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Inspired by a recent io9 article about when fan theories turned out to be better then what was actually in the movies.

Personally, I love a good fan theory.  Some fan theories can make you reevaluate a movie and can make a flawed film make more sense. 

Probably, one of the best know is one that states that the events of Farris Buller's Day Off are all imagined by Cameron, one of the side characters.  Often the whole "it takes place in a character's imagination" subset of fan theories really only try to explain away the unlikely events within the narrative.  Soon postulate that all of the Harry Potter series takes in Harry's imagination to explain away the magic.  Some people seem to not want magic or the unreal even in clearly fictional settings.  One if the reasons the Farris Buller theory works is because it really does change the movie.  It makes Cameron more of the main character because he is the one that actually goes through a story arc.

Another one I really like is that in the movie Signs the invaders are not aliens but demons, or mythical beings.  They are never refereed to as aliens, we never see their technology, and it explains why they were stopped by closed doors and hurt by water.  (Part of the theory is that it is actually Holy Water as well).  Suddenly, we are not  witnessing an alien invasion but magic trying to reclaim its place in the world.

There are some others I really like and some that just don't make sense, but I'll talk about those as the discussion unfolds. 

Do you like fan theories?  Which ones do you like and which ones are just grasping at straws.

This is the first time I've heard about the Ferris Bueller's Day Off one. I think that theory is pretty bad lol
I've got one of my own: Point Break (1991) was made to make Keanu Reeves look bad. I think director Kathryn Bigelow hated Reeves so she made his character suffer physical and emotional pain throughout. Next time you watch that movie keep that in mind. In regard of that Point Break can become a unintentional funny movie watching experience.

The old standby:

"James Bond" is simply a name whomever is 007 at that time uses.  If you squint hard enough, you can make it work.

I like the Bond theory posted above.

In Inception Cobb's totem is his wedding ring.

I like the Unified Pixar Theory:
http://jonnegroni.com/2013/07/11/the-pixar-theory/ (http://jonnegroni.com/2013/07/11/the-pixar-theory/)

From the Terminator movies: Skynet never planned to stop the humans, only ensure its own creation.

The terminators were never meant to actually kill Sarah or John Conner.  Skynet needed them to create the events that would lead to John Conner becoming the resistance leader, thus Skynet would send a terminator back in time, thus John would send Kyle Reese back in time, thus leading to both the creation of Skynet and the resistance.

 

(http://uproxx.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/keanu-reeves-whoa2.gif)

Whoooa...

I have a simple one for The Oregonian (2011) which is probably right: she ran away from her abusive boyfriend/husband, who she possibly killed/attacked. Was drunk and crashed the car, that's why she is in a coma.

It's more fun with weird movies. Anyone seen room 237? Analysis of the shining which is largely just pure speculation, there was some interesting meticulous things about that film though so I can see why people have such a field day with it.

A film theory I proposed to my schoolmates in 1982 got a lot of laughs and me a few clouts upside the head.  :buggedout:

My theory on ET is that the alien is actually supposed to be Jesus as when he arrives on Earth, no one recognizes him for who he truly is, his Earth Mother's name is Mary, he has one true disciple (Elliot), he performs miracles (of a kind), he is persecuted, dies, is resurrected and then disappears from our sight. That led me to me (a) walking out of the cinema and (b) not seeing a Spielberg film until someone rooked me into seeing Jurassic Park in 1993.  :smile:

TERMINATOR TIME THEORIES. The perfect way to turn an otherwise useful human mind into duck guano with a hint of fish paste.

As pointed out at the end of the blog article, Disney/Pixar is well known for putting Easter eggs into its films that refer to past films and to future films, but I have never seen an Easter Egg that welded so many films together, nor one that was so well done. So, well done Jon for the blog article and Ed for posting the link to it.

Looking at the time line, excluding "Brave" everything begins in the 1950's on this alternate earth. I was born in the 1950's on this earth, which raises the question: "If it was all possible, would I like to be born on this earth, or born on the alternate earth?"

Knowing how everything plays out in the future, I think I might like, if I had the choice, to be born on the alternate earth.

Yeah, ROOM 237 is a must-see if you want to be exposed to obsessed fan theories.

Some movies are entirely built off fan theories. In DONNIE DARKO, for example, the writer did not give the viewer quite enough material to build a coherent story within the movie, so fans have had to expand the film's mythology and mechanics to explain away the time travel paradoxes.

How do you know you weren't?

Neil Blomkamp must have had a really crappy childhood in South Africa: my theory is that his films District 9 and Elazyium are anti-South African diatribes.  :thumbdown:

the aliens in Signs are demons

Chewbacca and R2-D2 are secret rebel agents in the prequels

The Tarantino movie universe

kids are part of Wonka's candy

The Tarantino movie universe

E.T. is  a Jedi

Clint Eastwood's characters in the Dollars trilogy,  High Plains Drifter, Pale Rider, and Unforgiven are all the same guy at different stages in his life, and in non-linear order. In some of the films, he might even be dead already - a wandering spirit of vengeance.

Twilight is entirely in Bella's mind

Tyler Durden and the narrator from Fight Club are grown-up versions of Calvin and Hobbes

worst Fight Club theory read so far  :bouncegiggle:

Going back to the Pixar movies.

I really like the Jeesie's original owner is Andy's mom theory.  I know its probably not true, but it really works.

In Wreck-it Ralph Calhoun killed her fiancee.  Remember that the cy-bugs become what they eat.  So if one did that to her fiancee, it would have turned into him before or during the time she killed it.

That theory is very true in both Pale Rider and High Plains Drifter: in Pale Rider, the Preacher character is described to another, that person says "That man is dead."  :buggedout:

I read somewhere that in the film No Country For Old Men, the evil Anton Chigurh is a ghost and that the old sheriff is actually the killer.  :question:

A really crazy one is that the character of Sandy in Grease drowned and the entire film is a dream before she passed: cue the flying car going up to heaven.  :question: :question:

in Skyfall Silva is M's son

In Groundhog Day the curse never ended, it just moves of one day when the main character does a perfect play.

The Joker in The Dark Knight is a war veteran suffering from acute PTSD.

The Joker in the movie:
-is quite capable with several types of weaponry such as remote controlled detonators, rocket launchers, and munitions that a military person would have training in
-seems to know some cqc (close quarters combat), like when he kills the one goon with a pencil
-says that one line to Dent about a truck load of solders being blown up

He is someone lashing out and causing chaos to damage the system he thinks abandoned him.

Evidence against this theory is Gordon saying the Joker has no identifying records in the system, but if he was in the military, they'd have his information.

But one of the macguffins  in TDKR is a computer program that erases that type of information from all information systems, so it's possible the Joker got his hands on an early version of it ans successfully used it.   

That idea is hardly new, I mean since HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER...

I thought it was obvious considering the face she does while shooting... Or at least the monster was transforming in her fiancee.

Sorry, I cannot edit yet...

Wow, this makes more sense that most of the movies I seen so far.

I am one of the few people who liked "Batman begins" and disliked "Dark Knight." One of the reason was that the while in the first movie the message is "with this story Batman almost makes sense," in the second everything is thrown out of the window and the message become "Batman and co. become a babbling loser and Joker comes as deity from nowhere; to make Batman win let's give him a total nonsense techdevice and since it is too powerful let's destroy it afterward."

Making a little background story (possibly just implied or in a thrown in dialog) that Joker is an insane war veteran could be a saving factor of the movie (to me).

Guardians of the Galaxy is actually The Avengers playing a pen-and-paper RPG:

http://imgur.com/gallery/d0cug (http://imgur.com/gallery/d0cug)

Iron Man = Star-Lord
Black Widow = Gamora
Thor = Drax the Destroyer
Captain America = Rocket
Bruce Banner = Groot

The same applies to the lead female character in 1962's "Carnival of Souls." When the car she was riding in at the start of the film goes off the bridge and into the river, does she escape from the car before she drowns, as we see her escape from the car, or is the rest of the film, from the time the car goes off the bridge into the river to the film's end, a product of her mind, as she drowns.
Both theories have been argued numerous times, which is one of the reasons, the film is so interesting.

Agent Deckard is a replicant

the end of Taxi Driver is Travis Bickle's death dream

The briefcase contains Marcellus Wallace's soul

I thought it was official in all the versions a part of the first theatrical one. Deckard is a old model replicant stronger, more merciless, and smarter then most humans and probably with no life limit; he started developing feelings after a while. However is hardly a match for never models.

Ok, a couple of friends and I came up with this one last night during our weekly game night and the talk turned to old cartoons as it so often does.  Its from tv, but I don't think I ever said these had to be based around movies alone.

In the Disney cartoon show Darkwing Duck, they never dwell on two important aspects of the characters.
1. Where does Darkwing get his money from?
2. Why was Launchpad  no longer working for Scrooge McDuck?

Clues we discovered was that Launchpad seemingly stopped being a lousy pilot when he was working for Darkwing.  We joking concluded that he was secretly scamming Scrooge out of millions in insurance and workers compensation with all his crashes.  

Eventually he was either fired or I think it would be funnier if he angrily quit after Scrooge yelled at him too many times, but was able to keep the money, which he now uses to fund Darkwing Duck's adventures as some sort of adventure thrill seeking complex he has.