MJB SCRIPT REVIEW | FIGHT CLUB

“𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗻.”

No messing about this week. We’re into platinum territory. FIGHT CLUB.

Plot in a nutshell: An insomniac office worker, bored with his dead end existence, meets a devil-may-care soap maker. Together they form an underground fight club that steadily evolves into something much, much worse…

Already five pages in and I know this is going to be in my top three. This is one of those scripts that just won’t die. Or ever age. It will always be applicable. It speaks to the work-a-day lackey in all of us, who is simply pissed off at trying to exist in what is frankly a withering existence, made into a torturous survival game. I know I come across as negative on this occasion, but reading this script, it’s hard not to see things like that. It’s not that this script is dark…it’s REALLY dark. And yet, exciting. How is this achieved? With masterful skill, baby.

What the writer is doing here is grasping at the seed inside all of us that blooms into our rebellious flower. Some of us have an almost imperceptible chia seed. Some of us have an RHS Flower Show winning floral display. But we all yearn for some sense of rebellion or the ability to fight back against the system that does its best to hold us back. Some days with the plain and simple need to keep order. And this script is all about removing order. You can see the logic. It’s terrifying, with a simple path that shouldn’t be accessible or informative. But there it is, emblazoned in a blood soaked array of signposts. This is art with purpose. Yes, this script is male centric, with any female character reduced to either an image in the background or a supporting lunatic (Marla being the only female character of any merit). But then this is a story about male rage and the violent, primal responses at a steadily growing lack of control over being made impotent by a system that opposes the very violent natures men suppress on a daily basis in order to “fit in”. And it could very easily be applied to to anyone who wants to break free, fight back and even tear society down. Powerful, with a capital P.

So, what did I learn from FIGHT CLUB?

1. Dialogue - This script goes beyond simple straightforward storytelling. This is the emptiness inside a desperate person’s head, made real. This is all the verbal garbage that we speak to ourselves on a daily basis inside our screaming brains, poured out onto paper and weaponised. You want to remember the dialogue, but it’s so good you won’t. Only repeat readings will make things stick. And then you won’t be able to get rid of it. Like a cancer.

2. Actors - please don’t try using any of the dialogue in this script for showreels or auditions. It’s going to come off desperate. Read this script so that you fully understand what an incredible script for an actor looks like. The type of dialogue you’re looking for. The type of food that will give you infinite nourishment in your performance. Then study it for plot turns. Have a mull on how the actors on set handled days where shooting was out of story order. Keep a handle on how the characterisation steps were handled for THAT.

3. “We just had a near life experience”. Subvert the norm. Turn things on their head. Get out of your safe space. Look at things in such a different light that it makes you feel nauseous with panic at what may or may not be acceptable. Chaos is the norm here and it’s liberating. Try it in something you feel is dull. The change in your writing could be phenomenal.

4. On p.120 there is a wonderful moment where Jack starts to question his existence. Is he part of Tyler’s mind or is Tyler part of his? The brain achingly exciting thought that one character could be another is such a tantalising trope and it’s taken the whole script thus far to infer this. Original and wholly interesting, it’s a brain melter worth absorbing.

5. “I am Jacks…” - a running mantra for the lead character as both a record of his inner, inner thoughts and a true statement on the view of his perceptions towards the outside world. This is a fascinating tool perceptively used and richly detailed. Takes a voice over, based upon a characters demons being verbalised, to another level.

6. That ending. If you don’t know it, it’s a doozy. Not so much a twist as a statement. By no means original per se, but certainly a bold direction and true to the Hollywood movie epithet that crime doesn’t pay and crims don’t get away with their plans. Except these guys do. Sort of. My head still hurts, if I’m honest.

I would argue that the pace lessens ever so slightly from p.100 onwards, as the boot camp regimen kicks in. But this is like saying the script goes from being an A++ to an A+ part way through. By this stage you’re in for the whole ride and there’s no getting off. Certainly not without you wondering what happens next for days afterwards. IF you do leave early.

You aren’t going to be this good. I’m never going to be this good. But the great thing about the really incredible scripts is; they push you to try. I want to beat this script. One day, I may need to beat this script. But for now, I’m just grateful it exists.

Read it. Simply because you have to.

Link to the script:

https://thescriptsavant.com/movies/Fight_Club.pdf