How Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and David Fincher foretold 9/11 and Trump.
Lili Anolik
August 9, 2021
Vanity Fair
Photographs by Merrick Morton
Let’s break all the rules, or at least rules one and two. Let’s talk about Fight Club. The movie, released in 1999, is directed by David Fincher and based on a novel, published in 1996, by Chuck Palahniuk. It stars Brad Pitt and Edward Norton playing, respectively, the id, named Tyler Durden, and the superego, named Jack (though that name is theoretical, as he’s never actually addressed by it), a man in the midst of an identity crisis; and Helena Bonham Carter, playing Marla Singer, the woman in love with them/him. I could tell you what Fight Club is about, but that would be like imposing a plot on a dream. And in any case, I don’t need to tell you, since Tyler Durden’s kiss—a soft press of lips followed by cooling saliva followed by burning lye—has been seared into our consciousness just as it’s been seared into Jack’s flesh: You already know it even if you haven’t seen it.
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The Fincher Analyst 