Fight Club, David Fincher's 1999 film based on Chuck Palahniuk's 1996 novel, failed to meet the studio's box-office expectations. Executives disliked the film and reshaped its marketing to limit losses. Edward Norton plays an office worker who starts an underground fight club with a soap salesman, Tyler Durden, played by Brad Pitt. Its story of a man rebelling against consumer culture divided critics. The film found a second life on home video, becoming a cult favourite, and by its tenth anniversary The New York Times called it the defining cult movie of its time.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.