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At the end of Fight Club, the narrator disables a bomb that Tyler had set up in a van in the basement, and then he and Tyler get into a fight. The fight ends with the narrator being thrown down some stairs and Tyler stalking off somewhere. When they next appear, they are in a room near the top of a skyscraper.

How did Tyler get the narrator to this room? Was it in the same building, and if so, was Tyler then expecting the narrator to disable the bomb? If it wasn't in the same building, how did Tyler have time to get the narrator there, since he says earlier that all the bombs are set to go off in fifteen minutes (at the beginning of the bomb disabling scene), the next scene opens with him saying "three minutes", and the fight/bomb disabling scene lasts about five minutes.

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I'm going to assume you did not get the twist of the movie and will do my best to explain what happens:

The whole twist of the movie (and an excellent reason to watch it multiple times) is that The Narrator (nameless, some assume his name is Jack) actually has a split personality disorder. Tyler Durden does not exist and is just a figment of his split personality. It is explained when The Narrator sleeps, Tyler is awake. Any scene that involves either Tyler or The Narrator doing something, it is the same person doing it as he is both Tyler and The Narrator. What people actually see is The Narrator, whether it be Tyler's personality or not. Any scene involving the both of them is revealed to be The Narrator talking to himself or imagining themselves talking to one another.

With that bit of background out of the way, lets assume the fight with the van towards the end is just another one of their internal struggles. The two personalities fight over control of The Narrator's body and it seems that Tyler has won by throwing The Narrator down the steps, incapacitating The Narrator's personality, leaving Tyler in charge of the body. Therefore, when The Narrator regains 'consciousness' (so to speak), he realizes Tyler took them to the top of the skyscraper.

Hope that cleared it up.

Edit:

In regards to the time, well, it is a very rare occurrence that 5 minutes is actually 5 real minutes. But the point that I haven't covered, that I realized, is the location that they're in. They are in a building, facing the one that was going to be blown up, for a better view. It is assumed that when The Narrator personality is 'knocked out', Tyler reset the charges and escaped to the top floor of the other building.

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  • No, I definitely got the twist. So was it a different building then? I guess that does make the most sense.
    – Andrew Latham
    Commented Jan 11, 2012 at 19:05
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    "lets assume the fight with the van towards the end is just another one of their internal struggles"....got so frustrated trying to explain this part to people.
    – ray
    Commented Apr 20, 2012 at 21:05
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    @ChristianRau I'm not sure if it is ever explained that the building they're watching from is the same one they were fighting in. However, all the context clues point to no because why would he blow himself up, not to mention, why would his crew meet him up there if it was to be blown up?
    – Tablemaker
    Commented Apr 22, 2012 at 4:43
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    @ChristianRau Also, I do not remember it being implied that they blow up at the end. Is this something in the book (that I need to read)? From what I could gather the implied ending is they watch the destruction of the financial buildings together, "ushering in" their "new world" of Project Mayhem.
    – Tablemaker
    Commented Apr 22, 2012 at 4:44
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    Tyler rearmed the bomb before leaving the van and locking its rear doors. I doubt they were in that same building because a) we don't see it blow up and b) Tyler says that Project Mayhem isn't about killing anyone but rather setting them free. They wouldn't bring a bunch of beer upstairs if they were just gonna blow up in 10 seconds. They were going to have a party while watching the other buildings collapse.
    – David Harkness
    Commented Jul 14, 2012 at 11:01
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Problem with them being in another building when it goes off, at the beginning of the movie they show the window that Tyler leans on then quickly descends to the sub levels right below them where the van is. So Tyler couldn't have rearmed the bomb if it was below them. Unless I am missing something, it doesn't add up.

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I don't see how this doesn't make sense.

They may or may not be in a different place (there was a short blackout). As it is already mentioned that Tyler knows of "Jack" and that he has control of every one around them/him it's hardly difficult to believe that he could engineer the movement of his self (if he even needed to, due to "Jack" not remembering 90% of his life). He could have been carried or he could have taken control of "Jacks" body and walked him upstairs as it's already pointed out that he has no memory when Tyler takes over. It could have been as simple as.... fight, black out.. be Tyler, walk to another place and sit in a chair, be "Jack".

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It shows that the narrator defuses the bomb when he pulls out the green wire.

That's why Tyler gets mad and why they start to fight.

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