| abstract
| - Jack Houser (Cage) is down on his luck after retiring from a once flourishing cage-fighting career. In debt and friendless he attempts to rob random people on the streets, but attracts the attention of 8 policemen who exit their cars and attempt to subdue Houser with their fists. Predictably, Houser's street-fighting background allows him to beat down the officers and flee the scene whilst they retreat to get reinforcements. After a 20 minute chase scene, Houser walks down a desert road before being confronted by a black car occupied by CIA director Richard Chesler. Chesler steps out, verbally impressed by Jack's physical prowess as well as his rebellious attitude and offers him a job as a government agent. Jack, being a cynical tough-guy asks what happens if he refuses, then realizing he has been surrounded by gun-toting SWAT members, which prompts him to say he'll "think about the offer". After visibly shocking the entire CIA with his uncouth, sarcastic manner, Houser is informed that for the past 10 years every major branch of the government has tried to infiltrate a shady undergound fight club, but none were strong enough or able enough to convincingly filter into the organization. They have, however, had their eye on true fighters such as himself who were bad enough to blend in yet good enough to want to take the mission in the first place. With nothing to lose, Houser accepts, on the terms that he can play by his rules. Along with his assigned partner (Kenan Thompson), Houser finds Tyler Durden, the fight club's anarchist leader in a night club and immediately begins to mingle with him before saying he wants to join. Tyler tells Houser to hit him as hard as he can, and despite expressing his usual sarcasm, he does and is met in return by a punch from Durden himself (Neither party visibly reacts to either blow). Durden is impressed with both Houser's physical prowess and rebellious attitude and allows him to check his club out. Inside an abandoned soap factory serving as the headquaters for Tyler's fight club, Houser and his assigned partner are told the rules of fight club; "1. Do not talk about Fight Club, and 2. Everyone in Fight Club must fight". Houser wins his first fight against Fight Club's reigning champion in 2 minutes. Houser's partner is nearly beaten to death in his first fight, leading Houser to step in trying to help him only for Durden to stop him, repeating rule #2. The partner is beaten but still allowed to join. Jack is allowed by Tyler to bunk in the factory for the night, where he learns more about Tyler's history of fighting from his exotic girlfriend Varla (Helena Bonham Carter). In return, Jack informs her about his tragic history of fighting from his tragic beating at the hands of his brother at a young age, to both their tragic beatings at the hands of their father, to his tragic retirement, to his tragic but short life of crime. Finally in a heated moment, Houser informs Varla that he is really working for the government, which leads her to ask Houser for a way out of her awful life and french kissing him. The next night Durden lets Jack know that his fight club is really part of "Operation Chaos", a militant plan to bring anarchy to the world, and that he plans to rule it through hacking into major credit-card corporations, stealing money and information, and then destroying the records. As an undefined part of this plan, Tyler tells his "soldiers" to rob and then blow up a bank. During the heist however, Houser sneakily disarms the explosives and his partner not-so-sneakily attempts to disarm the armed robbers. They savagely beat him up and bring him back to the base. Houser tries to stop them from killing his partner, but they ignore him and shoot him in the head, becoming very suspicious (But still overall trusting) of Houser. Meanwhile, the CIA realizes that the vital sign monitor they placed on Houser's partner has flatlined, leading them to believe Houser will be next and decide to take action against the fight club. Durden, noticing the life-monitor predicts their plan and ambushes the CIA-agent training session with his best fighters, taking one high-ranking agent hostage and threatening to cut off his head. During the raid, Durden orders Jack to kill Chesler, and Jack runs to find him. When Jack gets to Chesler's office however, he beats himself up instead, providing an alibi so that his boss can escape. With the CIA reeling, Tyler decides to put his final plan into action, hacking into the databases of multitudes of credit card companies, ready to blow them up and use the funds to establish fight clubs in every major American city. Houser plans to stop Tyler's minions from setting up the bombs, but is detained in the soap factory by Tyler and his right-hand-men. It is revealed that Varla told Tyler about Jack really working for the government, saying that "I had to". Varla leaves the room whilst Tyler and his elite fighters ready themselves to dismember Jack. However, in the nick of time the FBI arrives, allowing Houser to sequentially flee to each bombing site, fighting and defeating each of the remaining fight club members and defusing the car-bombs one-by-one on instinct until only one site is still armed. At the site, Tyler catches up to Houser, saying that he is "disappointed" in his "little brother". Despite being very shocked by Durden's familial revelation, Houser still has wits enough to have one final fight with him, which he wins, effectively sealing his revenge and providing closure to his personal demons. By the time this fight is over the bomb is very close to exploding. When Houser goes to defuse the bomb however, Tyler draws a gun and shoots him in the shoulder, cosmetically wounding him. Despite this wound, Houser disarms Durden and throws him in the vehicle with the bomb in it, which somehow becomes locked. Varla comes up behind Jack and helps him escape from the building, telling Houser that she "un-hacked" the databases before they escape the building and it explodes. 1 week later, Jack has been rewarded all the money from the exploded card-company plus a free vacation in thanks for saving the USA. In the last shot we see that he and Varla are now happily second-basing.
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