Summary
- Chuck Palahniuk, the creator of Fight Club, took issue with the time bomb countdown in the film’s final scene.
- The final scene of the film differs from the novel as it depicts a confrontation between the Narrator and Tyler, which results in the Narrator shooting himself.
- The filmmakers may have wanted to make a more definitive conclusion, reflecting the anti-capitalist themes explored throughout the film.
While it remained faithful to the source material, one major change to Fight Club irritated creator Chuck Palahniuk. Based on the 1996 novel of the same name, the dark comedy thriller revolves around an unnamed office worker who, after meeting the rebellious Tyler Durden and creating the eponymous men’s club, begins to live a more anarchic lifestyle that soon escalates into something more dangerous. The film, starring Edward Norton and Brad Pitt and directed by David Fincher, polarized critics at the time but has become a cult classic.
Speaking with Variety to promote his new novel, Not Forever, Until Now, Palahniuk reflected on the legacy of Fight Club. to the film’s final scene, stating that the “time bomb” countdown involved in the final confrontation between the Narrator and Tyler did not fit his vision of the story. Here’s what Palahniuk explained below:
I wasn’t a big fan of the countdown, the clock at the end, and Jim Uhls put that in because obviously it’s a cliché and I’ve learned to accept that cliché.
How does the final scene of Fight Club differ from the novel?
The final scene of Fight Club shows the Narrator finally realizing that Tyler is actually a multiple personality within himself, and discovers that the latter was planning to use Project Mayhem to erase the debts of many by blowing up buildings containing credit records. After failing to disarm one of the explosives, the Narrator and Tyler have a violent confrontation in a nearby skyscraper, from which the buildings earmarked for destruction can be seen as Marla watches. The narrator eventually turns the gun on himself and non-fatally shoots himself in the mouth to kill Tyler’s persona, even as he watches the explosions from a distance.
Up to this point, Fight Club had remained largely faithful to Palahniuk’s novel, especially regarding the unmasking of Tyler and the fact that the alter ego blew up the Narrator’s apartment building, which began his close relationship with him. Also in the book, Tyler had a plan to blow up a skyscraper, although instead of keeping credit records and trying to pay off debts, the alter ego in the source material had a much more selfish plan: he sought to become a martyr, dying in the explosion along with the Narrator.
Another major change in the final scene of Fight Club compared to the novel is that Tyler’s plan fails as the alternate personality disappears before the Narrator can shoot and kill him, and the explosives fail to work. The narrator still shoots himself, but survives and is taken to a mental hospital where the members of Project Mayhem work and confirm that the group’s plans continue and that they are awaiting Tyler’s return. Considering that Palahniuk hasn’t written a sequel in nearly 20 years, it’s understandable that Fincher and screenwriter Jim Uhls were keen to provide a clearer conclusion to the story, covering the same anti-capitalist themes explored in the rest of the film.
Source: Variety