What Does The Ending Of Fight Club Really Mean?

Saying Goodbye To Tyler (Learning To Accept Your Lot)

If you need an actor to play a good-looking, charismatic leader of men, you could do worse than Brad Pitt. In what's probably still Pitt's signature role, the star is everything that Edward Norton's scrawny, milquetoast Narrator wishes he could be - and everything probably every male audience member wishes he could be, as well. Through Tyler, the Narrator sees life in a whole new way; Tyler is a fount of information and experience, knowledgeable about everything from home-made bombs to making women tick. He dresses like a rock star, forges his own path and doesn't care what anybody thinks about him; he breaks the Narrator out of his crummy job and gives him a purpose beyond slaving in the office.

Slowly, however, Tyler begins to show the cracks - literally, as halfway through the film his tooth chips from fighting, proving even the most perfect specimen is prone to decomposition ("even the Mona Lisa is falling apart", quips Tyler in one scene). Glamorous and coolly rebellious he may be, but after learning the extent of Tyler's insanity, does the Narrator - and the typical male viewer, for that matter - still want to be Tyler Durden? Hell no. For all its caustic humour and biting criticism, Fight Club can ultimately be read as a film about learning to be your own person and accept who you are. It's not so obvious, because the film delivers the message in a non-sentimental way, but the message is there all the same: Fincher's film just wants the everyman - of whom Edward Norton is the perfect embodiment - to know it's all right to be himself. What's your take on Fight Club? Let us know in the comments below.