Discussion: Fight Club

The first rule of writing a film like Fight Club is

give the audience a protagonist we care about; establish this connection as early as possible in the film. Make him or her In Fight Club when we first meet "Jack" we see him in a series of problems#0151he has a gun in his mouth, he is at a cancer support group, he suffers from insomnia. (Notice, as long as we are talking about the opening, how the beginning of the film gives us the experience of disorientation; it breaks a fundamental rule of narrative, that is, avoid flashbacks within flashbacks, but it does it to achieve the effect of giving us the vicarious experience of Jack's disorientation.) But, remembering that films work best when we raise the stakes: when Jack goes to the first support group, he ends up in an embarrassing position; when he goes to the doctor for help for his insomnia, he gets no sympathy, all of which compound his difficulty and, in turn, our concern for him.

The second rule of writing a film like Fight Club is

find the character's Achilles' heel and attack it. I realize this is an odd exercise, since the writer creates the character and so creates the Achilles' heel as well, but it must seem as if the drama arises inevitably out of that weakness, or that some force outside the character has sought out the weakness and preyed upon the character at that point. In a couple weeks, I will give you a handout that poses questions to guide you through the creation of a character and then poses questions that center on deriving dramatic circumstance from those character elements. But the aim is to have the character dilemma arise organically from the combination of character and circumstance, or character and complication, or character and difficulty. In the most satisfying films, that character difficulty arises out of the character getting himself or herself into trouble because of some naïve action, as generally must be the case. For example, many films center on ordinary characters being called on to perform extraordinary actions, but most people will not willingly place themselves into a position that tests them, and so they get into trouble thinking they are in control when they are not. So, in Fight Club, Jack gets into trouble by thinking that he can handle his own insomnia, and that he can easily move from identity to identity when he attends the support groups. We need to know fairly early what that weakness is, or we must have some suggestion as to that weakness.

The third rule of writing a film like Fight Club is

build from small to large, building gradually. Novels, Flaubert said, are built as were the pyramids, with a careful plan and a careful laying of stone on stone on stone on stone until the work rises gradually to its apex, the resolution. Partly, the "rule of the seconds" that I talk about comes into play here. Before any aspect of a character or an element can move a film forward in a significant way, the writer must first introduce that aspect or element into the film in an insignificant way. The other way I talk about this is that, when you write a film, you are creating a fictional universe in which conflict will arise. So you must "furnish" that universe with the elements you will need before you need them, and you must show those elements to the audience so that the audience will accept those elements as being part of the universe. For example, let's look at some aspects of the structure of Fight Club.

There are two significant figures who throw Jack's life off balance, Marla and Tyler; clearly, Tyler's arrival wreaks more havoc than does Marla, because Tyler's arrival sets into motion a whole string of violent acts. But if Tyler is the first character we meet who affects Jack's life so significantly, the film seems forced and rushed. We first have to get to Jack and something about how he reacts when he's challenged in some way, so that when he winds up allowing his life to be manipulated by Tyler, we accept it, thinking, yes, we have seen this before. Jack meets Marla at a series of support groups, Jack's refuge from the world where he feels out of control, and she essentially leads to his partial banishment from that world, as he must compromise with her. Tyler eventually leads to Jack's utter alienation from the world he knew#0151Tyler blows up Jack's condo, evicting him from his home, and Tyler's philosophy eventually leads Jack to leave his job and blackmail his boss. Both Marla and Tyler are strong-willed and forceful, but clearly Tyler is more so. When Jack meets Marla for the first time, he tells us that he wants to hurt her, that he doesn't want to compromise with her#0151he has the support groups staked out and he wants her out, but she does not give in to his will, and he has to compromise. With Tyler, however, there is no compromise#0151and the film builds to his arrival by first introducing us to the notion that Jack has a weak will in a generally easily acceptable fashion. Films generally work like this: they begin by introducing a notion in an easily acceptable fashion, a reasonable fashion-compromise is, after all, a reasonable solution in a conflict; we can easily believe that a rational person would agree to such an arrangement#0151split the meetings evenly, how fair, how reasonable! But films then work insidiously, as it is a bit like the doctrine of appeasement that preceded World War II; the forces in a film say, well, okay, you folded under this circumstance, let's see how you stand up under an even more forceful attack. Also notice how the film even sets up Marla's arrival through Jack's relationship with his boss (4). Marla leads to Tyler, but Marla is still too significant to be the first character through which we see how Jack will handle conflict with a forceful personality, and so we need the scene in which his boss tells him to drop everything to hit the road. It's a believable occurrence#0151how many people have had bosses ask them to do something they don't want to do, or to upset their entire list of priorities to do what the boss wants done? Sure, we say, it's likely-and so the film begins to build the edifice of the way that Jack works with forceful people.

Sex operates in the film in just the same way; eventually Tyler and Marla end up in a sexual relationship, but the film introduces the subject in a relatively insignificant way, through the character of Chloe, who essentially begs for sex in front of a support group. The film has decorated the universe with the idea of sex, and now it can use it to move the film forward in a significant fashion.

The film even handles Jack's relationship with his boss in a similar way, moving from the reasonable to the less reasonable, to the final explosion. The first time we meet Jack's boss, he comes to Jack and tells him he needs to get on the road. Jack protests by a sarcastic statement dripping with business jargon. And so all of the elements of Jack's relationship with his boss are there in that first encounter#0151the boss's pushing Jack when he finds the Fight Club document, his pushing Jack for his unkempt appearance and lack of respect, but also Jack's eventual explosion in his office, when he resists his boss (74-5).

Other ways in which the film builds from small to large: the discussion of the possible bomb in Jack's suitcase as a prelude to his apartment blowing up to the final explosion when entire buildings collapse. Note, too, how all of these moments are connected with the idea of violence as a liberator; the plane trips, building from business trips to Jack's pursuit of Tyler; the restaurant violence, from Tyler's urinating in soup to the intimidation of the official who opposes Project Mayhem; the involvement of the police-first, when Jack's apartment gets blown up, later as Jack becomes a suspect in that, to even later when Jack goes to the police to try to stop the end of Project Mayhem.

The fourth rule of writing a film like Fight Club is

to use a careful three-act structure. Generally, when we talk about a three-act structure, we talk about a film that has a certain amount of symmetry#0151for example, we can easily divide the film into quarters#0151the first act consumes the first quarter, the second act the middle two quarters and the last act the final quarter. In a two-hour film, then, the first act essentially covers the first half hour or the first 30 pages of the script, the second act the middle hour or roughly from pages 31-90, and the final act the last half hour or roughly from pages 91-120.

However, it's important to think of these guides as approximate measures and not absolutes. Clearly, the middle act, which in which we see the development of all of the elements introduced in Act I, must be the longest, and to avoid a film that seems too top heavy or too bottom heavy, the first and third acts should be approximately the same length, to avoid the feeling that a film opens too slowly or closes to abruptly or has an ending that is too drawn out. Generally, the first act of the film ends when the character makes some sort of change#0151either willingly or because circumstances force him or to make the change. At the same time, the second act generally ends with another change that somehow echoes the change at the end of Act I. In Fight Club, act one ends with Tyler's offer to Jack that he live with him; Act II ends with Tyler's disappearance. Notice how the end of Act I completes a thread introduced at the beginning of it#0151Jack's reliance on Tyler's hospitality. At the end of Act I, Jack is homeless, on his own; at the end of Act II, while he is not homeless, he is again on his own. Note, too, how the significant action at the midpoint also echoes this theme, as Jack leaves his job#0151and the purpose of Fight Club immediately escalates, as it comes out of the basement and more in the open as a guerrilla movement. Some people call the mid point "The point of no return," as it is here that the character makes a decision that changes things so significantly that his or her only course is to move forward to the resolution.

The fifth rule of writing a film like Fight Club is

make us care about every character who will be in jeopardy, no matter whether they are significant or less significant. For example, let's look at Bob, the one member of Fight Club who dies. He is the first character we meet, aside from Tyler and Jack, when the film cuts from the scene in the high rise with a gun in Jack's mouth and the first support group. The film carefully plays the right cards, as we learn that Bob, at one time, had it all#0151he had developed some trendy fitness program#0151and lost it all, meaning he already had a tragic fall even before he ends up dead as a result of project Mayhem. For films to work effectively, as we talked about last week, characters must seem to operate as much out of the audience's desire for some action as they do from their own motivation At some point, a film must make its final turn toward home, and the film must do something to push the action in that direction, something drastic. Without Bob's death, it's harder for us to believe Jack's resolve to end Project Mayhem is inevitable, but since the film has manipulated us into caring about Bob, his death accomplishes just that. Likewise, when Marla is caught at the end of the end of the film and brought to the high rise for Jack/Tyler, we must care about her if we are to be concerned about the level of her jeopardy. And so: it must be clear that she has felt that Jack/Tyler has been playing her badly; and she must come close to getting away, so that when she comes back, her level of jeopardy is compounded by the fact that she came close to getting away.

The sixth rule of writing a film like Fight Club is

alternate lows with highs and highs with lows for emotional effect. Jack has insomnia (low); Jack finds cure for it by going to support groups (high). Jack's cure is jeopardized by the arrival of Marla (low). Jack works out compromise with Marla over who will go to the groups when (high). Jack's condo gets blown up (low). Jack arranges to move in with Tyler (high). Bar owner comes into the bar and orders group out (low). Tyler fights him and the bar owner relents (high). Boss reprimands Jack (low) but Jack blackmails boss for salary (high). Tyler and Jack meet Raymond, the liquor store clerk, and Tyler puts a gun to Raymond's head (low) but then Tyler tells Raymond to go and live the kind of life he really wants to live, allowing hope to arise from the bad situation (high). Jack learns about Project Mayhem's ultimate goal and goes to police, to try to stop it (high). Cops turn out to be in the plot and try to castrate Jack (low). We think Marla is safe (high); she is brought back by Project Mayhem members (low). Jack and Tyler argue and Jack shoots self in the head (low). He lives (high). Note that the film really builds the emotional impact of the ending by reversals, notably the fact that Jack survives his self-inflicted gunshot wound. It makes the ending more potent because of the ending that might have been, if that makes sense.

The seventh rule of writing a film like Fight Club is

remember that a film is the story of a journey of a character, from point A to point B to point C and through to point Z. On a journey, however, we must, along the way, have a sense of progress. We have to have a convenient way of measuring distance traveled. Films accomplish this through a process I call benchmarking. That is, films will employ repetition of some kind to give us the opportunity to reflect on where the character has come from to that point. For example, we see Tyler twice in a waiter's uniform; we have two sequences in which Jack criss-crosses the country on planes, and so on.

The eighth rule of writing a film like Fight Club is

employ contrasts for greatest effect. For example, when Jack moves into Tyler's house, we have to have a sense by which to judge just how bad the place is. Without the contrast to Jack's previous shrine to materialism, we have no idea of how far down he has come. But this also works when it comes to establishing character traits-for us to see just how reckless and crazed Tyler is, we have to have Jack against which to compare him. Jack's caution helps to place Tyler on a spectrum. Also, Bob seems all the more, what?, inept in contrast to the military efficiency of others in Project Mayhem.

The ninth rule of writing a film like Fight Club is

a character, in the end, must face the ultimate test to prove his or her mettle.

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