Fight Club Author Chuck Palahniuk Points Out the Censored Chinese Version Is Actually Closer to His Book

A new version of Fight Club released in China has changed the film’s ending, but author Chuck Palahniuk says it’s ended up closer to his book’s conclusion – and pointed out the irony of decrying censorship when his books are banned in many US institutions.

During an interview with TMZ, the 59-year-old author of the original novel said that, unlike many movie fans, he isn’t mad about the new Fight Club ending.

“The irony is that the way the Chinese have changed it is they’ve aligned the ending almost exactly with the ending of the book, as opposed to Fincher’s ending, which was the more spectacular visual ending,” he said. “So, in a way, the Chinese brought the movie back to the book a little bit.”

Have You Seen This Sh*t?
This is SUPER wonderful! Everyone gets a happy ending in China!

https://t.co/saVA2yro9B pic.twitter.com/20UzTi1nyI

— Chuck Palahniuk (@chuckpalahniuk) January 25, 2022

David Fincher’s original film ending shows Edward Norton’s narrator killing off his dangerous alter-ego, Tyler Durden (played by Brad Pitt), with a well-placed gunshot to his own head. He is then seen watching bomb explosions that collapse several skyscrapers as The Pixies classic ‘Where is My Mind’ plays, signaling the toppling of the global economy as the headquarters of international banks are turned to rubble.

The new movie ending can be found on the Chinese streaming platform Tencent Video, which replaces some of the final scenes with a text-only screen reading: “The police rapidly figured out the whole plan and arrested all criminals, successfully preventing the bomb from exploding,” it reads. “After the trial, Tyler was sent to lunatic asylum receiving psychological treatment. He was discharged from the hospital in 2012.”

“Tyler and the gang were all arrested,” the author said in a substack newsletter about the change. “He was tried and sentenced to a mental asylum. How amazing. I’d no idea! Justice always wins. Nothing ever exploded. Fini.”

Palahniuk’s original ending is amusingly similar, albeit without the involvement of the authorities. The novel ends with Tyler vanishing from the narrator’s head, and the bombs malfunctioning and failing to go off. The narrator attempts to shoot himself, but wakes up in a mental hospital – he believes he’s in heaven, but is approached by two hospital employees who are part of Project Mayhem, and are expecting Tyler’s return.

Palahniuk finds the outcry from some American fans to be more than a little ironic:

“What I find really interesting is that my books are heavily banned throughout the U.S.,” said Palahniuk. “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.”

Additionally, having his ending changed is nothing new. “A lot of my overseas publishers have edited the novel so the novel ends the way the movie ends,” added Palahniuk. “So, I’ve been dealing with this kind of revision for like 25 years.”

It’s unclear whether government censors in China ordered this new alternative ending, or whether other factors were involved in the abrupt change. Tencent Video is yet to comment on the edit.

Fight Club, which IGN names one of the most ‘90s movies of the 1990s, was directed by David Fincher, with a script from Jim Uhls based on the original novel by Chuck Palahniuk. Edward Norton and Brad Pitt star in the movie, alongside Helena Bonham Carter, Meat Loaf, and Jared Leto.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.