25 book adaptations that surprisingly lived up to the books they’re based on

Fight Club

Fight Club is often regarded as a classic, whether you’re referring to Chuck Palahniuk’s novel or its 1999 film adaptation. Of course, the two aren’t so different from one another, given that David Fincher’s film stays close to Palahniuk’s story, embracing the same dark humor and managing to highlight society’s flaws in similar ways.

The story follows the “Narrator”—usually referred to as Jack—an insomniac who stumbles upon an underground fight club thanks to the appearance of the eccentric Tyler Durden. Ed Norton and Brad Pitt were solid choices to play the two lead characters, with Norton capturing Jack’s awkward and anxious personality flawlessly and Pitt bringing Durden’s blunt honesty and prickly exterior to life with ease.

The film version of Fight Club also does a great job of revealing the twist that occurs at the end of the book, unraveling the truth behind Tyler Durden’s sudden arrival in Jack’s life as cleverly as Palahniuk does. It also manages to successfully incorporate Palahniuk’s dark tone into the story, especially considering that there’s significantly less narration happening onscreen than in the novel.

Given that the book is told mostly from Jack’s perspective, it’s also impressive how the film manages to hide certain things from the viewer without much trouble. It keeps the reader in Jack’s head, in spite of bringing the other characters to the forefront, and it still manages to drop plenty of hints about what’s to come at the end.

The movie also astutely captures Jack’s bizarre and toxic relationship with Maria, highlighting their unhealthy coping mechanisms and problematic behaviors in ways that still make them interesting and relatable to the viewer. The fact that Helena Bonham Carter plays Maria helps, of course, and viewers will likely find themselves empathizing with her just as much—if not more—than they do with Jack, especially by the end of the film.