Breaking the first rule of fight club.

If you never really watched Fight Club or if you only gave it a cursory glance you may have only noticed the violence and may have thought it's just a movie about men having fun punching each other in the face. I wouldn't blame you if that was your conclusion because the name is Fight Club and there was a lot of punching, but that's only a part of the story. 

The main protagonist, who isn't given a name,

(which is pretty deep and I might get into if I have time) 

(I didn't have time)

goes throughout his monotonous day to day life just working and buying shit. He might switch it up here and there by buying shit then working, but that's about all his life consists of. In a way just pointing out how draining that kind of consumerist lifestyle becomes.

Let's start from the top though.

The Narrator, for fun, gawks at furniture magazines while on the toilet as if it were the latest issue of Playboy and an ideal night for this man consists of watching infomercials and decorating his home with IKEA furniture. When he's not doing that he's working a bland 9 to 5 job that is so predictable that it would likely lead an average person to insanity.. as it did for Ole' No Name here, but I'll get to that in a bit.

He notices how depressing and boring his life is and seeks out help. He's told to find people who are worse off than him in an attempt to realize how good of a life he has. He walks into a testicular cancer support group and pretends to be one of these poor men who literally have no testicles.

(unlike the narrator who is only metaphorically emasculated)

It helps for a while. He begins to feel better about himself and his life seems to be getting improving.

Then BOOM Marla walks in and ruins everything.

Why is a woman walking into a testicular cancer support group you may ask? 

Well, because she can I guess?

 Marla notices that the Narrator isn't really like the others and plays along with his whole shtick, but the Narrator isn't having it. He wants the group all to himself and didn't want her coming in and ruining his fucked up version of a therapy session. Predictably though, Marla becomes the love interest of the movie and also predictably becomes the catalyst of what is to come.

Subtly in the background of certain scenes, you'll catch glimpses of Tyler Durden, (Brad Pitt) until eventually he gets introduced to the main protagonist. He isn't just some random stranger though. The Narrator unknowingly developed an alter-ego who does everything he wish he could and is everything he wishes he was. 

Blah blah blah they become close and then they proceed to start the first of many Fight Clubs which consists of men beating on each other to regain whatever sense of manliness they have lost because apparently, the only way to be a man is to punch other men in their face. 

This group soon starts to become more than just an underground group of men beating on each other. Tyler starts to organize them and basically indoctrinate these guys to do whatever is demanded of them. He wants to fight everything the Narrator held near and dear to his heart. Capitalism and consumerism became enemy number 1. 

Durden ends up creating a fascistic system within the group which became just as bad if not worse than what they were trying to tear down in the first place. Tyler strips these men of any identity and turns them into basically a rebranded version of what the Narrator was at the beginning. No name, no control over their own lives, etc. The club starts to spread throughout the country. Groups around the world carrying out whatever Tyler demanded. 

Suddenly over a phone call with Marla, he realizes that he and Tyler are one and the same. Everything that has happened was his doing. At the very end, the narrator wants nothing to do with his alter-ego and the only way to get rid of him is to shoot himself, luckily he's as terrible at shooting as he is everything else, and ends up only popping a hole through his cheek which somehow still ends up killing Durden. 

However, that did not stop the plan that they put in motion to destroy all the banks.

(which they wanted to do because they thought it would clear everyone's debt?)

 Everything still went according to plan though as all the big banks blew up in the background as Marla and the still nameless protagonist stared off into the destruction. 

In their fight to combat all the injustices of the capitalistic society, they become just as bad as what they were so against.