Fight Club (1999)

An insomniac office worker looking for a way to change his life crosses paths with a devil-may-care soap maker and they form an underground fight club that evolves into something much, much more...

Director:

David Fincher

Writers:

Chuck Palahniuk (novel), Jim Uhls (screenplay)

Stars:

Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter

Top 250 #10 | Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 5 wins & 13 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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 (as Tim de Zarn)
Ezra Buzzington	...	Inspector Dent

Storyline

A ticking-time-bomb insomniac and a slippery soap salesman channel primal male aggression into a shocking new form of therapy. Their concept catches on, with underground "fight clubs" forming in every town, until an eccentric gets in the way and ignites an out-of-control spiral toward oblivion.

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Plot Keywords:

fight | club | support group | out of control | office | 

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Taglines:

Mischief. Mayhem. Soap.

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for disturbing and graphic depiction of violent anti-social behavior, sexuality and language

Details

Country:

USA Germany

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 October 1999 (USA)

Also Known As:

El club de la pelea

Filming Locations:

421 W. Eighth Street, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$63,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£1,177,219 (UK) (12 November 1999)

Gross:

$37,023,395 (USA) (25 February 2000)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fox 2000 Pictures, Regency Enterprises, Linson Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

139 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The brown station wagon against which Edward Norton falls in his first fight with Brad Pitt is the same brown station wagon used in The Game, in which Michael Douglas hid while James Rebhorn drove him to CRS headquarters. The car has a CRS sticker on the windshield (although the sticker cannot be seen in the actual film - David Fincher mentions it on his DVD commentary).

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Goofs

When Tyler is urinating in the soup, the boom microphone becomes visible as it moves to allow him to talk into it. *This has been corrected for the DVD.)

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Quotes

[first lines]
[Tyler points a gun into the Narrator's mouth]
Narrator: [voiceover] People are always asking me if I know Tyler Durden.
Tyler Durden: Three minutes. This is it - ground zero. Would you like to say a few words to mark the occasion?
Narrator: ...i... ann... iinn... ff... nnyin...
Narrator: [voiceover] With a gun barrel between your teeth, you speak only in vowels.
[Tyler removes the gun from the Narrator's mouth]
Narrator: I can't think of anything.
Narrator: [voiceover] For a second I totally forgot about Tyler's whole controlled demolition thing ...

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Crazy Credits

The warning at the beginning of the DVD, after the copyright warnings reads: WARNING If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life. Don't you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can't think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all who claim it? Do you read everything you're supposed to read? Do you think everything you're supposed to think? Buy what you're told you should want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you're alive. If you don't claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned...... Tyler

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Connections

Referenced in Blackened Reveries (2009)

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Soundtracks

"SPLENDID & 4M15"
Composed by Kenneth 'Babyface' Edmonds

User Reviews

A rare film that challenges the viewer to come up with his own interpretations

Faithfully following Chuck Palahniuk's acerbic satire, Fight Club presents the vast emptiness of modern existence- ridden as it is with shallow values, rampant consumerism, empty of meaning, feeling and life itself- in a slick and ironically consumer oriented fashion. In a different vein from American Beauty, Fight Club explores the solutions to the veritable sleepwalking existence that plagues modern life. The film is violent, but it is not gratuitous violence, and any reviewer who claims that the film is promoting violence has missed the entire point of the film. A very black comedy, it is sure to provoke much conversation- it is definitely a film to see with friends. The film is fast-paced, densely packed and merits a second viewing, just to take it all in, especially if you haven't read the book. In typical Fincher style, you the viewer are left to draw your own conclusions. He feels no impetus to tell you how to interpret what you've seen, appropriate since the film condemns falling victim to the strictures of what society tells us to think and to value. My only criticism is that the editing is not as tight as it could be in the middle section of the film, it drags just a bit then picks up again. Other than that, it should definitely be an Oscar contender.