I was finally able to watch Fight Club. I was planning to read the novel first before watching the actual film but I got itchy to watch it.
Fight Club is a 1999 film directed by David Fincher whose main casts include Edward Norton, Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter. It was based from the novel by Chuck Palahniuk.
I got really affected by the film because of its twisted-ness. It's a psycho film for me because the story, the concept, the message and everything else that the film (or the novel) wants to communicate is insane.
The story is about a guy (whose name was not mentioned and therefore named Narrator) who is suffering from insomnia. He set an appointment with the doctor for a check up to find cure for this sickness of his. He was not able to get the medication he wants and was advised to attend a sort of seminar for patients suffering (or have suffered) testicular cancer to experience real suffering because he was complaining about it. The narrator found the comfort in attending this seminar and several other related seminars because he was able to cry and relate from patients and this made his sleeping normal. The normal cycle of his sleep however, was disrupted again upon the arrival of this girl named Marla who also attends these seminars even if she also doesn't have the same sickness with the patients.
The Narrator got pissed and decided to talk to Marla about her irritating him. They set a deal to attend different patient seminar schedules. He looked for other means to regain his normal sleep cycle thus he came back and began traveling and doing his job again until he met Tyler Durden who will change his life forever.
When the Narrator got home, his condo unit was blown up. Somebody planted a bomb in his unit and he was left with nothing. All he cared for: his furniture set among them were gone.
He decided to live with Tyler and there they formed their friendship. One time, after getting out of the bar, when Tyler asked the Narrator to hit him as strongly as he could, they realized that they wanted to form an underground group they will call Fight Club. People in Fight Club will just fight with their bare fists without their shirt and shoes on. The fight will only stop when someone gives up.
They set the rules of the Fight Club. Rule number 1 states that they should not talk about Fight Club and rule number 2 states that they should not talk about Fight Club among the many other rules which later on will be added by other rules.
The Fight Club became a franchise and it expanded among other parts of America like it's a cult movement.
Tyler decided to form Project Mayhem which is a sort of revolution against the current modern/consumerist/capitalist society they are in. They planned to plant bombs and bring mayhem to many parts of the city. The Narrator was becoming detached to Tyler at this point. He was beginning to realize the wrongness of what they are doing. He got more pissed with Tyler when he did not explain what the Project Mayhem was about.
The Narrator's friend Bob who he met at the beginning at the testicular cancer seminar and a member of Fight Club will get shot at the head and die. This will ignite the fire more inside the Narrator and he will start questioning and opposing things Tyler is doing. He will look everywhere for Tyler for explanation but he can't be found. He will check on the travel log of him and will try looking for him in the major cities he traveled to and to at least 50 bars from each cities.
In the end he will realize that Tyler Durden is him. This is the crazy part actually. All the time, Tyler was also him. The one making decisions and planning was him only by his other personality or character. An alter ego.
The affair with Marla (who the Narrator earlier met) was actually his affair also. The whole cult following was also attributed to him.
The plan to blast the 5 credit card companies building (as part of Project Mayhem) will be stopped by him despite him being also the mastermind of it. He will surrender to the police and will tell the head police officer the entire criminal plot. This part is funny because even the downline police officers are members already of Fight Club and they will cut Tyler's balls in this scene because Tyler (or the Narrator) when he didn't know that they are the same person yet said that he will deny that he is Tyler Durden and once he betrayed the group, the group has the right to cut his balls. Tyler however, will be able to escape these police officers and will try to defuse one of the bombs set to explode.
While attempting to defuse the bomb, he will meet his alter ego again and they will argue and pick a fight against each other. When Tyler lost his consciousness after falling from the stairs, he will wake up from a building floor and a gun will be put inside his mouth (this is actually the start of the scene of the film) and it goes back to the beginning.
Because Tyler the alter ego is also himself, he came up with an idea of controlling him. He was able to get the gun from him (because they are one) and decided to shoot himself to kill his alter ego.
The scene will end with Marla approaching him and they will watch as the buildings of these credit card companies explode.
The last line in the film goes something like: "you met me at the wrong time."
The film affected me so much because of it's twisted theme. The cult following was astonishing. I wanted to be as intelligent and as genius like Tyler (both the alter ego and the real). I was in awe after. What if these events happen in real life? After watching the film, it triggered my indifference and sense of apathy again. Like nothing else matters and like I don't care about anything anymore.
