Warning! Movie Spoilers Ahead!
An interesting response has come from the original author of Fight Club over news that China censored the ending of the film’s version.
The 1999 film, starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Botham Carter, ends with the narrator (Norton) killing his imaginary alter ego, Tyler Durden (Pitt) and watching buildings explode across the city. The imagery suggests he has achieved his anarchist crusade to take down the consumerist society he lives in.
China, however, has the film end quite differently. The philosophy behind their censorship is that criminals should always be punished for the crimes onscreen, with societal harmony restored. So in their version, the climatic ending is excised and replaced by a blank screen with the message: “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 a lunatic asylum receiving psychological treatment. He was discharged from the hospital in 2012.”
This altered ending sparked outrage among Chinese social media influencers, who had seen pirate copies of the original ending – and elsewhere in the world, where Fight Club is a cult classic.
Chuck Palahniuk, who wrote the novel, had a different response to the moviegoers, however. The author tweeted a link to his Substack newsletter where he discusses the episode, writing: “Have You Seen This Sh*t? This is SUPER wonderful! Everyone gets a happy ending in China!”
The newsletter continued the topic, with Palahniuk writing: “Tyler and the gang were all arrested. He was tried and sentenced to a mental asylum. How amazing. I’d no idea! Justice always wins. Nothing ever exploded. Fini.”
In a later interview with TMZ, Palahniuk later clarified what he meant by this. He said that China’s ending is actually closer to what he originally envisioned in the novel.
The narrator’s scheme also fails in the story. But this was not because of the wisdom and competence of the authorities, but simply due to his bomb malfunctioning. The narrator then shoots himself in the head and wakes up in a mental hospital, thinking that he’s made it to heaven.
“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,” Palahniuk said.
“So in a way, the Chinese brought the movie back to the book a little bit.”
The author also found the anger of so many Americans’ reactions to China’s version of the ending ironic, considering his books are banned in many places across the States.
“What I find really interesting is that my books are heavily banned throughout the U.S.,” he said.
“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.”
Palahniuk said that having his works revised in ways he can’t control is not new to him.
Have you seen China’s revised version of Fight Club’s ending? What do you think? Let us know by commenting below.
Written by Jackson Miller
