Fight Club
A 2004 fighting game based on the film of the same name.
Fight Club is a 1999 American film directed by David Fincher, starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter. It adapts Chuck Palahniuk’s 1996 novel, which was optioned by Fox 2000 Pictures producer Laura Ziskin, who hired Uhls to write the screenplay. Fincher was chosen for his enthusiasm for the story and collaborated with Uhls on the script, also seeking input from the cast and other film industry figures. The film was shot in and around Los Angeles from July to December 1998. Fincher and the cast drew comparisons to *Rebel Without a Cause* (1955) and *The Graduate* (1967), emphasizing a theme of conflict between Generation X and advertising’s value system. Studio executives disliked the film and altered Fincher’s intended marketing to minimize anticipated losses. It premiered at the 56th Venice International Film Festival on September 10, 1999, and was released in the U.S. on October 15, 1999, by 20th Century Fox. The film underperformed at the box office and polarized critics, becoming one of the most controversial and discussed films of the 1990s. It later achieved commercial success on home video, establishing a cult following and prompting media reassessment. In 2009, *The New York Times* called it the “defining cult movie of our time.” The plot follows an unnamed narrator, an insomniac automobile recall coordinator, who forms an underground fight club with soap salesman Tyler Durden and becomes entangled with Marla Singer, a woman attending support groups. The story explores the narrator’s disillusionment with consumerism and his fractured identity, culminating in the revelation that Tyler is his alternate personality. The cast includes Meat Loaf as Robert “Bob” Paulsen, Jared Leto as Angel Face, Holt McCallany as the Mechanic, and Zach Grenier as Richard Chesler.
- release_year
- 2004
- based_on
- film of the same name
- genre
- fighting video game
Quick Facts
- Director
- David Fincher
- Producer
- Art Linson · Ceán Chaffin · Ross Grayson Bell
- Screenplay
- Jim Uhls
- Based On
- Fight Club · Chuck Palahniuk
- Starring
- Brad Pitt / Edward Norton / Helena Bonham Carter
- Music
- The Dust Brothers
- Cinematography
- Jeff Cronenweth
- Editing
- James Haygood
- Studio
- Fox 2000 Pictures · Regency Enterprises · Linson Films
- Distributor
- 20th Century Fox
- Released
- 1999 · 09 · 10 · Venice · 1999 · 10 · 15 · United States
- Runtime
- 139 minutes
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
In Story mode, an original character named only Protagonist decides to join Fight Club after breaking up with his girlfriend. By winning fights, the character moves up through the ranks of Fight Club, getting closer to Project Mayhem and becoming Tyler Durden's right-hand man. The story diverges from the movie and novel in several ways to accommodate the new character. Completing Story mode unlocks Fred Durst, lead singer of Limp Bizkit, as a playable character, as per the singer's own stated demands that he becomes a playable character in any video game licensing music from his band. The game also introduces a Hardcore mode where injuries are carried over from one fight to another, which could lead to the player being so injured that they are forced to retire, though this mode only applies to custom-made characters. Levels are designed around scenes from the movie, such as Lou's bar and Paper Street.
Reader's Guide
Fight Club sports the gritty feel of the movie with injuries inflicted on players and blood splattering everywhere, including onto the screen. Fighting moves are intended to be brutally violent, such as one where the opponent's arm is visibly broken at the elbow. The game goes into mini-cutscenes showing X-rays of the character to display bones being broken. Players fight as one of the 12 original characters from the novel and movie, including Tyler Durden and Robert (Bob) Paulson. The Xbox version of the game had the ability to download extra content through Xbox Live. Upon release, Fight Club was met with negative reception. GameRankings and Metacritic gave it a score of 40.11% and 37 out of 100 for the Xbox version, and 36.84% and 36 out of 100 for the PlayStation 2 version. The game failed to achieve commercial success. Game Informer placed Fight Club at number ten in a 2011 list of 'Top Ten Fighting Games We'd Like to Forget'.
Did You Know?
- Fight Club was developed by Genuine Games and published by Vivendi Universal Games.
- The game was released on November 16, 2004 in North America and December 10, 2004 in PAL regions.
- Completing Story mode unlocks Fred Durst, lead singer of Limp Bizkit, as a playable character.
- The Xbox version supported online multiplayer and could download extra content through Xbox Live.
- Game Informer ranked Fight Club number ten in a 2011 list of 'Top Ten Fighting Games We'd Like to Forget'.
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