Fight Club (1999)

Screenplay Genre: Crime / Drama / Thriller

Movie Time: 139 minutes

1. INCITING INCIDENT

During a flight for a business trip, the narrator (Edward Norton) meets Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), who is a soap salesman, and as the narrator explains, "by far the most interesting single-serving friend I've ever met." (00:21:51)

2. LOCK IN (End of Act One)

After arriving home to find his apartment has been blown up, the narrator meets Tyler at a bar. Tyler agrees to let the narrator stay with him on one condition: that the narrator hits him. He reluctantly complies, hitting Tyler in the ear, and the two end up enjoying a fistfight outside the bar, which is the birth of 'Fight Club'. (00:32.11)

3. FIRST CULMINATION (Midpoint)

'Fight Club' has been officially established in the basement of the bar, but the owner Lou demands they disband. Tyler convinces Lou to let them stay by instigating Lou to pummel him. Immediately after, a bloodied Tyler gives out his first homework assignment: start a fight with a complete stranger and lose. This marks the beginning of 'Fight Club' evolving into 'Project Mayhem'. (1:11:12)

4. MAIN CULMINATION (End of Act Two)

After a major argument in which the narrator questions Tyler's authority and motives for anti-capitalist vandalism, Tyler disappears from the narrator's life and when Bob (Meat Loaf), a member of 'Project Mayhem' is killed during a mission, the narrator attempts to shut down the project. (1:42:17)

5. THIRD ACT TWIST

As the narrator travels around the country, trying to retrace Tyler's steps, he discovers that fight clubs have been started in almost every major city, and one of the participants identifies him as Tyler Durden. A phone call from Marla confirms his identity, and he realizes that Tyler is in fact an alter ego of his own split personality. (1:50:26)