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Behind Closed Doors: 6 Interesting Movies That Featured Secret Societies

The idea of secret societies just lends itself to thrilling cinema, doesn’t it? Clandestine gatherings in concealed locations, covert motivations for underground activities, betrayal and treachery lurking behind every shadowy corner – it is all fertile ground for compelling storytelling. Indeed secret societies have been the bedrock of gripping cinematic drama and thrills for a very long time, spawning movies that have spanned genre, style, and level of success. In more recent years, the use of secret societies in movies seems to have taken on a much more functional role, however – being used more specifically to highlight themes of social injustice, and corruption. These movies appeal to our more suspicious sensibilities, often reflecting the mainstream media narrative of the need to beware an enemy hiding in plain sight. With this message having reached fever pitch in the current political climate to the point of generalised fear-mongering and xenophobia, it’s a good time to reflect on some of the most memorable instances of secret societies gracing the silver screen, and examine what they tell us about ourselves and our world – both good, and bad.

Fight Club (1999)

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Upon its release, Fight Club was heralded as a groundbreaking endeavour. Now, almost two decades later, its themes are far more familiar, thanks to projects such as Mr. Robot. It takes the idea of a secret society and uses it as a tool for those that seek to remake the world through revolution – to break the bonds of perceived oppression, achieved by the wealthy through manipulation of economies and media.

Fight Club is directed by David Fincher, from a script by Jim Uhls, which was adapted from the novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. It stars Edward Norton as the (unnamed) Narrator (Edward Norton), who’s an insomniac finding comfort in visiting various support groups and pretending to have the problem the group is supporting. He meets a woman named Marla (Helena Bonham Carter), who’s doing the same thing. He also meets a man – Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) – on a plane. When the Narrator’s home is destroyed by an explosion, he moves in with Durden, and their difficult relationship begins to manifest in bursts of violence. Channelling this anger, they establish an underground Fight Club, in which men can fight each other for recreational purposes.

The relationship between the two men begins to deteriorate and the Narrator discovers that Durden has transformed the Fight Club into an underground anti-corporate organization called Project Mayhem, which seeks to reform the world by blowing up every institution that houses credit information. As the Narrator discovers that Durden is, in fact, himself, he realizes that his Fight Club has expanded to point at which it’s far beyond his control.

It’s the motivations of the Narrator/Tyler Durden in establishing this secret society that highlights themes of cultural discontent. The railing against corporate takeovers of society, and the generic numbness created by ever-present media marketing tells the story of a generation of people (here, specifically men) who are willing to pummel each other to the ground in a desperate bid to simply feel something real. As this technologically advancing, aspiration-driven civilization works to isolate us and place us in carefully labelled, ever-shrinking boxes, Project Mayhem serves an agenda that seeks to burn that framework to the ground – hoping to start from scratch.

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