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In Fight Club "Jack" (the narrator) and Tyler Durden pick a fight behind the bar and through that fight they manage to attract people to first join the fight and then after founding Fight Club, to join the club.

As we proceed through the film we realize that Jack and Tyler are actually one person.

The catch here is that, how did he manage to get those people start fighting?

I mean by beating himself up he looks more like a lunatic than a badass.

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    A lunatic can still be quite interresting or even appealing to certain people ;) Nice question though.
    – Napoleon Wilson ♦
    Jan 11, 2012 at 19:03
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    Yes, you got that right. But in that case those people should've started beating themselves up not fighting each other. :)
    – 2hamed
    Jan 11, 2012 at 19:10
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    If by "Jack" you mean the narrator I have to correct you. The narrator has no name, he's even credited as "narrator".
    – siebz0r
    Sep 24, 2012 at 12:45
  • You're essentially right, but I don't remember where I saw an article referring to the narrator as Jack.
    – 2hamed
    Sep 25, 2012 at 16:44
  • @siebz0r +10 Now finally somebody who realizes that reading an article written in the first person doesn't magically turn you into the protagonist in real life.
    – Napoleon Wilson ♦
    Sep 25, 2012 at 21:49

3 Answers 3

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I think it was the argument more than the fighting that attracted them. Remember Tyler's philosophy is "self-improvement is like masturbation, but self-destruction is good" or something like that. If he was beating himself up, and then told other people that philosophy, it's easy to see how a club dedicated to self-destruction and the Tyler Durden philosophy came together.

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    The quote is "self-improvement is like masturbation, but self-destruction..." (smirky look)
    – Nils Munch
    Jan 14, 2012 at 10:53
  • @NilsMunch that was an improvement from the book version that ran: Maybe self-improvement isn't the answer. Maybe self-destruction is the answer.
    – nilon
    Jun 22, 2016 at 18:28
  • Nice answer, I like it.
    – natural
    Mar 26, 2017 at 0:53
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The first time you see the fight, some people look at them because they're interested in the fight, and then later ask him if they could have a go one time.

Then later, when it turns out he was beating himself up, it still makes sense actually, because it's still a valid reason for them to go looking at him, and also to ask if they could have a go (in this second case meaning punching him). When the first fight started it all makes sense as in the first case actually.

That's what I thought of it at least.

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The movie shows he made people fight each other, but I guess it's used as a metaphor to face all the struggles that we face in our lives. So basically he got people who were bored of their mundane lives and showed them to fight against their struggles. I mean that's what the movie is about.

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