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| “ | You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your f-cking khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world. | „ |
| ~ Tyler Durden to the audience. |
Tyler Durden is the main antagonist of the Fight Club franchise.
He is the leader of Project Mayhem and the alternate personality of the Narrator, who controls him to cause chaos.
He was portrayed by Brad Pitt, who also played Jeffrey Goines in 12 Monkeys and Early Grayce in Kalifornia.
Personality[]
Tyler Durden is the complete opposite of the Narrator. Whereas the Narrator is a rational, wage-slave consumer of modern society, Tyler is a minimalist and neo-luddite who is smart, capable, charismatic and intuitive, which is basically everything the Narrator wishes he could be.
Tyler greatly opposed societal programming, rampant consumerism, popular culture and human society in the modern era. He envisioned men and women living freely in an Arcadian utopia, with the humans who he led there having reached enlightenment. Tyler believed that hardships and disappointments are required to reach his esoteric enlightenment.
However, as the film progresses, we realize that Tyler is not a revered savior but rather a physical representation of ‘toxic masculinity’, with a hero complex that proves to be more dangerous than helpful. His actions prove damaging and his very existence is undermined.
But at the same time, he unleashes something toxic in society and in the end, feels problematic to admire. He’s a shallow character, one who initially seems to be living up to some kind of ideal but who ultimately is little more than a posture.
During his time in Fight Club, Tyler shows great potential as a fighter in Fight Club. As time passed on, he grew more skilled, stronger, faster and tougher, symbolizing the growth of Tyler psyche gaining more influence over the Narrator's mind. The Narrator eventually saw this as a hostile takeover of his own mind.
For unexplained reasons, when the Narrator is in control, Tyler is shown to be able to physically interact with the Narrator. In some explainable cases, as a hallucination, Tyler was even able interact with the real world environment. This combined with the fact that the security footage caught this as an act outside of the Narrator's mind, leads to questions as to whether Tyler is an alter ego or a separate eldritch being.
In contrast to the Narrator, Tyler Durden was excessively charismatic and confident. Tyler was able to sway many people into his line of thinking with only a few difficulties. He also displays a great deal of knowledge regarding chemistry, esoteric theology, sociology, psychology and strategic thinking. He is even resourceful, such as stealing human fat from liposuction clinic dumpsters for his soap products.
However as the plot progresses, his actions spiral out of control, with little care for the consequences. He brings destruction and chaos not only to The Narrator’s life but also to society and to innocent people, making him into the true anti-hero he is.
Biography[]
Fight Club (novel)[]
Tyler and the Narrator meet on a nude beach. The plot almost matches up to the movie, however Tyler is implied to be a serial killer and holds human sacrifices, whereas in the movie - despite his terrorist activities, he makes sure no life is taken, although unfortunately Robert Paulson is killed carrying out one of his plans, and he still attempts to kill Marla due to risk of her knowing too much about him and the Narrator. At the end of the novel he plans to kill himself and the narrator to make them a martyr. The narrator shoots himself, presumably eliminating Tyler. The narrator is locked up in a mental institution and believes he is in heaven, although orderlies say that they will be waiting for Tyler's return.
The ending of the novel is depicted in comic form as part of the Fight Club 2 comic book.
Fight Club (film)[]
Tyler is the imaginary friend of the Narrator (through dissociative identity disorder). Tyler comes into existence when the Narrator realizes that he has to change his life, but feels he cannot do it by himself. As a result, his troubled mind produces Tyler as his alter ego. Tyler manifests himself as physically attractive and exceedingly charming.
The Narrator "meets" Tyler for the first time on an airplane when the Narrator is returning home from a business trip. Tyler reveals to him that he runs a soap factory out of his basement, using stolen fat from a liposuction clinic. Tyler hands the Narrator his card before leaving, and when the Narrator arrives home, he discovers that his condo has exploded. He had unknowingly done this himself, during a period when he "became" Tyler (which would usually happen when the Narrator was asleep). As Tyler, he held two night jobs: one as a film projector were he spliced pornography into family films, and one as a waiter where he contaminated the customers' orders.
Later on, the Narrator calls Tyler and they meet up at a bar named Lou's Tavern, where they agree to live together at Tyler's run-down house on Paper Street, rented in the Narrator's name. In the parking lot, they begin fighting with each other for no reason other than for the fun of it, with Tyler believing that this is the first step to fighting back against the rules of society in general. Their fights draw attention to many passers-by who begin joining in, eventually leading Tyler to create a Fight Club in the basement of Lou's Tavern. Fight Club becomes a great success and as its membership rapidly grows, Tyler secretly begins using it as a platform for his ideas. The Narrator soon witnesses the club develop into Project Mayhem, a terrorist group designed to destroy all that Tyler believed was wrong about society.
The Narrator in Tyler's personality.
The Narrator soon becomes aware of Tyler's true nature and finally discovers that he is merely a figment of his own imagination. As he attempts to undo Tyler's actions, Tyler severely beats him before tying him to a chair and threatening him with a gun. However, the Narrator realizes that if the gun is in Tyler's hand, it must in fact be in his own hand. He then proceeds to shoot himself in the mouth, but imagines shooting himself in the head. As a result, a large bullet wound immediately appears in Tyler's head and supposedly puts an immediate end to his existence.
Although he still causes chaos in the film, he is noticeably toned down compared to the book and not as ruthless. He also doesn't plan to kill the narrator in a suicide bid, but only intends to blow up other buildings which he seems to think is setting people free from their debts.
Fight Club 2[]
Tyler Durden on the cover of Fight Club 2 comic.
After the events of the novel, the Narrator (named Sebastian) is held in a mental institute; however, disciples of Tyler work there to ensure he does not die so easily.
Ten years after the events of the novel, Sebastian and Marla are married with a son and working in a do-nothing office job for a military contractor. Marla grows bored with suburban life, and wanting an "affair" with Tyler begins misplacing her husband's medication which is used to keep Tyler away. However, Tyler has other plans and burns down the family home and apparently kills their son.
Tyler in the Fight Club 2 comics.
It is revealed that Sebastian's psychiatrist has been on Tyler's payroll and had been freeing Tyler for one hour, three times a week for the past ten years. In that time, Tyler created a group named "Rize or Die" and turned Fight Club into a full-on terror group, which is responsible for war throughout the world. Another revelation is that Tyler may have been around before Sebastian's first apparent meeting with him, as his father was killed in a similar house fire, which helped finance him through college.
Within the comic's universe the world appears to be destroyed during Tyler's plans to start the world anew. However Chuck Palahniuk (the writer of Fight Club and the comic book) is criticized by his fans for it. After a long trek they uncover several of the Fight Club characters from the rubble, one of them Tyler himself. Tyler subsequently murders Palahniuk at the end of the book.
In other media[]
Fight Club (videogame)[]
Tyler as he appears in the video game.
In the 2004 video game Fight Club, the player takes the role of "Hero" who joins Fight Club and moves up through the ranks in order to become the second in command to Tyler Durden. Once the fights are completed, the Hero meets Tyler at the top of the building seen at the climax of the film, and he gives the player a fail safe device to blow up the buildings if anything goes wrong. After this, a gunshot can be heard as the Narrator shoots himself in the mouth in order to eliminate Tyler. With this interruption, the Hero blows up the buildings on Tyler's orders, which ties in with the ending of the film.
Quotes[]
| “ | I want you to hit me as hard as you can. | „ |
| ~ Tyler's most famous line. |
| “ | The things you own end up owning you. | „ |
| ~ To the Narrator in the bar. |
| “ | All the ways you wish you could be, that's me. I look like you wanna look, I f-ck like you wanna f-ck, I am smart, capable, and most importantly, I am free in all the ways that you are not. | „ |
| ~ Tyler to the Narrator. |
Trivia[]
- In the book, Tyler is a serial killer, including as a child murderer, (seen in the comic sequels). But in the movie, there is no implication of his serial killings mentioned.
- Tyler’s alternate personality traits have inspired many other films and television shows.
Gallery[]
