Great Scene: “Fight Club”
One of the most effective ways to begin a script is to start at the ending. And one of the best scenes that opens with the ending is in the…
One of the most effective ways to begin a script is to start at the ending. And one of the best scenes that opens with the ending is in the movie Fight Club (1999). Adapted for the screen by Jim Uhls from a novel by the notable writer Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club is a head-spinning and dark satire on contemporary society. Here is the opening scene in the script.
The movie begins with some guy named Tyler with a gun shoved in some guy named Jack’s mouth. Then we learn of an imminent explosion, apparently some sort of terrorist event. And the two guys who know about this impending violence — and seemingly involved in its execution — are chatting inanely about immortality and vampires.
Two minutes in and I’m wondering how I got here. That is precisely what opening a story at the ending does: It plants that question, so that whatever happens, for the rest of the entire story until it catches up with the ending, the reader is wondering the same thing: How does he get there? And that’s one big reason why this is a great scene.
A few other movies that begin with the ending: Sunset Blvd., Memento, and The Usual Suspects. I’m sure you can add others to the list. Comments await you.
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