Ruin My Week
For most people, a movie ends when the credits roll. But for a certain breed of obsessives, that’s just the beginning.
These cinephiles will pore over every frame and word of dialogue looking for hidden meanings that may not be there. They will zoom in on every potential clue looking for plot hints, Easter eggs, and portents of things to come.
In the course of their analysis, these film freaks—like the ones on Reddit’s r/FanTheories—spin fan theories that can be at once impressive and improbable.
Which of these fan theories are brilliant and which are bullsh*t? You decide.
1. Inigo Montoya lost to Westley because he was suffering from alcohol withdrawal
“So a thought crossed my mind and I went diving into it. I saw quite a few posts of reasons why Inigo, most likely the greatest swordsman to ever live, would lose to a man who only picked up a sword just 5 years before their encounter.
Lots of reasons like Inigo was primarily a duelist in tournaments and such, while Westley was actually fighting for his life was one I saw brought up quite a few times. But I have one other theory. Inigo was sober. Both in the book and movie Inigo has hit rock bottom, he couldn’t find the 6 fingered man, and dueling became too easy. He was besting everyone with his non-dominant hand.
But when he fought Westley, he hadn’t drank in at least a full day and a half. An alcoholic would not be on his best if he didn’t have anything to drink.
This isn’t a long theory but him being an alcoholic and being sober at the time of the fight is an argument I haven’t seen.”
2. Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker was intentionally awkward due to the character’s background
“Anakin’s performance fits his character very well. After 10 years of training as a Jedi, Anakin has become an emotionally stunted young man. His uncommon dissatisfaction with this lifestyle is due to the fact that he started training much later than other padawans, aka, he had a taste of emotional liberty before the Jedi made him stamp that out.
A lot of Anakin’s angry or concerned lines are awkward because Anakin doesn’t know HOW to show emotions normally. This is what makes him so fond of Padme; he remembers the emotion of love that she made him feel when he was a kid, and now longs to have that emotion back.”
3. The Dementors are obsessed with Harry Potter because he has too much soul, baby
“Not much more to it than the title really. The 1/8th of Voldemort’s soul that attached itself to Harry means he has more soul than everyone else (with the possible exception of James Brown), Dementors go “shit yeah, 1.125 for the price of 1, gotta get me some of that”.
Sorry if this is a repost, I’m new here.”
4. In Fight Club the imagined Tyler Durden is Brad Pitt
“I think Tyler Durden in the movie at least was modelled by the narrator’s unconscious mind partially on Brad Pitt. In the film version of Fight Club we see something interesting in one frame a sign for Seven Years in Tibet. This shows us Brad Pitt exists in the Fight Club universe as an actor. We can fairly assume that he enjoyed roughly the same career he does in the real world. So in 1997-1998 when the inception of Tyler Durden happened Brad Pitt would be a world famous matinee idol.
We also know the Narrator watches and consumed way too much media often in a semi conscious state. So he probably knows of or has seen media with Brad Pitt in it even if he doesn’t remember it given Pitt’s media saturation.
We can conclude that Tyler Durden appearance wise at least was modelled on Brad Pitt. He was often touted in the 1990s as the epitome of the ideal male body which would have influenced the narrator’s mind in creating the character who as Mr. Pitt says ‘Looks like how you want to look.'”
5. Sid from Toy Story became a garbage man so he could save toys from being thrown away
“In Toy Story 1 Sid is confronted with horrifying revelation that his toys are alive. 15 years later in Toy Story 3 we see that Sid has become the local Garbageman. (…)
Now, let’s imagine you’re a guy who just learned that inanimate objects are alive. What job would you get? Sid isn’t fucked up and working a crappy job. He’s trying to save them. He is trying to save the toys.
He picked the one kind of job where you can rescue those things.
And Sid is uniquely equipped to fix those toys that he finds that are broken. He’s pretty damn creative.”
6. Vision may have lifted Thor’s hammer but Avengers: Endgame proves he wasn’t “worthy”
“So, for those of you who haven’t seen Age of Ultron in a while, one of the stand-out moments of the film is Vision casually lifting Thor’s hammer when he’s first created, and then later outright wielding it during the Ultron Offensive in Sokovia. At the end of the film, Steve and Tony are arguing with Thor about how he pulled it off: either, as a machine, he doesn’t count as a living being and can lift the hammer (“if you put it in an elevator it would still go up; elevator’s not worthy”) or he’s a genuinely pure soul who, as a being on “the side of life”, is worthy of protecting the human race.
Vision’s up there with my favourite Avengers so I’m sorry to do him dirty like this, but yeah, Endgame kind of implies that the elevator thing was right. Here’s how:
Steve lifts the hammer during the final battle in Endgame. Like Vision, he can call the hammer to him and swing it around, but unlike Vision he can also summon lightning (and uses it as part of his attacks). Remember the inscription on the hammer:
Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.
Thor’s power is the lightning. When he uses it, the hammer works as a conduit for that: he doesn’t get the lightning from the hammer itself. Thor: Ragnarok establishes that. The lightning is the power of Thor, and the lightning is what Steve can use whereas Vision can’t.
So, yeah. Endgame was an unlucky film for Vision all round.”
7. Simba, not Scar, caused the drought in the Lion King
“This is probably something that is super obvious to everyone, but it was a revelation to me today when I watched Lion King with my son, so….
Simba caused the drought in Pride Rock. The past kings, like Mufasa, are in the sky. Specifically the clouds as shown by Mufasa talking to Simba when he is with Timon and Pumba. The clouds, which carry the rain, left to follow the rightful king when he left Pride Rock.
Simba spends years with Timon and Pumba in an apparent tropical jungle that obviously gets plenty of rainfall. When he is shown going back towards Pride Rock, the clouds roll in behind him. They seemingly follow the rightful king back to the pridelands and it begins raining shortly after.
For years, it bugged me how Scar taking power somehow caused a drought. It really wasn’t Scar seizing control or the hyena population explosion that caused a weather issue, but the rightful leader abandoning his people and taking the wisdom of the elders with him.”
8. In the John Wick series each film represents a different stage of grief and there will be five films
“I’m not sure if this is something thats been discussed anywhere else but I was watching the series and noticed how often the characters reference grief, loss and death & when watching all movies back to back the plots surround each of the stages of grief.
Denial – John Wick
john’s living by himself with his wife’s things left around the house and in the bathroom, untouched as if she’ll come back to use them -trying to live normally and act like nothings wrong but we see him in anguish driving recklessly in his car
Anger – John Wick: Chapter 2
his killing spree from the first movie entices Santiago to pull him out of retirement, use and betray John
his anger gets the better of him and he kills on Continental grounds
Bargaining – John Wick: Parabellum
begging his connections for help; the doctor for meds, the director for a ticket, forcing Sofia’s marker, guidance from Berrada
walking through the desert to find the high table and ask them for another chance to live
Depression – The fourth movie would probably exist around the depressive stage of grief where John is forced to stay in the life but never getting that “chance to deserve the memory of love” he has a choice of killing Winston or getting revenge with Bowery.
He’d become an empty shell, slower and sloppy (as was mentioned a lot in Parabellum)
Acceptance – Whatever the choices may be, the final stage of grief could be John finally coming to terms with who he is/was and continuing as an assassin, dying, or taking his dog & car to go home for good
9. The Bat Signal isn’t meant for Batman at all…it’s meant to deter criminals
“Think about it? It seems ineffective to call on a vigilante by shining a light in the sky. There is a huge chance he won’t see it, or notice it in time for the crime to still be stopped. My theory is that the bat signal itself doesnt actually apply to batman, but rather it is a warning to criminals, like saying “we called him, nows your chance to drop everything, go home, and turn your life around”, and there is a silent alarm mechanism within the signal that sends a signal directly to batman’s computers.”
10. On The Simpsons Moe knows the person prank calling him is Bart but he lets it slide because he has a soft spot for children
“Here are some reasons to support this:
Moe helped out at the children’s hospital so he will help children. However, he also points a shotgun at adults so he won’t be too kind to the adults.
When Bart arrived at Moe’s to pick up Homer (after the Bea O’Problem phone call), he says “I recognise that voice. If it isn’t little Bart Simpson! I haven’t seen you in ages!”. Well if he hasn’t seen him in ages, why would he recognise that voice, more than the prank voice?
When Bart called Moe asking for “Homer Sexual”, it obviously isn’t Skinner. Moe asked “Who is this?” because he probably noticed the voice change. Also, if Bart was in trouble like Moe suggested, who else other than Skinner would be in the office with Bart?
When he arrives at the Simpsons house to cut “Jimbo Jones”, he probably knows he is heading to the Simpsons home. I mean, Homer is one of Moe’s best friends and he’s been to the house several times? Why would he not be familiar with the house?
Finally Moe is more aggressive in his threats towards the adult prank callers. Examples:
Fat Tony asked for “Yuri Nator”. Moe responded furiously.
Mr Burns asked for Waylon Smithers. This wasn’t a prank call but Moe, thinking it was one, immediately threatened him.
However when Bart calls, Moe makes his threats less angrily (except for the Moe Ron one due to the fact he was in the middle of suiciding,).
So yeah, Moe KNOWS the prank caller is mostly Bart.”
