The Big Clue Everyone Missed Early In Fight Club
The twist in David Fincher's "Fight Club" remains one of the biggest shockers in modern cinema. Starring Edward Norton and Brad Pitt, the psychological thriller gave fans an ending they never saw coming, and made viewers immediately want to rewatch it to find the hidden clues they missed.
Even those who haven't seen "Fight Club" (if you've been living under a rock) probably know the movie's big secret. Norton's unnamed protagonist, credited as The Narrator, has his mundane world turned upside down when he meets Tyler Durden (Pitt), an eccentric on a mission to live life to the fullest and create chaos wherever he goes. The pair's friendship leads to the creation of a no-holds-barred fight club, an exclusive underground ring where men can let out their frustrations with their fists. Things begin to escalate out of control when Tyler recruits more members into the club and turns them into an army of anarchists.
The startling truth is revealed within the film's final 30 minutes, when we discover that the Narrator and Tyler are, in fact, the same person. The movie goes on to show scenes of Norton's character in the place of Tyler, such as the abduction and threatening of a police commissioner at a fancy dinner, and the Narrator beating himself up in an alley. This realization instigates a battle of wills between the Narrator and the figure created by his own subconsciousness.
Upon a rewatch of "Fight Club," there are many clues hidden throughout the film that hint at the surprise outcome, but one clue in particular may have escaped the notice of even die-hard "Fight Club" fans.
Tyler Durden flashes the camera
The beginning of "Fight Club" introduces the film's Narrator (Edward Norton), an automobile recall specialist who suffers from chronic insomnia. When we first meet him, he has a gun in his mouth and is being held by an unseen stranger. He then begins to tell the story of how he ended up in this predicament, starting with his bizarre addiction of attending support groups he doesn't belong to in order to get some sleep.
About four minutes into the movie, there is a brief scene of the Narrator at his work, standing at a copier and staring into space. "With insomnia, nothing is real," the voiceover states. "Everything's far away. Everything's a copy of a copy of a copy." While this scene is meant to invoke the banality of the Narrator's life, it also is the beginning of the birth of Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt). If you watch closely, and have the pause button ready, you will see a flash appear at the left of the screen, which disappears after only a few quick frames.
That flash is actually Tyler Durden, in a blink-and-you-miss early appearance. Anyone watching the movie for the first time might just cast it aside as a weird editing error, if they even notice it at all. But the edit was actually very intentional — and it even appears again in other scenes, including a scene where the Narrator asks his doctor for sleeping pills, and the first time he attends a support group for men with testicular cancer. The flashes represent the beginnings of Tyler Durden's manifestation within the Narrator's subconscious, and it's something most audiences would never spot. It just goes to show the brilliance of the "Fight Club" editors and its director, who created an unforgettable film.