Tyler appears in the film four times before we clearly see him on the moving walkway at the airport. In the first four appearances, he flashes on screen for a single frame (1/24 of a second) and only when the Narrator has insomnia: at the photocopier at work; in the corridor outside the doctor’s office, at the testicular cancer group’s meeting and as the Narrator sees Marla leaving a meeting but doesn’t follow her.