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:

Works great even on blood stains.

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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

Kevin Scott Mack:  Digital Domain visual effects supervisor is the terrified guy with glasses in the plane crash scene.

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Goofs

After the scene in the bathroom where Tyler threatens the police chief, as the waiters are emerging into the parking lot, you see Bob's (Meat Loaf) pants fall down, briefly revealing the body suit he was wearing.

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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 The Thick of It: Episode #4.2 (2012)

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Soundtracks

"SVARGA"
Composed by Azam Ali, Greg Ellis
Performed by Vas
Courtesy of Narada Producations, Inc.

User Reviews

It doesn't get much better than this

Similar in idea to 'American Beauty' but certainly not in style or content this bleak look at underground culture and the spiritual redemption it brings is easily one of the most intelligent films I've ever seen. Directed by the same man who brought us the superb 'The Game' this is another film which you'll have to see more than once to truly understand. Focusing on sad white-collar, middle-class Norton whose only real dream in life is to own all the contents of an IKEA catalogue it follows him through a chance meeting with charismatic stranger Pitt and the unfortunate events which conspire to draw them together. After a nights hard drinking they start a friendly-ish scrap which is viewed by a couple of others and from that small acorn a mighty oak called Fight Club grows. This is the point around which the whole film revolves with Norton and Pitt forming an underground club which draws more and more disillusioned young men to join it. Based on firm 'Queensbury Rules' it is a cathartic if bloody way to spend your night. Eventually as it becomes a huge operation Pitt, the de facto leader, moves it up a gear and creates his own cult from this secret society. This is where the film becomes brilliant and the twist near the end is magnificent, better even than the much talked about 'The Sixth Sense'. It just has so much to say about things: the emasculation of an entire generation of young men ("No great war to fight, no great depression"), the growing isolation we all feel from one another and the need to find something to draw us back together and most importantly, the power of an exciting, challenging idea and it's fermentation into cultism. However, where many films would just say 'This is a bad thing' 'Fight Club' doesn't. It is more a condemnation of a materialistic society which has forgotten about a large section of itself. You can empathise with these men completely, even when they band together against this uncaring society that has reared them to be something their instincts don't understand. It's as close to genius as you'll get and one film you'll talk about and think about for days.