The present invention provides for a construction for a bipolar plate for a fuel cell stack that enables the bipolar plate to be a more compliant member in the fuel cell stack. The bipolar plate can be configured to provide varying levels of compliance, as demanded by the design of the fuel cell stack. The bipolar plate can be more compliant than the diffusion media members and the active elements used to form the individual fuel cells. The compliant nature of the individual bipolar plates enables localized dimensional changes that occur within the fuel cell stack to be compensated by a localized deformation of the portions of the bipolar plate within that region. The bipolar plate has an internal coolant flow field where some opposing pairs of lands are spaced apart with a gap therebetween while other opposing pairs of lands are in contact with one another.