Fight Club Analysis

The first scene of the film opens up inside the mind of protagonist, Jack/the Narrator. The camera slowly moves along pathways of Jack’s mind and then emerges out of his head. There, we see Jack seated with a gun in his mouth. On the other side, holding the gun is Tyler Durden. The two of them are placed on what looks like the upper floor of an office building. You hear Jack in voice-over claim that his current situation had something to do with Marla Singer. The next scene takes place in a support group containing men who are recovering from testicular cancer. Jack apparently has been attending various support groups. However, Jack is completely disease-free. Jack attends these meetings to allow him to cry and accept the pain and misery of
his life. His gains relief from crying and therefore can sleep. Jack suffers from insomnia. When he goes to the doctor seeking help, the doctor advises him to attend the support group for men with testicular cancer. All of these support group meetings tend to help Jack. However, this relief is interrupted when Marla Singer suddenly begins attending all of the support meetings as well. Marla, like Jack, is disease free. With Marla attending all of the same support groups as Jack, Jack cannot cry, so he cannot sleep. Jack eventually confronts Marla about his issue with her and they agree to split up the meetings so they no longer have to run into each other. Jack works for the automobile industry.
He flies around the country to write accident reports on his company’s cars. One particular flight, he meets soap salesman, Tyler Durden. As Jack arrives back to his apartment, he finds that it has been blown up. He pulls out Tyler’s business card that he gave him earlier and calls him up. They meet at a bar and Jack ends up going home with Tyler to stay at his place. However, before they leave the bar, Tyler says he needs one favor from Jack, which is to hit him as hard as he could. After one punch, the two engage in a sloppy fight. Fighting becomes a very important piece in Jack’s life. With continued fighting, Jack attends work with bruises and blood stains. His boss is not happy. The bar at which Jack and Tyler first fought begins to be a meeting point for a group of men that Tyler and Jack have attracted through fighting. This proves that they are not alone in how they feel. The two talk to the bartender and end up using the basement of the bar for their new “Fight Club”. There is only one rule of fight club: “You shall not speak of Fight Club”. Marla tracks Jack down and calls him one night asking him why he has not been attending the support group meetings. Jack is not in the mood to talk to her so he hangs up. One day, Detective Stern calls Jack to inform him that his apartment was not blown up by accident. It exploded from planted-homemade dynamite. Detective Stern believes that Jack is a suspect and should inform him if he leaves
town. In a later meeting of Fight Club, Tyler claims that he has seen many new faces and indicates that some people are breaking the first rule of fight club. He gives the members a homework assignment: to start a fight with a stranger and lose. Jack goes to see his boss to have a discussion about tension brewing between them. Jack asks for his boss to continue to pay him instead of firing him. In exchange, Jack will not tell anyone about the safety issues regarding the cars their company builds. His boss is furious with his request of blackmail and calls security. Jack responds by beating himself up so when the police arrive he is kneeling besides his boss covered in blood.
Jack’s demands are met and he and Tyler can have fight club every night of the week. When Tyler builds bunk beds in the basement of his house, Jack finds that “applicants” are arriving for admission. Tyler calls them “Space Monkeys”. Jack is unsure of what the plan actually is until he finds out that Tyler has moved Fight Club on to something new called Project Mayhem. Tyler then confesses that he is the one who blew up Jack’s apartment. Jack is unhappy that Tyler kept this from him. Jack awakes to find the Tyler is nowhere to be found. When Jack runs up to Tyler’s room he finds that he has been traveling all around the world starting fight clubs making an army for Project Mayhem. Everywhere Jack seems to go, people know him. One particular man tells Jack that they met a week ago. When Jack asks the man who he thinks he is, the man answers “You’re Mr. Durden”. He confirms that he and Tyler is the same person. Jack goes to Detective Stern and tells him that he believes that Project Mayhem is to blow up the headquarters of several major credit card companies. He claims that if anyone tries to stop Project Mayhem, that man should be castrated. Jack goes to one of the credit card companies and disarms a bomb in the van triggering a fight between him and Tyler. He awakes and the movie shift back to the opening scene. Tyler is holding a gun inside Jack’s mouth. Jack begs Tyler to stop this plan. Tyler tells him that Jack needs him and that eventually there will be no Jack, only Tyler. Once he realizes that he is really holding the gun, only he can be in control of it. Jack puts the gun inside his mouth and fires into his cheek. Tyler drops to the ground. The Space Monkeys enter and see Jack with a wound in his face. The Space Monkeys marvel at how tough Jack is, whom they have only known to be Tyler Durden. Jack then watches the bombs go off outside. Buildings in the background crumble to the ground. Jack created Tyler to have another personality. Tyler was a piece of Jack’s mind.
This relates to psychology because psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Jacks behavior reflected on Tyler. I felt as though Jack was experiencing many difficult obstacles throughout his mind. I relate to Jack to an extent. Whenever I stay up very late a few nights in a row I begin feeling very sick from lack of sleep. Lack of sleep can toy with anyone’s’ mind and behavior.