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"The exact same briefcase" makes no sense

posted 2 years ago by avortac4 (3752)
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So, we are shown that Tyler's briefcase is full of soap. I am not sure if we are ever shown what is in Narrator's briefcase.

However, due to the 'twist', we know one of these briefcase depictions has to be false.

Either Narrator is dragging a briefcase full of soap WITHOUT REALIZING it..

(how does this work? I know he somehow can't know what and who Tyler really is FOR REASONS, but how far is his mind prepared to render 'alternate reality' for him to deceive him? What happens if Narrator starts to wonder why this paper-filled briefcase weighs so much and opens it and sees it full of soap? WHY doesn't this ever happen?)

..or the movie is, AGAIN, showing us fiction instead of reality (I know a movie IS fiction, but you know what I mean).

Either case is really annoying, because this movie either LIES to us visually (it does anyway, quite a lot, so you can't ever TRULY know what visuals to trust - is this really happening or not, and if so, with what degree? The movie just shrugs and expects you to somehow just know), or Narrator is INCREDIBLY, implausibly unobservant about his OWN goddamn briefcase!

Either way, it makes no sense.

There's no way Narrator drags around a briefcase full of soap without ever opening it and seeing the soap, or just realizing his normal briefcase shouldn't weigh as if it's full of soap.

I mean, this movie tries to play this whole thing off as just 'Narrator simply didn't know / realize', but that's NOT enough!

For the events of this movie to happen as they do, Narrator's MIND (or something) has to ACTIVELY DECEIVE HIM very powerfully, and it has to CONSTANTLY RENDER ALTERNATE VISUALS to what he should really be seeing and even experiencing.

Think about it - Narrator finds the briefcase weirdly heavy. He goes somewhere to open it, sees he's dragging a briefcase full of soap. If he does this before meeting Tyler, it would be shocking, scary and confusing and SURELY make him know SOMETHING's up.

If he does it after meeting Tyler, he must think they have accidentally switched briefcases or something, but how can that happen, when one briefcase weighs so much more than the other (supposedly).

The other scenario is that when Narrator opens the briefcase, the soap is still there, but Narrator's mind RENDERS the visuals for his brain differently than what he should be seeing, and still makes it perfectly photorealistic, so all he sees is whatever he thought he put in it.

How does any of this work anyway? How can he put ANYTHING into a briefcase that's ALREADY FULL OF SOAP? I mean, doesn't he notice everything falling off or not hitting the bottom of the briefcase, etc.? If he puts a pen on the soap, does his mind render a 'levitating pen' that's just sitting in the air inside the briefcase?

HOW DOES IT ALL WORK?!

When you think about details like these, you can realize this movie makes no sense. Why would Narrator's mind be SO hell-bent on making Narrator NOT KNOW THE TRUTH that it would spend enormous amount of energy to render graphics the most expensive GPU today couldn't render believably?

This is the biggest flaw in this story - it ABSOLUTELY requires this superior 'rendering engine' that Narrator's deceitful mind constantly uses, or everything falls apart. It absolutely requires Narrator's mind to ACTIVELY deceive and fool the Narrator constantly, or the movie can't happen.

This whole briefcase mess is just one example among dozens that couldn't really ever happen the way shown to us, but CONVENIENTLY so many things are left offscreen and not talked about, not shown, etc., just so the movie can happen, it boggles my mind.

What would happen if someone ALREADY sat in Tyler's seat? How would he manifest? Did Tyler really give the air hostess his crotch, or was it Narrator, or was it no one?

This movie shows us 'one way things happen', then brings us a twist that necessitates that what the movie showed us COULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED the way the movie showed. So we have to somehow try to make up our own conclusions as to what REALLY happened, and how.

Did Narrator give crotch, or did he just imagine Tyler walking past the air hostess? (Yes, I am calling it 'air hostess', get over it - you will never know if I mean the actress, the character or the profession, just like you will never know what REALLY happened in this movie's story)

This whole briefcase thing makes no sense. Why would Narrator even see TWO briefcases? You can sort of accept him seeing Tyler as symbolic way of dealing with another persona that occupies his body, and him projecting that persona outside of himself, but why would he also do the same to the briefcase, and why would it have to be 'the same, exact one' in such a case? Couldn't it be a friggin' golf bag for all good it's gonna do, if it's fictional anyway?

Why would Tyler take such a risk as to use Narrator's briefcase to fill it with soap, if he wants to keep the truth secret from him?

Why would the doctor not look at Narrator's file?

[–] avortac4 (3752) 2 years ago

I mean, the doctors in movies are the most unrealistic part.

A real doc would not only have given him all kinds of medications happily (that's what they do, especially since many of them own stock in the pharma corporations), he would've checked his records/file/whatever, to realize he has mental problems, and he would have held him in the hospital or sent him to another hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.

Especially after what Narrator said about waking up in strange places, no idea how he got there - this can be dangerous, he can definitely be a danger to himself or others, this is not a case of 'chew some valerian root and go to some meeting', this is a case of 'mental illness history, serious symptoms outbreak, immediate medication and evaluation', especially since, at least according to the book, he has actually -escaped- a mental hospital, which means there would be some kind of warrant for his arrest or whatnot (I don't know the technical terms for this kind of thing).

He wouldn't just say 'you need to lighten up / healthy sleep' - no one goes to a doctor if the fix is that easy and simple, for crying out loud. This doc is almost as unrealistic as the one in 'Innerspace', who -also- doesn't send the obviously mentally ill patient for a psychiatric evaluation and/or pump him full of big pharma big bucks chemical neurotoxic concoctions.

In any case, whatever detail you focus on in this movie, it probably doesn't make sense.