There’s something I noticed in “Fight Club” (1999).
SPOILER ALERT!
(Okay, it’s a film that’s already 24 years old, but it’s worth pointing out anyway).
Let’s go then.
Everyone thinks that the film’s big plot twist is that Tyler Durden and Jack are the same person.
But that’s not the real plot twist!
The truth is this: Marla and Jack are also the same person.
And there’s more.
In the end, it’s Marla who beats Tyler, not Jack.
To begin with, Jack begins to hallucinate when he starts attending a cancer support group to treat his existential ailments that give him insomnia.
That’s when two compulsive smokers, Marla and Tyler, appear out of nowhere in Jack’s life.
The two are different ways for Jack to deal with the illness:
1) Tyler represents revolt and violence;
2) Marla represents somewhat nihilistic but gentle acceptance.
Watching the film for the third time I noticed that only two people interact with Marla.
Yes, Jack and Tyler.
There are several clues that the three are the same person.
The very first line of the script is already a clue. Jack says something like, ” People always ask me how I met Tyler Durden. But I suddenly realized it all has to do with a girl named Marla.”
What is the narrator telling us? That everyone pays attention to Tyler. But Marla is the important character!!!!
“And what’s this about Marla beating Tyler?”
Notice how Tyler has that macho pose but deep down he’s just an immature boy wanting to make a revolution by blowing up buildings. He himself says he has no plans other than to cause chaos and decimate civilization.
At the end of the film we have Jack deciding that this is not the way to deal with the tragic aspect of life. That this way of dealing is childish, idiotic, dangerous. Then Jack kills Tyler with a shot in the mouth. (Note how this place of being shot refers to cigarettes).
Jack decides to stay with Marla.
NOTE: Did you notice the similarity in Jack and Marla’s silhouette in this scene? It’s a clue: they are the same person.
That is, embracing your feminine side (Marla) so that you can mature into a man, no longer being a tomboy (Tyler).
So my theory is this: “Fight Club”, instead of being a compliment to the exaggerated masculinity of the fight, is actually a film that defends how immature boys need to get in touch with their feelings (the “feminine side”) to become real men, capable of dealing with the shit in life.