“We’re the exact same person, the only difference is I wear a dope helmet,” said Tyler Durden, alter ego to Fight Club protagonist, Jack. “Take the helmet off me, I’m him. Put a helmet on him, he’s me. Simple as that.”
Even with this explanation, psychologists in the Fight Club universe still aren’t sure as to how two alter egos can come from the same person, yet be so different.
“It’s the same guy, yet one version of himself is so much more confident, cool, mysterious, rebellious, and better looking,” said one psychologist. “Next thing you know, he’s back to being just another average dude whose face we can see.” While psychologists remain baffled, Tyler was able to offer some insider secrets.
“Look, the first rule of motorcycling is that everyone appears way cooler than they actually are while wearing a full-faced motorcycle helmet,” said Tyler. “Everyone except Tom Cruise knows it, but we just don’t talk about it… Because that’s rule #2.”
It turns out that if you do watch the Fight Club movie very closely, you will see that Tyler is wearing a helmet in nearly every scene – a small detail that few noticed.
To test this theory, we asked ten random people to sit in front of a mirror and then put on a full-face helmet. Each participant said their reflection not only took on a whole new personality, but that they said the following line from the movie:
“I look like you wanna look, I f*ck like you wanna f*ck, I am smart, capable, and most importantly, I'm free in all the ways that you are not.”