With Tyler gone, Fight Club and Project Mayhem over, and a return to grinding in the machine pending, the Narrator can at the end only hold on to Marla and watch the towers of commerce before him crumble. There's nothing glorious about this final shot - the resolution of the Narrator's arc is that he's returned to normality, but it's a normality he was only ever looking to escape in the first place. Unless he did escape from it after all, just not in the way that the film wants you to think, at least on the surface. After Tyler is 'killed', the movie goes on, but there's a vague unreality to proceedings, the Narrator's journey taking on more of a fantasy quality as the buildings blow in a too-perfect manner and his relationship with Marla is resolved in a rapid volte-face reminiscent of a rom-com. You also have the shot of the penis inserted 'subliminally' before the credits roll, specifically reminding you that what you're watching is a fiction. Could it be that this portion of the film is in reality some kind of dream? Could it be that the Narrator did not, in fact, survive a point-blank gunshot to the head, and that what you're seeing in the climax are only his dying thoughts? If so, maybe it's for the best - from here, for the Narrator it'd only be back to a life he can't stand anyway.
Lover of film, writer of words, pretentious beyond belief. Thinks Scorsese and Kubrick are the kings of cinema, but PT Anderson and David Fincher are the dashing young princes. Follow Brogan on twitter if you can take shameless self-promotion: @BroganMorris1
