Fight Club Page #8

The Security TFM hands Jack a claim form. Jack snatches it,

disgusted, takes out a pen, starts filling out the form.

SECURITY TFM:

You know the industry slang for

"Flight Attendant?" "Air Mattress."

INT. TAXI - MOVING - NIGHT

Along a residential street. Jack looks ahead, sees a tall,

grey, bland BUILDING on the corner.

JACK (V.O.)

Home was a condo on the fifteenth

floor of a filing cabinet for widows

and young professionals. The walls

were solid concrete. A foot of

concrete is important when your next-

door neighbor lets her hearing aid go

and has to watch game shows at full

volume...

The taxi turns a corner and Jack sees the front of the

building. A diffuse CLOUD of SMOKE wafts away from a BLOWN-

OUT SECTION of the fifteenth floor. FIRETRUCKS, POLICE CARS

and a MOB are all crowded around the lobby area.

JACK (V.O.)

-- Or when a volcanic blast of debris

that used to be your furniture and

personal effects blows out your floor-

to-ceiling windows and sails flaming

into the night.

EXT. STREET IN FRONT OF BUILDING

Jack, gaping at the sight above him, absently gives the

Cabbie money. The taxi pulls away. Jack starts toward the

building. He pushes through the fray of people, into the...

INT. LOBBY

The DOORMAN sees Jack enter, gives a sad smile, shakes his

head. Jack starts for the elevator.

DOORMAN:

There's nothing up there.

Jack presses the button. The Doorman moves next to him.

DOORMAN:

You can't go into the unit. Police

orders.

The elevator doors open. Jack hesitates. The doors close.

Jack heads out the lobby doors. The Doorman follows...

EXT. CONDO BUILDING - CONTINUOUS

Jack walks past SMOKING, CHARRED DEBRIS -- a flash of ORANGE

from the Yang table, a CLOCK FACE from the hall clock, part

of an arm from the GREEN ARMCHAIR. His feet CRUNCH glass.

JACK (V.O.)

How embarrassing.

DOORMAN:

Do you have somebody you can call?

Jack comes to his REFRIGERATOR lying on its side. He

reaches down and takes a note: "MARLA --" and a phone

number, from under a BANANA MAGNET.

CLOSE SHOT - JACK'S STOVE

Hissing.

JACK (V.O.)

The police would later tell me that

the pilot light might have gone

out... letting out just a little bit

of gas.

EXT. PAYPHONE - RESUMING

Jack gets to a PAYPHONE. The Doorman follows, watching him.

DOORMAN:

Lots of young people try to impress

the world and buy too many things.

Jack picks up the receiver, puts in a quarter. He looks at

Marla's number a long moment.

CLOSE SHOT - JACK'S ENTIRE CONDO - KITCHEN AND LIVING ROOM

The SOUND of the HISS...

JACK (V.O.)

The gas could have slowly filled the

condo. Seventeen-hundred square feet

with high ceilings, for days and days.

EXT. PAYPHONE - RESUMING

Jack replaces the receiver. He pockets Marla's number, digs

out a small FILOFAX. He flips through the pages for phone

numbers and addresses. Most of the pages are blank.

DOORMAN:

Many young people feel trapped and

desperate.

INSERT - CLOSE ON THE BASE OF JACK'S REFRIGERATOR

JACK (V.O.)

Then, the refrigerator's compressor

could have clicked on...

Click. KABOOM! SCREEN GOES WHITE.

EXT. PAYPHONE - RESUMING

Jack looks at the Doorman. Tyler's BUSINESS CARD falls from

the Filofax. Jack catches it.

DOORMAN:

If you don't know what you want, you

end up with a lot you don't.

The Doorman walks away. Jack stares at Tyler's card.

JACK (V.O.)

If you asked me now, I couldn't tell

you why I called him.

Jack re-deposits the quarter, dials Tyler's number. It

RINGS... and RINGS and RINGS. Jack sighs and hangs up the

phone. A moment, then the phone RINGS.

JACK:

Hello?

TYLER'S VOICE

Who's this?

JACK:

Tyler?

TYLER'S VOICE

Who's this?

JACK:

Uh... I'm sorry. We met on the

plane. We had the same briefcase.

I'm... you know, the clever guy.

TYLER'S VOICE

Oh, yeah.

JACK:

I just called a second ago. There

was no answer. I'm at a payphone.

TYLER'S VOICE

I star-sixty-nined you. I never pick

up my phone. What's up?

JACK:

Well... let me see... here's the

thing...

EXT. LOU'S TAVERN - NIGHT

A small building in the middle of a concrete parking lot.

INT. LOU'S TAVERN - SAME

Jack and Tyler sit in the back, with a pitcher of BEER.

JACK:

You buy furniture. You tell

yourself:
this is the last sofa I'll

ever need. No matter what else

happens, I've got the sofa issue

handled. Then, the right set of

dishes. The right dinette.

TYLER:

This is how we fill up our lives.

Tyler lights a cigarette.

JACK:

I guess so.

TYLER:

And, now it's gone.

JACK:

All gone.

Tyler offers cigarettes. Jack declines.

TYLER:

Could be worse. A woman could cut

off your penis while you're asleep

and toss it out the window of a

moving car.

JACK:

There's always that.

TYLER:

I don't know, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe

it's a terrible tragedy.

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