Fight Club
Monday, June 30th, 2008
FIGHT CLUB
Director: David Fincher
Stars: Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter
Studio: 20th Century Fox
RULES OF FIGHT CLUB:
1. You do not talk about ‘Fight Club’.
2. You do not talk about ‘Fight Club’.
3. When someone yells “Stop” or goes limp, or taps out, the fight is over.
4. Only two guys to a fight.
5. One fight at a time.
6. No shirts, no shoes.
7. Fights go on as long as they have to.
8. If this is your first night at ‘Fight Club’, you have to fight.
CAST:
Edward Norton … The Narrator
Brad Pitt … Tyler Durden
Helena Bonham Carter … Marla Singer
Meat Loaf … Robert ‘Bob’ Paulson (as Meat Loaf Aday)
Zach Grenier … Richard Chesler
Richmond Arquette … Intern
David Andrews … Thomas
George Maguire … Group Leader
Eugenie Bondurant … Weeping Woman
Christina Cabot … Group Leader
Sydney ‘Big Dawg’ Colston … Speaker
Rachel Singer … Chloe
Christie Cronenweth … Airline Attendant
Tim De Zarn … Inspector Bird
Ezra Buzzington … Inspector Dent
Dierdre Downing-Jackson … Woman on Plane
Bob Stephenson … Airport Security Officer (as Robert J. Stephenson)
Charlie Dell … Doorman
Rob Lanza … Man in Suit
David Lee Smith … Walter
Holt McCallany … The Mechanic
Joel Bissonnette … Food Court Maitre D’
Eion Bailey … Ricky
Evan Mirand … Steph
Robby Robinson … Next Month’s Opponent
Lou Beatty Jr. … Cop at Marla’s Building
Thom Gossom Jr. … Detective Stern
Valerie Bickford … Susan, Cosmetics Dealer
Jared Leto … Angel Face
Peter Iacangelo … Lou
Carl Ciarfalio … Lou’s Body Guard (as Carl N. Ciarfalio)
Stuart Blumberg … Car Salesman
Todd Peirce … Man -1 at Auto Shop
Mark Fite … Man -2 at Auto Shop
Matt Winston … Seminary Student
Joon B. Kim … Raymond K. Hessel
Bennie Moore … Bus Driver with Broken Nose (as Bennie E. Moore Jr.)
Lauren Sanchez … Channel 4 Reporter (as W. Lauren Sanchez)
Pat McNamara … Police Commissioner Jacobs
Tyrone R. Livingston … Banquet Speaker
Owen Masterson … Airport Valet
David Jean Thomas … Policeman (as David Jean-Thomas)
Paul Carafotes … Salvator, Winking Bartender
Christopher John Fields … Proprietor of Dry Cleaners
Anderson Bourell … Bruised Bar Patron -1
Scotch Ellis Loring … Bruised Bar Patron -2
Michael Shamus Wiles … Bartender in Halo
Andi Carnick … Hotel Desk Clerk
Edward Kowalczyk … Waiter at Clifton’s
Leonard Termo … Desk Sergeant
Van Quattro … Detective Andrew
Markus Redmond … Detective Kevin
Michael Girardin … Detective Walker
Michael Arturo … BMW Salesman (uncredited)
Paul Dillon … Irvin (uncredited)
Phil Hawn … Banquet Guest (uncredited)
Jawara … Fight Patron Saying “What’s going on?” (uncredited)
Baron Jay … Waiter (uncredited)
Kevin Scott Mack … Passenger Clutching Armrest (uncredited)
Louis Ortiz … Fight Patron (uncredited)
Hugh Peddy … Fight Club Man (uncredited)
J.T. Pontino … (uncredited)
Chad Randau … Waiter (uncredited)
Marcio Rosario … Fighter (uncredited)
Gregory Silva … Riley Wilde, Fighter (uncredited)
Alejandro Valdez … Bar Worker saying “His name is Robert Paulsen” (uncredited)
SYNOPSIS:
The narrator (Edward Norton) is a nameless automobile company employee who travels to accident sites for the purposes of calculating whether or not to issue product recalls based on the likely cost of lawsuits that would be incurred otherwise. His doctor refuses to write a prescription for his insomnia, and instead recommends that he visits a support group for testicular cancer sufferers to appreciate real suffering. The narrator attends the group and is able to find catharsis, sleeping soundly without a problem.
Meanwhile, the narrator’s routine is again disrupted when he notices another person faking these illnesses (like himself), Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter). Her presence at his support groups causes his insomnia to relapse.
During a flight for a business trip, the narrator meets Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), a flamboyant soap salesman. When the narrator arrives home, he finds that his apartment has been destroyed by an explosion. He calls Tyler and meets him at a bar, where Tyler permits the narrator to stay at his place. Leaving the bar, Tyler asks the narrator to hit him. The narrator reluctantly complies, and the two end up enjoying a fist fight. The narrator moves in with Tyler at an abandoned house, and they fight again outside the bar. After attracting a crowd, they establish a ‘fight club’ in the bar’s basement. Soon, more clubs spring up around the country. At one point, Marla overdoses on Xanax and is rescued by Tyler Durden. The two begin a sexual relationship, and Tyler forbids the narrator from talking to Marla or anyone else about him.
Eventually, Tyler’s fight club becomes “Project Mayhem,” which commits increasingly destructive acts of anti-capitalist vandalism in the city. The fight clubs become a network for Project Mayhem, and the narrator is left out of Tyler’s activities with the project, feeling disillusioned and disturbed about their actions. Tyler and the narrator have an argument and Tyler disappears from the narrator’s life.
When a member of Project Mayhem, Bob (Meat Loaf), dies on a mission, the narrator decides to take action to shut down the project. He tries to trace Tyler’s steps, traveling all over the country and feeling a sense of déjà vu wherever he travels. He is disturbed to find that fight clubs have been started in every city and that he is recognized everywhere he goes. To his shock, he is identified as Tyler Durden by one of the men he encounters. In panic, he calls Marla Singer, and asks her to say his name. When she responds “Tyler Durden,” he realizes the truth; Tyler is an alter ego of his own split personality. Tyler appears in his room and explains that he is in control of the narrator’s body whenever he is asleep. The narrator faints, and later wakes to find phone calls made during his blackout. He tracks Tyler’s plans to the downtown headquarters of several major credit card companies, which Tyler plans to destroy in order to cripple the consumerist financial system. Failing to find help with the police, many of whom are members of Project Mayhem themselves, the narrator attempts to disarm the explosives in the basement of one of the buildings. He is confronted by Tyler, knocked unconscious, and taken to the upper floor of another building to witness the impending destruction.
The narrator, held by Tyler at gunpoint, realizes that in sharing the same body with Tyler, he is the one who is truly holding the gun. He fires it into his mouth, shooting through the cheek without killing himself. The illusion of Tyler collapses, with an exit wound to the back of his head. Members of Project Mayhem, who still see the narrator as Tyler, bring Marla Singer to him and leave them alone, despite being shocked by his wound. Marla, who was warned to leave the city by the narrator, concernedly asks what happened. The narrator explains that he shot himself and assures her that everything will be fine seconds before Project Mayhem’s bombs detonate. Holding hands as they watch buildings explode in a collapsing skyline outside the windows, the narrator sedately tells Marla that she met him at a very strange time in his life.
FIGHT CLUB QUOTES:
Boss: “Is that your blood?”
Narrator: “Some of it, yeah.”
———————————————-
Narrator: “You’re insane!”
Tyler: “No. I think you’ll find that you’re insane.”
Narrator: “I… I don’t know. I guess… when people think
you’re dying, they really listen, instead…”
Marla: “-Instead of just waiting for their turn to speak.”
———————————————-
Tyler Durden: “OK: any historic figure.”
Narrator: “I’d fight Gandhi.”
Tyler Durden: “Good answer.”
Narrator: “How about you?”
Tyler Durden: “Lincoln.”
Narrator: “Lincoln?”
Tyler Durden: “Big guy, big reach. Skinny
guys fight ’til they’re burger.”
———————————————-
Narrator: “A new car built by my company
leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The
rear differential locks up. The car crashes
and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now:
should we initiate a recall? Take the number
of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the
probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the
average out-of-court settlement, C. A times
B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost
of a recall, we don’t do one.”
Business woman on plane: “Are there a lot of
these kinds of accidents?”
Narrator: “You wouldn’t believe.”
Business woman on plane: “Which car company do
you work for?”
Narrator: “A major one.”
———————————————-
Tyler: “Any last words?”
Narrator”I can’t think of anything.”
———————————————-
Voice-over: “I think this is about where we came in.”
Tyler: “Any last words?”
Narrator: “I still can’t think of anything.”
Tyler: “Oh flashback humour, very funny.”
———————————————-
Narrator: “Tyler, you are by far the most
interesting single-serving friend I’ve ever
met. I have this thing, everything you get
on a plane is single-serving…”
Tyler: “Oh, I get it. It’s very clever. How’s
that working out for you?”
Narrator: “What?”
Tyler: “Being clever”
———————————————-
Narrator: “You’re a tourist. I saw you at melanoma,
tuberculosis and testicular cancer.”
Marla: “I saw you practicing this…
Narrator: “Practicing what?”
Marla: “Telling me off. Is it going as well as you hoped?”
———————————————-
Tyler: “Did you know that if you mix equal parts
of gasoline and equal parts frozen orange juice
concentrate, you can make napalm?”
Narrator: “No, I did not know that, is that true?
Tyler: “That’s right. One can make all kinds of
explosives using simple household items.”
Narrator: “Really.”
Tyler: “If one were so inclined.”
———————————————-
“With insomnia, you’re never really asleep;
you’re never really awake.”
~Narrator~
“Like everyone else, I had become a
slave to the IKEA nesting instinct.
If I saw something like clever coffee
table sin the shape of a yin and yang,
I had to have it. I would flip through
catalogs and wonder, “What kind of dining
set defines me as a person?” We used to
read pornography. Now it was the Horchow
Collection. I had it all. Even the glass
dishes with tiny bubbles and imperfections,
proof they were crafted by the honest,
simple, hard-working indigenous peoples of
wherever.”
~Narrator~
