# Fight Club (spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 15, 2009, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fight-club-spoilers/517659 "2009-11-15T15:12:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Meltdown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Meltdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meltdown)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2009, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fight-club-spoilers/517659/21 "2009-11-15T20:07:57Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > The obvious implication being that Tyler has outsmarted the Narrator yet again, that even his lucid realization of his schizoid personality was planned and allowed to happen, and that the “killing” of Tyler served a larger purpose and was likely not final. Thanks! I always liked the ending of the movie, but I will say that what you’ve described sounds pretty darn cool. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2009, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fight-club-spoilers/517659/22 "2009-11-15T22:03:24Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > Didn’t the buildings not blow up in the book? I thought the climax actually took place in one of the rigged buildings and Jack/Tyler realizes that he screwed up the bomb. Sorry. My bad. You are correct. I wrote earlier without actually picking up my copy of the novel. In the book, the buildings do not come down because Tyler has mixed paraffin with the explosives. Also, he sort of thinks the mental hospital is heaven, in a vague, doped up way, and likes it there because he can finally sleep. But Project Mayhem still goes on. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2009, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fight-club-spoilers/517659/23 "2009-11-15T22:26:03Z")
Why do they put Tyler in a mental institution NOW? I mean, he’s been insane the entire book. He’s insane because he’s trying to stop the madness, I suppose? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2009, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fight-club-spoilers/517659/24 "2009-11-15T22:38:53Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Narrator and Marla watching the buildings come down is a happy ending? > > I thought it was more theatrical at any rate. Well, yeah it’s a happy ending: the crazy “bad boy” is killed and the good guy gets the girl. It’s also \. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2009, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fight-club-spoilers/517659/25 "2009-11-15T23:41:04Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Sure. > > There is no happy reconciliation with Marla. Tyler shoots himself, the buildings blow up, and he is arrested. In the last chapter we learn that he has been placed in some kind of mental health facility. He is doped up and in a wheelchair much of the time, and really has little idea what is happening, but every once in a while, one of the orderlies or a maintenance technician or groundskeeper will get near enough to him to whisper “Don’t worry, Mr. Durden. Everything is still going exactly according to plan.” > > The obvious implication being that Tyler has outsmarted the Narrator yet again, that even his lucid realization of his schizoid personality was planned and allowed to happen, and that the “killing” of Tyler served a larger purpose and was likely not final. > > It’s much more complex, thoughtful and provocative than the happy Hollywood schlock that Fincher & Palahniuk foisted on the movie-going public, but I admit it’s hard to see a Hollywood mega-studio making and releasing a movie where the anarchist wins in the end. I mean, how would _that_ serve _their_ goals? Ever see a \*\*Saw \*\*movie? The original sounds to me like a standard boring horror-movie ending. You know, the kind where they think they killed the bad guy, but the last-minute twist reveals that he’s still alive… it seems as though half the movies Hollywood puts out these days end like that. Unhappy schlock is just as derivative as happy schlock; there’s nothing inherently superior about an unhappy ending. Myself, I like a little uplift. It takes guts to put a note of optimism at the end of such a bleak story. Anyway, the happy reconciliation isn’t with Marla, it’s with himself. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2009, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fight-club-spoilers/517659/26 "2009-11-15T23:55:29Z")
In the book, it’s actually left vague if “Tyler” lived or not. The very last line of the book is a Project Mayhem coming up to him and saying, “We look forward to getting you back.” Which could mean “We look forward to getting you out of the hospital” or it could mean “We look forward to the Tyler Durden personalty coming back.” ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fight-club-spoilers/517659/27 "2009-11-16T07:10:56Z")
I thought the ending of the book actually went even further with the unreliable narrator premise and was meant to indicate that it’s unclear how much of the story was real and how much was dreamt up by the insane narrator. Much less satisfying when taken that way. IE the orderlies telling him that everything is going to plan weren’t actually people working on project mayhem, but he was imagining it. ---
**Author:** ![Snite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Snite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snite)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fight-club-spoilers/517659/28 "2009-11-17T05:55:40Z")
[http://ignatz.brinkster.net/cfightclub.html](http://ignatz.brinkster.net/cfightclub.html) Everything you need to know about the relationship between ‘the Narrator’ and Tyler. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fight-club-spoilers/517659.md?page=1)