Listen and Subscribe
Podcast Transcript
Movies are filled with hidden meanings, unanswered questions, and details that inspire audiences to look beyond what appears on screen.
Over the years, fans have created elaborate explanations for mysterious characters, surprising connections, and secret histories hiding beneath some of the most famous films ever made.
Some theories are ridiculous, some are surprisingly convincing, and some have changed how people view these stories forever.
Learn more about movie fan theories on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
In the course of a movie, there is only so much story you can tell. Sometimes there are dangling plot points, or things don’t make sense. Other times, there is simply an alternative way of looking at the exact same story and interpreting it differently.
In such cases, movie fans have often stepped in to offer alternative interpretations. In a few cases, the alternative interpretations actually make a movie make more sense, and in a few cases, they make a whole lot of sense.
There are a lot of fan theories for movies. Far too many to cover in a single episode, so I might end up just covering more of these in a future episode.
Also, I want to give fair warning that I’ll be giving spoilers for the movies I’ll be covering, so if you haven’t seen these movies over the last 30 years and don’t want the plot ruined, stop listening now.
I’m going to start with the 1996 film The Rock from director Michael Bay, starring Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage.
Briefly, a US Army general seizes the abandoned prison island of Alcatraz and threatens to launch chemical weapons at San Francisco unless the government pays compensation to the families of soldiers who died on secret missions.
The FBI recruits two unlikely heroes: Stanley Goodspeed, a young chemical weapons expert, and John Mason, a former British intelligence agent who is the only person to have ever escaped from Alcatraz.
The theory is that The Rock is actually a James Bond film and that John Mason is just an older James Bond.
The character Mason, played by Sean Connery, has all the attributes of James Bond:
- He is sophisticated and charming.
- He has extensive knowledge of intelligence operations.
- He is physically capable despite his age.
- He has a dry sense of humor.
- He has a mysterious past.
The theory is that after decades of service, Bond was captured during a mission and imprisoned the United States government for possessing sensitive information. The British government then erased his identity and denied his existence.
The reason it is such a compelling theory is that the timelines in the movie and in Connery’s Bond films work out so well.
The first Bond film, Dr. No, takes place in 1962. In The Rock, Mason was supposedly put in Alcatraz in 1962 and escaped in 1963. In From Russia with Love, released in 1963, there is a line in which a woman asks James where he has been for the last six months.
The microfilm that Mason supposedly steals would have been stolen after 1972, the Year of J. Edgar Hoover’s death, which is a plot point in the movie. There are six official Bond movies in which Sean Connery starred, the last of which was Diamonds Are Forever in 1971.
Never Say Never Again is not an official Bond film and was released in 1983.
According to the fan theory, Bond was caught stealing microfilm on which J. Edgar Hoover had compromising information on the British. He hid the film somewhere before being captured trying to cross into Canada, and he was held in confinement until the events of The Rock.
The casting and the timeline of the plots is the most compelling argument for the theory. Even though the name James Bond is never mentioned, the casting and the plot are all as if it was a story about an older James Bond.
The next movie I want to cover is the Matrix, and there are several different fan theories.
The Matrix follows Thomas Anderson, a computer programmer who secretly works as the hacker Neo. He discovers that the world he believes to be real is actually a simulated reality called the Matrix, created by intelligent machines to control humanity while using human bodies as an energy source.
Neo is freed from the Matrix by a group of rebels led by Morpheus, who believes Neo is the prophesied “One” capable of freeing humanity. As Neo learns that the rules of the simulated world can be bent or broken, he develops extraordinary abilities within the Matrix and battles the machine agents who protect the system.
One of the theories that I find the most interesting is that the machines are actually the good guys.
The theory is based off one of the dumbest plot points in the Matrix which is that the machines use humans as a power source. This makes absolutely no sense and there is no way you could get that much energy from a human’s metabolism. You’d be better of just burning the food that humans consume.
The theory is that the machines are actually keeping the humans alive. The Earth’s surface has been destroyed, and the pods humans are in are designed to preserve the species. The Matrix is a means for human society and minds to continue functioning until the Earth’s surface is once again habitable.
Unfortunately, humans keep realizing they are in an unnatural environment and keep rebelling, and the machines are forced to fight the rebels to ensure humanity survives.
A version of this theory holds that there are multiple levels to the Matrix. When Neo wakes up, he is just in another level of the Matrix. This other level of the Matrix serves as a release valve for the primary Matrix layer.
My favorite Matrix theory says that the entire John Wick universe is part of the Matrix.
If you’ve seen any of the John Wick films, you might have noticed how the world is sort of….weird. Assassins can fight each other in the streets, yet normal people have almost no reaction. The world works under a very specific set of rules which are violently enforced. The technology used is often very old.
The theory is that Neo was inserted back into the Matrix, had his memory wiped, and became John Wick. It explains why his fighting ability is almost superhuman. Not quite Neo, but very close.
A movie that you might not expect to have a fan theory is the musical Grease. The most famous theory is that Sandy is dead throughout the movie, and the entire story takes place in her imagination as she dies.
The theory is based primarily on the song “Summer Nights” and the opening and closing scenes.
According to the theory, Sandy Olsson drowned at the beach at the beginning of the film, and Danny Zuko’s famous line: “I saved her life, she nearly drowned” is interpreted literally. The rest of the movie is Sandy’s fantasy or dream-like vision of what her life could have been if she had survived.
The biggest piece of evidence is the famous ending where Danny and Sandy drive away in a car that suddenly flies into the sky during the song “You’re the One That I Want.”
Fans argue the flying car represents Sandy’s soul leaving her body and ascending to heaven.
The final lyric “Goodbye to you and you and you” is interpreted as Sandy saying farewell.
The final fan theory that I want to cover is one of the best and will totally change how you look at the Star Wars prequels. This theory holds that the goofy comic relief, Jar Jar Binks, was actually a Sith Lord and may have been the most powerful Sith in the galaxy.
At first, this might seem ridiculous. Jar Jar is generally hated as a character by Star Wars fans because he was seemingly cast in the movies as a comedic sidekick, probably just to sell kids’ toys.
The theory argues that Jar Jar was not the foolish, clumsy comic relief character he appeared to be in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, but instead was a highly skilled Force user who deliberately acted incompetent in order to manipulate events from the shadows
The theory became popular after the release of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, but it gained widespread attention years later when fans reexamined Jar Jar’s scenes after the release of the entire prequel trilogy.
Supporters argue that many of Jar Jar’s actions, especially in the first two films, unintentionally or intentionally helped create the conditions that allowed Darth Sidious, also known as Senator Palpatine, to destroy the Jedi Order and establish the Galactic Empire.
The core of the theory is that Jar Jar was not a fool. He was pretending to be one. There is precedent for this. When Luke first met Yoda, Yoda was pretending to be a fool before he revealed himself as being a jedi master. Likewise, Darth Sidious hid his true identity.
The first piece of evidence cited by supporters is Jar Jar’s unusual physical abilities. Throughout The Phantom Menace, Jar Jar performs feats that seem far beyond normal Gungan capabilities.
When escaping the Trade Federation droids with Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jar Jar survives a series of improbable accidents and acrobatic maneuvers. He flips through the air, avoids deadly attacks, and appears to defeat multiple battle droids almost accidentally.
The famous scene inside the droid control ship is often highlighted. Jar Jar accidentally activates machinery, causes explosions, and destroys enemy equipment while appearing to panic. Fans compare this to a Force user manipulating events while pretending everything is accidental. They argue that his “luck” is suspiciously similar to the way Jedi use the Force to anticipate danger.
It should be noted that in the first Star Wars movie, A New Hope, Obi-Wan states that he doesn’t believe in luck.
In the Battle of Naboo, Jar Jar appears to move in an uncontrolled, ridiculous way, but his movements result in the destruction of numerous enemy forces. His long tongue, physical flexibility, and unusual jumps allow him to accomplish things that trained soldiers struggle to do.
Supporters argue that his combat style resembles a form of “Drunken Master” fighting, in which unpredictable movements leave an opponent unable to anticipate attacks.
After being introduced as an outcast among the Gungans, Jar Jar quickly becomes important in the affairs of Naboo and is instantly promoted to General. By Attack of the Clones, he is no longer simply a comic character. He has become a representative in the Galactic Senate and temporarily serves as the senator from Naboo after Padmé leaves office.
During the crisis created by the Separatist movement, it is Jar Jar who proposes granting emergency powers to Chancellor Palpatine. This decision gives Palpatine the authority to control the Republic’s military and eventually transform the democratic government into the Galactic Empire.
Another argument comes from Jar Jar’s body language. Fans have analyzed scenes where Jar Jar makes unusual hand gestures while speaking, claiming they resemble Jedi or Sith Force gestures. The most frequently cited example is his influence on political discussions in the Senate. Some viewers argue that Jar Jar may have been using subtle Force persuasion, similar to the Jedi mind trick.
Now I should note that none of the theories I’ve put forward in this episode have been confirmed by the directors or writers of the respective movies. In fact, I’m pretty certain that they didn’t have any of these theories in mind when creating their films.
Nonetheless, many fan theories do often fit the plots of movies and fill in frustrating holes. If nothing else, it does add a whole new dimension when you rewatch a film.