Fight Club (The Charm of Traveling)

INT. AIRPLANE CABIN - DAY

As the plane touches down for landing and the cabin BUMPS, Jack's eyes pop open.

JACK (V.O.): You wake up at O'Hare.

INT. AIRPLANE CABIN - DAY

Jack snaps awake again, looking around, disoriented.

JACK (V.O.): You wake up at SeaTac.

EXT. HIGHWAY - DUSK

The rear end of a car is visible sticking up by the side of the road. Jack stands near the car, marking on a document. The SUN SETS behind him.

INT. AIRPORT - NIGHT

Jack walks up to a gate counter. An ATTENDANT smiles at him.

ATTENDANT: Check-in for that flight doesn't begin for another two hours, Sir.

Jack looks at his watch, steps away and looks at an overhanging clock. His eyes are bleary as he reads it, adjusts his watch.

JACK (V.O.): Pacific, Mountain, Central. You lose an hour, you gain an hour. This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time.

INT. AIRPLANE CABIN - DAY

Jack's eyes snap open as the plane LANDS.

JACK (V.O.): You wake up at Air Harbor International.

INT. AIRPORT WALKWAY

Jack stands on a conveyor belt, briefcase at his feet, moving slowly with the flow of the belt. His tired eyes watch people on the opposite conveyor belt, moving past him.

JACK (V.O.): If you wake up at a different time and a different place, can you be a different person?

Jack's eyes catch sight of TYLER -- who we recognize from the opening sequence -- on the opposite conveyor belt. They pass each other.

INT. AIRPLANE CABIN - IN FLIGHT - NIGHT

Jack sits next to a BUSINESSMAN. As they have idle CONVERSATION, we MOVE IN ON Jack's fold-out tray.

An ATTENDANT'S HANDS set coffee down with a small packet of sugar and a small container of cream.

JACK (V.O.): The charm of traveling is: everywhere I go -- tiny life. Single-serving sugar, single-serving cream.

CUT TO: The hands place a plastic dinner tray down. Jack opens the various containers.

JACK (V.O.): Single-serving butter, single-serving salt. Single-serving cordon bleu.

INT. HOTEL ROOM - BATHROOM - NIGHT

Jack brushes his teeth.

JACK (V.O.): Single-use toothbrush. Single-serving mouthwash, single serving soap.

Jack picks up an individual, wrapped Q-TIP, looks at it. He moves out of the bathroom into

MAIN AREA

And sits on the bed. He turns on the television. It's tuned to the
"Sheraton Channel" and shows WAITERS serving people in a large BANQUET ROOM. Jack stops brushing his teeth, feels something near him on the bed, finds it, lifts it. It's a small MINT.

INT. AIRPLANE CABIN - IN FLIGHT - NIGHT

Jack sits next to a frumpy WOMAN and they chat. Jack turns to look at his food and takes a bite. He turns back and it's

-a BALD MAN sitting next to him, talking. He takes another bite, turns back and it's

-a BUSINESSMAN sitting next to him. He takes another bite, turns back, and it's

-a BUSINESS WOMAN sitting next to him.

JACK (V.O.): The people I meet on each flight -- they're single-serving *friends*. Between take-off and landing, we have our time together, then we never see each other again.

INT. AIRPLANE CABIN - LANDING

Jack's eyes snap open.

JACK (V.O.): You wake up at Logan.

EXT. CONCRETE LOT - DAY

Surrounded by cinderblock walls. Two TECHNICIANS in uniforms lead Jack to a WAREHOUSE door. They open it, revealing a BURNT-OUT SHELL of a WRECKED AUTOMOBILE. They move into the-

INT. WAREHOUSE - CONTINUOUS

And Jack sets down his briefcase, opens it, and starts to make notes on a FORM.

JACK (V.O.): I'm a recall coordinator. My job was to apply the formula. It's simple arithmetic.

TECHNICIAN #1: Here's where the baby went through the window. Three points.

JACK (V.O.): It's a story problem. A new car built by my company leaves Boston traveling at 60 miles per hour. The rear differential locks up.

TECHNICIAN #2: The teenager's braces locked around the backseat ashtray. Kind of makes a good "anti-smoking" ad.

JACK (V.O.): The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now: do we initiate a recall?

TECHNICIAN #1: The father must've been obese. See how the fat burned into the driver's seat, mixed with the dye of his shirt? Kind of like modern art.

JACK (V.O.): You take the number of vehicles in the field (A) and multiply it by the probable rate of failure (B), multiply the result by the average out-of-court settlement (C). A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.

INT. AIRPLANE CABIN - TAKING OFF - NIGHT

Next to Jack, a chubby, middle-aged LADY gawks at him, appalled.

LADY: ... Which ... car company do you work for?

JACK: A major one.

LADY: Oh.

Jack turns his attention to the window as the PLANE ASCENDS. The lady's VOICE FADES. Jack sees a PELICAN get SUCKED into the TURBINE.

His face remains bland during the following:

The plane BUCKLES -- the cabin wobbles loosely. People begin to panic.

Oxygen masks fall.

JACK (V.O.): Life insurance pays off triple if you die on a business trip.

A forceful IMPACT with the ground and people -- except for Jack --LURCH FORWARD, some jerking against their seatbelts, magazines and other objects fly forward.

JACK (V.O.): No more expense accounts, receipt required for over twenty-five dollars.

A BALL OF FIRE swoops forward from the rear of the cabin and
INCINERATES EVERYTHING AND EVERYBODY -- except Jack, who remains in his same position in his seat, with the bland expression.

JACK (V.O.): No more haircuts. Nothing matters, not even bad breath.

DING! -- the seatbelt light goes OUT.

EVERYTHING IS NORMAL.