Edward Norton and Meat Loaf in Fight Club
Photo: Screenshot. All rights reserved.
The 1999 cult film “Fight Club” by director David Fincher ends with a legendary scene: Edward Norton’s “protagonist” character manages to get his alter ego Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) and thus ended his bizarre double life. “Where Is My Mind?” chimes in from the Pixies, and we see bank building after bank explode.
Even if the end can be interpreted in different ways, one reading of the film has now prevailed: with the destruction of the high-rise banks, consumer society is also smashed; and in anarchy there is room for something new to emerge.
In China, on the other hand, the message of the 23-year-old film doesn’t seem to go down too well. The Chinese streaming service Tencent Video only shows it with an alternative ending. A black screen is displayed instead of the explosions. There you can then read: The police would have thwarted the plan and caught all criminals, the attacks could have been prevented.
The plot goes even further thanks to Chinese fantasy: after the trial, Tyler was sent to a psychiatric ward and cured of his imaginary alter ego. In 2012 he was discharged from the hospital. In this representation, the “protagonist” can once again become a productive part of society. In a way, the original Fight Club ending is reversed.
Authorship is unclear
It’s not uncommon for Hollywood studios to release alternative cuts in hopes of defeating the Chinese censorship authorities. So far, strictly speaking, it is not clear whether the film was edited by the film’s producers or whether the Chinese authorities ordered the new ending themselves. In any case, the alternative version caused great outrage among Chinese viewers, especially because many there have long known the original, even if it was a pirated copy.
And the novel by Chuck Palahniuk also offers another ending. Due to a bug, the bombs don’t explode. The narrator then shoots himself, but wakes up again in a hospital, where it is suggested to him that his plan will continue.
+++This article appeared first up rollingstone.de+++