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In the movie Fight Club, the character Tyler Durden says that equal parts gasoline and frozen orange juice concentrate make napalm. The question's very simple; would this mixture make napalm, anything like napalm, or a precursor to it? My guess is it wouldn't work, and would reek.

Jamiec
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KeithS
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  • A little bit of both actually; I think the OJ will reduce the flammability of the gasoline, and the combination won't be the sticky goo we think of as napalm. – KeithS Jun 26 '12 at 16:13
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    I'll check the DVD commentary later, but my recollection is that the recipes for explosives, etc were changed for safety reasons. – Tom77 Jun 26 '12 at 16:25
  • IIRC the one they were most worried about was dynamite (later on after the liposuction clinic scene), so they left out some key steps of the glycerine-making and nitroglycerine-making process. However, the idea of napalm from gasoline and OJ is mentioned only once almost as a throwaway, to clue you in about what this guy thinks about when he's at home and the power goes out. – KeithS Jun 26 '12 at 16:55
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    From an [interview with Chuck Palahniuk](http://www.dvdtalk.com/interviews/chuck_palahniuk.html) (he wrote the book): `Well, Ed Norton changed one ingredient in every one to make them useless. So, that really pissed me off because I really research those really well. Actually its styrofoam and gasoline...` – Oliver_C Jun 26 '12 at 18:03
  • Yeah, I knew about that one; you add some long-chain polymers back into the gasoline solvent (synthetic rubber works really well too) and you get a sticky, flammable tar. – KeithS Jun 26 '12 at 18:05
  • I guess I have my answer; Oliver-C's comment says that the orange juice concentrate was a substitute for the real second ingredient, styrofoam. – KeithS Jun 26 '12 at 18:06
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    @KeithS - You should feel free to write this up as a full answer if you have an answer to your own question. That is if nobody else want to do it! – Jamiec Jun 27 '12 at 09:35
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    Styrofoam and Gasoline are a much more effective combination. –  Jun 27 '12 at 20:48
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    @Jamiec: I did, and for some reason the post was converted to a comment by the moderator. – KeithS Jun 27 '12 at 21:19

1 Answers1

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Credit to Oliver_C

From an interview with Chuck Palahniuk (he wrote the book):

Well, Ed Norton changed one ingredient in every one to make them useless. So, that really pissed me off because I really research those really well. Actually its styrofoam and gasoline...

Sklivvz
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user606723
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