Fight Club (film)

Trivia

The movie appears to take place in Wilmington, Delaware, home to most credit card companies. Tyler's business card includes the Wilmington zip code 19808 and the Delaware area code 302. Moreover, the cities specifically mentioned in the car-smashing scene are New Castle, Delaware City and Penns Grove, NJ, which are close to Wilmington. The apartment building in which the narrator lives has as its motto "A Place To Be Somebody," which is also the city motto of Wilmington, Delaware. In the scene where the narrator desperately calls office buildings to warn them, the street names "Franklin" and "Harrison" are shown. However Franklin and Harrison streets run North to South in Wilmington's Westside/Hilltop neighborhood, a mile or so parallel to the corporate downtown. Wilmington city officials rejected the filmmakers' request to film in Delaware, in fear of copycats. It was filmed in LA instead and made to look like a generic city.

Related Topics:
Wilmington, Delaware - Credit card companies - Zip code - Area code - New Castle - Delaware City - Penns Grove, NJ - Street name - LA

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The film makers originally intended Tyler Durden to recite working recipes for homemade explosives. They later decided against it for the interest of public safety, and fake recipes were used.

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In the beginning of the film, Tyler Durden flashes on screen for a duration of one frame, perhaps a forecast to Tyler's job as film projectionist, in 4 different instances. These are:

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• At the photocopier at work while the Jack says "Everything is a copy, of a copy."
• In the doctor's office, when the narrator is learning about the testicular cancer support group.
• At that group's meeting.
• As the narrator sees Marla leaving a meeting but doesn't follow her.

These single frame flashes caused quality controllers to complain about "dirt" on the final reel. The film makers had to then reassure them that this was by design before the film was allowed to be distributed.

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Beyond these individual frame moments, Tyler also appears twice more; first on a hotel TV screen among a group of employees wearing white jackets and bidding the viewer "welcome" (look on the right side of the screen); and again while the Narrator is riding the moveable sidewalk in the airport. When the narrator asks "If you wake up at a different time, in a different place, could you wake up as a different person?", the camera pans to follow a white suited Tyler. This sort of trickery has become one of Fincher's trademarks.

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In a similar one panel trick, a single frame showing a frontal view of a naked man is included in the view of the explosions at the end of the film. This is likely an internal reference to Tyler's practice of splicing single frames of pornography into family films during his job at the movie theatre, as if he is working at the cinema in question. A common urban legend is that this is Pitt's penis; a press release for the film said that it is not.

Related Topics:
Pornography - Urban legend - Penis - Press release

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The main motives of the Fight Club film can be spotted in several other films. One might notice similarities between Tyler Durden and Brad Pitt's character in the 12 Monkeys (1995). Newer films have homages to Fight Clubs story and directing style. Collateral (2004) and Old School (2003) are but two examples.

Related Topics:
12 Monkeys (1995) - Collateral (2004) - Old School (2003)

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