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Boom mic visible (2) |
Character error (2) |
Continuity (2) |
Crew or equipment visible (2) |
Factual errors (1) |
Revealing mistakes (3) |
Spoilers (9)
Boom mic visible
When the Narrator is being held down on the table at the police station, a boom mic is clearly visible at the top of the screen for a few seconds.
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When Tyler is urinating in the soup, the boom microphone becomes visible as it moves to allow him to talk into it. *This has been corrected for the DVD.)
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Character error
When the narrator talks to his doctor, the x-ray on the wall behind him is not only back-to-front, but also upside-down.
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In Project Mayhem there is no names, but Bob gets called Bob four times. Twice by Tyler as a waiter and twice by one of the Space Monkey's when he is shot lying on the table.
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Continuity
When the Narrator is quitting his job, the thermostat alternates between white and black as the shot cuts back and forth between him and his boss. (The 2009 Blu-ray release digitally alters the scene so the thermostat is now consistently white.)
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When Lou is punching Tyler, Lou punches once and there is blood, it shows Tyler again and there is no blood, and then blood again when he gets punched the second time.
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Crew or equipment visible
When the Narrator is getting off the table in the police station after getting the gun, the wireless mic pack is visible and connected to his underpants.
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When The Mechanic (Holt McCallany) sprays the Seminary Student (Matt Winston) with a hose, the camera briefly shakes because the cameraman was laughing uncontrollably.
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Factual errors
When Tyler is discussing the reason oxygen masks are on airplanes he is incorrect. Breathing 100% oxygen does not create a state of euphoria. In a loss of cabin pressurization, it is hypoxia (lack of oxygen) that can induce euphoria. However, Tyler never says states as a fact that oxygen produces euphoria, it is simply his interpretation of the safety notices, and his explanation for why the people in the pictures have such calm expressions.
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Revealing mistakes
During the fight scene in the garage between Tyler and the Narrator, the concrete wall moves when the narrator is thrown against it.
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After the scene in the bathroom where Tyler threatens the police chief, as the waiters are emerging into the parking lot, you see Bob's (Meat Loaf) pants fall down, briefly revealing the body suit he was wearing.
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In the scene depicting Tyler cutting out various news clippings about the exploits of Fight Club/Project Mayhem none of the articles relate in any way to the headlines.
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Spoilers
Audio/visual unsynchronised
Towards the end of the movie, when the Narrator is attempting to defuse the bomb, the sound the bomb makes and the seconds going down do not match.Share this
Continuity
When the Narrator is breaking into the building (near the end of the movie), he slams a bench into the glass door, and it rebounds hits him. He eventually shoots the door he tried ramming, and when he kicks the glass and goes through, the bench is gone.Share this
Continuity
When the narrator is in the police interrogation room at the end of the movie with the detectives, the sweat on the neck of his shirt changes from shot to shot.Share this
Incorrectly regarded as goofs
Most "continuity errors" are explained or implied within the film itself as 1) clues to the twist ending, 2) manifestations of the Narrator's confused, disoriented view of the world, 3) the sense that prankster Tyler Durden has tampered with this film, or 4) all of the above.Share this
Incorrectly regarded as goofs
When you see that Bob is dead on the table, as the narrator is talking, some viewers have reported that you can see his body breathing. However, the apparent breathing results from the swinging of the light fixture and besides, the body used for the shot was actually a life-size doll.Share this
Incorrectly regarded as goofs
At the end of the movie, while the narrator is sitting in the chair and Tyler is holding a gun, Tyler lights up and takes a cigarette out of a pack, flips it with his fingers and puts it in his mouth. In a real situation, no cigarette packs are packed tobacco side up, so some say the pack Tyler was using had to be pre-packed for the shot. However, some smokers flip a single cigarette upside down and leave it in the pack until it is the last one left. This is known as a "wish smoke". It is possible that Tyler/writers/director did this on purpose given the situation.Share this
Incorrectly regarded as goofs
When Tyler splices porno frames into family films, the audio and picture tracks would have only a barely noticeable 1/24 of a second interruption (as is shown). However, the image flash and sound flash are shown as happening simultaneously, when in fact, if they were spliced into the same frame on the reel (which is what we see Tyler doing), they would be 21 frames apart (i.e. the single image frame would occur about a second prior to the single audio frame). The sound for a 35mm film is read by a head located about a foot past the projection lamp; so, for the film and sound to remain in perfect sync, the soundtrack for a given frame is located about a foot in front of that frame, that way the image and the sound are projected simultaneously. For the sound and image flashes to occur at the same precise moment, Tyler would thus have to splice the frame of audio onto the reel about a foot further along than he splices the image frame, which he doesn't do (not to mention, it would be impossible to perfectly sync it by hand anyway). However anything we see Tyler doing must be taken with a pinch of salt, since he is just a part of the Narrators imagination. It's probable that since he imagined his alter ego to be someone who is everything he wanted to be (handsome, good in bed etc) he also imagined him to be able to perform impossible feats for his entertainment.Share this
Revealing mistakes
In the scene when Project Mayhem is returning from destroying the Starbucks, Bob is shown as being shot in the head. When the Space Monkeys uncover his body, there is a massive exit wound at the back of his head. In the flashback sequence when he is shot however, the police officer is clearly behind him when shooting, and Bob falls forward chest-first, as if getting shot in the back. The exit wound from a hollow-point bullet, which most police officers carry, would have a small entrance wound (in this case, the back of Bob's head) and a large exit wound (the front of Bob's head). This is not the case when looking at Bob's uncovered body.Share this
Revealing mistakes
(At 2:04:06) Towards the end of the movie when Tyler throws the Narrator down the stairs, you can clearly see the stunt double's face.Share this
