jane Asuten is substance! Audrey Hatburm is substance! After watching the moive, I found the book at my local library. The book was even worse! It was even Crazyer thanthe movei!! This is why they should never write books based on movies! The setnences were too short??? Why were they so f*ck*ng short? I am so fed up with this whole shebang! This film does not desererve the 80% rotten tomate review. Poorly played, mr. Palahnieku.
Ant’ny
CHARACTERIZATION/CAST
Character: Tyler Durden
Cast: Robert Downey Jr.
I chose RDJ not only because he’s one of my favorite actors, but he has experience being a druggie and could easily play the part. Also, he’s unafraid of situations in which he has to act brashly in public, is older (but still got dem lookz), and has enough physical training from his previous position in Iron Man and The Avengers to still pull off the "tough guy" look. His sarcasm, bluntness, the fact that he’s gross as well as his ability to play a solid secondary character (that may or MAY NOT BE REAL) serves him well. He dominates the screen and takes control of his emotions in order to create a sensational character, whether he is the primary actor or in a cameo. "'You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everyone else, and we are all part of the same compost pile'" (133). This somewhat airy, derogatory comment is somewhat similar to the style of RDJ in its perceived tone and boisterous, raw delivery. Also, "'We are the middle children of history, raised by television to believe that someday we'll be millionaires and movie stars and rock stars, but we won't. And we're just learning this fact,' Tyler said. 'So don't fuck with us'" (165) this quote is much the same as the previous one, and provides the viewer with the sense that the actor is involved in the film in both character and speaking style.
REVIEW
So I hopped onto my rickshaw to get to the theatre, and when I arrived, there was nobody to greet me. Hopping out and “forgetting” to pay the chauffeur, I managed to snag a bottle of champagne from the admission desk. Sprinting into the theater and breaking my steel-toed high heels, I sat down in the back corner of the theater. I crammed myself into a seat as to make sure to stay away from the rest of the moviegoing peasants, and the film began. I immediately noticed that I was figuratively wealthier than the people in the movie, and so I left. 8/10, would watch again.
USER REWIVES
STARS: ★☆☆☆☆
EXPERT REWIVES
STRAS: ★★★★★
DETAILS
Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight Club. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996. Print.
Country: Texas
Motion Picture Rating: Lindsey
Language: Lindsey Vernacular
Release Date: 20 April 2015½
Also known as: “The Narrator Fucks Up Again” (censored in most countries to “Fight Club)
Filming Locations: New York, New York, Seattle, Washington, Austin, Texas, Playboy Mansion, Palo Alto, California, Detroit, Michigan
BOX OFFICE
Budget: $0.69
Opening Weekend: $420,000,000 (US)
Gross: $420,690,000,000.69
COMPANY CREDITS
Production Co: Ant’ny n da crew
TECHNICAL SPECS
Runtime: Probably could’ve been shorter
Sound Mix: Great
Color: Totally nice
Aspect Ratio: Not too shabby
DID U KNO?
- Anthony gave birth to five rabbits
- Real human fat was used for all of the scenes from a single anonymous donor
- that’s really creepy
- it's not true i literally just made that up omg
- in the scene where the Tyler and the narrator are hitting golf balls outside drunk, Brad Pitt and Edward Norton are actually dronk lol (true)
CLIPS:
I'm Fuckin Lou: I'm Fuckin' Lou
Revealing the extent to which Tyler is willing to go in order to stay in control of fight club and other individuals; turning against capitalist society in order to capitalize on a group of people himself.
Narrator <3s IKEA
Materialism/Consumerism, how it contributes to the degradation of society.
QUOTES
Ike:
Tyler: “Napoleon bragged that he could train men to sacrifice their lives for a scrap of ribbon.” This quote shows a lot about the character of Tyler because he is very manipulative and good at realizing how people feel similar to Iago and is able to use this to get whatever he wants to be done.
Tyler: “Our culture has made us all the same… we all want the same. Individually, we are nothing”(134). This quote is fundamental to understanding Tyler’s mentality being a strong person, yet realizing even the limits of one person. He takes a view of the world similar to the philosopher Rousseau; believing that to create substantial change people must work together. Both felt that society was the source of corruption and that the materialism that people strive for to become “happier” is not actually a source of happiness and just leads to less virtuous lives. Both likely take this view because both are shunned in society friend wise, though their word hold lots of weight and have devote followers, they have no actual social friends.
Kelsey:
Narrator: “The first rule about fight club is you don’t talk about fight club.”
I’m not sure this quote is significant so much as it is iconic. It’s repeated throughout the novel, and even if you’ve never seen the movie or read the book, chances are you’ve heard this phrase before. Additionally, the blatant simplicity and repetitiveness of the fight club rules really drives home just how arbitrary and poorly conceived the entire organization is.
Narrator: “And the fight goes on and on because I want to be dead. Because only in death do we have names. Only in death are we no longer part of Project Mayhem.”
This quote undermines the previous message being delivered by Tyler, who, until this moment, has carried most of the story’s momentum. Tyler had managed to convince the Narrator that the only way he could ever succeed in playing the trash cards life had dealt him was to hit rock bottom - upon discovering he had nothing left to lose, the Narrator would be able to wreak havoc with practically no emotional repercussions. In this quote, hower, the Narrator is able to pull himself away from the sociopathic ideologies spewed by his worse half; he says that he would rather die than live a life with nothing to lose (ie a name), thus separating himself from Tyler’s word and, more importantly, Tyler himself.
Ant’ny
Doorman - "If you don't know what you want," the doorman said, "you end up with a lot you don't," (26) Plays to the moral of the story - material possessions control our lives more than ever, and we have ourselves “[...] cars and clothes they don’t need” (98, Tyler). The idea of the book is to explain the inner psyche of what we really desire, and we desire power, the ability to control something, and not be subjugated to the things we own. Eventually, the things that we buy will begin to control us, which is most likely why some people in this classroom are on their phones right now (including me).
