FIGHT CLUB

JACK

It becomes an addiction.

MARLA

Yeah ...

Jack almost smiles, then turns sullen. He pulls back from her.

LEADER

Now, the closing prayer.

JACK

Look, I can't go to a group with a faker present.

Marla's mood hardens.

MARLA

Well, I can't either.

LEADER

Oh, bless us and hold us ...

PG 18

JACK

We'll split up the week.

Marla starts out of the room. Jack follows her.

LEADER

... help us and help us.

EXT. CHURCH - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS

Marla gets to the sidewalk, moving quickly along.

JACK

You can have lymphoma, tuberculosis and --

MARLA

No, you take tuberculosis. My smoking doesn't go over well.

JACK

I think testicular cancer should be no contest.

MARLA

You have your balls, don't you? Technically, *I* have more of a right

to be there than you.

JACK

You're kidding.

MARLA

I don't know -- am I?

Jack follows Marla into

INT. LAUNDROMAT - CONTINUOUS

As she walks with authority up to an unwatched DRYER. She takes out

all the clothes, sets them on a table and sorts through them, picking

out jeans, pants and shirts.

MARLA

I'll take the parasites.

JACK

You can't have *both* parasites. You take blood parasites and --

MARLA

I want brain parasites.

She opens another dryer and does the same thing again.

PG 19

JACK

Okay. I'll take blood parasites and I'll take organic brain dementia

and --

MARLA

I want that.

JACK

You can't have the whole brain!

MARLA

So far, you have four and I have two!

JACK

Well, then, take blood parasites. Now, we each have three.

Marla gathers up all the chosen garments and heads back for the door.

She whooshes past Jack.

EXT. SIDEWALK - CONTINUOUS

Jack follows, bewildered.

JACK

You left half your clothes.

HONK! Jack starts. Marla's led him into the street with traffic

barreling down. She defiantly stomps in front of the cars, which

screech to a halt and blare their horns. Jack dashes across. Marla

heads into a THRIFT STORE. Jack follows.

INT. THRIFT STORE - CONTINUOUS

Marla drops all the clothes on a back counter. An old CLERK sifts

through the clothes, marks on a pad.

JACK

What are you doing? You're selling those clothes?

Marla steps down hard on Jack's foot. He jerks, wincing in pain.

MARLA (for the Clerk to hear)

Yes, I'm selling some clothes.

The Clerk starts to ring up the various amounts he's assessed.

PG 20

MARLA

So, we each have three -- that's six. What about the seventh day? I

want ascending bowel cancer.

JACK (V.O.)

The girl had done her homework.

JACK

*I* want ascending bowel cancer.

The Clerk gives Marla and Jack a strange look as he hands over money to

Marla.

MARLA

That's your favorite, too? Tried to slip it by me, huh?

JACK

We'll split it. You get it the first and third Sunday of the month.

MARLA

Deal.

They shake hands. Jack starts to withdraw his; Marla holds it.

MARLA

I guess this is goodbye.

JACK

Let's not make a big deal out of this.

She walks toward the door. Jack watches her go.

MARLA (not looking back)

How's this for not making a big deal?

EXT. SIDEWALK - CONTINUOUS

Jack dashes out and catches up to her.

JACK

Uh, Marla. Should we exchange phone numbers?

MARLA

Should we?

JACK

In case we want to switch nights.

PG 21

MARLA

Uh-hunh. Sure.

He takes out a business card and a pen. He writes his home number on

the back and hands it to her. She takes his pen, grabs his hand and

writes her number on his palm. She gives him a quick grin, slaps the

pen back into his palm, then saunters out into the middle of the

street, causing more screeching of tires and honking. She turns back,

holding up the card.

MARLA

It doesn't have your name on it. Who are you? Cornelius? Any of the

stupid names you give at group?

Jack starts to yell, but the traffic noise is too loud. Marla just

shakes her head at him, turns, and keeps moving away. A bus moves into

view and stops, obscuring her.

JACK (V.O.)

Marla's philosophy of life, I later found out, was that she could die

at any moment. The tragedy of her life was that she didn't.

INT. AIRPLANE CABIN - DAY

As the plane touches down for landing and the cabin BUMPS, Jack's eyes

pop open.

JACK (V.O.)

You wake up at O'Hare.

INT. AIRPLANE CABIN - DAY

Jack snaps awake again, looking around, disoriented.

JACK (V.O.)

You wake up at SeaTac.

EXT. HIGHWAY - DUSK

The rear end of a car is visible sticking up by the side of the road.

Jack stands near the car, marking on a document. The SUN SETS behind

him.

INT. AIRPORT - NIGHT

Jack walks up to a gate counter. An ATTENDANT smiles at him.

ATTENDANT

Check-in for that flight doesn't begin for another two hours, Sir.

PG 22

Jack looks at his watch, steps away and looks at an overhanging clock.

His eyes are bleary as he reads it, adjusts his watch.

JACK (V.O.)

Pacific, Mountain, Central. You lose an hour, you gain an hour. This

is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time.

INT. AIRPLANE CABIN - DAY

Jack's eyes snap open as the plane LANDS.

JACK (V.O.)

You wake up at Air Harbor International.

INT. AIRPORT WALKWAY

Jack stands on a conveyor belt, briefcase at his feet, moving slowly

with the flow of the belt. His tired eyes watch people on the opposite

conveyor belt, moving past him.

JACK (V.O.)

If you wake up at a different time and a different place, can you be a

different person?

Jack's eyes catch sight of TYLER -- who we recognize from the opening

sequence -- on the opposite conveyor belt. They pass each other.

INT. AIRPLANE CABIN - IN FLIGHT - NIGHT

Jack sits next to a BUSINESSMAN. As they have idle CONVERSATION, we

MOVE IN ON Jack's fold-out tray.

An ATTENDANT'S HANDS set coffee down with a small packet of sugar and a

small container of cream.

JACK (V.O.)

The charm of traveling is: everywhere I go -- tiny life.

Single-serving sugar, single-serving cream.

CUT TO: The hands place a plastic dinner tray down. Jack opens the

various containers.

JACK (V.O.)

Single-serving butter, single-serving salt. Single-serving cordon

blue.

PG 23

INT. HOTEL ROOM - BATHROOM - NIGHT

Jack brushes his teeth.

JACK (V.O.)

Single-use toothbrush. Single-serving mouthwash, single serving soap.

Jack picks up an individual, wrapped Q-TIP, looks at it. He moves out

of the bathroom into

MAIN AREA

And sits on the bed. He turns on the television. It's tuned to the

"Sheraton Channel" and shows WAITERS serving people in a large BANQUET

ROOM. Jack stops brushing his teeth, feels something near him on the

bed, finds it, lifts it. It's a small MINT.

INT. AIRPLANE CABIN - IN FLIGHT - NIGHT

Jack sits next to a frumpy WOMAN and they chat. Jack turns to look at

his food and takes a bite. He turns back and it's

-- a BALD MAN sitting next to him, talking. He takes another bite,

turns back and it's

-- a BUSINESSMAN sitting next to him. He takes another bite, turns

back, and it's

-- a BUSINESS WOMAN sitting next to him.

JACK (V.O.)

The people I meet on each flight -- they're single-serving *friends*.

Between take-off and landing, we have our time together, then we never

see each other again.

INT. AIRPLANE CABIN - LANDING

Jack's eyes snap open.

JACK (V.O.)

You wake up at Logan.

EXT. CONCRETE LOT - DAY

Surrounded by cinderblock walls. Two TECHNICIANS in uniform lead Jack

to a WAREHOUSE door. They open it, revealing a BURNT-OUT SHELL of a

WRECKED AUTOMOBILE. They move into the

PG 24

INT. WAREHOUSE - CONTINUOUS

And Jack sets down his briefcase, opens it, and starts to make notes on

a FORM.

JACK (V.O.)

I'm a recall coordinator. My job was to apply the formula. It's

simple arithmetic.

TECHNICIAN #1

Here's where the baby went through the window. Three points.

JACK (V.O.)

It's a story problem. A new car built by my company leaves Boston

traveling at 60 miles per hour. The rear differential locks up.

TECHNICIAN #2

The teenager's braces locked around the backseat ashtray. Kind makes a

good "anti-smoking" ad.

JACK (V.O.)

The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now: do we

initiate a recall?

TECHNICIAN #1

The father must've been obese. See how the fat burned into the

driver's seat, mixed with the dye of his shirt? Kind like modern art.

JACK (V.O.)

You take the number of vehicles in the field (A) and multiply it by the

probable rate of failure (B), multiply the result by the average

out-of-court settlement (C). A times B times C equals X. If X is less

than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.

INT. AIRPLANE CABIN - TAKING OFF - NIGHT

Next to Jack, a chubby, middle-aged LADY gawks at him, appalled.

LADY

... Which ... car company do you work for?

PG 25

JACK

A major one.

LADY

Oh.

Jack turns his attention to the window as the PLANE ASCENDS. The

lady's VOICE FADES. Jack sees a PELICAN get SUCKED into the TURBINE.

His face remains bland during the following:

The plane BUCKLES -- the cabin wobbles loosely. People begin to panic.

Oxygen masks fall.

JACK (V.O.)

Life insurance pays off triple if you die on a business trip.

A forceful IMPACT with the ground and people -- except for Jack --

LURCH FORWARD, some jerking against their seatbelts, magazines and

other objects fly forward.

JACK (V.O.)

No more expense accounts, receipt required for over twenty-five

dollars.

A BALL OF FIRE swoops forward from the rear of the cabin and

INCINERATES EVERYTHING AND EVERYBODY -- except Jack, who remains in his

same position in his seat, with the bland expression.

JACK (V.O.)

No more haircuts. Nothing matters, not even bad breath.

DING! -- the seatbelt light goes OUT.

*EVERYTHING IS NORMAL*.

JACK (V.O.)

Always the same fantasy. But -- no such luck.

Jack's eyes are closed. He seems asleep. From next to him, a VOICE

we've heard before.

VOICE

There are three ways to make napalm. One, mix equal parts of gasoline

and frozen orange juice.

PG 26

Jack's eyes snap open and he turns to see *Tyler*, who is staring out

the window. Without turning to Jack, he continues:

TYLER

Two, mix equal parts of gasoline and diet cola. Three, dissolve

crumbled cat litter in gasoline until the mixture is thick.

Jack's smile fades. Tyler turns to him and grins. He reaches down

under the seat in front of him and pulls up a briefcase. Jack looks at

it with trepidation.

JACK (V.O.)

This is how I met --

Tyler offers his hand, Jack takes it and Tyler squeezes firmly and

shakes hands.

TYLER

Tyler Durden. You know why they have oxygen masks on planes?

JACK

Supply oxygen?

TYLER

That's a sharp answer. The oxygen gets you high. You're taking in

giant, panicked breaths and, suddenly, you become euphoric and docile,

and you accept your fate.

Tyler grabs a safety instruction card from the seat pocket and shows

Jack the passive faces on the drawn figures. Tyler imitates the face.

Jack laughs; he is completely beguiled.

JACK

What do you do, Tyler?