Goofs for
Fight Club (1999) More at IMDbPro »

• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Tyler *69s the Narrator at the payphone. While all the Paper Street house phones are rotary, you can dial "1169" from a rotary phone with the same effect; it's likely that Tyler would still refer to this as "*69." And while *69 might not work on a pay phone, this scene is not entirely as it seems, for reasons that become clear by the end of the movie.
  
  
• Factual errors: 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).
  
  
• Continuity: When the Narrator is quitting his job, the thermostat changes between silver and black as the shot cuts back and forth between him and his boss. Also, the distance between the chair and the desk in the background changes between shots.
  
  

• Continuity: When Tyler throws the Narrator down the stairs, the event is supposedly caught on a security camera. When you see the footage at the security desk the camera that was supposed to have filmed the fight is visible in the footage. However, the event is shown from an angle from which there is no camera on the wall.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: When The Mechanic (Holt McCallany) sprays the Seminary Student (Matt Winston) with a hose, the camera briefly shakes. This happened because the cameraman couldn't keep himself from laughing.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Continuity: In the talk between Tyler and the Narrator after Tyler and Marla have had sex for the first time, Tyler's cigarette switches from burning to not burning to burning again.
  
  
• Continuity: The sweat around the Narrator's collar when he's in the dry cleaner's looking for Tyler.
  
  
• Continuity: During the fight in the garage, Tyler puts the Narrator's head through the passenger side mirror of a van. The mirror then changes position when Tyler looks in it.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: 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.
  
  
• Continuity: When The Narrator is lying in bed reading a magazine listening to Tyler and Marla have sex upstairs, there is a copy of BusinessWeek on the table next to his bed, with the cover "The Technology Paradox." In the next shot, there is a close-up of the magazine with water dripping on it and the cover has changed to "The Best and The Worst Boards."
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Continuity: When the Narrator hangs up after calling Tyler in the phone booth, the phone is put in the wrong position. But when the phone rings, it's in the right position again.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: 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.
  
  
• Continuity: When the Narrator is in the bathroom whistling, you can see he has a black eye on his right side, when the previous scene it shows him getting punched in the left eye.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Continuity: In the first scene, when Tyler looks outside the window, the projector that lights his gun is on at first, but seconds later it's off, without anyone touching it.
  
  
• Continuity: There is a beer bottle visible on top of the payphone thats moves between shots during the first fight between the narrator and Tyler.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): 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.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: 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.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When The Narrator is in the phone booth talking to Tyler he refers to having the same "suitcase" on the plane. The Narrator and Tyler actually had the same "briefcase".
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): The Narrator says that he lives on the 15th floor of his apartment, but the flaming apartment is on the 16th floor.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: At the end of the movie, while the narrator is sitting in the chair and Tyler is holding a gun, Tyler lights up a takes out 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 the pack Tyler was using had to be pre-packed for the shot.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The 6th rule of Fight Club is "No Shirts, No Shoes." When The Narrator and Bob fight, Bob is obviously wearing a shirt. However, it's explained in the novel that the rules were changed because of Bob's condition.
  
  
• Continuity: When Tyler corrects the narrator as to why there are oxygen masks on the plane, he shows him instructions for what to do during a plane crash. On the instruction booklet, there is a sign on the bottom remarking "no heels". however, if you look closely at one of the pics in the booklet, there is a woman bending over wearing high heels.
  
  

• Revealing mistakes: SPOILER: 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.
  
  

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