The first rule of Fight Club: “don’t talk about Fight Club.” But we do have to talk about the amazing film a little to delve into movies like Fight Club. Edward Norton and Brad Pitt star as the narrator and Tyler Durden, respectively. The narrator is a depressed man suffering from insomnia who gets approached by a soap salesman, Tyler, and together they form an underground club. The rules may be strict, but the men release their tension and anger about their mundane lives by fighting. Their partnership gets rocky though when Marla, a fellow support group crasher, attracts Tyler’s attention away from the ring.
While not all of the movies we have selected are about fighting, they do center around mental illness, mental turmoil, and the world of criminality. If you like watching Fight Club regularly, add one of these movies like Fight Club to your watchlist now.
5. Donnie Darko (2001)
Our fifth selection for movies like Fight Club is Donnie Darko, starring Jake Gyllenhaal. It’s the presidential election in 1988, and in a small town, Donnie Darko sleepwalks out of his house one night, seeing a giant, demonic-looking rabbit named Frank. Frank tells Donnie that the world will end in 28 days. When the boy returns home, he finds a jet engine from a plane that has crashed into his bedroom. Is Donnie suffering from delusions, or will the world really end?
Donnie Darko has no fighting, but Donnie must contend with terrifying and puzzling delusions. This plays into the mental illness side of Fight Club.
–IMDb score: 8.0
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4. Gone Girl (2014)
Based on the best-selling novel by Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl is our fourth choice for movies like Fight Club. It’s Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary, and Amy is nowhere to be seen. Nick reports his wife has gone missing, and as the investigation goes on Nick’s idea of a happy union crumbles. Nick begins to act dodgy, lying to the police and hiding behind deceit until everyone wonders, did he kill his wife?
While this film may seem nothing like Fight Club, it does present the morally grey world of the main character, and the decisions he makes during police investigations. The case seems straightforward in the beginning, but there is a lot more hiding under the surface.
–IMDb score: 8.1
3. Shutter Island (2010)
There’s danger around every corner, especially in Shutter Island our third selection for movies like Fight Club. The film is set in 1954 as U.S. marshals Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule are sent to investigate a missing patient from Boston’s Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital. Daniels has pushed for an assignment on the island for a while, but soon begins to suspect he’s there as part of a twisted plot by hospital doctors that conduct radical and illegal treatments. As a hurricane cuts off communication with the mainland and dangerous criminals “escape,” Daniels will doubt everything he knows.
Shutter Island is similar to Fight Club due to their mentally unstable main characters as they delve deeper into the criminal underworld, not knowing who to trust.
–IMDb score: 8.2
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2. Taxi Driver (1976)
Get ready for a little gore in Taxi Driver our second selection for movies like Fight Club. An ex-Marine and Vietnam War veteran, Travis Bickle lives in New York City and suffers from insomnia. Bickle spends his time watching explicit movies, working as a taxi driver at night, and thinking about how the world has deteriorated into madness. With his one bright spot in humanity, Betsy, Bickle plans to do whatever it takes to make the world a better place, which happens to include a lot of violence.
Fight Club and Taxi Driver both have a lot of fighting, whether it’s between two angsty men or a taxi driver and a presidential candidate.
–IMDb score: 8.2
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1. Joker (2019)
Our last selection is Joker for movies like Fight Club, and is one of the most naked and interesting portrayals of Joker and how he came to be. Formally known as Arthur Fleck, the failed stand-up comedian leads an impoverished life with his ailing mother. As he uncovers more about his past and his mental illness, society shuns him as a freak. Fleck travels down a dark road, embracing a life of crime and chaos and becoming the iconic Joker.
Arthur is similar to the narrator in Fight Club because the world has shunned him for his illnesses, but instead of creating a fight club, he creates a persona that drives the city to cheer his name.
–IMDb score: 8.4
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