Posted on by Mr. B

Fight Club Author Chuck Palahniuk Reacts to the Film’s New Ending

China gives Fight Club a new ending.

Fight Club new ending in China
Brad Pitt and Edward Norton in Fight Club. Image Credit: 20th Century Studios

One of the most talked-about movies of all time (even if you’re not supposed to), Fight Club got lukewarm results when it was released in 1999. With time, the film has garnered more fans. Some of those fans were not happy when China released the movie on Tencent Video after heavily censoring it. The recent version even got the attention of author Chuck Palahniuk who authored the book on which the movie was made.



In the original Fight Club movie that starred Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, the narrator kills his alter ego (played by Pitt) and blows up several buildings. In the recent version released by China. There were no deaths or fireworks in this version of Fight Club. Instead, in the version created by China, the movie ends with a title card that says police arrested all the nefarious parties and prevented the bomb explosion. Tyler ended up in a psychiatric hospital.

Fight Club new ending in China
The new Fight Club ending on Tencent Video.

 

The author of the book on which Fight Club is based, Chuck Palahniuk, has reacted to the altered version. Talking about the changed version of the film by China, he said, “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 [director David] Fincher’s ending, which was the more spectacular visual ending. So, in a way, the Chinese brought the movie back to the book a little bit.”

 

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In the book written by Chuck Palahniuk, the bomb malfunctions, and the narrator shoots himself only to end up in an asylum. Palahniuk also spoke about how he was used to his book getting banned. He stated, “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.”

Fans also reacted to the changes made by China. One user on the Chinese social network service, Douban wrote: “This is disrespectful to art.”

 

The Twitter hand of Human Rights Watch (@hrw) Dystopian wrote, “The first rule of Fight Club in China? Don’t mention the original ending. The second rule of Fight Club in China? Change it so the police win.”



Fight Club



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