Fan theories that are Insane/awesome/valid

You know Dryden, the guy Bond kills at the beginning of Casino Royale to get his 00 status (and, according to this theory, the "James Bond" code name)? The guy who is all douchey about how M "would have sent a 00", therefore was unaware Bond was just now getting his 00 status? That guy calls him "Bond." Theory dead.

Ah, but maybe his name is actually James Bond, and he's so legendary that they use his name as a code name for all future bad ass agents. Huh? Huh?

Yeah, that's just what it needed.

My fave fan theory is how FIGHT CLUB is a sequel to the CALVIN AND HOBBES comic.

Doesn't Mathis tell Bond in his death scene that his name was a code too? (in Quantum)

Ferris as a figment of Cameron's imagination makes no sense, unless we're supposed to believe Cameron is sitting there daydreaming the entire opening 15 minutes of the film.

The Ferris Bueller thing never occured to me before. Mind equals blown. For full disclosure, microwave ready bacon blows my mind too.

Another one that makes me smile. Indy dying in a lead-lined fridge from radiation poisoning. The rest of the film is a cancerous fever dream before he finally croaks. Kind of like An Occurrence at Owl Creek Atomic Cafe.

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AMERICA!

My favorite theory was the guy at a bar who explained to me that Ed Tom Bell got away with the money.

The James Bond Codename theory doesn't work. It doesn't explain why all the different actors who played Bond had a dead wife they privately grieved over.

Of course, since Bond is actually killed in the first 5 minutes of YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE and the rest of the movie - in fact, the rest of the series for that matter - is his deathbed dream, it's all moot.

That only makes sense if you completely misunderstand Calvin and Hobbes ie) people who put Calvin pissing on things on their truck.

You're adding the "too"; not in the film.

The theory that Donny is a dead Vietnam war buddy and figment of Walter's imagination in THE BIG LEBOWSKI almost works. Until...

"Phone's ringing, Dude."

"Thank you, Donny."

I'm not sure how much sense that makes, but it does give a totally different slant on the final scene.

I remember a friend of my parents espousing way back in 1980 her theory that Darth Vader was lying and that Boba Fett would eventually be revealed to be Luke's real father. It seemed plausible when I was 11.

Another classic: the TWO Marty McFlys!

I remember hearing that theory. Fett missing when he shot at Luke on Cloud City was held up as evidence, the argument being why would a trained bounty hunter miss unless it was on purpose. Obviously, someone had never seen stormtroopers shoot before.

It was never a theory of mine, but I think the Bond Code Name is actually a good idea. It makes a sort of sense, and provides an in-movie reason for the different Bonds.

Having said that, I never thought the latest two films actually propogated this take. And I've only seen Quantum once, so I don't remember anyone intimating Bond's name came with the job.

And it's been a good 18 or so years since I've seen Radio Flyer, but I sorta assumed that the brother did die. Hazy memory indicates it was fairly obvious.

Drag Me To Hell being about a girl with an eating disorder is the only one that's really worked for me in recent memory.

The James Bond codename theory doesn't work for a couple more reasons. The Bonds played by George Lazenby, Roger Moore, and Timothy Dalton were all either shown or stated to have been married only one time, and the wife was killed (the fate of the wife of Dalton's Bond is less clear, but obviously something bad happened). I suppose supporters of the theory could say that it's the product of a doctored standard-issue dossier for later Bonds, but that doesn't make sense because both Moore and Dalton are visibly upset when the spectre (no pun intended) of Tracy is raised. Also, the Felix Leiter of License to Kill explains that Dalton's Bond was married a long time ago. So really, the only option is, "it's a big coincidence.'

Also, George Lazenby is supposed to be Connery's Bond -- the whole pre-credit sequence/early scenes at Universal Exports go to great pains to say, "Hey, it's still the same guy, we swear!" even going so far to use the theme music from previous films when Bond is cleaning out old trophies in his desk drawer. Yes, they inserted the line, "This never happened to the other fella," but that's just a joke they put in for shits and giggles.

Timothy Dalton's Bond is good friends with Roger Moore-era Felix Leiter played by David Hedison. (If James Bond is a code name, I guess "Felix Leiter" would have to be, too -- although according to this logic, why would David Hedison be allowed to resume the "Felix Leiter" identity when it's already changed hands? He wasn't the first (Jack Lord), so you can't say he's "the real Felix.")

Bond in Die Another Day remembers all the old gadgets that Connery's Bond used.

But most importantly -- let's say Bond is a code-name used by agents who achieve "007" status, and they all happen to be womanizers with a propensity for bad puns who introduce themselves surname first, [dramatic pause] followed by their full name. Okay, let's pretend that's logical -- why would every single new 007 agent like Vodka Martinis, shaken not stirred? And order them that way? I don't think that's something MI6 would care to replicate in each agent.

I just think of Bond like superheroes in comic books -- all the adventures "happened," but it's up to you to decide how you want to reconcile (or not reconcile) the continuity quirks.

MI6 employs bartenders as agents, and the drink order is code to tip them off that the orderer is a 00 agent.

My favourite Bond theory is that he's part of the Doctor Who canon as a regenerating time lord.

Oh god, let's not bring Wold Newton into this or we'll be here forever.

Wold Newton is the one insane/awesome fan theory.

Well, a theory that I remember hearing from someone (and they allegedly got it from a website) shortly after Episode 1 came out was that Obi-Won Kenobi was actually a droid. You know, OB1 and all that, and it explains why Obi-Won disappears after a light saber blow yet the Jedi played by Liam Neeson in Episode 1 doesn't do the same thing... given that I don't ever remember an explanation ever given as to why one Jedi vanishes and another doesn't, it's as good as any, I suppose.

My favorite fan theory is my college roommates' take on Mulholland Drive:

CREDITS ROLL

My roommate and I sitting there dumbfounded, not sure what to say.

Me: Man, I wonder...

Roommate: "THEY'RE ALL IN HELL!"

Me: "I guess that's possible, but I was really thinking that maybe..."

Roommate: "THEY'RE ALL IN HELL!"

Roommate leaves room and heads back to his own, slamming the door shut.

I guess it was "too soon" for critical analysis.

The Tommy Westphall Universe Hypothesis.

This one hasn't gotten much traction, but it annoys me just the same. The theory the tea and log cabins and preggo wife ending of Minority Report is all in the head of a still imprisoned John Anderton (Cruise), instead of it just being another example of Spielberg being a really sappy motherfucker when he wants to be.

Read Thread #1.

I remember someone telling me that Joker survived '89 BATMAN and that the person who fell off the building was a lookalike robot decoy, hence the mechanical laughbox laughter and why he didn't splatter all over the pavement. It would be revealed in the sequel I was reassured!

EDIT: A theory of mine that didn't come to pass... I was convinced that the Merovingian in MATRIX RELOADED was one of the original "Ones" that the Architect refers to and that it would be revealed in REVOLUTIONS. Based on the "Bloodline of Christ" cult and a line spoken by Persephone (paraphrased: "He was like you once..."). I was wrong. Or actually, never proven.

Similar to the Minority Report theory: everything after the wounded, weary Maximus being discovered by Djimoun Hounsou in Spain - the first time we see that trippy, hovering over the pebbles effect - is his posthumous struggle into Elysium, culminating with a righteous battle against his (victorious) nemesis. There is some credence given to this by the fact that we see the same trippy, hovering over the sand effect deployed at (SPOILER) the point of Maximus' death in the Coliseum.

I've watched Gladiator several times since hearing and discussing this theory and, while it's certainly not the definitive reading, it does hold up.

The cinematography change would seem to suggest that that interpretation is correct.

I rather like that MATRIX theory.

For the record I actually subscribe to the Minority Report theory, and Paul Verhoven subscribes to the Total Recall theory, and I adore the R2D2 is creating the force ghosts theory, but don't buy it. And just about every Matrix theory makes the last film better, but I don't think they were intended.

The Ghostbusters die on the rooftop at the end of the original film. There's simply no way they could have survived crossing the streams and the resulting explosion. It's their ghosts that free the spirits of Dana and Louis, who also died in the blast, from the charred corpses of the terror dogs and together, in a vision created from their own subconscious minds to help ease their transition from one plane to the next, they descend down the stairs of 55 Central Park West emerging to the sounds of cheering crowds and drive off into the hereafter in the ectomobile. Ghostbusters II (and the forthcoming third film) depicts their time in purgatory in which they relive the events of the first film in a recurring death dream where the details change even though the basic foundation remains intact(Gozer becomes Vigo, Stay Puft the Statue of liberty, etc.).

I remember one. My friend and I made up a whole back story on the aliens from Spielberg's War of the Worlds. We decided some idiot redneck aliens discovered these long discarded plans to take over the earth (the smarter aliens discarded the plan when they realized they couldn't counteract our cold viruses), and stole the spaceships. This is why the plan failed, and why the stuff had been buried for a million years.

The redneck thing can be exchanged for religious extremests, ala the Puritans.

I had that one too! Especially with all the talk of programs that become obsolete needing to find a new function.

How many of these boil down to "all in the main character's head from point X"?

My favorite theory--which is sort of made canon in Batman Forever--is that the Joker didn't actually kill Batman's parents, the "flashback" is just the first instance we see Wayne see his parents' murderer's face in every criminal he encounters, which makes him the craziest person in the series. It actually holds up when you watch the first film with that in mind.

Sad that I remember this BUT....wasn't that in fact part of the novelization? As well as some backstory with a non-retarded version of Harvey?

My excuse for having read this is that I was 13 at the time.

My crazy personal pet theory: Punch Drunk Love is intended to be Paul Thomas Anderson's superhero film.

Little stuff supports it along the way. His love interest and his nemesis both have alliterative names. One of them even called "Mattress Man." Barry may still be crazy at the end of the film, but he does find focus, courage, and strength, all after hooking up with Lena in Hawaii. "I have a love in my life. It makes me more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

But the tipoff is Barry's design. His suit: All blue, red tie. Black hair. Jewish. The final shot of the film has Lena, dressed in all red, wrapping her arms around Barry's neck.

Not an accident.

The purgatory explanation for Ghostbusters 2 is perfect.

And the Cracked article's bit about them not explaining Neo's real world abilities in Revolutions -- sure they did. I guess they didn't spell it all out, but I thought it was pretty clear: in his chat with the architect, Neo's brain had been upgraded essentially with Bluetooth. He was transmitting to the machines and causing them to short and blow up. And the shiny light he was seeing was data signals or electrical streams or something like that.

Also, I too was in the "Merovingian as a former One" camp. Still seems possible.

My friends and I have a theory that the Matrix universe is the future of the Terminator universe long after the war and John Connor only thought he won. The Terminators are now referred to as Agents.

I'm shocked at the idea that anyone took Radio Flyer literally.

Or saw it.

Wow. This thread might be my favorite thing ever, although if you remember back when Matrix Reloaded came out, you couldve filled a whole CHUD board with the insane theories floating around.