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What is life?

Fight Club (1999)
This cult film did not really hit it when it first hit the cinemas. It, however, had a resurrection of sorts after it was released on DVD. In fact, there was fear that this film may initiate copycat activities from youth just like they had in Kubrik's 'Clockwork Orange'.

The cult following is probably from connoisseurs and students of philosophy, anthropology and existentialism. The subject matter involves things which are difficult for an average Joe to grasp. It questions the futile depressive nature of our modern living through the eyes of the narrator and main character of the movie. Incidentally, we will eventually discover the real meaning of his actions with a twist at the end.

 The narrator (Ed Norton) is a disillusioned car insurance man who suffers from insomnia. His therapist suggests stints at various support groups to ease his pain. Nothing changes except his meeting with an equally individual, a Marla Singer. Along his daily duties, he develops a relationship with a stranger, a soap salesman, Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) on-flight.
One after another things fall apart for the narrator. His luggage on the flight is retained by the airport, his apartment is bombed and his performance at work takes a dive.

Left without a place to stay, he lives with Tyler and hence begin a bizarre lifestyle with mind boggling dialogue philosophy and ideas. In fact, that is the greatest selling point of the movie. Together, they start a fighting club to release their tension and pretty soon it develops into something beyond control. They and the club members, led by Tyler, indulge in various anarchic and destructive activities with special vendetta against big corporate companies. They find destroying thing cathartic. Fighting and releasing all that suppressed energy to them are therapeutic. They justify their actions by rationalising that the human design is for hunting. Now, there is nothing to kill for, nothing to overcome and explore. We are all in our comfort zone, satisfying our inner desires by consuming and overindulging. But then, that is the real reason why rules, regulations and religion came about - to give the downtrodden and outcast a chance to savour the beauty of life!

We're designed to be hunters and we're in a society of shopping. There's nothing to kill anymore, there's nothing to fight, nothing to overcome, nothing to explore. In that societal emasculation this everyman [the narrator] is created. —David Fincher

We're consumers. We are the byproducts of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don't concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy's name on my underwear. Rogaine, Viagra, Olestra.
Listen up, maggots! You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everything else. We are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.
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