Hollywood Director David Fincher's fan-favourite movie Fight Club (1999) has undergone some edits after release on China's streaming platform Tencent Video recently. Fight Club stars Brad Pitt and Edward Norton in lead roles and shows its 'anti-authority' characters causing mayhem and succeeding. However, upon release in China, the movie's ending has been completely changed and reportedly some of the scenes have also been edited out.
In the climax scene of Fight Club, the 'Narrator' (Norton) realises that he and the 'anti-establishment' figure Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) are the same person as they plan to explode a building that contains people's credit card records, thus making them debt free. This mission is dubbed as Project Mayhem by Tyler and his team. The building explodes in the end and the mission is accomplished.
In the newly released version in China, Fight Club ending scene shows the confrontation between the Narrator and Tyler as in the original. But the exploding building scene is replaced with a black screen and the text: “The police rapidly figured out the whole plan and arrested all criminals, successfully preventing the bomb from exploding.” It adds that Tyler – a figment of the narrator’s imagination – was sent to a “lunatic asylum” for psychological treatment and was later discharged.
This change in the ending of the film has led to a huge outcry on social media and among the fans. Check out some reactions here.
Some fans shared how China has been censoring movies for the longest time and this is nothing new. As per news agency Agence France-Presse, it is not currently clear if government censors ordered the alternative ending of Fight Club or if the original movie's producers made the changes. Tencent did not comment on the matter either.
Hollywood studios often release alternative cuts in the hopes of clearing Beijing's censorship hurdles and getting access to millions of Chinese consumers.
