As you might have heard, David Fincher’s Fight Club recently began streaming on streaming service Tencent Video in China. By itself, that’s not really news, but the ending of the film was significantly altered. The original ending of the film found Edward Norton’s character killing off his alter ego Tyler Durden and watching as multiple building exploded and collapsed around him. However, the new ending finds the authorities triumphing over Project Mayhem with Tyler sent to a lunatic asylum.
Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk took to Twitter to react to the film’s new ending in China.
In a link to his substack, Chuck Palahniuk added, “Tyler and the gang were all arrested. He was tried and sentenced to a mental asylum. How amazing. I’d no idea! Justice always wins. Nothing ever exploded. Fini.” Here’s the caption that show’s up at the end of Fight Club in China.
Through the clue provided by Tyler, the police rapidly figured out the whole plan and arrested all criminals, successfully preventing the bomb from exploding. After the trial, Tyler was sent to lunatic asylum receiving psychological treatment.
The new ending was rightfully mocked by Tencent Video subscribers, but it’s far from the first time that movies have been drastically edited in China. Nicolas Cage’s Lord of War is missing about thirty minutes from the original film, with the new ending saying that his character “confessed all the crimes officially charged against him in court, and was sentenced to life imprisonment in the end.” At the moment, no one else involved with Fight Club has chimed in on the new ending, but it would be interesting to see what stars Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter, and especially director David Fincher would think of it.
What about you? Do you have some harsh words regarding the alteration, or do you think the Chinese government should switch its focus to the editing business full time?