China changed Fight Club to ensure a pro-government ending. Composite by Coffee or Die Magazine.
In David Fincher’s 1999 cult classic Fight Club, the Pixies’ “Where Is My Mind” adds a hallucinatory magic to the climactic final scene as Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter stand hand in hand in a high-rise building, watching an entire cityscape explode around them. Tyler Durden’s anarchist fever dream is realized as an evil consumerist society crumbles. It’s an epic end to the psychological mindfuck that blew everyone away in 1999.
But in China, government censors have made sure anyone streaming the film on the country’s Tencent Video service will never see that ending.
The Chinese government altered the ending of Fight Club to comply with the country’s strict censorship policies, which ban films that contain any disruption of public order or undermine social stability. In Chinese movies, criminals must always be stopped so “societal harmony” can be restored. Before the Pixies get a chance to strum that first chord and the explosions begin erupting, a black screen emerges with a message:
“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. He was discharged from the hospital in 2012.”
This Don’t worry! Nothing to see here! state-sponsored message has to be the most Chinese thing China has done since practically bullying John Cena into apologizing in Mandarin.
While the anti-anarchy ending completely changes the film, novelist Chuck Palahniuk, whose book the film is based on, made light of the strange censorship.
“Have You Seen This Sh*t? This is SUPER wonderful! Everyone gets a happy ending in China!” Palahniuk tweeted.
In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Palahniuk said he’s not surprised by China’s censorship and he’s used to having his works banned, even in the United States.
“What I find really interesting is that my books are heavily banned throughout the U.S.,” he said. “The Texas prison system refuses to carry my books in their libraries. A lot of public schools and most private schools refuse to carry my books. But it’s only an issue once China changes the end of a movie? I’ve been putting up with book banning for a long time.”
If history tells us anything, it’s that a government hellbent on controlling what its people consume will consider even the smallest crack in the facade a direct threat to stability. Something as harmless as a Picasso painting rattled Hitler’s Germany enough to get the artist’s work banned. A 1990s Brad Pitt movie appears to be equally menacing to China’s authoritarian government.
Read Next: Chosin Movie Is Latest in String of War Dramas To Dominate Chinese Box Office
Mac Caltrider is a senior staff writer for Coffee or Die Magazine. He served in the US Marine Corps and is a former police officer. Caltrider earned his bachelor’s degree in history and now reads anything he can get his hands on. He is also the creator of Pipes & Pages, a site intended to increase readership among enlisted troops. Caltrider spends most of his time reading, writing, and waging a one-man war against premature hair loss.
Biden will award the Medal of Honor to a Vietnam War Army helicopter pilot who risked his life to save a reconnaissance team from almost certain death.
Ever wonder how much Jack Mandaville would f*ck sh*t up if he went back in time? The American Revolution didn't even see him coming.
A nearly 200-year-old West Point time capsule that at first appeared to yield little more than dust contains hidden treasure, the US Military Academy said.
Since the 1920s, a low-tech tabletop replica of an aircraft carrier’s flight deck has been an essential tool in coordinating air operations.
For nearly as long as the Army-Navy football rivalry, the academies’ hoofed mascots have stared each other down from the sidelines. Here are their stories.
Zelenskyy said on his Telegram channel the weapon was produced by Ukraine’s Ministry of Strategic Industries but gave no other details.
Ambushes make for great action scenes. Here are seven of the best to ever grace the big screen.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the launch occurred Wednesday but gave no further details, such as how far the missile flew.
