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The Fight Club
Hey. How's there? I'm writing again today. I lied. I didn't stay for extra study session. I didn't even attend class today. I just stayed home and ate some microwave'd TV dinner. It think it tasted like plastic, a little. I watched Fight Club today. It was a 1999 film with Brad Pitt and Edward Norton. It was good, really. Slightly thrilling, but good. Honestly. I recalled saying "this man is fucked up" for so many times, aloud. Well, at least I didn't scream or something. And I was alone in my room, so everything's good, I guess. But really, he was fucked up. In a crazy, sorta cool(?) way? Man, I'm fucked up for thinking he's cool.  I chose this poster because I like the soap. Anyway. (Since this is an old movie, I'll just write the story down, OK? If you hadn't watched the movie and planned to do so, skip this part. Oh dear, this is long. I realised.) -- This movie was told mostly in a first person view, Edward Norton's view. His name was never mentioned in the film, ever. Or I didn't catch it, but whatever, I'll just call him Ed. So, Ed was your typical salary man working in a company. His job was to go all over places and to get the record of the accidents caused by the malfunctions of his company's vehicles. He had a normal life and lived in a 15th floor apartment. He had this strange hobby of collecting furnitures from IKEA? Not sure about that. He's also an insomniac, who had this in-and-out-but-not-sleeping-not-awake syndrome. He also mentioned that his father left him when he was six. All in all, he was a sad man. One day he went on and consulted with a doctor about how his life was a pain and whatnot thus asking for some medication. In response, the doctor had refused and nonchalantly told him about this testicular cancer meeting. (The place where the people with said cancer gathered and shared their own version of depression in hope to lighten up). So, he took up his advice, visited the group meeting and was surprised. He realised that he could just hug these people and let himself out. I meant, cry himself out. By doing this, he also found that he could actually sleep. He was addicted by going to this kind of clubs and actually signed up a couple of weekly meetings: brain cancers, blood parasites, etc (can't remember more). This kept up for a while until one day, a woman showed up. Marla Singer showed up, in every. single. meeting. he. attended. The "tourist" bothered him. He couldn't let himself out when he knew another faker was present. So, he decided to confront her and threatened to reveal her. And well, she threatened him back. Having no choice, he decided to split some of his meetings with her in hopes to be left alone, again. She agreed. During one of his business trips, he met a man. Tyler Dunden. A soap maker, or so he said. Ed believed Tyler as "by far, the most interesting 'single-serving' friend (he) has ever met". After arriving to his apparently inflaming apartment, the content of which has been blew out the 15th floor rendering nothing left for him, he decided to call Tyler (not before calling Marla first, without talking of course). He then met up with Tyler in a bar and Ed told him everything there. When they were about to get home, Tyler asked Ed to ask him if he would let him stay. Ed, although reluctant at first, asked and was accepted. Before they went to Tyler's home, Tyler asked Ed for one favour: to hit him as hard as he could in the face. Ed, of course, was perplexed by this and had to be pursue for a while before compelling to do so. (Apparently, Tyler lived on this falling apart/run-down deserted house on Paper Road, where nothing worked...well. And also, Tyler had some boring...yet interesting jobs. He was a waiter at a high-class hotel, where he would either spit, urinate or, ahem, donate his sperm on the food. He was also a "projectionist", a person whose job was to cut the film rolls and replaced them with the next roll when the scene changes. He did this job because he could actually slip some of the adult single scene into a family movies. Tyler told Ed that his dad left him too). Things (sorta) went downhill from there. Ed fought more often with Tyler during nights, did more crazy things at nights, and just had fun. People would watch them fight and sometimes join them. With taking turns, of course. Slowly, due to the popularity of their fights, Tyler and Ed decided to form a club: The Fight Club. Soon before they knew it, fight club has members all over the places. Everyone was in the Fight Club. Marla poked in, again. By calling to Ed's current house. Tyler decided to visit this woman and, well banged her. They were in that kind of relationship for quite some time. Tyler also strictly reminded Ed to never talked about him (Tyler) with Marla. After a while, the detective who was investigating his burnt apartment called him, telling him that the cause of the flames was of a home-made bomb. Tyler, who was listening to the phonecall as well, implied that the police was putting the blame on Ed himself. Ed was furious that he started blabbering to the detective about how the case was the most important to him. That night, Tyler decided that they're going to make some soaps to sell. Then they both crashed to the local liposuction clinic and took some of the human fat from the waste to turn into soaps. When they arrived home, Tyler did something crazy. He powdered Ed's right hand with lye (NaOH). A chemical which causes severe burns on human skin. Although Ed screamed and begged, Tyler insisted him to face the pain through a way, which is not a way of a dying person. To face the pain, actually. He mentioned that their fathers were the image of a role model, a godlike model to them. And their fathers had left them, what did that mean about God? That God had left both of them, that they're both unwanted. Ed, at the midst of his pain and sufferings, had accepted his view. Tyler then released him and poured his hand with vinegar as a relief. After a morning of confrontation with his boss, and a phone call from Marla (with resulted in him, reluctantly did a breast examination to her) he met with his old friend of the testicular cancer meeting, Bob, who apparently had joined fight club as well and fought him. A few days later (I think), while having their usual club, two men barged in to their underground club and demanded all of them to leave. The man, who was the owned of the pub, was provoked by Tyler. Tyler continued his provocation, luring the man to hit him more and more, until his face was a whole bloody mess and resumed laughing in his maniacal laughter. The owner, frightened by Tyler's craziness, gave the club permission and fled. Tyler then proceeded to calm down and 'assigned homework' for the members, asking them to pick a fight with a stranger, and they had to lose. Ed, spoken in his narration, believed that most noemal people if provoked would try their best to evade fights. Soon after, Ed confronted his boss, and somehow blackmailed him with the records of fatal accidents caused by the malfunctions. Ed wanted full salary without him coming to work for all his life. The boss was not pleased by this and fired him, ordering Ed out of his office while he called the security. Ed got up and started punching himself. All the time asking the boss, "Why did you do this?" His boss, mouth agape and dumbfounded couldn't do anything but watch his underling hurting himself. Finally, after a bloody self-fighting, the security arrived to witness Ed kneeling in front of his boss begging him to stop hitting him. Suffice to say, Ed got his full paycheck roll. Tyler, on the other hand, gave out more and more 'homework' which involved the member in a series of vandalism: putting big posters of how gasoline could fertilise your land, feeding the birds a whole load of food so that they would crap on the cars in the morning, blowing up the electronic devices on the display, printing out airplane direction in which the passengers looked mortified, etc. Tyler, during one of his night vandalism with Ed, decided to do one of the 'homework assignment' by 'sacrificing a human's life'. Ed was of course terrified by this and followed him to the back of a convenient store on which he found Tyler, holding a gun on a man's head. Tyler ordered the man to get his wallet out and analysed the content within. He read out some of the man's data and asked him about his school and his dream. The man, terrified to his socks, told him that he wanted to be a veterinarian. Tyler then finally let the man go but not after he threatened the man that if he wasn't on his way to be a vet in six weeks, he would hunt him down. Tyler then casually tossed his gun back to Ed, which was empty from the start. The next day, Marla was visiting again, apparently, Ed asked her what she got by latching on a stronger person. Marla had shot him back the question on which Ed answered that it wasn't the same with him and Tyler (well without mentioning his name though, Tyler had warned him). She pressed Ed on what he meant by that. Ed was about to answer when he heard some drills and loud voices from their basement and was about to check them. Marla thought that it was one of his excuses to avoid answering kept pestering. Frustrated, Ed told her that the conversation was over. Marla was furious and left. Ed then went downstairs to find that Tyler was setting up bunk-beds. Ed questioned him as to why they need bunk-beds when a doorbell rang. Tyler went up and saw a young man standing there with mattress and everything. Tyler then commented that he was too young to train and slammed the door shut. Tyler then ordered Ed to not let anyone in if they're too young, too old, or too fat unless they stayed there for three days with no food and no drinks. Sooner, more and more men came to their house and made the cut. Undoubtedly, Tyler built himself an army. For what purpose, Ed had no idea at all. Then one day, Ed came home and was greeted with sight of beer cans. Tyler explained that they were celebrating. Ed, confused as ever, went to the living room where the members were sitting in front of a TV. A moment later, the news reported a recent criminal act which involved two apartments getting burnt and green paints on the walls of the same building of the apartment. (Imagine the two burning apartment as eyes, and the green paints painted a happy smiley face on it) Ed was...I don't know what his feeling was. Next, they went to this police force formal night dining convention where the police gave speech about the previous crimes and about how he's going to investigated about it. The members, sneaked in the dining place as waiters and cornered the commissioner in the toilet (they duct-taped him of course). They threatened to cut of his...balls off and other things if he ever tried to let them investigate. The commissioner, of course, agreed. After this, Ed was terribly regretful and sorrowful. Afterwards, during their usual fight in the Fight Club, Ed punched, broke one of his members' face, maybe permanently. Ed had said that he "wanted to break something beautiful." Tyler, Ed and three of the members then went to a car, which wasn't legally them and not retrieved by them personally, either. While they're driving Ed argued with Tyler, about why he didn't know about the plan, the vandalism, even though they had started the club together. Tyler calmly told him that it was "Project Mayhem" and that he was in it as much as he was involved. Tyler then did something crazy, he let go of the steer and said that Ed had too much control, and he had to let go. He had then asked all of them what they're regretting if they were to die now. The other members answered without falter while Ed hadn't figured it out. Tyler then buckled up, Ed and the other members followed. Indeed, they crashed. The crash had resulted Ed to 'fall asleep' for a while and Tyler was shown leaving. When he woke up, Ed went on in his narration about how the house 'had become alive' and that so many people were now there. He didn't know anything about "Project Mayhem" and could do nothing about it. He believed that Tyler had 'dumped' him, the way his father did. On his porch, he met Marla, who visited and told her that Tyler wasn't there, that he had left. Marla was shock when she heard this and left. Ed, desperate and broken-hearted went back inside the house, hoping for no more disruption. However, moments later, some of the members went back home with two shot people. One of the member explained that they were on 'two birds killed in one shot' mission when the police caught up with them and shot. One of the members shot, in the head, was Ed's old friend he met at the testicular cancer meeting. He was bummed out when someone said that they had to 'bury the evidence in the garden'. He yelled that the man had a name, "His name is Robert Paulson!" The members, one by one, in response began to chant the same sentence, again and again. Ed was troubled by this and went off to look for Tyler. He went to a lot of different places, all based on the past plane tickets on Tyler's name he found. And to all of the places he'd been to, he knew that a fight club was near, but no one would tell him. They would all just told him the first rule of the fight club. When he finally arrived at a bar where he heard "his name is Robert Paulson", a bartender greeted him. Ed was confused that the bartender recognised him and pestered him on how he knew, on who he thought he was. The bartender, slightly nervous, had spoken. "You are Mr. Durden." Ed was shocked. (I was shocked) He quickly went back to his hotel and called Marla asking her if they had been in physical relationship. Marla angrily answered him and called him Tyler. Ed was shocked, again. Suddenly, Tyler appeared in his room, accusing him that he broke his promise of not ever mentioning Tyler to Marla. Ed demanded Tyler on why people thought he was Tyler. Tyler threw back his question and asked him to think why people would mistake him as Tyler. Flashes of screen when they did their 'homework' appeared to Ed, but in first person view, and he realised. He was Tyler Durden. Tyler then explained on how he came into existence: Ed wanted to be Tyler. Everything he wanted to be. Ed fell asleep again, which meant Tyler took control again. Ed found out that Tyler had made a series of phone-calls, specifically, phone-calls to the places which the "Project Mayhem" had folders of data about. Ed met up with Marla who didn't want to see him. But Ed had to explain how she was in danger, Ed was sure of this because Tyler said she 'knows too much'. Marla, although in disbelief and anger, listened to him and left in a bus to where Ed didn't know. Ed then got back to their home to find bathtubs with traces of Nitroglycerin. Ed then called all of the phones and found that every place was operated by the members. Ed then realised that he couldn't do anything and submitted himself to the police. He explained all of the Project Mayhem's plans to blow up the buildings, especially the major credit cards' companies. The head officer then went out for some procedures and left Ed with some other officers. The officers then revealed that they're the members of the Project and that they were ordered to cut his manhood off if he ever leaked anything. Desperately, Ed struggled and freed himself while taking a gun with him. He then visited one of the companies which were to be bombed and tried to knock his way in. Tyler appeared again, laughing at his attempt and questioning as to why he did so. Ed ran to the basement where he found a white van full of Nitroglycerin latched on a timer. Carefully, Ed removed the parts in effort to stop the bomb. Tyler taunted him and mentioned that there were 12 other buildings to be burned, what this would do to him, and that Ed couldn't possibly know which cable was to be pulled. Ed convinced Tyler that if Tyler knew the right cable, he would know, and did prove Tyler wrong. They then fought afterwards in which Ed lost. Tyler then dragged Ed to a building where they could have the best view of the explosions. Ed then saw Marla who was dragged from the bus into the building by the members. Ed got into another argument with Tyler about Tyler being a hallucination. Tyler in return told him that that was what they wanted. Ed begged Tyler to stop, but Tyler refused to. Ed then saw the gun Tyler was holding. He then knew that he was the one who was holding the gun, and not Tyler. He then pointed the gun on his chin, Tyler started to feel agitated about this and reached him slowly, trying to offer truce. Ed however, proceeded to point his gun into his mouth and shot into his cheek, killing Tyler in process, while preserving his own life. The members who had just reached the floor was shocked to see their leader with a gashing and bleeding gun wound on the face. Ed then ordered them to leave him and Marla alone, and convinced them that he was okay. Marla, furious as always, seemed to calm down a bit when he saw the gunshot on his face. A moment later they both the explosions started. Both he and Marla just stood there, hand in hand, as they witness the doom of the buildings. The End. -- Gosh, I'm tired. I might post my thoughts some other time. P.S. I watched Wild Child, Beauty and the Beast + The Princess and The Frog today, too. Maybe I'll talk about them some other day. Labels: films |