History Film / FightClub

* HollywoodNerd: The narrator is a Type 2.

* FiveFiveFive: Marla's phone number begins 555.

* IAteWhat: The movie has several references to people urinating (or worse) into food, based on stories told to the author by waiters who spoiled the food of bad customers.
--> '''Narrator:''' And clean food, alright?\\
'''Waiter in the Tyler-staffed restaurant:''' In that case, may I advise against the lady eating the clam chowder?

* WesternTerrorists: Project Mayhem.

** The penis flashes that Tyler cuts into movies are likely a nod to the beginning of Creator/IngmarBergman's Film/{{Persona}} a film with comparableb themes of identity, professional disillusionment, and [[spoiler: split personalities]].

* ActorAllusion: Played With: [[spoiler:While this is another film where [[Film/PrimalFear Edward Norton plays a character with a split personality]], we don't learn this until near the end... and it's ''actually'' a case of a split personality here.]] Interestingly, he went on to play [[Film/TheIncredibleHulk another one]] later, too.

* JekyllAndHyde: Marla seems to feel this way about the Narrator: "You're Dr. Jekyll and Mr. {{Jackass}}." [[spoiler:She is actually spot on.]]

* {{Bowdlerise}}: Inverted. Marla's line from the book, "I want to have your abortion," is here changed to the significantly more offensive "I haven't been fucked like that since grade school." Fox wanted the original line changed, but David Fincher only did so under the condition that he did not have to change it more than once. Plus, he was only asked to ''change'' it, not make it less offensive.

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: ''Space monkeys'', no less.

[[caption-width-right:300:''[[TagLine "Mischief. Mayhem. Soap."]]'']]

''Fight Club'' is a 1999 movie directed by Creator/DavidFincher and [[TheFilmOfTheBook originally based on]] [[Literature/FightClub a 1996 novel]] by Creator/ChuckPalahniuk. It spawned two notable {{meme}}s: one involves the first two rules of Fight Club, while the second involves the oft-repeated claim of a mix of gasoline and frozen orange juice concentrate making anything but the world's third-worst screwdriver.

The film's story follows the life of an unnamed man (Creator/EdwardNorton)-- named simply as "Narrator" in the credits and referred to as [[FanNickname "Jack"]] in the script due to his recurring "I am Jack's ____" monologue -- who has grown discontented with his life, which seems only to revolve around his dreary corporate job, going to support group meetings for diseases he doesn't have, and endless bouts of meaningless consumerism. During a business flight, the man meets a charismatic free spirit named Tyler Durden (Creator/BradPitt), and they eventually start a "support group" -- the titular "Fight Club" -- where other unhappy, unfulfilled men get together and fight each other in bare-knuckle brawls as a form of "therapy." Fight Club eventually escalates as Tyler turns from the man's best friend into a SenseiForScoundrels -- and, eventually, into an EvilReactionary.

** Someone yells stop, goes limp, taps out, the fight is over.
** Only two guys to a fight.
** One fight at a time.
** No belts, no shirts, no shoes[[labelnote:*;]]An exception to the shirt part is made for [[MarshmallowHell Bob]][[/labelnote]].
** Fights will go on as long as they have to.

'''If this is your first time at Fight Club Tropes, you have to trope.'''

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** Tyler invokes this trope to remind "Jack" [[spoiler: that he doesn't exist]] after Jack tries to shoot him. After Jack keeps firing, Tyler just gets exasperated and knocks the gun away.
-->'''Tyler''': Whoa! Whoa! OK. You are now firing your gun [[spoiler: at your imaginary friend]]... '''[[SuddenlyShouting NEAR FIVE HUNDRED GALLONS OF NITROGLYCERIN!!]]'''
** Another example is when Bob and other members wearing ski masks blows up a art piece that destroys a coffee shop end with them being chased by the police and [[spoiler: Bob getting shot in the head and dying]] Lampshaded by the Narrator
-->'''The Narrator''':You morons! You were running around in ski masks trying to blow stuff up, what did you think was going to happen!

-->'''Tyler''': Whoa! Whoa! OK. You are now firing your gun [[spoiler: at your imaginary friend]]... '''[[SuddenlyShouting NEAR THREE HUNDRED GALLONS OF NITROGLYCERIN!!]]'''

* RedOniBlueOni: Tyler is impulsive and rash, whereas the Narrator is a calm and cool corporate executive. Their different personalities are, of course, all mixed-up in the heat of the fight, and then we find out that [[spoiler:they're actually NotSoDifferent.]]

* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: The Narrator and Tyler at first appear to be this to a certain extent, then we realize fairly soon that they are NotSoDifferent in terms of their attitude toward society and life in general, and this is ''before'' we find out that [[spoiler: Tyler is actually the narrator's split personality.]]

* DrivesLikeCrazy: '''Tyler'''. At one point he drives into incoming traffic and lets go of the steering wheel while simultaneously speeding up. In the same scene, no less! This, of course, causes him to [[RealityEnsues crash the car]].

* RealityEnsues:
** Tyler invokes this trope to remind "Jack" [[spoiler: that he doesn't exist]] after Jack tries to shoot him. After Jack keeps firing, Tyler just gets exasperated and knocks the gun away.
-->'''Tyler''': Whoa! Whoa! OK. You are now firing your gun [[spoiler: at your imaginary friend]]... '''[[SuddenlyShouting NEAR THREE HUNDRED GALLONS OF NITROGLYCERIN!!]]'''
** Another example is when Bob and other members wearing ski masks blows up a art piece that destroys a coffee shop end with them being chased by the police and [[spoiler: Bob getting shot in the head and dying]] Lampshaded by the Narrator
-->'''The Narrator''':You morons! You were running around in ski masks trying to blow stuff up, what did you think was going to happen!

* FamousLastWords: [[spoiler: Tyler to The Narrator as he puts a gun in his mouth and pulls the trigger, causing smoke to exit Tyler's mouth.]]
-->'''[[spoiler: Tyler]]''': What's that smell?

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The HoYay between Tyler and the narrator is very much intentional.

->''"You met me at a very strange time in my life."''
-->-- '''The Narrator'''

->''"People are always asking me if I know Tyler Durden."''

->''"You met me at a very strange time in my life."''

* AllThereInTheScript: There is much confusion naturally surrounding the actual name of the film's Narrator (as opposed to his [[ItWasHisSled twist identity]]). Many believe it is [[FanNickname Jack]] due to his repeated use of the phrase "I am Jack's...", but is arguable that he only uses the moniker Jack because that was the one he saw in "Annotated Reader". Additionally, the press packages released for the movie, the back of the DVD, the DVD booklet,[[note]]The chapter list is referred to as "Jack's Chapters".[[/note]] and the original screenplay also refer to him as "Jack."
** On the other hand, this is frequently {{Jossed}} in other materials. The DVD UsefulNotes/ClosedCaptioning say Rupert (one of the fake names he uses to stay anonymous at support groups), the [[Literature/FightClub source material]] says "I am '''Joe'''[='=]s..." instead, and [[Creator/ChuckPalahniuk Chuck]] [[WordOfGod Palahniuk]] has announced [[spoiler:he will be called "Cornelius" (another support group name) in the sequel. In the sequel, the Narrator has adopted the name Sebastian, but it's implied it's not his real name.]]
*** ''Reader's Digest'' actually had a series of articles about the organs of a man named Joe, all written in the first person. So it's not a reveal as much as a cryptic reference.
** Infuriatingly, in his commentary track Ed Norton mentions all this confusion, then says the character had a real name, which he knew - ''and he doesn't reveal it.''

* CastFullOfPrettyBoys: The film seems to do this on purpose. It gives the audience highly attractive men like Edward Norton, Brad Pitt and Jared Leto in varying states of undress, a ton of HoYay... and then has them violently beat the shit out of each other. If you're into that kinda thing you'll be in heaven.

* SchmuckBait: The [[MemeticMutation famous first two rules of Fight Club]] are actually specifically designed to be ''dis''obeyed, since Tyler's goal from the beginning is to grow his movement.

* {{Cuckold}}:
** The first example is the speaker during the support group for men with testicular cancer. One man breaks down into tears talking about how, after his surgery to remove his cancerous scrotum, his wife eventually found another man and bore him children.
** The Narrator himself constantly experiences this by hearing Tyler and Marla's loud, passionate banging while he's nearby doing something else. [[spoiler:After TheReveal that Tyler is just a SplitPersonality of the Narrator, the trope is not as clear as we once thought]].

''Fight Club'' is a 1999 movie directed by Creator/DavidFincher and [[TheFilmOfTheBook originally based on]] [[Literature/FightClub a 1996 novel]] by Creator/ChuckPalahniuk, ultimately becoming [[AdaptationDisplacement more famous than its literary inspiration]] ([[CreatorPreferredAdaptation and even the author liked it better]]). It spawned two notable {{meme}}s: one involves the first two rules of Fight Club, while the second involves the oft-repeated claim of a mix of gasoline and frozen orange juice concentrate making anything but the world's third-worst screwdriver.

The first rule about Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club.

The second rule about Fight Club is: '''[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment you do not talk about Fight Club]]'''.

Both of those rules were designed to be broken, and we're breaking them right now by creating this page to tell you about it.