Intricacies in Fight Club

Having seen Fight Club before, I was able to focus my attention differently when I watched last night for the second time. Knowing that the big reveal was coming, I was able to look at the beginning of the movie with another lens. Here are some intricacies that I noticed, which would be nearly impossible to spot without knowing who Tyler Durden really is.

Edward Norton’s character’s name is never said in the movie, until he asks the chef at the diner during his frantic chase after Brad Pitt’s character. This is done with extremely careful and creative writing, as there are many parts of the movie where it would be natural for the Narrator to say his name but he does not, and the unsuspecting audience does not realize at all. We see this by the members of Project Mayhem calling Norton “boss” or “sir” but never Tyler or Mr. Durden. Marla Singer never mentions Tyler’s name to the Narrator until specifically asked in the hotel room, which the audience attributes to the previous fight that they had over the support groups. However, looking at the situation from Marla’s perspective, she sees one man who is completely different in bed (Pitt) and out of bed (Norton). Many of her lines in the middle of the movie seem strange when said to Norton, but when you know that they are the same person, her strange lines and attitude make total sense.

Another interesting scene is when Norton pretends to get beaten up by his boss. Not knowing that Pitt’s character is a figment of the imagination, the audience is quite confused at Norton literally beating himself up. He mentions that “For some reason, this reminded me of my first fight with Tyler”. We don’t know it yet, but he says this because this fight was exactly like his first fight with Tyler. When they were fighting in the parking lot, Norton was actually just beating himself up, in the same motions that he takes in the office. This also explains why the three guys that come out of the bar have the reaction that they do. Instead of seeing a fight between two men, they see one (probably crazy to them) man hitting himself repeatedly. This is likely why they say something along the lines of “you good?” rather than rushing to break up the fight.

Lastly, the whole situation with the exploded apartment makes for some interesting moments. The audience is led to believe that Brad Pitt’s character is the perpetrator, which is eventually “confirmed”, but then we realize that since Brad Pitt’s character doesn’t really exist, it has to be Norton himself. This is actually foreshadowed in the first phone call with the arson detective, when Norton questions the detective, as he asks, “are you saying I’m a suspect?”. The detective remarks that no, he is not, but he does turn out to be the perpetrator. The one other interesting thing is the breaking into of the apartment. Since it was actually Norton who blew up his own apartment, why did he need to break the lock when he has the keys?  Maybe to make it look like a break in? I’m not sure.

There are plenty of other examples of things that only make total sense on a second viewing, so I would urge everyone to watch again if you liked the movie.