While chatting withVarietyabout his latest novel,Not Forever, But For Now, authorChuck Palahniukrevealed the one thing that he didn’t like about the movieFight Club.
David Fincher’s 1999 thriller drama is the film adaptation of the author’s 1996 novel of the same name.Fight Clubstars Edward Norton,Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter, Meat Loaf, Zach Grenier, and Richmond Arquette. The film adaptation follows an unnamed Narrator (played by Norton) whose life changes drastically after he meets Tyler Durden (played by Pitt).
While the film’s unexpected twist ending (which reveals that Tyler is nothing more than a figment of the Narrator’s imagination), is considered iconic, Palahniuk told the outlet that he didn’t really care for the “ticking bomb” countdown that occurs during the Narrator and Tyler’s final showdown. TheInvisible Monsterauthor stated:
“I wasn’t a big fan of the ticking bomb, that counting down clock near the end. And [screenwriter] Jim Uhls stuck it in because there’s obviously such a trope and I’ve grown to accept that it is a trope.”
Back in 2022, a report byVicestated that China had made some alterations to the movie, leavingFight Clubwith a completely different ending. The film originally ends with the Narrator and Marla Singer (played by Bonham Carter) watching the destruction of the buildings outside (part of Tyler’s plan to destroy consumerism). However, China’s edited version of the movie replaced that ending with a simple text stating that Tyler’s plan failed.
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China’s Censored Version of the Film Claimed That Tyler Ended Up in a “Lunatic Asylum”
In the version of the movie released in China, the movie ends with a caption reading, “Through the clues provided by Tyler, the police rapidly figured out the whole plan and arrested all criminals, successfully preventing the bomb from exploding. After the trial, Tyler was sent to lunatic asylum receiving psychological treatment. He was discharged from the hospital in 2012.”
In response to China’s censored versionofFight Club, Palahniuk jokingly stated onTwitter(aka X), “Have You Seen This Sh*t? This is SUPER wonderful! Everyone gets a happy ending in China!”
In Palahniuk’s novel, the Narrator’s plan fails due to the bomb malfunctioning. He then shoots himself in the head and later wakes up in a mental hospital. TheSurvivorauthor said:
“The irony is that the way the Chinese have changed it is they’ve aligned the ending almost exactly with the ending of the book, as opposed to Fincher’s ending, which was the more spectacular visual ending. So in a way, the Chinese brought the movie back to the book a little bit.”
Following backlash over the censorship of the film, China later restored the film’s original ending.
