20 Things You Didn't Know About Fight Club
11. The Differences Between The Novel And The Film
Jim Uhls’ script is remarkably faithful to Palahniuk’s novel, but there are key differences between the two.
First, in the book the narrator and Tyler meet at a nudist beach, not on a plane. Tyler is constructing a driftwood edifice so that, one minute out of every day, its shadow will become that of a giant, perfectly proportioned hand.
In the book, Tyler picks up the cry-for-help phone call from Marla, leading to their affair: the film has Jack pick up the call but choose to ignore her, leaving us with the tease of what might have happened had he saved her rather than Tyler.
Palahniuk’s novel has Marla burning herself with lye by accident, while the movie makes a significant rite of passage out of the incident.
The ending has the most significant changes. In the novel, Tyler plans to destroy the building he’s in, making himself a martyr. Marla and a collection of support group members try to reason with the narrator, but the bomb simply fails to go off and he shoots himself.
The movie has Tyler acting with far grander, more political motives, targeting several credit card company offices to eliminate their books and give America a clean slate.
In the book, the narrator wakes up in a psychiatric hospital, although he believes himself to be in Heaven and that his doctor is God. Marla writes to him, and the orderlies, Project Mayhem cultists, whisper encouragement to him and call him ‘sir’, implying that Tyler will cycle back into control again.