1999
Character: Tyler Durden
Release Date: 15 October 1999
Directed By: David Fincher
Written By: Chuck Palahniuk, Jim Uhls
Genre: Action/Drama/Thriller
Tagline: How much can you know about yourself if you’ve never been in a fight?
MPAA Rating: R
Produced by: Art Linson Productions, Fox 2000 Pictures, Regency Enterprises, Taurus Film
Distributed by: Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
Budget: $63,000,000 (estimated)
Filming Dates: 8 June 1998 – December 1998
Cast:
…Edward Norton…The Narrator
…Brad Pitt…Tyler Durden
…Helena Bonham Carter…Marla Singer
…Meat Loaf…Robert ‘Bob’ Paulson (as Meat Loaf Aday)
…Jared Leto…Angel Face
Filming Locations:
Los Angeles, California, USA
San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, USA
Wilmington, Los Angeles, California, USA
Synopsis:
You’re young. You have an easy, well-paid deskjob. You have a condo, Swedish furniture, artistic coffee tables and a fridge full of condiments. Yet you feel emotionally and spiritually empty. You eventually find comfort in going to support groups for leukemia and cancer victims when there’s nothing wrong with you until they’re hijacked from you by another faker. Then you meet Tyler Durden, a man that shows you that not only
can you live without material needs but that self-destruction, the collapse of society and making dynamite from soap might not be such a bad idea either
Trivia & Facts:
• Director David Fincher shot over 1,500 reels of film, more than three times the normal amount
• Brad Pitt’s character was originally going to recite a workable recipe for home-made explosives. In the interest of public safety, the filmmakers decided to substitute fictional, dud recipes for the real ones.
• Author Chuck Palahniuk actually found the modified ending in the film to be better than the one he had written in the novel.
• Although he refused to smoke in Rounders (1998) (his character played poker for cigarettes, but did not smoke), Edward Norton did smoke in this film.
• During an exterior shot in a residential, urban area, a man in one of the apartments above the working film crew got annoyed with the noise and threw a 40 oz. beer bottle at them. The bottle hit director of photography Jeff Cronenweth who was not seriously injured and the man was arrested shortly afterward.
• The reverse-tracking shot out of the trash can, an elaborate computer graphic, was the very last shot to be added to the film – as almost an afterthought by the director. It required so much processing time that it almost had to be spliced in “wet” – i.e., fresh from the lab – so that the film could be duplicated on schedule.
• In the short scene when Brad Pitt and Edward Norton are drunk and hitting golf balls, they really are drunk, and the golf balls are sailing directly into the side of the catering truck.
• During rehearsals Brad Pitt and Edward Norton found out that they both hated the new Volkswagen Beetle with a passion. In the film they are seen banging a Volkswagen Beetle with baseball bats. However, after the film’s DVD release Pitt is quoted in the commentary section of the DVD as saying he had a change of heart about his feelings for the new VW Beetle.
• One of Project Mayhem’s acts of vandalism is the destruction of a display of Apple Macintosh computers. The explosion occurs at exactly 84 minutes into the film, an ironic reference to Apple’s famous tribute to George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four” when they debuted the Macintosh during the 1984 Super Bowl.
• 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 (1997), in which Michael Douglas hid while James Rebhorn drove him to CRS headquarters. The car has a CRS sticker on the windshield.
• Three detectives in the film are named Detective Andrew, Detective Kevin, and Detective Walker. Andrew Kevin Walker was the writer of the David Fincher film Se7en (1995) (Also starring Brad Pitt), and did some uncredited work on this movie’s script.
• As Tyler jumps into the red convertible outside of the airport a man can be heard yelling, ‘Hey, that’s my car.’
• In Tyler Durden’s house there is a Movieline magazine cover featuring ‘Drew Barrymore’ , a close friend of Edward Norton.
• While Edward Norton is trying to convince Helena Bonham Carter to leave the city by bus, the crew arranged cinema signs to make references to other films the cast had been in, although only one is visible during the actual scene. Seven Years in Tibet (1997) (starring Brad Pitt) is visible, although the sign letters actually say “Seven Year In Tibe” as if the theatre didn’t have the required letters. Other marquees (in the far background, and not visible) reportedly said The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996) (starring Norton) and The Wings of the Dove (1997) (starring Carter).
• The telephone number of the Paper Street Soap Company (as printed on the phone the Narrator uses to call the “1888” office building near the end of the movie) is (288) 555-1534. The Paper Street Soap Company’s phone number as listed on Tyler’s business card is (288) 555-0153. The narrator’s boss’ business card shows a phone number of (288) 555-0138. At the time of the film’s release, area code 288 was “reserved for future
use”.
• The zip code on Richard Chesler’s (The Narrator’s boss) business card is 198090 (shown briefly in the scene where The Narrator beats himself up in his boss’s office). In the shot where we see Tyler Durden’s business card (just before The Narrator calls him), The Narrator’s thumb could possibly be hiding the 6th digit. All we are able to see is 19808… then it’s all thumb.
• The “filing cabinet” apartment block that the Narrator lives in is called “Pierson Towers”, and the motto is “a place to be somebody” which is the city motto for Wilmington, Delaware.
• There really is a Paper St. in Wilmington, Delaware, but there’s no street number 1537 (the numbers on that street don’t go that high).
• The typeface used for the titles and logo is named “Big Science”.
• Some of fake names used by the narrator in the self-help groups are names of characters in Planet of the Apes (1968), as well as classic roles played by Robert De Niro.
• Director of Photography Jeff Cronenweth’s sister, Christie has a cameo in the film as the airline check-in attendant.
• Cameo: [Kevin Scott Mack] Visual effects supervisor is one of the terrified passengers of the plummeting jet.
• Cameo: [‘Ed Kowalczyk’ ] Member of the band Live plays the waiter who serves the Narrator and Marla with the line, “Sir, anything you want is free of charge, Sir.”
• In the press packages released for the movie, which came in the form of Ikea-esque catalogues, Edward Norton’s character is referred to as “Jack”.
• The only remaining pink and white giant “fat soap” prop (appox. 12″ x 10″) featured in the movie can be seen briefly but clearly behind the character Warren Henley in a scene in the film Automatic (2001) as a framed piece of art.
• In the closed captioning, whenever the Narrator speaks and is not seen, the closed caption begins with “Rupert:”
• The original “pillow talk”-scene had Marla saying “I want to have your abortion”. When this was objected, it was exchanged for what we see now: “I haven’t been fucked like that since grade school”. When those who had protested saw this they were even more outraged and wanted the original line back. But by then it was too late.
• The movie’s line “The first rule of Fight Club is you don’t talk about Fight Club” was voted as the #27 of “The 100 Greatest Movie Lines” by Premiere in 2007.
• The infamous ‘soap slam on dish’ shot required 41 takes. After the 40th take, director David Fincher realized that the actual soap was sliding out of frame and settled for a fake soap prop.
• Starbucks pulled their name from the coffee shop destruction scene. They didn’t mind the director placing their product throughout the film, but did not want their name to be destroyed in that scene. Therefore, when the gold globe crashes into the coffee shop, there is no company name shown on film.
• Fincher wanted Fight Club to have a new brand of promotional pieces. Which is why the soap bar became the logo for the film. In fact, in the beginning, the soap bar was the only thing he wanted on the poster. But Fox made him change it to include Pitt and Norton’s faces. But if you pay attention to all the different posters, magazine ads as well as the cover of the movie tie in book, you’ll notice a few changes in each regarding the ancient map in the background. In the official poster, it appears behind Ed Norton. On the cover of the paperback, it appears behind Brad Pitt. And in the magazine ads, it appears behind neither of them.
• Edward Norton lost 17-20 pounds for this role after having to beef up tremendously for his role as a Neo-Nazi skinhead in “American History X.” Norton achieved this form by running, taking vitamins and just ignoring the on-set catering.
• Spoiler: When Tyler and the Narrator are fighting and gather a crowd, no one intervenes, but instead look rather bemused.
• At the end of the movie, immediately before the credits, single frame picture of a penis flashes on the screen. This is what Tyler did during his job as a projectionist.
• Chuck Palahniuk thought up the character Tyler Durden years before he ever wrote his book. He got the idea after an encounter with a real life person named Tyler Lovelly whom he was seated next to on a plane.
• Fox originally wanted someone with a name to play Marla after they decided not to go with Helena Bonham Carter. The only other name thrown in was Reese Witherspoon. But Fincher, Witherspoon, and the studio declined saying that she was too young, and Witherspoon said it was just too dark.
• David Fincher took 12 takes of the stuntman rolling down the stairs when the narrator gets thrown down the stone steps in the parking lot by Tyler in their final fight, but the shot used in the movie is the very first take.
• Tyler Durden comes from Toby Tyler, or Ten Weeks with a Circus (1960) and a former coworker of Palahniuk’s who left under a sexual harassment cloud.
• Chuck Palahniuk came up with the story after getting beaten up on a camping trip by some people who’d refused to turn down their loud radio in a neighboring campsite.
• David Fincher had to receive separate funding for the complex “Fear Center” title sequence. In the DVD commentary, Fincher remarks that the studio told him “if the movie’s good” they would allow him to do the very expensive introduction.
• Edward Norton’s apartment building, Pearson Towers, which he returns to at the beginning of the film to find his possessions strewn all over the sidewalk is actually Promenade Towers located at 123 South Figueroa in downtown Los Angeles. The apartment building’s slogan in the movie is “A Place to be Somebody” while the actual apartment building’s slogan is “A City in a City”.
• Marla Singer’s phone number, 555-0134, is the same as Teddy’s number in Memento (2000).
• Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter) says she goes to support groups because “It’s cheaper than a movie, and there’s free coffee”. In Margaret’s Museum (1995) (starring Helena Bonham Carter), ‘Kate Nelligan ‘ says she goes to funerals because it’s cheaper than bingo, and there’s free food.
• After the copyright warning, there is another warning on the DVD. This warning is from Tyler Durden, and is only there for a second. “If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this is 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”
• David Fincher claimed in an interview in UK film magazine Empire, that there is a Starbucks coffee cup visible in every shot in the movie (see also The Game (1997)) .
• When a Fight Club member sprays the priest with a hose, the camera briefly shakes. This happens because the cameraman couldn’t keep himself from laughing.
• The workprint for this film ran about 153 minutes. It featured all of the deleted/alternate scenes from the DVD, small scenes/lines not included on the DVD (such as the “blow up baggage” sequence seen in one of the behind-the-scenes documentaries), completely different feel to the narration and almost no Dust Brothers music. Where there was music, it was nothing like the music used for the final film. Overall, this version of the film had a lot different mood from the final.
• When the Narrator is writing haiku poems at work and sending them to coworkers, the names on the email list include those of Production Assistants and other crew members.
• The Narrator works at Federated Motor Corporation, in the Compliance and Liability division. FMC is located at 39210 North Pennfield Boulevard in Bradford (the state is not specified). His Manager’s phone number is (288) 555-0138, and his fax number is (288) 555-0149, both non-existant area codes.
• Helena Bonham Carter wore platform shoes to help close up the disparity in height between her and Edward Norton and Brad Pitt.
• Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter’s sex scene is largely computer generated.
• Brad Pitt and Edward Norton actually learned how to make soap.
• Tyler Durden and his Paper Street address (420 Paper St. Wilmington, DE 19886) are a sample name and address on the front of a box of Matte White Ink Jet Avery Labels (#8293).
• In an early version of the script the Narrator confirms that he lives in Wilmington, Delaware.
• Courtney Love and Winona Ryder were also considered for the role of Marla Singer.
• The term ‘Paper Street’ refers to a road or street that has been planned by city engineers but has yet to be constructed. A paper street is sometimes published in common street directories by accident, but does not yet exist.
• Voted #4 in Total Film’s 100 Greatest Movies Of All Time list (November 2005).
• The burnt out car that Edward Norton’s character is examining is a Lincoln Town Car.
• Near the beginning of the film, a poster for the band 311 can be seen behind The Narrator’s head, in the pawn shop scene with Marla.
From the gallery
Quotes
Lou: [Lou hits Tyler in the face] Do you hear me now?
Tyler Durden: No I didn’t quite catch that Lou.
[Lou hits Tyler again]
Tyler Durden: Still not getting it.
[Lou hits Tyler a few more times]
Tyler Durden: Ok, I got it. Shit I lost it.
[Lou continues to beat up Tyler]
Tyler Durden: Fuck off with your sofa units and strine green stripe patterns, I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let… lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may.
Tyler Durden: Fight Club was the beginning, now it’s moved out of the basement, it’s called Project Mayhem.
Tyler Durden: Only after disaster can we be resurrected.
Narrator: [Tyler steers the car into the opposite lane and accelerates] What are you doing?
Tyler Durden: Guys, what would you wish you’d done before you died?
Steph: Paint a self-portrait.
The Mechanic: Build a house.
Tyler Durden: [to Narrator] And you?
Narrator: I don’t know. Turn the wheel now, come on!
Tyler Durden: You have to know the answer to this question! If you died right now, how would you feel about your life?
Narrator: I don’t know, I wouldn’t feel anything good about my life, is that what you want to hear me say? Fine. Come on!
Tyler Durden: Not good enough.
Tyler Durden: Now, a question of etiquette – as I pass, do I give you the ass or the crotch?
Tyler Durden: I want you to do me a favor.
Narrator: Yeah, sure…
Tyler Durden: I want you to hit me as hard as you can.
Narrator: What?… in the face?
Tyler Durden: Surprise me.
Narrator: This is so fucking stupid.
Tyler Durden: [whispering] Tell him the liberator who destroyed my property has realigned my perception.
Tyler Durden: Tomorrow will be the most beautiful day of Raymond K. Hessel’s life. His breakfast will taste better than any meal you and I have ever tasted.
Tyler Durden: Hey, you created me. I didn’t create some loser alter-ego to make myself feel better. Take some responsibility!
[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 and I wonder how clean that gun is.
Narrator: This is crazy…
Tyler Durden: People do it everyday, they talk to themselves… they see themselves as they’d like to be, they don’t have the courage you have, to just run with it.
Tyler Durden: Did you know if you mixed equal parts of gasoline and frozen orange juice concentrate you can make napalm?
Narrator: No. I did not know that. Is that true?
Tyler Durden: That’s right; one can make all kinds of explosives using simple household items…
Narrator: Really?
Tyler Durden: If one were so inclined.
Tyler Durden: Fuck damnation, man! Fuck redemption! We are God’s unwanted children? So be it!
Narrator: OK. Give me some water!
Tyler Durden: Listen, you can run water over your hand and make it worse or…
[shouts]
Tyler Durden: look at me… or you can use vinegar and neutralize the burn.
Narrator: Please let me have it… *Please*!
Tyler Durden: First you have to give up, first you have to *know*… not fear… *know*… that someday you’re gonna die.
Tyler Durden: All right, if the applicant is young, tell him he’s too young. Old, too old. Fat, too fat. If the applicant then waits for three days without food, shelter, or encouragement he may then enter and begin his training.
Tyler Durden: [pointing at an emergency instruction manual on a plane] You know why they put oxygen masks on planes?
Narrator: So you can breath.
Tyler Durden: Oxygen gets you high. In a catastrophic emergency, you’re taking giant panicked breaths. Suddenly you become euphoric, docile. You accept your fate. It’s all right here. Emergency water landing – 600 miles an hour. Blank faces, calm as Hindu cows.
Narrator: That’s, um… That’s an interesting theory.
Tyler Durden: It’s getting exciting now, 2 and 1/2. Think of everything we’ve accomplished, man. Out these windows, we will view the collapse of financial history. One step closer to economic equilibrium.
Narrator: Tyler, what the fuck is going on here?
Tyler Durden: I ask you for one thing, one simple thing.
Narrator: Why do people think that I’m you? Answer me!
Tyler Durden: Sit.
Narrator: Now answer me, why do people think that I’m you.
Tyler Durden: I think you know.
Narrator: No, I don’t.
Tyler Durden: Yes, you do. Why would anyone possibly confuse you with me?
Narrator: Uh… I… I don’t know.
[Random flashbacks]
Tyler Durden: You got it.
Narrator: No.
Tyler Durden: Say it.
Narrator: Because…
Tyler Durden: Say it.
Narrator: Because we’re the same person.
Tyler Durden: That’s right.
Tyler Durden: Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who’ve ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.
Tyler Durden: All the ways you wish you could be, that’s me. I look like you wanna look, I fuck like you wanna fuck, I am smart, capable, and most importantly, I am free in all the ways that you are not.
Tyler Durden: It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.
Tyler Durden: [his last words] What’s that smell?
Narrator: Oh, it’s late. Hey, thanks for the beer.
Tyler Durden: Yeah, man.
Narrator: I should find a hotel.
Tyler Durden: [in disbelief] What?
Narrator: What?
Tyler Durden: A hotel?
Narrator: Yeah.
Tyler Durden: Just ask, man.
Narrator: What are you talking about?
Tyler Durden: [laughs] Three pitchers of beer, and you still can’t ask.
Narrator: What?
Tyler Durden: You call me because you need a place to stay.
Narrator: Oh, hey, no, no, no, I didn’t mean…
Tyler Durden: Yes, you did. So just ask. Cut the foreplay and just ask.
Narrator: Would – would that be a problem?
Tyler Durden: Is it a problem for you to ask?
Narrator: Can I stay at your place?
Tyler Durden: Yeah.
Tyler Durden: In the world I see – you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You’ll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You’ll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Tower. And when you look down, you’ll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying strips of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway.
Tyler Durden: You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your fucking khakis. You’re the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.
Tyler Durden: Listen up, maggots. You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You’re the same decaying organic matter as everything else.
Tyler Durden: The first rule of Fight Club is – you do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is – you DO NOT talk about Fight Club. Third rule of Fight Club, someone yells Stop!, goes limp, taps out, the fight is over. Fourth rule, only two guys to a fight. Fifth rule, one fight at a time, fellas. Sixth rule, no shirt, no shoes. Seventh rule, fights will go on as long as they have to. And the eighth and final rule, if this is your first night at Fight Club, you have to fight.
[after meeting and having sex with Marla]
Tyler Durden: Man, you’ve got some fucked up friends, I’m tellin’ ya. Limber, though…
Tyler Durden: The things you own end up owning you.
Narrator: Well, what do you want me to do? You just want me to hit you?
Tyler Durden: C’mon, do me this one favor.
Narrator: Why?
Tyler Durden: Why? I don’t know why; I don’t know. Never been in a fight. You?
Narrator: No, but that’s a good thing.
Tyler Durden: No, it is not. How much can you know about yourself, you’ve never been in a fight? I don’t wanna die without any scars. So come on; hit me before I lose my nerve.
Narrator: This is crazy.
Tyler Durden: So go crazy. Let ‘er rip.
Narrator: I don’t know about this.
Tyler Durden: I don’t either. Who gives a shit? No one’s watching. What do you care?
Narrator: Whoa, wait, this is crazy. You want me to hit you?
Tyler Durden: That’s right.
Narrator: What, like in the face?
Tyler Durden: Surprise me.
Narrator: This is so fucking stupid…
[Narrator swings, connects against Tyler’s head]
Tyler Durden: Motherfucker! You hit me in the ear!
Narrator: Well, Jesus, I’m sorry.
Tyler Durden: Ow, Christ… why the ear, man?
Narrator: Guess I fucked it up…
Tyler Durden: No, that was perfect!
Tyler Durden: God Damn! We just had a near-life experience, fellas.
[Tyler and Jack stand in the bathroom doorway, watching Steph finish shaving off all of his hair. Tyler comes to give the top of Steph’s head a sharp slap]
Tyler Durden: Like a monkey, ready to be shot into space. Space monkey! Ready to sacrifice himself for the greater good.
Tyler Durden: From now on, all those with shaved heads: “Space Monkeys”.
[Tyler and Narrator are discussing ideal opponents]
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.
Tyler Durden: Did you know that if you mix equal parts of gasoline and frozen orange juice concentrate you can make napalm?
Narrator: No, I did not know that; is that true?
Tyler Durden: That’s right… One could make all kinds of explosives, using simple household items.
Narrator: Really…?
Tyler Durden: If one were so inclined.
Narrator: Tyler, you are by far the most interesting single-serving friend I’ve ever met… see I have this thing: everything on a plane is single-serving…
Tyler Durden: Oh I get it, it’s very clever.
Narrator: Thank you.
Tyler Durden: How’s that working out for you?
Narrator: What?
Tyler Durden: Being clever.
Narrator: Great.
Tyler Durden: Keep it up then… Right up.
[Gets up from airplane seat]
Tyler Durden: Now a question of etiquette; as I pass, do I give you the ass or the crotch…?
Tyler Durden: You have a kind of sick desperation in your laugh.
[while burning the Narrator’s hand with lye]
Tyler Durden: Shut up! Our fathers were our models for God. If our fathers bailed, what does that tell you about God?
Narrator: No, no, I… don’t…
Tyler Durden: Listen to me! You have to consider the possibility that God does not like you. He never
wanted you. In all probability, he hates you. This is not the worst thing that can happen.
Narrator: It isn’t?
Tyler Durden: We don’t need him!
Tyler Durden: Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken.
[meeting aboard an airliner]
Narrator: What do you do for a living?
Tyler Durden: Why? So you can pretend like you’re interested?
Narrator: He was *the* guerilla terrorist in the food service industry.
[the Narrator looks at Tyler, who’s urinating in a pot]
Tyler Durden: Do not watch. I cannot go when you watch.
Narrator: Apart from seasoning the lobster bisque, he farted on the meringue, sneezed on braised endive, and as for the cream of mushroom soup, well…
Tyler Durden: [snickers] Go ahead. Tell ’em.
Narrator: …you get the idea.
Tyler Durden: Without pain, without sacrifice, we would have nothing. Like the first monkey shot into space.
Tyler Durden: Do you know what a duvee is?
Narrator: It’s a comforter…
Tyler Durden: It’s a blanket. Just a blanket. Now why do guys like you and me know what a duvee is? Is this essential to our survival, in the hunter-gatherer sense of the word? No. What are we then?
Narrator: …Consumers?
Tyler Durden: Right. We are consumers. We’re the bi-products of a lifestyle obsession.
Narrator: [reading] I am Jack’s colon.
Tyler Durden: I get cancer, I kill Jack.
[after deliberately crashing the car on the side of the road]
Tyler Durden: Goddamn!
[Histerical laughs]
Tyler Durden: You just had a near-life experience!
Tyler Durden: It could be worse. A woman could cut off your penis while you’re sleeping and toss it out the window of a moving car.
Narrator: There’s always that.
[the narrator pulls a loose tooth out of his mouth]
Narrator: Fuck.
Tyler Durden: Hey, even the Mona Lisa’s falling apart.
Tyler Durden: Fuck what you know. You need to forget about what you know, that’s your problem. Forget about what you think you know about life, about friendship, and especially about you and me.
Tyler Durden: The salt balance has to be just right, so the best fat for making soap comes from humans.
Narrator: Wait. What is this place?
Tyler Durden: A liposuction clinic.
Tyler Durden: We’re consumers. We are by-products of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don’t concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy’s name on my underwear. Rogaine, Viagra, Olestra.
Narrator: Martha Stewart.
Tyler Durden: Fuck Martha Stewart. Martha’s polishing the brass on the Titanic. It’s all going down, man. So fuck off with your sofa units and Strinne green stripe patterns.
[Of Marla]
Tyler Durden: She’s a predator posing as a house pet.
[Pointing at an emergency instruction manual on a plane]
Tyler Durden: Emergency water landing, 600 miles an hour: blank faces, calm as Hindu cows.
Tyler Durden: [His face is soaked in blood. He is shaking it over Lou and screaming] You don’t know where I’ve been. You don’t know where I’ve been. Just let us have the basement Lou.
[while the narrator is on the phone with the police]
Tyler Durden: Tell him. Tell him, The liberator who destroyed my property has realigned my perceptions.
Tyler Durden: Self improvement is masturbation. Now self destruction…
Narrator: What are we doing tonight?
Tyler Durden: Tonight? We make soap.
Narrator: Really.
Tyler Durden: To make soap, first we render fat.
Narrator: Hello?
Tyler Durden: [Eating breakfast cereal] Who is this?
Narrator: Tyler?
Tyler Durden: Who is this?
Narrator: Uh… we met… we met on the airplane. We had the same suitcase. Uh… the clever guy?
Tyler Durden: Oh yeah, right.
[Snickers]
Tyler Durden: Ok?
Narrator: I called a second ago, th – there was no answer, I’m at the payphone…
Tyler Durden: – yeah, I *69ed you, I never pick up my phone.
[Crunch, crunch]
Tyler Durden: So what’s up, huh?
Narrator: Uh, well… You’re not gonna believe this…
Tyler Durden: Hitting bottom isn’t a weekend retreat. It’s not a goddamn seminar. Stop trying to control everything and just let go! LET GO!
[to the Narrator who has just fired a warning shot into the window of an explosives filled van]
Tyler Durden: WHOA! WHOA! WHOA! Ok, you are now firing a gun at your ‘imaginary friend’ near 400 GALLONS OF NITROGLYCERINE!
Tyler Durden: I’ll bring us through this. As always. I’ll carry you – kicking and screaming – and in the end you’ll thank me.
[about Tyler splicing frames of pornography into family films]
Narrator: So when the snoody cat, and the courageous dog, with the celebrity voices meet for the first time in reel three, that’s when you’ll catch a flash of Tyler’s contribution to the film.
[the audience is watching the film, the pornography flashes for a split second]
Narrator: Nobody knows that they saw it, but they did…
Tyler Durden: A nice, big, cock…
[several audience members look rattled, a little girl is crying]
Narrator: Even a hummingbird couldn’t catch Tyler at work.
Tyler Durden: [to club owner] Ahhh… okay, okay, okay, I got it, I got it, I got it. Shit, I lost it.
[Club owner punches Tyler in the face]
Tyler Durden: [to the police chief] Hi. You’re going to call off your rigorous investigation. You’re going to publicly state that there is no underground group. Or… these guys are going to take your balls. They’re going to send one to the New York Times, one to the LA Times press-release style. Look, the people you are after are the people you depend on. We cook your meals, we haul your trash, we connect your calls, we drive your ambulances. We guard you while you sleep. Do not… fuck with us.
Narrator: You’re insane.
Tyler Durden: No, you’re insane.
Narrator: Tyler was a night person. While the rest of us were sleeping, he worked. He had one part time job as a projectionist. See, a movie doesn’t come all on one big real. It comes on a few. So someone has to be there to switch the projectors at the exact moment that one reel ends and the next one begins. If you look for it, you can see these little dots come into the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
Tyler Durden: In the industry, we call them “cigarette burns.”
Narrator: That’s the cue for a changeover. He flips the projectors, the movie keeps right on going, and nobody in the audience has any idea.
Tyler Durden: Why would anyone want this shit job?
Narrator: Because it affords him other interesting opportunities.
Tyler Durden: Like splicing single frames of pornography into family films.
[while narrator is on the phone]
Tyler Durden: Reject the basic assumptions of civilization, especially the importance of material possessions.
Tyler Durden: You’re too old, fat man. Your tits are too big.
[Tyler walks away, throwing his cigarette]
Tyler Durden: Get the fuck off my porch.
Narrator: Tyler, I’m grateful to you; for everything that you’ve done for me. But this is too much. I don’t want this.
Tyler Durden: What do you want? Wanna go back to the shit job, fuckin’ condo world, watching sitcoms? Fuck you, I won’t do it.
[the Narrator’s apartment has just been blown to pieces]
Narrator: I had it all. I had a stereo that was very decent, a wardrobe that was getting very respectable. I was close to being complete.
Tyler Durden: Shit man, now it’s all gone.
Tyler Durden: Would you like to say a few words to mark the occasion?
Narrator: [with Tyler’s gun in his mouth] mm mm mm mm mm mmmmmm.
[Tyler removes the gun]
Narrator: I still can’t think of anything.
Tyler Durden: Ah. Flashback humor.
Tyler Durden: Just tell him you fuckin’ did it. Tell him you blew it all up. That’s what he wants to hear.
Tyler Durden: We’re a generation of men raised by women. I’m wondering if another woman is really the answer we need.
Tyler Durden: Well you did lose a lot of versatile solutions for modern living
Narrator: Bob is dead, they shot him in the head!
Tyler Durden: You wanna make an omelet, you gotta break some eggs.
Tyler Durden: Now why would you want to put a gun to your head?
Narrator: Not my head, Tyler. Our head.
Tyler Durden: [the Narrator places the gun under his chin and cocks back the hammer] Now why would you want to go and blow your head off?
Narrator: Not my head, Tyler, *our* head.
Tyler Durden: [the Narrator is trying to disarm a car bomb of nitroglycerin] You don’t know which wire to pull.
Narrator: I know everything you do, so if you know I know.
Tyler Durden: Or maybe, since I knew you’d know I spent all days thinking about the wrong wires.
[Narrator pauses]
Narrator: I want you to listen to me very carefully, Tyler.
Tyler Durden: Okay…
Narrator: My eyes are open.
[the Narrator puts the gun into his mouth and pulls trigger]
Tyler Durden: We are all part of the same compost heap.
Tyler Durden: Now, ancient people found their clothes got cleaner if they washed them at a certain spot in the river. You know why?
Narrator: No.
Tyler Durden: Human sacrifices were once made on the hills above this river. Bodies burnt, water
speeded through the wood ashes to create lye.
[holds up a bottle]
Tyler Durden: This is lye – the crucial ingredient. The lye combined with the melted fat of the bodies, till a thick white soapy discharge crept into the river. May I see your hand, please?
[Tyler licks his lips until they’re gleaming wet – he takes the Narrator’s hand and kisses the back of it]
Narrator: What is this?
Tyler Durden: This…
[pours the lye on the Narrator’s hand]
Tyler Durden: … is chemical burn.
Narrator: You’re fucking Marla, Tyler.
Tyler Durden: Uh, technically, you’re fucking Marla, but it’s all the same to her.
Tyler Durden: Something on your mind, Dear?
Tyler Durden: This is a chemical burn. It will hurt more than you’ve ever been burned before. You will have a scar.
Tyler Durden: If you could fight anyone, who would you fight?
Narrator: I’d fight my boss, prob’ly.
Tyler Durden: Really.
Narrator: Yeah, why, who would you fight?
Tyler Durden: I’d fight my dad.
Narrator: I don’t know my dad. I mean, I know him, but… he left when I was like six years old. Married this other woman, had some other kids. He like did this every six years, he goes to a new city and starts a new family.
Tyler Durden: Fucker’s setting up franchises.
[first lines]
Tyler Durden: 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 that claim it? Do you read everything you’re supposed to read? Do you think every thing you’re supposed to think? Buy what you’re told to 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
External Links
…Official website
…IMDB
SB Store (US)
…Fight Club (Blu-ray)
…Fight Club (DVD)
…Fight Club (Two-Disc Collector’s Edition DVD)
…Fight Club (Widescreen Edition DVD)
…Fight Club (Collector’s Edition Steelbook)
…Fight Club: A Novel (Book)
SB Store (UK)
…Fight Club (DVD)
…Fight Club (Blu-ray)
…Fight Club (Special Edition DVD)
…Fight Club (Definitive Edition DVD)
…Fight Club (Book)
