Guns, Germs and Steel

The Subliminal Tylers

Before the Narrator actually "meets" Tyler, he sees him in brief, one-frame flashes, representing Tyler's development in his mind. Below is a list of these appearances.

- Tyler is standing in front of the copier at the Narrator's company, as the Narrator says, "Everything is a copy of a copy of a copy."

- When the Narrator goes to the doctor for his insomnia, Tyler appears as the doctor tells him to go to the testicular cancer support group. As the doctor says, "That's pain," Tyler is standing just over his shoulder, laughing.

- At the support group, when the leader says "really open ourselves up," Tyler is smirking and leaning against him with his arm around him.

- After the Narrator confronts Marla and is watching her walk away, Tyler appears in his line of vision, smoking.

- In the Pressman Hotel welcome video, Tyler is the waiter on the far right. (Thanks to Caite!) This appearance isn't actually subliminal. The Narrator, as Tyler, really did work at the Pressman Hotel, so he would have appeared in the video.

- Tyler is riding down an escalator as the Narrator is riding up in an airport.

Nick writes, "In the beginning there are quick flashes of Tyler in the back ground. I counted 3 of them in different times. Later in the movie they explained the projectionist job that Tyler had and how he put pornographic clips in family movies. Do you think those two things have anything in common?"

I hadn't really thought about this before, but it's a good point. The characters are aware that they are in the movie (Tyler's references to "flashback humor," etc.), and Tyler DID splice a porn clip in at the end, so it's very likely that he put himself in as well.

Kevin asks, "...what are your thoughts on why the bullet killed Tyler but not the Narrator? My own theory is that Tyler was destroyed because the Narrator hit bottom when he was so unafraid of death that he was able to put a gun in his mouth and pull the trigger. The Narrator no longer needed Tyler because he had hit bottom, and he had become Tyler."

Cramer replies, "I disagree on this point. Tyler's presence isn't completely gone. While the main internal conflict of the Narrator may have been how to mesh Tyler's and his own personalities together into a single