Fight Club's screen adaptation introduced the world to Tyler Durden, the Narrator's alternate identity, and he peculiarly takes on the appearance of world-famous actor Brad Pitt. Fight Club has gone on to become one of the most iconic films of the 90s and a stand-out of David Fincher films. Adapted from the novel by Chuck Palahniuk, the film follows the everyman Narrator who meets the mysterious Tyler Durden - and from that point, chaos ensues.
Fight Club deals with a series of themes, but a key point of focus is mental illness, shown through the Narrator and his alternate identity. Tyler first appears in flashes in the film and then apparently meets the Narrator (played by 2008 Hulk, Edward Norton) directly on a flight, and Tyler seems to be everything he isn't. Tyler is fearless, flamboyant and he gets the girl, where the Narrator works a stale white-collar job and feels as though he lacks any meaning in his life. The film's twist reveals that the two were the same person all along, and the Narrator had projected this image of Tyler as a different person to him, who he distinctly envisioned him to look like Brad Pitt - so why is this the case?
One theory via Reddit speculates that Fight Club's Narrator actually based Tyler's image on the real-life Brad Pitt. Tyler interjects at random points in the movie before he becomes a main character, but the first extensive look at him is first shown in a shot on the travelator in the airport, passing right by the Narrator. The theory goes that this could have actually been the real-life Se7en star Brad Pitt, and the Narrator saw him and internalized it to make his image of Tyler.
This could be a fairly plausible theory. Pitt on the travelator is dressed distinctly different than the usual Tyler. He's wearing a white jacket with a yellow shirt and silver sunglasses, whereas Tyler is normally seen in the iconic red leather jacket, and dressed in dark colors, wearing red sunglasses. With the film providing a commentary on modernity, the garish yellow and white combination with overstated shades could fit to be a satirized image of the celebrity, thus Pitt could have been playing himself in that scene. Further, Brad Pitt does actually exist in the Fight Club universe, evidenced by a marquee advertising Seven Years in Tibet, which Pitt starred in. From this, the Narrator could have seen that film, or other movies starring Pitt (which would explain the previous flashes of Tyler before the airport scene), and his image had been slowly seeping into his unconscious, quietly detailing and crafting Tyler in the likeness of the star. Pitt at the time was rising to fame, and becoming Hollywood's ''perfect man'', a concept which the Narrator fixates on. This connects to something Tyler says to the Narrator once the latter has figured out what's happening, Tyler tells him "I look like you wanna look". With the foundation laid, perhaps the Narrator seeing Brad Pitt in real life at the airport was the last step in bringing Tyler to life.
The intricacy and detail of Fight Club allows for some wild fan theories, but this one might just hold some weight. Of course, the film loves Easter eggs (its famous Starbucks cup, for example), thus the Seven Years in Tibet marquee could be nothing more than a nice nod to a previous Brad Pitt project. However, with the content of Fight Club, its themes, and its Fincher-esque signature, it might not be such an impossible theory.