China’s Tencent Video has restored Fight Club’s original ending after the amendment of the final scene sparked severe backlash on social media.
The news was announced on the East Asian country’s domestic social media accounts over the weekend.
Earlier this year, the film starring Helena Bonham Carter, Brad Pitt, and Edward Norton was made available on Tencent Video.
Fight Club follows the story of a depressed man (Norton) suffering from insomnia, who meets a strange soap salesman named Tyler Durden (Pitt) and soon finds himself living in his squalid house after his perfect apartment is destroyed.
The two bored men form an underground club with strict rules and fight other men who are fed up with their mundane lives. Their perfect partnership frays when Marla (Carter), a fellow support group crasher, attracts Tyler’s attention.
In the original, The Narrator (Norton), kills off his imaginary alter ego Tyler, and then watches multiple buildings explode, suggesting his character’s plan to bring down modern civilisation is afoot.
However, in the Chinese version of the hit film, The Narrator killed Tyler, and the exploding scene was replaced with a black screen with the caption: “The police rapidly figured out the whole plan and arrested all criminals, successfully preventing the bomb from exploding.”
It also said that Tyler was sent to a “lunatic system” for treatment.
The change immediately caused outrage among fans, with many complaining that “companies shouldn’t completely change the intent and purpose of films just to sell out in Chinese markets.”
Another person wrote: “The first rule of Fight Club in China? Don’t mention the original ending. The second rule of Fight Club in China? Change it so the police win.”
