Xsas

I did a search and couldn't find anything:

Spoilers ahead:






What exactly happens at the end? Did he kill himself and is actually in heaven? Or was he just really injured, so now he lives in a hospital (white on white, janitor mopping, etc.)

hilbert25

It was kinda ambiguous to me, I don't have my copy of the book handy, but I always saw it as still alive, with Tyler either having planned for it or Tyler still alive. I'm pretty sure a space monkey showed up too. And the likelyhood of Space Monkey's in heaven is pretty slim (only one had died that we know about at that point).

Golgothas

Spoiler: He's in a mental institution, he didn't die; the bombs didn't work.

DonnieBoy

Who wrote this book? And is it called "Fight Club" or something else... never new that the movie was based on a book...

DB

Mr.Deflok

Redjake

Fight Club is one of my favorite movies. I have two friends who have read the book. They say it's a lot different than the movie, but they are both great. I'll have to read it sometime.

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NotMinus

Chuck has a lot of great ideas in the book but he was still beggining as a writer and although he portrayed his ideas well he didn't always write as well as I would have expected. Fightclub the movie is better but Fightclub the book is still a good read.

maximusveritas

I thought the book was better than the movie, but that's what I always think. The ending, I thought, was much better in the book. I read it as though it took place in a hospital, probably a mental hospital, but I think it was written ambiguously so that people would think about it and eventually come to their own conclusions.

Golgothas

I don't think the ending is very ambigous at all.

Mr.Deflok

Really, so what do you make of it?

Speed_Gibson

sounds like an interesting ending; might read the book one of these days. I have no real desire to see the movie.

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Charlatan

Both the movie and the book are excellent.

A lot of people were turned off the movie by the prospect of the violence. All I can say is that it isn't really about the violence per se.

I also thought the movie was one of the best adaptations of a book I have ever seen.

...as for the ending... the end of the book is very clear. He is in an institution and the bombs didn't go off...

Golgothas

My take on it is in my spoiler tags.... which Charlatan just said =P

flamingdog

You should. If you value fims at all, it's worth seeing. Fincher does a really good job with the themes.

Speed_Gibson

Will definitely read the book first if I do watch it; I have yet to see a film surpass the original novel* and prefer to know just what is changed or missing when I see the films.

*or cases like Running Man come to mind where they completely destroy a very interesting, thought-provoking story with an incredibly powerful ending by turning it into a tired cliched action movie .

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kl0pper

i agree

ive read the book probably 20 times
absolutely magnificent work

Charlatan

I'll say it again... Fight Club is probably the best adaptation of book to film ever done. The film stays very true to the source material.

kutulu

Before I saw the movie, a girl I know told me that the movie was about mental health. When I finally realized that Tyler and Jack were the same person I also realized that she said way too much about the movie. It's definitely one of my favorite movies of all time.

ChrisJericho

Fight Club is the only case in which I think the movie is better than the book. The book is good, however the writing was just too fragmented and scattered whereas the movie had a clear direction and flowed much better.

I can also say that Fight Club is the only movie that changed my life.

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flamingdog

I don't compare them. The film is definitive in my view. It captures Tyler Durden perfectly. And it is very close to the book.

Golgothas

I love the film but I think it makes the point seem more about anarchy and terrorism and less about the problems of collectivism, the importance of fathers, marla doesn't seem as significant and really about changing yourself to change the world. It also doesn't have a certain scene that better explains why he ends up becoming obsessed with the support groups in the first place.

hilbert25

You realize it wasn't his first book, right? And his earlier book, Invisible Monsters was actually better in my humble opinion.

kl0pper

invisible monsters was written first
it was rejected, and that was the inspiration for fight club

Moobie

Wow, I never realized that IM was written first. I always pegged Fight Club as his first one, because as good as it was it just seemed unpolished.

I actually thought that the movie did a better job of this than the book. In the movie you actually see that Tyler is not trying to actively hurt people. He makes sure that the buildings are empty. He wants to bring down the social structures that bind humanity, not kill people. In the book he has space monkeys throwing office furniture in to the crowds. So the Tyler in the book is more anarchist and far more violent than the movie Tyler. Movie Tyler is also alot more philosophical.

It's been a while since I've read the book or watched the movie, but I know a running theme in all of Chuck's books is that in order to truly grow as a human you have to do the one thing that you're most afraid of.

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Golgothas

Terrorism doesn't really require violence, but I see what you are saying. But really, although the movie has many parts of Tyler explaining his views and goals for change, the audience is bombarded with the constant, and highly entertaining, images of Project Mayhem. It may make me sound pretentious, but I think most movie goers think what is happening on screen is what a film is about (and it sometimes is just what is happening on sreen), and don't really look at it enough to think that it's maybe about something more; which is why I think the film ends up appearing to focus on anarchy and terrorism and anti-corporate sentiments. I have friends who don't think fight club is that great and think it's just weird or just some crazy guy that hates his life - which really just makes me totally pissed off =P

Homey_V

Personally, from my readings of the book, I think he ended up in a mental institution and the bombs didnt work.

As for the book being better than the movie, the book was FAR better than the movie. I found the style of the writing in the book to suit it quite well. It may be fractured and broken, but so is the life of the main character. Whether or not it was intentional, I didnt notice it at all.

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Stompy

That's what I think of it! Except, I love the movie.

I've seen it a million times, but all I really got from it is that a guy hates his life and developed some kind of schizo mental disorder in a need to create chaos.

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nogoodreason

I'm quite certain that he didn't die and that he's in an institution.

One interesting question, earlier in the book there's mention of fathers being our models for God. Then, at the end, he's refering to what I assume is his psychiatrist as God.

I wonder if I'm going to far, but does anyone think the adoption of a new model for God shows a sort of rebirth through the therapy? His doctor is now his father figure, the support group attendees his family? Does that make Marla a mother to him? It was directly through her that he came to this new life...

Am I reaching here? Probably.

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Golgothas

You're not reaching too far, although I wouldn't say he has adopted the pyschiatrist as a new model for his father, but that the psychiatrist could be viewed as one; as he is trying to indoctrinate him with ideas that are contrary to the narrators beliefs.

Marla is definately not just a girlfriend to the narrator, but I wouldn't say she is a mother figure exactly. I think she is more of a dysfunctional representation of women, possibly like the narrators mother - he never mentions his mother, just his father, except for once when he mentions them together. Though the fact that his mother fell for a guy like his father probably says something about his mother, since we can assume Tyler is a close representation of his father, and marla fell for Tyler. Marla also seems to be more of a threat to the Tyler pesona and the collectivism of all men; there is something very important about just having one female figure aswell.

Although, as a symbolic part of his rebirth, combined with the father-figure of tyler and the psychiatrist, I think it's a good assessment to say she is like a 'mother' to the narrator.

animosity

yea i have some friends who dont care for the movie.... but they are stupid.


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chuck is a great writter. i have read all of his books(except invisible monsters) id say my favorate was Survivor.