Fight Club is the 76th episode of Screen Junkies comedy series Honest Trailers. It was written by Spencer Gilbert, Dan Murrell, Ian Weinreich, Matthew Brian Cohen and Andy Signore. It was narrated by Jon Bailey as Epic Voice Guy. It parodies the 1999 drama film Fight Club. The video was published on October 14, 2014, to coincide with the film's 15th anniversary. It is 3 minutes and 48 seconds long. It has been viewed over 6.6 million times.
Watch Honest Trailers - Fight Club on YouTube
"Revisit this high-budget Hollywood movie that has an anti-capitalist message, yet features tons of product placement, a spin-off PlayStation game, a graphic novel sequel, two collector's editions, and of course, officially licensed soap. I am Jack's missing sense of irony." ~ Honest Trailers - Fight Club
Script[]
Based on the book by Chuck Pala- Palah- uh, I'm not gonna pronounce that (Chuck Palahniuk), comes the film that inspired an entire generation of college dorm room posters: Fight Club. We're totally about to break the first rule, aren't we?
Meet Tyler Durden...oh, uh, I mean Jack, or whatever (The Narrator). He's a normal guy with a steady job, nice condo, and plenty of free time, which in the late '90s meant something was horribly wrong with your life (shows clips from American Beauty, The Matrix, and Office Space). Everything will change when Jack creates the impossibly cool alter ego Tyler Durden, a porn-splicing, soup-pissing, soap-making badass who's basically the Che Guevara of imaginary friends.
Follow Jack/Tyler on their quest to save us from all of our first-world problems (Tyler: Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy sh** that we don't need.) as they tear down our society of mindless consumer slaves by building a society of mindless actual slaves, but since he's so hot, barely anyone will realize he's a total hypocrite. Aaabs.
Enter their secret underground world of fight clubs, the only place for modern men to release their violent urges, except for boxing, wrestling, football, mixed martial arts, gun ranges, action movies, video games, hunting, mosh pits, hard core hip-hop, and war. Strip down and join in their out-of-control punch-fests and their anarchy-obsessed terrorist group, where the only thing they love more than violence and chaos is following the rules.
Tyler: The first rule of fight club is, you do not talk about fight club.
Project Mayhem Member: Sir, the first rule of Project Mayhem is, you do not ask questions, sir.
Tyler: Second rule of fight club...third rule of fight club...fourth rule...fifth rule...sixth rule...seventh rule...
Project Mayhem Members: Sir, the first rule of Project Mayhem...
Angel Face: Sir, the first rule of Project Mayhem...
Project Mayhem Members: The first rule of Project Mayhem--
The Narrator: Shut up!
Take a break from all of the sweaty guy-on-guy action to experience some of the other repressed fantasies, like threatening your boss, blowing up buildings, sticking your d*ck in crazy, punching Jared Leto in the face, and littering, lots and lots of littering. Take that, society!
Then prepare yourself for a twist ending we all should've seen coming (The Narrator: We're the same person./Tyler: That's right.), where the movie does everything it can to show you that Tyler isn't real...
The Narrator: We have the exact same briefcase...Sometimes, Tyler spoke for me...(while punching himself) For some reason, I thought of my first fight with Tyler.
Marla: Who are you talking to?
Tyler: Shut up.
The Narrator: This conversation...
Tyler: ...is over.
The Narrator: ...is over.
...but nothing to explain why shooting yourself in the face gets rid of him.
Project Mayhem Member: Are you all right, sir?
The Narrator (in a strained voice): Oh, yeah, I'm okay.
Are you, though?
So revisit this high-budget Hollywood movie that has an anti-capitalist message, yet features tons of product placement, a spin-off PlayStation game, a graphic novel sequel, two collector's editions, and of course, officially licensed soap. I am Jack's missing sense of irony.
Starring Brad's Pits (Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden); Stop Hitting Yourself, Stop Hitting Yourself (Edward Norton as The Narrator); The Corpse Bride (Helena Bonham Carter as Marla Singer); Dallas Fighters Club (Jared Leto as Angel Face); Mewwwwbs (Meat Loaf as Bob Paulson); and Happy Feet (penguin).
Fight Club.
(The Narrator and Marla watch buildings collapsing while "Where Is My Mind?" by the Pixies plays in the background) Like this video if you downloaded this Pixies song off Napster.
Trivia[]
- Screen Junkies have produced Honest Trailers for several other movies released in 1999 including The Matrix, The Blair Witch Project, Deep Blue Sea, and Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. See list of Honest Trailers for more.
- An Honest Trailer Commentary for this episode was recorded and was available on the Screen Junkies Plus until the website/app was discontinued. Screen Junkies don't currently have any way of releasing the video.
Reception []
Honest Trailers - Fight Club has an 98.6% approval rating from YouTube viewers. JOE said the Honest Trailer was "very, very funny" and said the highlights from the video were "the hypocrisy of the leading character and the crisis endured by males in the late 90s." IndieWire appreciated that the Honest Trailer pointed out that "the allegedly anti-corporate film was financed by a major studio, and launched a spin-off video game and graphic novel sequel among other things." Geek Tyrant noted "I hate seeing good movies get torn down, but at least the Screen Junkies do it in a very funny way and with style." The site declared the Honest Trailer was "great" and "fans of the movie will get a laugh." BroBible said Screen Junkies "make a few salient points" but declared the film was still "legendary."
CinemaBlend noted that "the fact that Fight Club is widely regarded as one of the best movies of the last 25 years doesn’t mean that it’s above reproach." CInemaBlend also said the Honest Trailer was "hilarious" and "a pretty accurate account of what’s so preposterous about the film." In the same article, CinemaBlend wrote "Honest Trailers don’t just make fun of Fight Club though. They lampoon its audience too, who lapped up its first world problems message with aplomb to such an extent that you couldn’t enter a college dorm room for the next decade without seeing a poster for it on someone’s wall. Plus, we should all have really seen the twist coming."
Pajiba also remarked upon the way the Honest Trailer lampooned the film's audience, writing "Like many of you, I spent much of the early aughts held firmly under the spell of Fight Club. It was the perfect movie for an impressionable youth floundering after the disappointment of the world not ending with Y2K. The movie blew my wee young mind, and this Honest Trailer finally gives a perfect explanation as to why.... But it’s good to have our youthful obsessions rubbed in our faces every once in a while."
Production credits[]
Video thumbnail for Honest Trailers - Fight Club
Voiceover Narration by Jon Bailey
Title design by Robert Holtby
Series Created by Andy Signore & Brett Weiner
Episode Written by Spencer Gilbert, Dan Murrell, Ian Weinreich, Matthew Brian Cohen, and Andy Signore
Edited by Dan Murrell and Jason Inman
External links []
- Fight Club Just Got A Hilarious Middle Finger From This Honest Trailer - CinemaBlend article
- The Honest Trailer for 'Fight Club' Is Kind of Brilliant - Her.ie article
- An Honest Trailer For ‘Fight Club’ For Its 15th Anniversary - Bro Bible article
- Video: The honest trailer about Fight Club is well worth a look - JOE article
- Honest Trailers Proves That ‘Fight Club’ Is Pretty Hypocritical - Uproxx article
- Watch: Honest Trailer For ‘Fight Club’ Breaks The First Rule - IndieWire article
- Honest Trailer for FIGHT CLUB - Geek Tyrant article
- This Honest Trailer Is the Best Thing About 'Fight Club' - Pajiba article