One Annoying Fight Club Movie Trope Chuck Palahniuk Hated (But Had to Accept)

Despite Fight Club's most important rule, everyone is talking about it, even years after the book and the movie were released.

The story has already become a classic of sorts; first thanks to Chuck Palahniuk's 1996 novel of the same name, and then due to David Fincher's brilliant adaptation of it.

Up to this day, Fight Club is embroiled in controversy — some people believe it teaches the audience all the wrong lessons, while others think that it's something the cult classic can be forgiven for.

Fincher's movie tweaked the story here and there, as it obviously had to. However, there is one particular tweak that Chuck Palahniuk himself is not a huge fan of.

"I wasn’t a big fan of the ticking bomb, that counting down clock near the end," the author revealed to Variety. "And [screenwriter] Jim Uhls stuck it in because there’s obviously such a trope, and I’ve grown to accept that it is a trope."

Palahniuk meant the countdown in the final confrontation between the movie's unnamed narrator and his second personality, Tyler Durden. Wrapping his mind around the fact that he himself is Tyler leads the narrator to shooting himself, trying to kill the alter-ego; all that drama unfolds as the bomb set to blow up skyscrapers with credit records is ticking.

The ticking bomb countdown was truly a tired trope, even back at the time when Fight Club was released. The 90s movies were full of scenes where the main character miraculously manages to free himself/save the world/solve the puzzle right at the last moment.

However, the cliched trope doesn't ruin the movie's cult status; now that even Palahniuk himself made peace with the trope, it's only fair to accept that even classics like Fight Club have to bow down to the genre restrictions.

Source: Variety