It requires more than one viewing to catch everything
To appreciate Fight Club in all of its glory, you need to watch it at least twice. Those who only see it once probably spend enough time afterward trying to figure out how the story’s twist works in ways both literal and symbolic. However, one cannot truly understand the genius of the two-faced protagonist without this foresight. On multiple viewings, the film shows off a cunning understanding of the culture it criticizes, while also proving the presence of both the ego and the id within the protagonist, the latter of which takes its name as Tyler. With the foresight of knowing whom the narrator really is, we can observe him from a new angle. To understand Fight Club’s psychological and philosophical lessons, and to catch the layers of the film that exist underneath, one has to revisit the film.
Besides the thematic expansion one would notice if they were to watch Fight Club more than once, the film is also filled with a lot of Easter eggs that would be hard to catch at first glance. From the subliminal one-frame snippets of Tyler that appear in the first reel of the film, to the hints that give away the Narrator’s true identity, Fight Club is filled with sequences that are meant to be examined and analyzed. (One this writer noticed in his latest viewing of the film: when Lou punches Tyler at the underground club, the Narrator flinches and doubles over in pain.)