Project Mayhem

"What's that smell?" The last words of Tyler Durden. Tyler Durden was "killed" by a "self inflicted" gunshot wound to the head.

If you are unaware Tyler Durden is one of the main characters in the movie Fight Club. Durden is portrayed by a young, talented Brad Pitt. Alongside Pitt are Edward Norton as the Narrator, and Helena Bonham Carter as Marla Singer. The movie is based on the novel, also titled Fight Club, by Chuck Palahnuik. I chose to write about a fictional character, not only for a change of pace, but because it is something that I am passionate about. Fight Club is my favorite movie, and everything about it intrigues me...especially the characters.

The first time I saw the movie I was so lost, I had no idea what the movie was about. It is not until the last half hour of the movie that it all starts to come together, you realize what is going on, the twist that changes the entire movie. Tyler isn't real. The entire movie shifts, everything that you thought you know is wiped away. Everything is different. It turns out that Tyler is only a figment of the Narrator's imagination, the Narrator is schizophrenic. He created a cool alter-ego, known as Tyler Durden, to make himself feel better. The way Tyler describes himself to the Narrator is "All the ways you wish you could be, that's me. I look like you wanna look, I fuck like you wanna fuck, I am smart, capable, and most importantly, I am free in all the ways that you are not."

The Narrator worked for a car company, worked in a cubicle, had the generic, boring job that no one wanted. He was living a boring life, and needed to escape it. So he created Tyler Durden, someone he could hide his true self. He could transform himself into Tyler and be everything he couldn't be, do everything he couldn't do as his true self. Tyler's life was care-free. He had his own soap company. He sold "rich women their own fat asses back to them." In the movie he explains that the best fat used to make soaps, is fat from humans. So when they go to render fat for the soap, they steal the excess fat from a liposuction clinic. Tyler is cool, always having fun, and a total bad ass.

He dies in the end, the Narrator shoots himself in the head, to kill Tyler. Tyler had taken over the Narrator's body and had a plan to demolish every credit card building in the city, to make it so everyone had a clean slate. Everyone had the same amount of money, and everyone was equal. In the end, the buildings end up blowing up, but the Narrator rids himself of the burden of Tyler Durden.