Quotable Fight Club

Laremy Legel,  Feb 05, 2007

Fight Club has so many memorable quotes that culling them down into a reasonable column was rough. Not as rough as fighting in the basement of a bar, but rough. I’ll start you off with the most famous quote from the movie and then we’ll get into some of the more clever ones. Stop me if you’ve heard this one:

Tyler Durden: The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is: you DO NOT talk about Fight Club. Third rule of Fight Club, someone yells stop, goes limp, taps out, the fight is over. Fourth rule: only two guys to a fight. Fifth rule: one fight at a time, fellas. Sixth rule: no shirt, no shoes. Seventh rule: fights will go on as long as they have to. And the eighth and final rule, if this is your first night at Fight Club: you have to fight.

I saw Fight Club for the first time in an empty movie theater, maybe a dozen people were there total, and the whole time I couldn’t help but think, “This is very, very cool.” Grown men beating each other, oddball anti-capitalism manifestos, multiple personalities, and of course the lovely Helena Bonham Carter (who, let’s face it, was even attractive as an ape). The tone is set by Edward Norton as “Narrator,” and his nasally yet sincere tone starts the film off right with:

Narrator: You wake up at Sea-Tac, SFO, LAX. You wake up at O'Hare, Dallas-Fort Worth, BWI. Pacific, Mountain, Central. Lose an hour, gain an hour. This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time. You wake up at Air Harbor International. If you wake up at a different time, in a different place, could you wake up as a different person?

Fight Club is about stepping out of the norm, and Norton’s beleaguered insurance company employee is sleepwalking through life, as the above quote illustrates quite clearly. Luckily Brad Pitt is there to wake him up after they meet on a plane:

Tyler Durden: I want you to hit me as hard as you can.
Narrator: What? In the face?
Tyler Durden: Surprise me.

In my estimation Brad Pitt’s finest work is done in Fight Club, and as the Narrator’s insane friend he launches the idea of Fight Club in a parking lot. The “surprise me” line is a window into the whole relationship, as Tyler Durden keeps upping the ante. Tyler sports an ethos too:

Tyler Durden: We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war; our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.

The anger that fills Fight Club pervades through that quote, and it’s only mildly ironic and off-putting that it’s uttered by one of the paramount movie stars in the business. Regardless, he’s the voice of a generation in the movie, even if he’s better looking and richer than any of us poor shmoes will ever be. Next up:

Tyler Durden: We're a generation of men raised by women. I'm wondering if another woman is really the answer we need.

I’ve never met a gal who really disliked Fight Club, although at times the film does come close having zero feminine presence. Yes, of course there is Marla, but let’s just say you don’t meet a woman like her too often. Thankfully the film isn’t really about gender or sexism, instead the buzzwords are anger, dashed expectations, and lashing out at social convention. And hey, everyone can get behind that, right?

Richard Chesler: Is that your blood?
Narrator: Some of it, yeah.

Edward Norton’s character continues working his 9 to 5 even after Fight Club is born, an admirable thing, given he looks like he’s repeatedly run into a wall. His boss gets concerned more out of fear than compassion. Norton’s disaffected portrayal here actually isn’t that far off from Office Space; only with blood instead of bass. Enough of office work, let's back to Tyler and Fight Club:

Tyler Durden (on who he'd like to fight): Okay, any historic figure.
Narrator: I'd fight Gandhi.
Tyler Durden: Good answer.
Narrator: How about you?
Tyler Durden: Lincoln.
Narrator: Lincoln?
Tyler Durden: Big guy, big reach. Skinny guys fight till they're burger.

The fact that Tyler Durden would fight Honest Abe tells you a lot about who he is. It’s not that he wants to tear down Lincoln; it’s much simpler than that. He wants the best fight and Lincoln was known to be quite the athlete in his time. As for the Narrator, well, it looks like he’s looking to see just how far this non-violent thing goes.

Narrator: A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.
Woman on plane: Are there a lot of these kinds of accidents?
Narrator: You wouldn't believe.
Woman on plane: Which car company do you work for?
Narrator: A major one.

The above quote actually comes near the start of the movie, and it’s classic because Norton doesn’t actually reveal the company he works for, though he’s clearly throwing them under the bus. The other great thing is the horrified look on the woman’s face. You’ve also got to know in your heart this is true, which makes the Fight Club’s stand against corporations all the more justified.

Narrator: I am Jack's wasted life.

One of the recurring themes of the movie is the “I am Jack’s …” lines. It’s crucial to note that The Narrator isn’t Jack, rather that this is a dig on advertising and the plight of everyman. I think.

Narrator: It's just, when you buy furniture, you tell yourself, that's it. That's the last sofa I'm gonna need. Whatever else happens, I've got that sofa problem handled.

The Narrator speaks to our rampant materialism very early on in the film. The other compelling aspect here is the ending of the movie, which is happy and destructive at the same time. Now, did we all go out and buy Nikes and Coke after seeing this? Sure, but maybe for just a few minutes of our lives Fight Club hit us hard. Perhaps we were truly awake. If that's the case, well, it's far more than we deserve out of the social convention called Hollywood.

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Laremy Legel -- Mail Laremy. Or not.