I think Palahniuk said the movie's ending is a better way to end a movie, and the book's ending is a better way to end a book. Or something to that effect. Here's how the book ends:
Spoiler: The narrator does not fight Tyler in the parking garage. After realizing that Tyler had murdered a bureaucrat, the narrator goes to a fight club and intentionally gets his ass kicked. His attempt to get himself killed only results in him being knocked unconscious. This allows Tyler to take over his body. Tyler takes him to a building that he's rigged to explode. But the building doesn't blow because the trigger was botched.
The narrator shoots himself in the mouth, and thinks he is dead. But he was only shot through the cheek (his other cheek was wounded earlier in the book). The narrator confuses the asylum he is committed to with Heaven, his psychiatrist with God, etc. He also learns the space monkeys are still working to destroy civilization. The end.
Sorry if this is incomplete, but it was done from memory. I was pretty amazed how closely the film follewed the book in the first two acts. I personally prefer the ending to the book. [Edited last by Calvin Cullen on September 02, 2001 at 02:43 AM]
I personally preferred the ending to the movie.
Spoiler:Jack and Marla standing in front the windows while all the buildings explode.
There was just something great about it. I dunno.
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"What if he honks in the car?"
"I'm giving you a no honk guaruntee."
It has been a while since I read the book as well, but I also seem to remember, they put a little surprise in it.
Spoiler:
First, the details of how the bomb failed. throughout the book it is repeated some ways to detonate a bomb, and he always ends it by mentioning that one particluar method never worked for him. Tyler used the wrong method on the buildings. Also, in the book it is revealed that Jack is a "tourist", but the support group is still sympathethic to him because he still has a problem the group is helping, and the book has Marla with the whole support group (Can't remember which, BTW) showing up.
Also, Jack is put in an anylum, but the space monkeys simply stop operating, that is certainly my impression. However, the space monkeys were operating more or less without his control during the end of the book. So while the terrorist incidents stop, most workers in the asylum continue referring to Jack as 'sir', suggesting to me, that Jack is trapped in a double sense, because the space monkeys are simply waiting for Jack's release, and since Jack is more or less normal, or at least more aware, he knows his release will start the whole thing over again, which he does not want.
As a person who is still interested in how the BOOK Fight Club endS, I'd like to know:
HOW IS THE ENDING OF THE BOOK A SPOILER IN THE "MOVIES" SECTION?
????
As a person who is still interested in how the BOOK Fight Club ends, I'd like to know:
HOW IS THE ENDING OF THE BOOK A SPOILER IN THE "MOVIES" SECTION?
????
I'd say giving away the ending of the book, especially when it is different from the film adaptation, is worthy of the spoiler tag. The information might spoil the experience of reading the book - it would eliminate any surprises and distract from the differences between the book and film.
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Colin Dunn