A “masterpiece” thriller that fans say you’re not allowed to talk about is streaming now in the UK. Fight Club (1999) focuses on an unnamed depressed office worker (played by Edward Norton) who struggles with insomnia. But his dreary and repetitive daily routine take a dramatic turn when he meets mercurial soap salesman Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) who enourages him to abandon the consumerist prison he’s built for himself, and embrace the darker pleasures of life.

After our anonymous narrator’s high rise condo is destroyed in an explosion, he moves in with Tyler at his dilapidated house, and the pair start an underground meet where strangers beat each other up, just to feel something. Meanwhile, the unnamed protagonist develops a bond with Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter), another desperate, disaffected soul who Tyler also takes a shine to. The film was directed by David Fincher, from a screenplay by Jim Uhls based on Chuck Palahniuk’s 1996 novel of the same name.

The story’s twists and turns make talking about it without spoilers notoriously difficult, leading many fans to encourage others just to see it and enjoy the mindbending experience for themselves.

It’s a sentiment mirrored in one of the most iconic lines from the movie: “The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club”.

Fans have taken to IMDb to shower it with praise, with one writing: “Fight Club does exactly what movies should do, blow our minds, make us ask questions of ourselves and our society, and all the while thoroughly entertain us. Edward Norton and Brad Pitt are at their very best.”

Another wrote: “Everything about Fight Club is simply amazing. The acting, the directing, and the story is simply superb. However, going into this film I had already had had some of the major twists spoiled for me, and this is a movie that relies so heavily on those twists that knowing them will detract from the experience significantly.

“Because of that, the film is really only worth seeing of you have no prior knowledge of it whatsoever.”

A third hailed it as a “time-defying masterpiece” adding it’s a movie that “doesn’t offer answers but provokes your senses, instincts and thinking to look for them in every aspect of your life”.

“A movie you never get bored watching and enjoy lip syncing its lines. A must watch.”

A fourth gave it a perfect score, writing: “I’m a huge movie buff, and never have I sat through a movie as intense, gripping, well acted, directed, and incredibly written as fight club. I wish I could talk about it but the number one rule is, you can’t.”

The film has a 15 certificate and contains strong violence, injury detail, language, sex, self-harm, threat, and nudity – so viewer discretion is advised.

Fight Club was added to Netflix in the UK on Sunday, April 19. It’s also available to stream on Disney+ or rent or buy on other platforms including YouTube and Apple TV. The film is also being released on 4K Bluray in May with a new Ultra HD restoration.