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Three minutes.
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This is it.
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The beginning.
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One of my favorite things
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to look for in movies
is how filmmakers start their stories.
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Exposition is tricky.
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You need to give the audience
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enough information to follow along,
but you shouldn't overwhelm them.
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And David Fincher
is a true master of this.
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His opening sequences flow so seamlessly
and hook the audience so effortlessly
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that we barely notice
how or when we receive all the key details
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that shape our understanding of the world
and characters.
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In the age of visual hooks, ads and TV
commercials that fight for our attention,
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it's easy to overlook
just how ahead of his time,
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Fincher has always been.
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In the cinema, where
people have already paid
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for their tickets and are committed to a
two-hour film, making the first few minutes
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exciting might seem unnecessary,
but not for Fincher.
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A lot of people were just like,
what the fuck, who is this twerp?
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To him, the first 15 minutes are just as important
as the entire film, if not more.
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He doesn't just want
you to sit through it.
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He wants you to absorb it.
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Every moment is designed to plant ideas,
setting up lines of dialogue,
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shots, or details that
will click into place later.
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And there's no better example of this
than the prologue and first
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30 minutes of Fight Club,
an exposition so perfectly executed
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that it sets up the entire film
and pulls you into its world of chaos.
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Gentlemen,
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welcome to Fight Club.
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Fight Club is one of
my favorite book adaptations
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because it not only improves on
several aspects of Chuck Palahniuk's novel,
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but also perfectly captures its humor
and stream-of-consciousness style.
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From the very first moment the film places
us inside the narrator's mind.
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Deep in his amygdala,
the part of the brain responsible for fear,
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before zooming out to reveal
the gun in his mouth, held by Tyler.
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We are inside his head
not just visually, but sonically.
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With a gun barrel between your teeth
you speak only in vowels.
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Hearing and experiencing his thoughts
as much as we see them.
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The scene immediately plants
the most important questions in our minds.
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Why is the narrator in this situation?
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Three minutes.
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This is it.
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What's going to happen in three minutes?
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People are always asking me
if I know Tyler Durden.
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Who is Tyler Durden?
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And right away, it offers some answers.
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The Demolitions Committee of Project
Mayhem wrapped the foundation columns
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of a dozen buildings with blasting gelatin.
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Before introducing a third
key character:
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A girl named Marla Singer.
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And transitioning
seamlessly into the past.
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This flashback structure frames
the narrative, showing us
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the moment of highest tension,
which ultimately bookends the story.
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But this prologue isn’t separate
from the rest of the exposition.
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The quick pace of the montage
and the narrator's chaotic thinking
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pull us into his mind,
carrying us through the setup.
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The film’s space-time is unplaceable.
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It takes place in a city that feels like
nowhere and everywhere.
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No, wait. Back up.
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Let me start earlier.
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Over the next 25 minutes,
we see flashbacks within flashbacks,
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introducing Bob, the Narrator's insomnia,
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his consumer-driven lifestyle,
his morally questionable
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addiction to support groups,
his narcolepsy, the cave,
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Marla Singer, and finally Tyler Durden.
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All of these elements are packed
into a single-serving portion
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of exposition without ever feeling
like a forced information dump.
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Despite the rapid pacing,
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Fincher ensures that the
audience follows along effortlessly.
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What's amazing here is how we
move through a sequence of montages,
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with moments from the Narrator's life
transitioning one after the other.
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The editing and narration makes this
both unique and easy to digest.
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The entirety of act
one of this film really is like
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a long montage that
explains Jack and his world.
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The inciting incident, which marks
the end of the first act and the exposition,
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comes at the 28-minute mark
when the Narrator’s apartment is destroyed,
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wiping away his old life.
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This moment pushes him to reach out to
Tyler Durden, setting everything in motion.
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To better explain why this
30 minute sequence is perfect
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and how Fincher achieved it,
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let's take a look at how
a screenplay typically looks like.
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This is Syd Field’s paradigm, which organizes
stories into structured timelines.
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It's a simple formula
we've seen countless times in movies,
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but the key elements to highlight
are the inciting incident and plot points,
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both crucial
in driving the screenplay forward.
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They're often confused,
but the main difference lies in timing
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and the protagonist's role.
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The inciting incident disrupts
the protagonist's normal world,
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something that happens to him
making his role passive.
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Plot points, on the other hand,
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are events and decisions
that redefine the story's direction.
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Here, the protagonist takes action,
actively shifting the narrative
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into the next act.
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In Fight Club, the inciting
incident is the destruction
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of the narrator's apartment, forcing him
to start over and seek shelter.
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This leads him to Tyler Durden,
and his decision to live with him
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ultimately results
in the creation of Fight Club.
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So really, that's the moment
of the beginning of true psychosis there.
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Plot point #1.
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Now the first act is over
and the real story begins.
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Tyler?
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Later on in the film, Tyler disappears
and he looks for him around the country,
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only to realize that he remembers these places.
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Do you know me?
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Are you sure this isn't a test?
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Plot point #2.
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This starts the third act and will lead us
back to the place of the first scene.
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These two plot points anchor the story.
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The first one is the start of it all.
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The loss of control for the character.
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Which leads to the inception
of Fight Club.
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And the second is where
he wants to take back control
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and end Project Mayhem,
which has taken on a life of its own.
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But we are talking about Fincher.
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It's not that simple with him.
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You see, Fight Club is a peculiar case
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because, as we later learn,
the narrator blew up his own apartment.
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So was he active or passive?
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From his perspective and ours,
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following his unreliable narration,
it seems like an external event.
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But by the end we realize
he was never truly passive.
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This perfectly aligns with the film's
themes of self destruction,
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identity crisis, and repressed desires,
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making it a story that resists
a standard structure.
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Part of the praise has to go
to the original author of the book,
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Chuck Palahniuk and screenwriter Jim Uhls,
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who worked together
with Fincher to present and get studio
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execs to make Fight Club.
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I said, here's the two ways you can go.
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You can do this $3 million version
of this movie and make it on videotape,
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or maybe it may go straight to DVD,
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or the real act of sedition here
is the $50 million version.
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We went off, and when we
came back we had a schedule,
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we had a budget,
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we had a cast, we had storyboards,
and we had a script.
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We put this giant thing on the table
and we said, here it is,
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it’s Brad Pitt, it’s Edward Norton.
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You have three days., let us know.
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He had everything figured out,
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securing Brad Pitt
and Edward Norton early on
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and later casting Helena Bonham Carter,
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who had mostly played very different roles,
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but became just as essential
to the film as her co-stars.
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Look, I want to take the book,
make it into a movie.
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I don't want to change it that much.
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I want to try to maintain
as much of this voice.
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The strongest thing the film has going for
it is Chuck's voice.
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But for an auteur as detail oriented,
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and hands on as Fincher,
the screenplay is just a guideline.
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A film like this evolves through
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continuous adjustments with key decisions
made throughout production.
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While text has many tools to explain,
and describe, in film visual cues
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shape the logic,
making the director’s role crucial.
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So how does he build
these perfect stories?
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Let's go back to the first scene.
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Déja vu, all over again.
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The technique of a deadline
is one of the most common tools
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to create tension in a film.
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You got about 30 seconds.
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By establishing that in
3 minutes everything ends,
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the filmmakers create a world which
hinges on whether there will be
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resolution in this time frame.
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Think of your favorite films,
and I'm sure you will find that
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certain scenes, or even the whole film
is built around a critical deadline.
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Find the president
and bring them out in 24 hours.
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And here Fincher uses the type of deadline
that Hitchcock talked about.
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The bomb under the table.
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But Fincher tricks you again,
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because when we return to this moment,
the two things
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that build suspense at
the start are no longer relevant.
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One, the bomb beneath
them was never a threat.
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It's in a different building
and they are safe.
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Jack passes out so we fade to black,
and then when we come up,
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they're in a building,
but they're not in the same building.
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Its purpose in the opening
is to get your attention,
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to look for information and possible
solutions on how to resolve the danger.
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And two, the threat Tyler
seemed to pose was never real.
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He's not physically there, and
the danger we assumed was external
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turns out to be something
entirely different.
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The flashback structure
also shows that the film's nonlinear
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narrative is conscious
of the viewer's presence.
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The narrator has all the information,
but he only shares a limited amount,
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keeping most of it secret.
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Even though we get clues
to the twists from the start,
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I know this because Tyler knows this.
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Or think of what Fincher calls
the ‘Subliminal Brads’.
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Subliminal. Dink.
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I love using a subliminal advertising
technique to introduce a character.
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The fractured storytelling mirrors
the Narrator's already disturbed mind,
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making the eventual twist
feel perfect and inevitable in hindsight.
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This unreliable storytelling extends
beyond structure.
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Breaking the fourth wall
isn't just a stylistic choice.
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It's a side effect of the film
playing out inside the narrator's head.
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And to emphasize this even further,
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Fincher makes the film even more meta,
turning it into a film within a film.
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For example, Tyler's exposition
isn’t just a backstory.
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It's a performance.
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He addresses the audience directly,
pointing at objects on screen
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as if he's presenting a manifesto.
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It's as though Tyler knows he's not just
selling his philosophy to the narrator,
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he's selling it to us, the viewers.
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Showing us that we are also
consumers right at this moment.
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And the intertextuality goes even deeper
since we are watching a film
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which he is operating within
the film as well.
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It's also about power.
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Up until the narrator meets Tyler on the plane,
we see him judging those around him,
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making smart remarks, which positions him
as superior in our eyes.
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But with Tyler,
the dynamic shifts instantly.
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Tyler you are by far the most interesting
single-serving friend I’ve ever met.
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In just a moment Tyler takes control
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by pointing out the very characteristic
the Narrator relies on to feel superior.
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How's that working out for you?
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What?
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Being clever.
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And don't forget that with the difference
between the two expositions,
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Fincher keeps the theme of the opposing
characters in mind as well.
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The Narrator's exposition
was similar to his character:
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a passive observer
showing us his furniture, etc.
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While Tyler is actively
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presenting us what he does, only
another part of his mind talking to us.
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One is chaos, the other is order.
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On the topic of order,
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David Fincher is the most precise
and economical director in my eyes.
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The reason why he can keep us on
the edge of our seats
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is because every shot and every scene
he implements has a place in the film.
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He only uses what's really necessary.
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If I can make the movie shorter
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I would, but given my intimate
knowledge of all the material
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I just couldn't get it any shorter.
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And he means that.
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Take this scene
from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
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The character is invited to a remote town
far up north so he takes to train.
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That's it.
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A simple scene, but there are several ways
to handle it as a director.
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Do you show him leaving
and then cut to the estate when he arrives?
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Should he drive there by himself?
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Maybe a taxi could take him
and just skip through the drive itself.
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Each of these choices would omit details
that become relevant later.
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So instead, this is how Fincher does it.
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The location is far,
so getting there takes a long time,
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and it's much colder than in Stockholm,
so he feels uncomfortable.
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The character lacks crucial information
about the one inviting him,
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making him slightly concerned
and skeptical.
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The head of the estate is wealthy
but unable to travel,
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so he sends his right-hand
man to pick Mikael up.
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This establishes
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the man's importance while leaving his
trustworthiness uncertain.
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By stating that he wants to go home:
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It foreshadows how important
this place will be throughout the film,
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and the bridge they cross itself is one of
he most crucial locations to the investigation.
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In the car, it’s established that the right-hand
man has already lied or manipulated him:
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That Mikael wants to leave
as soon as possible:
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And the reassurance that the ones
inviting him pose no threat, so he can relax.
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This also implies that he might change
his mind after hearing their proposal.
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But as we later see, the more he's
captivated by the story of the Vangers,
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he's less and less insistent
on going back with the train.
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But simpler moments
like this arrival sequence
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Fincher adds layers of meaning and
foreshadows important character moments.
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Every shot has a place here, even
if he makes them as short as possible.
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He's a perfectionist, and leaving out
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these elements would take away
from the meaning of this journey.
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On the topic of his methods, let's
also mention some of his other openings,
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because Fight Club is just one example,
but I believe he nails it every time.
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The first scene of Zodiac shows you
the second murder of the serial killer.
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The audience might wonder
why not the first one?
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We get hints, but the full answer only
becomes clear toward the end of the film.
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Fincher not only ties a key clue
of the investigation to the beginning,
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but he also bookends
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the film by bringing back the young man
who survived the attack, 20 years later,
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providing a final potential
answer to the unsolved mystery.
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Or take the opening of The Killer.
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Arguably the strongest part of the film.
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It doesn't just offer a glimpse
into the assassin’s mind,
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it sets up the repeated lines
that shift the meaning with each chapter.
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All of his films establish character
conflict and intrigue from the very
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first moments, laying the foundation
for everything that follows.
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And then there are his infamous
title sequences, showing just
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how much emphasis
he places on a film’s opening.
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They’re frontloaded with
spectacle and information.
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The first ten to twenty minutes of his films
are mini masterpieces,
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short films that could stand on their own.
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As Field said in his book about screenplays:
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Endings are manifested in the resolution,
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and the resolution is conceived in the beginning.
00:14:30
In Fight Club, a film
so famous for its ending,
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it’s just as important
to look at its beginning.
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David Fincher is a master of control,
and he's not afraid to remind you
00:14:39
that you are watching a film.
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His attention to detail,
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whether through subtle CGI, precise
camera movements, or deliberate casting
00:14:46
choices, creates an immersive experience
that is truly his own.
00:14:50
His visuals are further elevated
by the work of sound designer Ren Klyce,
00:14:55
along with the unforgettable scores of
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross in most of his films,
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or, in the case of Fight Club,
The Dust Brothers.
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Together, these elements
help him craft timeless masterpieces
00:15:06
that continue to captivate audiences.
00:15:08
So next time you watch one of his films,
pay attention to how every element
00:15:12
is carefully placed to shape the whole.
00:15:14
Listen,
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take notes of the small things,
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and recognize how everything he provides
you from the first moments is crucial.
00:15:21
Fincher doesn't just craft films,
00:15:23
he creates complete experiences
that demand more than simple viewing.
00:15:27
His films are not only endlessly
rewatchable,
00:15:29
they are endlessly worthy of study.
00:15:31
You met me at a very strange time in my life.
