This past weekend saw movie fans learning that the release of David Fincher’s Fight Club on China’s Tencent Video streaming service included a bizarre alteration that saw law enforcement triumphing over Tyler Durden’s destructive plans, and while this surely came as a surprise to fans, other of the original novel Chuck Palahniuk pointed out this ending now falls more in line with his original story. He also pointed out that, given the gripping and controversial nature of many of his stories, he’s not entirely unfamiliar with his work being censored, edited, or even banned in some places.
“My books are heavily banned throughout the U.S.,” Palahniuk shared with TMZ. “The Texas prison system refuses to carry my books in their libraries. A lot of public schools and most private schools refuse to carry my books. But it’s only an issue once China changes the end of a movie? I’ve been putting up with book banning for a long time.”
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Both the novel and film focus on a character (played in the film by Edward Norton and often referred to as “Jack”) who feels unfulfilled with his banal life, as he has fully embraced a mundane and consumerist lifestyle. When he meets Tyler Durden (played by Brad Pitt in the film), his entire life changes, as Tyler encourages him to embrace chaos. Tyler makes such a hard push towards anarchy, he makes plans to destroy buildings in the city, with “Jack” realizing that Tyler is merely his own subconscious and that he’s actually the one responsible for all of the chaos they’ve caused.ย
In the film, Jack witnesses Tyler’s plan coming to fruition, as he sees buildings blowing up around the city. The release of the film on Tencent Video, however, cuts off the destructive ending and offers the title card, “Through the clue 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.”
This is surely a shock to fans of the movie, but in the novel, Tyler’s explosives don’t go off and Jack finds himself committed to a mental institution.
“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,” the author pointed out. “So in a way, the Chinese brought the movie back to the book a little bit.”
Which ending to the story do you prefer? Let us know in the comments below!
