Fight Club gets its original ending restored in China after backlash for the edited version

Virgin Radio

9 Feb 2022, 12:27

Film fans in China will finally get to watch the final scenes of Fight Club in all their glory. 

As we reported back in January, the famous final moments of the 1999 David Fincher classic were replaced with an entirely new edited version uploaded to Chinese streaming site Tencent, causing a widespread backlash. 

In the original movie, Tyler Durden, played by Brad Pitt, is unveiled as a figment of the imagination of Edward Norton’s The Narrator. The Narrator then kills Tyler, but it’s too late to stop the multiple bombs rigged across the city. 

Pretty iconic right? Well in the Tencent version, something very different happened. Instead of that killer final shot, the action fades to black after The Narrator gets rid of Durden by shooting himself in the head, but - crucially - before a single building explodes.

In lieu of the spectacular explosions in the original version of the film, a message appeared that read: “Through the clues provided by Tyler, the police rapidly figured out the whole plan and arrested all criminals, successfully preventing the bomb from exploding.”

The message goes on to read: “After the trial, Tyler was sent to a lunatic asylum receiving psychiatric treatment. He was discharged from the hospital in 2012.”

Now, after the massive upset and damning headlines across the world, Tencent Video have restored the original ending, according to The Guardian, who say domestic social media confirmed the reversal. 

Those likely to be happy with the changes include charity Human Rights Watch, who suggested the censored version was ‘dystopian’. 

Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk will no doubt be pleased with the news. He had fun with the censoring news last month, sarcastically tweeting that it was ‘SUPER wonderful’.

Even the Pixies, who provided the legendary outro track Where Is My Mind for the explosive final frames, welcomed the restoration, adding on Twitter: “#WhereIsMyMind returns!’