Fight
Club
Trivia:
'This is it, ground zero.'
(Total Trivia Entries: 130)
Did you know Tyler Durden appears several times before being properly introduced in the movie. Want to know more? Then keep on reading Fight Club trivia.
Directed by: David Fincher
Written by:
Chuck Palahniuk (novel)
Jim Uhls (screenplay)
Starring:
Edward Norton - The Narrator
Brad Pitt - Tyler Durden
Helena Bonham Carter - Marla Singer
Meat Loaf - Robert 'Bob' Paulson
Zach Grenier - Richard Chesler
Richmond Arquette - Intern
Jared Leto - Angel Face
Holt McCallany - The Mechanic
Eion Bailey - Ricky
Evan Mirand - Steph
Thom Gossom Jr. - Detective Stern
Peter Iacangelo - Lou
The Story:
Author of the Fight Club novel, Chuck Palahniuk, first came up with the idea for the novel after being beaten up on a camping trip when he complained to some nearby campers about the noise of their radio. When he returned to work, he was fascinated to find that nobody would mention or acknowledge his injuries, instead saying such commonplace things as "How was your weekend?" Palahniuk concluded that the reason people reacted this way was because if they asked him what had happened, a degree of personal interaction would be necessary, and his workmates simply didn't care enough to connect with him on a personal level. It was his fascination with this societal 'blocking' which became the foundation for the novel.According to Chuck Palahniuk, much of the specific content of the Fight Club novel (such as splicing single frames of pornography into family films, attending support groups for the terminally ill, erasing video tapes etc) came from stories told him by friends, and from things his friends actually did. Whilst writing the novel, Palahniuk also interviewed numerous young white males in white-collar jobs, discovering that "the longing for fathers was a theme I heard a lot about. The resentment of lifestyle standards imposed by advertising was another."
Chuck Palahniuk revealed that when he wrote the novel, he did not actually know that Tyler and the Narrator were the same person until he was two thirds of the way through writing the story, at which point he noticed that they acted together as one person and chose to finish the story as such.
Director, David Fincher, has said that Fight Club was a coming of age film, like The Graduate (1967) but for people in their 30s. He described the narrator as an "everyman"; the character is identified in the script as "Jack", but left nameless in the film and credited as just the Narrator.
The Narrator cannot find happiness, so he travels on a path to enlightenment in which he must "kill" his parents, his god, and his teacher Tyler Durden.
The Narrator's character walks through his apartment while visual effects identify his many IKEA possessions. David Fincher described the Narrator's immersion, "It was just the idea of living in this fraudulent idea of happiness."
Studio executives worried that Fight Club was going to be "sinister and seditious", however, David Fincher sought to make it "funny and seditious" by including humor to temper the sinister element.
Edward Norton has said, "I feel that Fight Club really, in a way...probed into the despair and paralysis that people feel in the face of having inherited this value system out of advertising."
Pitt has been quoted as saying "Fight Club is a metaphor for the need to push through the walls we put around ourselves and just go for it, so for the first time we can experience the pain."
Norton has been quoted as saying "We decided early on that I would start to starve myself as the film went on, while Brad Pitt would lift and go to tanning beds; he would become more and more idealized as I wasted away."
Norton believed that the fighting between the men strips away the "fear of pain" and "the reliance on material signifiers of their self-worth", leaving them to experience something valuable.
During rehearsals, Brad Pitt and Edward Norton found out that they both hated the new Volkswagen Beetle with a passion, and for the scene where Tyler and the Narrator are hitting cars with baseball bats, Pitt and Norton insisted that one of the cars be a Beetle.
The Beetle was one of the primary symbols of 60s youth culture and freedom. However, the youth of the 60's had become the corporate bosses of the 60's, and had repackaged the symbol of their own youth, selling it to the youth of another generation as if it didn't mean anything. Both Norton and Pitt felt that this kind of corporate selling out was exactly what the film was railing against, hence the inclusion of the car.
In the Fight Club DVD commentary Norton explains the reason he hates the Beetle; "It's a perfect example of the Baby Boomer generation marketing its youth culture to us. As if our happiness is going to come by buying the symbol of their youth movement, even with the little flower holder in the plastic molding. It's appalling to me. I hate it."
Pitt is quoted on the DVD commentary as saying he has since had a change of heart about the new Beetle car.
Norton drew parallels between redemption in the film and redemption in The Graduate (1967), indicating that the protagonists of both films find a middle ground between two divisions of self.
Pitt explained the disharmony in the Fight Club story by quoting, "I think there's a self-defense mechanism that keeps my generation from having any real honest connection or commitment with our true feelings. We're rooting for ball teams, but we're not getting in there to play. We're so concerned with failure and success—like these two things are all that's going to sum you up at the end."
Fight Clubpurposely shapes an ambiguous message, the interpretation of which is left to the audience. David Fincher elaborated, "I love this idea that you can have fascism without offering any direction or solution. Isn't the point of fascism to say, 'This is the way we should be going'? But this movie couldn't be further from offering any kind of solution."
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Casting:
Producer Ross Bell met with actor Russell Crowe to discuss his candidacy for the role of Tyler Durden. Producer Art Linson, who joined the project late, met with another candidate, Brad Pitt. As Art Linson was the senior producer of the two, the studio sought to cast Pitt instead of Crowe. Bell has since said that he is glad Linson stepped in, as he can't imagine anyone being as good in the role as Pitt proved to be.The studio believed Fight Club would be more commercially successful with a major star so they signed Brad Pitt and offered him a $17.5 million salary.
For the role of the nameless narrator, the studio desired a "sexier marquee name" like Matt Damon to increase the film's commercial prospects; it also considered Sean Penn. Fincher instead considered Edward Norton a candidate for the role, based on the actor's performance in The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996).
Edward Norton and Brad Pitt prepared for their roles by taking lessons in boxing, taekwondo, grappling, and also studied hours of UFC programming. Additionally, they both took soap making classes from boutique company Auntie Godmother.
Although Edward Norton refused to smoke in Rounders (1998), his character played poker for cigarettes but did not smoke, he did agreed to smoke for this film.
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 (1998). Norton achieved this form by running, taking vitamins and just ignoring the on-set catering.
Prior to principal photography, Brad Pitt voluntarily visited a dentist to have pieces of his front teeth chipped off so his character would not have perfect teeth. The pieces were restored after filming concluded.
For the role of Marla Singer, the filmmakers considered Courtney Love and Winona Ryder as candidates early on. The studio wanted to cast Reese Witherspoon, but David Fincher objected that Witherspoon was too young for the role. He chose to cast Helena Bonham Carter based on her performance in The Wings of the Dove (1997). In the end however, the decision was taken out of their hands when Witherspoon turned down the role as being "too dark", and Bonham-Carter was cast.
According to Variety magazine, Sarah Michelle Gellar was also approached for the role of Marla Singer in Fight Club, but due to a locked contract with "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1997), she couldn't get the part.
During
the shooting of the film, Helena Bonham Carter
insisted
that her
makeup artist (Julie Pearce) apply all of her eye makeup with her left
hand, because
Bonham-Carter felt that Marla was not a person who would be
particularly skilled at (or concerned with)
correctly applying makeup.According to Helena Bonham Carter, she based her performance of Marla Singer on Judy Garland in the later stages of her life. To help her get into the mindset, director David Fincher would often call her Judy on-set.
Helena Bonham Carter wore platform shoes to help close up the disparity in height between her and Edward Norton and Brad Pitt.
Prior to filming, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter considered visiting real support groups for the terminally ill, but they decided against it, as due to the satiric nature of the film, they didn't feel it was appropriate.
Director of Photography Jeff Cronenweth's sister, Christie Cronenweth appears in the film as the airline check-in attendant who tells the Narrator he is three hours early for his flight.
Kevin Scott Mack, the Digital Domain visual effects supervisor, makes a cameo appearance as the terrified guy with glasses in the plane crash scene.
Edward 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."
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Screenplay & Production:
Fox 2000 Pictures executive Raymond Bongiovanni, who died shortly before the project was green-lit, first discovered the Fight Club novel before it was officially published. Prior to his death, Bongiovanni worked tirelessly to get the project off the ground, and in his obituary, it said that his last wish was that the novel be made into a film.Raymond Bongiovanni sent the novel to Laura Ziskin, President of Production at Fox 2000 Pictures. She felt it was a tremendous piece of literature, but not necessarily a great movie. The book was sent to a 20th century Fox studio reader to evaluate it's potential as a possible film, and the report sent back to Ziskin slammed the novel, saying it could never be made into a film, that it was "exceedingly disturbing", "volatile and dangerous", and would "make audiences squirm". Despite this however, Ziskin decided to go ahead with the project temporarily and began to look around for producers who might be willing to take it on.
This project was first offered to producers, Lawrence Bender and Art Linson, but they turned it down (although Linson would ultimately return as producer). Next, it was offered to Joshua Donen and Ross Grayson Bell of Atman Entertainment. They both loved it and immediately agreed to produce it. Bell has since stated that the highly critical report from the studio reader was all he needed to make him want to work on the film, feeling every reason that the reader gave for why the film couldn't be made, was another reason to make it.
Producers, Joshua Donen and Ross Grayson Bell, organized a read-through of the book with some actors, who performed a roughly scripted version of the novel over the course of a six-hour session, and he sent recordings of the session to the still wavering Laura Ziskin. As soon as Ziskin heard the recording, she agreed that a film adaptation could work, purchased the rights to the novel for $10,000, and green-lit the project.
Author Chuck Palahniuk told the producers from the very start that, although he fully supported the adaptation, he wasn't interested in writing the screenplay. Initially, producer Laura Ziskin considered hiring screenwriter Buck Henry to adapt the novel, due to the many thematic similarities between and The Graduate (1967), which had been adapted from the novel of the same name by Henry. However, Jim Uhls was ultimately chosen as the writer ahead of Henry.
Screenwriter Jim Uhls started working on an early draft of the adapted Fight Club screenplay, which excluded a voice-over because the industry perceived at the time that the technique was "hackneyed and trite".
Three directors were offered the Fight Club prior to David Fincher. Peter Jackson was the initial choice of producers Joshua Donen and Ross Grayson Bell, who had been impressed with Jackson's work on Heavenly Creatures (1994) and The Frighteners (1996). Jackson however, although he loved the Chuck Palahniuk novel, was too busy prepping The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) in New Zealand. The second choice for director was Bryan Singer, who was sent the book, but who never got back to the producers, he later admitted he didn't read the novel when he received it. Next to be offered the job was British director Danny Boyle, who met with Donen and Bell, read the book, and loved the material, but who ultimately decided to concentrate on The Beach (2000) instead. The producers then turned to David Fincher, who was in post-production on The Game (1997). Donen and Bell had been impressed with Fincher's work on Se7en (1995), and thought he could bring something unique to the project. However, Fincher was reluctant to work with 20th Century Fox again after his negative experiences making Alien³ (1992), so a meeting was set up between Donen, Bell, Fincher, President of Production at Fox 2000 Pictures Laura Ziskin and 20th Century Fox studio head Bill Mechanic, where Fincher's relationship with the studio was restored, and he was hired to direct the film.
When David Fincher joined to direct the film, he thought that the film should have a voice-over, believing that the film's humor came from the narrator's voice. He described the film without a voice-over as seemingly "sad and pathetic". so David Fincher and Jim Uhls revised the script for six to seven months and by 1997 had a third draft that re-ordered the story and left out several major elements.
Brad Pitt was concerned that his character, T
yler Durden,
was too
one-dimensional so David Fincher sought the advice of
writer-director Cameron Crowe, who
suggested giving the character more ambiguity. David Fincher also hired
screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker for
assistance. David Fincher invited Brad Pitt and Edward Norton to help
revise the script, and the group
drafted five revisions in the course of a year.Author, Chuck Palahniuk, praised the faithful film adaptation of his novel and applauded how the film's plot was more streamlined than the book's. Palahniuk recalled how the writers debated if film audiences would believe the plot twist from the novel. David Fincher supported including the plot twist, arguing, "If they accept everything up to this point, they'll accept the plot twist. If they're still in the theater, they'll stay with it."
Author, Chuck Palahniuk named Tyler Durden after the character of Toby Tyler in Toby Tyler, or Ten Weeks with a Circus (1960), and a man called Durden with whom Palahniuk worked, who was fired for sexual harassment. Marla Singer was named after a young girl called Marla who used to beat up Palahniuk's sister in school.
The Narrator finds redemption at the end of the film by rejecting Tyler Durden's dialectic, a path that diverged from the novel's ending in which the Narrator is placed in a mental institution.
David Fincher considered the Fight Club novel too infatuated with Tyler Durden and changed the ending to move away from him: "I wanted people to love Tyler, but I also wanted them to be OK with his vanquishing."
Much confusion exists about the Narrator's name as it is never mentioned throughout the movie. Many believe it's Jack due to his use of the phrase "I am Jack's...", but others argue that he only uses the name Jack because that was the name he saw in magazine "Annotated Reader". Interestingly, in the press packages released for the movie, which came in the form of an IKEA-esque catalog, the character is referred to as Jack, as he is on the back of the DVD, and in the booklet accompanying the DVD, where the Chapter list is referred to as "Jack's Chapters". Also, the original screenplay by Jim Uhls refers to him as Jack. On the other hand, in the closed captions for the film, he is referred to as Rupert.
Studio executives Mechanic and Ziskin planned an initial budget of $23 million to finance Fight Club, but by the start of production, the budget was increased to $50 million. Half was paid by New Regency, but during filming, the projected budget escalated to $67 million.
Filming lasted 138 days, with over 300 scenes shot on 200 locations and 72 sets constructed by production designer Alex McDowell. David Fincher shot more than 1,500 rolls of film, more than three times the usual amount for a 120 minute film.
The locations were in and around Los Angeles and on sets built at the studio in Century City. Production designer Alex McDowell constructed more than 70 sets.
Fight Club was filmed mostly at night and David Fincher purposely filmed the daytime shots in shadowed locations. The crew equipped the bar's basement with inexpensive work lamps to create a background glow.
In conjunction with director David Fincher, first time director of photography Jeff Cronenweth decided to shoot the film using spherical lenses instead of the more common anamorphic lenses. This was primarily because many scenes where to be shot on practical locations using practical lighting, which wouldn't provide enough luminosity for an anamorphic lens to capture the image (anamorphic lenses require more light that spherical lenses for correct exposure). The disadvantage of shooting with spherical lenses is that the negative has to be blown up for the extraction process (unlike an anamorphic negative), meaning that the final print has a grainier texture than that shot using anamorphic. However, both Fincher and Cronenweth felt that this extra grain actually suited the tone of the film, and no attempts were made to clean it up or reduce it in the post-production process.
When the film stock was processed, several techniques were applied to alter the look of the footage and increase the 'grubbiness' of the image. Under the supervision of director David Fincher and director of photography Jeff Cronenweth, the contrast was stretched, the print was underexposed, re-silvering was used to increase density, and high-contrast print stocks were stepped on the print to create a layer of 'dirt', which Fincher likens to a "dirty patina."
Director David Fincher initially wanted to include a single frame flash of Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) during the 20th Century Fox logo, but the studio's legal department wouldn't clear him to do so. He then tried to include the image during the Regency Enterprises logo, but Arnon Milchan (President of Regency) also wouldn't allow him.
The scenes with Tyler Durden were staged to conceal that the character was a mental projection of the nameless narrator. The character was not filmed in two shots with a group of people, nor was he shown in any over the shoulder shots in scenes where Tyler gives the narrator specific ideas to manipulate him. In scenes before the Narrator meets Tyler, the filmmakers inserted Tyler's presence in single frames for subliminal effect. Tyler appears in the background and out of focus, like a "little devil on the shoulder". David Fincher explained the subliminal frames: "Our hero is creating Tyler Durden in his own mind, so at this point he exists only on the periphery of the narrator's consciousness."
The film's title sequence is a pullback from the fear center of the Narrator's brain, and is supposed to represent the thought processes initiated by the Narrator's fear impulse. The 90-second sequence was conceived by director David Fincher and budgeted separately from the rest of the film. The studio told Fincher that they would only finance the elaborate sequence if the film itself was any good. After seeing a rough cut, they decided they were happy and so the sequence went ahead. The CG brain was mapped using an L-system, with renderings by medical illustrator Kathryn Jones, and was designed by Kevin Scott Mack of Digital Domain.
The reverse-tracking shot out of the trash can, which was an elaborate digitally animated sequence, was the very last shot to be added to the film. 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. Due to the amount of reflective surfaces in the shot, it took almost 8 hours to render a single frame. The entire shot took 3 weeks to render.
Tyler Durden appears several times before he's actually introduced. In the first four appearances, he flashes on screen for a single frame (1/24 of a second):
1.
When the Narrator is by the photocopying machine, near the beginning
of the film, we suddenly see a single frame flash of Tyler.
2. In
the corridor outside the doctor's office, when the Narrator learns
about the Testicular Cancer support group, Tyler appears for a
single frame in the background.
3.
During the scene when the Narrator is at the Testicular Cancer
support group meeting, Tyler
makes another single frame appearance.
4.
When the Narrator sees Marla leaving a meeting, he watches her walking
down an alleyway when
Tyler makes his final single frame appearance.
5.
At the airport, the Narrator
says "Could you wake up as a different
person?" and the camera briefly follows Tyler.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.
In
the scene where the Narrator is sitting on a toilet,
with his
pants
down while reading an IKEA catalog, Edward Norton is actually
completely nude from the waist down.
Norton talks about it on the DVD commentary to which David Fincher says
"really?" Norton then
says "Did you notice I never had to go to the bathroom that day?"The interior layout of the Narrator's apartment was based upon an apartment which director David Fincher lived in when he first moved to LA. Fincher decided to model the location on this apartment because he claims that whilst he was living there, he always wanted to blow it up.
Apparently during the shooting of the first group scene, where Thomas (David Andrews) talks about his wife getting pregnant with another man, an extra became so offended by the subject matter that he stormed off set, refusing to be paid.
Meat Loaf, who plays Bob Paulson, who has "bitch tits", wore a 90-pound (40 kg) fat harness that gave him large breasts for the role. He also wore eight-inch (20 cm) lifts in his scenes with Norton to be taller than him.
Make up artist Rob Bottin had to build two different fat suits for Meat Loaf - one with nipples, one without - because the filmmakers weren't sure if 20th Century Fox would approve the suit with the prominent nipples.
To ensure that Bob's (Meat Loaf) breasts and love handles hung correctly, his fat suit was filled with birdseed, so that it would 'spill' over his pants and give the impression of sagging flesh. Altogether, the suit plus the seed weighed over one hundred pounds.
One of the fake names, Cornelius, used by the Narrator in the self-help groups is taken from Planet of the Apes(1968), he also took the name of Robert De Niro's character, Rupert, in The King of Comedy (1982).
The cave scene early in the film where the Narrator meets a penguin was inspired by the film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), and was intended by director David Fincher as a 'warning' to the audience as to how surreal the film was going to become.
The breath in the cave scene is recycled Leonardo DiCaprio breath from Titanic (1997), which was composited into the shot.
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.
Marla Singer's phone number, 555-0134, is the same as Teddy's number in Memento (2000). It is also the same as the Hong Kong Restaurant in Harriet the Spy (1996), Eddie Alden's in Someone Like You... (2001) and a Mental institution in an episode of "Millennium" (1996).
The burnt out car that the Narrator examines is a 1990 Lincoln Town Car. It's also the same car the Narrator and Tyler crash later in the film. Additionally, Tyler says he'd like to fight Abraham Lincoln.
As
the Narrator is watching the promotional hotel video in
his
suite
(during his description of 'single serving friends') an army of
white-jacked servants come on the TV screen to welcome the guest to
their happy place of business. Front row, far
right happens to be Brad Pitt. As stated by Pitt on the DVD
commentary, this is in no way to further the plot, it was just a silly
inclusion that no one seems to catch.On the airplane the Narrator mentions to Tyler that they have the exact same briefcase. And although Tyler opens his, we never see the contents of the Narrator's.
The apartment block that the Narrator lives in is called "Pearson Towers", and the motto is "A place to be somebody" which is the city motto for Wilmington, Delaware, this is where the story in novel is set, and where the film was going to be set until the production ran into trouble with legal clearances. There really is a Paper Street in Wilmington, Delaware, but there's no street number 1537 as the numbers on the street don't go that high.
When Tyler calls the Narrator back on the pay phone, the camera slowly tracks in towards the phone. On the left of the phone, a notice can be seen saying "No incoming calls allowed." This is one of the first clues as to what revealed later in the film.
Director, David Fincher, shot 38 takes of the scene between Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) and the Narrator (Edward Norton) in Lou's Bar after the Narrator's apartment has blown up. Each take was filmed with two cameras, and for every individual take, Fincher would give the actors a rough idea of what to do, and they would improvise most of the dialogue. The scene as it exists in the finished film is made up of segments from numerous different takes and much of the dialogue, especially Tyler's dialogue, was completely ad-libbed on set.
The scene where Tyler (Brad Pitt) splicing the few frames of a penis into a family film shown in the theater is a reference to Persona (1966), where in the beginning, a few random images are shown into a projected film, including that of an erect penis.
When the Narrator hits Tyler Durden in the ear, Edward Norton actually did hit Brad Pitt in the ear. He was originally going to fake hit him, but before the scene, David Fincher pulled Norton aside and told him to hit him in the ear. After Norton hit him in the scene, you can see him smiling and laughing while Pitt is in pain.
The brown station wagon against which Edward Norton falls against 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, although David Fincher mentions on his DVD commentary that the sticker cannot be seen in the actual film.
When Tyler and the Narrator are fighting and a crowd gathers around them, no one intervenes, but instead look rather bemused.
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.
The short scene showing Tyler and The Narrator hitting golf balls outside the house is actually footage of Edward Norton and Brad Pitt really drunk and hitting things at the on-site catering van.
In Tyler Durden's house there is a Movieline magazine cover featuring Drew Barrymore, a close friend of Edward Norton. The Blu-Ray edition of the film (released in November 2009) contains another "in-joke" reference to Barrymore; a fake menu for the film Never Been Kissed (1999), which was released the same year as this film.
The sex scene between Tyler (Brad Pitt) and Marla (Helena Bonham Carter) was shot using the same 'bullet-time' technique used in The Matrix (1999); stills cameras were set up in a circle around the bed, and each one would take a single shot in sequence. These single frames were then edited together and enhanced with CG, as both Pitt and Bonham Carter were fully clothed in motion capture suits during the shoot.
During the shooting of the sex scene, actors Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter posed in 10 different positions from the Kama Sutra.
Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter spent three days recording orgasmic sounds for their unseen sex scenes.
The original "pillow talk"scene had Marla sayi
ng "I want to have your
abortion". When this was objected to by Fox 2000 Pictures President
of
Production Laura Ziskin, David Fincher said he would change it on the
proviso that the new line couldn't be cut. Ziskin agreed and Fincher
wrote the replacement line, "I haven't been fucked like that
since
grade school".
When Laura Ziskin saw the new line, she was even more outraged and
asked for the original line to be put back, but, as per their deal,
Fincher refused.When Tyler (Brad Pitt) catches the Narrator (Edward Norton) listening at the door as he has sex with Marla (Helena Bonham Carter), he is wearing a rubber glove. This was Brad Pitt's idea, and caused a great deal of controversy with President of Production at Fox 2000 Pictures, Laura Ziskin. She was horrified when she saw the scene and demanded that it be removed. However at a subsequent test screening, the appearance of the glove got the biggest laugh of the whole movie, prompting Ziskin to change her mind.
In the scene where Tyler Durden leaves the fight club, the movie Se7en (1995) is playing in the background. The director of that movie is also David Fincher and in which Brad Pitt stars.
Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) was originally going to recite a workable recipe for home-made explosives (as he does in the novel). But in the interest of public safety, the filmmakers decided to substitute fictional recipes for the real ones.
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.
When the Narrator comes back from work, Tyler can be heard with Marla upstairs having sex. The phone rings and when the Narrator picks it up the boisterous romping upstairs abruptly stops. This is another hint of what is revealed later in the film.
The fight scenes were heavily choreographed,
but the actors
were
required to "go full out" to capture realistic effects like having
the
wind knocked out of them. Makeup artist Julie Pearce, who
worked
for
the director on The
Game (1997), studied mixed martial arts and
pay-per-view boxing to
portray the fighters
accurately. She designed an extra's ear to have cartilage missing,
citing as inspiration the boxing match
in which Mike Tyson bit off part of Evander Holyfield's ear.David Fincher avoided stylish camera work when filming early fight scenes in the basement and instead placed the camera in a fixed position. In later fight scenes, he moved the camera from the viewpoint of a distant observer to that of the fighter.
Makeup artists devised two methods to create sweat on cue: spraying mineral water over a coat of Vaseline, and using the unadulterated water for "wet sweat".
When the Narrator gets on the bus with Tyler, he only pays the fare for one person.
When Tyler and the Narrator are on the bus, the long-haired guy pushes past Tyler without a word, then says "excuse me" as he pushes past the Narrator.
The scene where the Narrator's boss (Zach Grenier) finds the rules of Fight Club in the photocopier and the Narrator points out that whoever wrote it is obviously dangerous and might one day storm through the building shooting everyone, proved to be a highly controversial scene for the filmmakers. In early test screenings, the scene got huge laughs and scored extremely highly with audiences. However, these screenings happened before the Columbine massacre. In all screenings after Columbine, the scene evoked no laughter whatsoever and scored extremely poorly, with audiences commenting that they felt it was in bad taste. This prompted the studio to ask director David Fincher to cut the scene altogether. Fincher considered doing so, but because the scene leads into the pivotal Marla breast-cancer scene, he decided that it couldn't be cut.
When the Narrator and Tyler enter Lou's Tavern, the Narrator enters first and the guy out the front only acknowledges the Narrator, as though Tyler doesn't even exist.
When Lou sees the Fight Club members in the basement of his bar, Lou punches Tyler in the stomach. When Tyler gets punched, you can see the Narrator double over slightly as if he too was punched in the stomach. A few shots later, Lou kicks Tyler in the face while he is kneeling, and in the background we see the Narrator's head go back at the moment of impact.
In the scene where Tyler is giving an inspirational speech to the Fight Club members, he says "We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars." Right as he says "rock star" at 1:11:00, he looks specifically at Jared Leto's character. Jared Leto formed the band '30 Seconds to Mars' in 1998. Their last album went platinum.
During the brief scene when one of the Fight Club members sprays a priest with a hose in order to start a fight, the camera briefly shakes. Apparently this happened because the cameraman couldn't keep himself from laughing.
As noted during Author Chuck Palahniuk and Screenwriter Jim Uhls' commentary, the seminary student/priest hosed by the mechanic is ultimately the winning combatant in the fight sequence immediately following the scene in which narrator beats himself up in front of his boss.
When Tyler and the Narrator are hitting cars with baseball bats, Tyler hits the first car first, but the alarm is triggered only after the Narrator hits it.
The line that Tyler Durden says, "You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world" is inspired by the book "Also Sprach Zarathustra" by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.
When the Narrator enters the house prior to seeing the news report of the happy face on the building, he is carrying one of Project Mayhem's folders.
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, the gold globe crashes into a shop named Gratifico Coffee.
The scene involving the destruction of the corporate artwork (where the huge ball crashes into the coffee shop) was the most troublesome scene to shoot in the whole film. Initially, director David Fincher had wanted to the scene to feature an entirely CG ball on live plates, but visual effects supervisor Kevin Tod Haug convinced him to try shooting it as a live special effect instead. As such, special effects coordinator Cliff Wenger was placed in charge of the scene. Problems began to arise when Wenger discovered that the flooring at the location could only take 250 pounds per square foot. As such, a lightweight ball (100 pounds) had to be built to ensure no damage was caused. However, because the ball was so light, it didn't react the way a heavy ball would. In the end, digital effects company Toybox was given the entire scene with orders to do a major cleanup on the live footage. For the rolling shots, they removed the ball bouncing, added furniture which the ball violently knocks out of its way, added pavement cracks in the wake of the ball, added flickering lights, added additional splashes and a wake as the ball moves through the water, and added a digital camera shake. For the café shots, they completed the destruction of the counter, added flying glass and furniture, added flickering lights, and again, added digital vibration to the camera. In the end, although the majority of the actual scene is live photography, almost all of the minor effects in the shots are completely digital.
When the airport valet lends Tyler and the Narrator the car, while addressing "Mr. Durden" he is looking straight at the Narrator. The Narrator and Tyler get in the car through the same door. After the crash where Tyler was driving, Tyler pulls the Narrator out of the driver's side of the car.
After the car crash, the Narrator has a bruise on his head. When the Narrator wakes up the 'next morning' the bruise is completely gone. Whilst some see this as a continuity error, others argue that it indicates more time has passed than just one night (in fact, the Narrator wasn't asleep at all, he was all over the country setting up fight clubs).
When the Narrator comes downstairs in his house, after supposedly being asleep following the car crash, he enters the kitchen and Steph (Evan Mirand) is slapping a Space Monkey, shouting at him about how worthless he is. Whilst shooting this scene, the original extra playing the Space Monkey got so fed up with being slapped that he stormed off set and had to be replaced. The actor seen in the finished film is the replacement actor.
While the Narrator is trying to convince Marla Singer 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 theater 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 Helena Bonham Carter).When the Narrator turns himself in to the police and explains the goal of Project Mayhem (near the end of the film), he is interrogated by four detectives. The three that then try to kill him are named in the credits as Detectives Andrew, Kevin and Walker. Andrew Kevin Walker penned the script for Se7en (1995), which David Fincher also directed and he also did some uncredited work on this film.
The shot surveying Project Mayhem's destructive equipment lying in underground parking lots was a three-dimensional composition of over 100 photographs of Los Angeles and Century City by special effects photographer Michael Douglas Middleton.
David Fincher took 12 takes of the stuntman rolling down the stairs for the fight between the Narrator and Tyler at the end of the film. The take used in the movie is the very first one.
The shot of the Narrator shooting himself was originally to have been shot practically using synchronized high speed photosonic cameras, a dummy
constructed by
makeup supervisor Rob Bottin and live footage of actor Edward Norton.
However, the filmmakers
couldn't get the shot to look right, so at the last minute they decided
to do the scene primarily CG
instead of live. Ultimately, live footage of Edward Norton having
180psi of air shot
into his mouth (to make his cheeks blow out) was used, but apart from
the actual face, the only
element of the shot which is real is the spurt of blood coming out of
his mouth, everything else is
CG.
The final shot of the collapsing credit bank buildings was designed by Richard 'Dr.' Baily, who worked on the shot for over 14 months straight. According to director David Fincher, there are almost 4 million separately animated digital elements in the shot.
The buildings that blow up in the end are all Fox-owned buildings digitally composited into the shot. It was feared that they would invite legal action against the production if they portrayed real credit card companies blowing up.
In the closing seconds of the film after the camera pulls back from the exploding buildings, a single frame of male genitalia can be seen briefly like Tyler added in his projectionist job.
The 'soap slam on dish' shot used in the trailer took 41 takes to get right. After the 40th take, director David Fincher realized that the soap was sliding out of frame and so he settled for a fake soap prop.
After director David Fincher was finished editing the film, the studio executives were baffled by the piece, and unsure how to market it. Fincher had wanted a highly unique marketing campaign which would mirror the film's theme of anti-commercialism, but already worried about the possible backlash against the film, the Fox executives refused to go ahead with Fincher's idea (two of Fincher's trailers can be found on the DVD in the 'Internet Spots' section). Instead, a campaign was launched which was built largely upon the presence of Brad Pitt in the film, as well as concentrating on the fighting (which plays a minor role in the actual film itself). The campaign was highly criticized as giving the impression that the film was basically just about men beating each other up, completely ignoring the comic and satiric elements of the narrative, and for marketing the film to the wrong audience. David Fincher was particularly incensed when he saw ads for the film during WWE and UFC programming.
Rupert Murdoch despised the Fight Club project and clashed with then-studio head Bill Mechanic over putting it into production. The film's disappointing box office returns relative to cost were a major reason for Mechanic's departure from this job not long after its release.
In an infamous incident, the Friday that Fight Club was released theatrically in the United States, Rosie O'Donnell appeared on her TV show and revealed that she had seen the film earlier in the week, and had been unable to sleep ever since. She then proceeded to give away the twist ending of the film and urged all of her viewers to avoid the movie at all costs. Edward Norton, Brad Pitt and David Fincher discuss this incident on their DVD commentary track, with Pitt calling 'O'Donnell's actions "unforgivable".
Fight Club was one of the most controversial and talked-about films of the 1990s.
The typeface used for the titles and logo is named "Fight This".
The movie line "The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club" was no. 27 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.
During an exterior shoot in an urban residential area, a man in one of the apartments above the working film crew got so annoyed with the noise that he threw a 40 oz. beer bottle at them. The bottle hit director of photography Jeff Cronenweth, who, although he was cut open, was not seriously injured; the man was arrested shortly afterward.
Apparently during the shooting of the night exteriors of Tyler's house in San Pedro, the helium balloon lights which were floated above the house by director of photography Jeff Cronenweth prompted a number of UFO sightings, resulting in the Lomita Sheriff's Department visiting the set to inquire what was going on.
After the copyright warning on the DVD, this is then immediately followed by an Attention warning.This warning is from Tyler Durden, and is only there for a second. The
message says, "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."
Source:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0137523/trivia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fight_Club_(film)
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