It's been a while since we addressed the internet's habit of explaining and re-explain strange coincidences and plot holes in popular culture. Creating fan theories is a fun hobby (so long as it doesn't involve everything happening in someones imagination or purgatory). We had ten good ones back in the...and here's ten more pearls.
John Mason From The Rock is a Disavowed James Bond
In our previous article we discussed the James Bond codename theory wherein 'James Bond' is a codename given to different MI6 agents. This explains his changing appearance and behaviour (but does have plenty of holes in the theory). This can be an expansion of the original theory if you assume Michael Bay's classic (YEAH I SAID IT) film The Rock takes place in the same universe as the Bond franchise.
John Mason is a British national who has been kept in federal prison without charges for more than three decades. He's renown for having escaped from Alcatraz decades earlier and is recruited to break back in to confront a group of domestic terrorists. One could posit that Mason is one of the Bonds having been caught in the US and disavowed by MI6 leaving him without back up.
Sure, there's some problems. Mason is an Air Force Captain and Bond is a Navy Commander. But they're both played by Sean Connery and that's enough to add a fun twist to an already fun film.
The Joker is a War Veteran
The Joker has always been a mysterious character, deliberately left without a clear backstory or motivation. This is no different in The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan's immensely popular take on the story. Joker revels in anarchy but nothing else is known about him. His most distinctive feature is his grotesque facial scars and he tells conflicting tales about how they came about.
What brought this theory about was something of a throwaway line. While taunting Harvey Dent in the hospital, pushing him into insanity, Joker claims that "when a truck load of soldiers gets blow up in Iraq nobody freaks out...because its all part of the plan". This suggests he holds anger for how military loses are perceived and may well be part of his story. This could have run a few ways, with his scars coming about because of an explosion or through torture as a POW. It always explains his ability to fight, handle a range of firearms and plan elaborate heists.
The Signs Aliens are Really Demons
This one is a popular theory. It's one that actually fills in some of the many, many plot holes in the movie, something the best theories manage to do. Rather than being interstellar invaders hassling the good farmer in Signs they were demons from hell. Although Mel Gibson's character has given up his faith his religion plays a major role in the role and he gets his grove back following the attack. It goes some way to explain why the 'aliens' couldn't enter a minister's house and if he blessed the water in his house it explains the corrosive effect it has on the creatures.
Who is Inspector Gadget?
Ok, sit down for this one. Inspector Gadget and its title character makes no sense. There's nothing in the show to explain why Penny's uncle it packed full of mechanical contraptions (we're ignoring the live action movies here because that's what sensible people do). We do know that there's so many springs, helicopter blades, umbrellas, wings, endless gloved hands, radars, wind sails, parachutes and whatever else jammed into his body that he can't possibly have any room left for organs.
So he must entirely be a robot, yet Penny refers to him as her uncle. We can only assume that Gadget as we know him must be a replica of a real person who's no longer around. That's creepy in it's own right. But it leaves the question...what happened to the real Gadget?
Well, there happens to be another character in the show that could provide an answer. I person with a mechanical arm, an unseen face and a strange, mangled voice. Someone obsessed with destroying Gadget for no disclosed reason. Maybe...just maybe...Dr. Claw is trying to destroy the machine that took his place in the real world.
The Trolls Turned Hans Evil in Frozen
Whilst Frozen is an immensely, ridiculously popular Disney film it does have one glaring problem: Hans. He is revealed very late in the film to be the villain, plotting to marry Anna and them bump her and her sister off so he can have his own kingdom. This reveal has very, very little set-up and basically comes out of no-where. It even goes against some of his behaviour up to that point. Hans was willing to put a lot at risk, including his own life, to rescue Anna and Elsa from the mountain. He'd been left in charge, if he hadn't bothered chasing after them he'd be sitting pretty. He could even have just sent some cronies to push them off a ledge just to be sure.
Then there's the trolls. Those little rascals who raised Kristoff and Sven and seem obsessed with the idea of Kristoff finding true love. So much that when he turns up with Anna in tow they immediately burst into song and attempt to marry them on the spot. They seem unperturbed by Anna being engaged by Hans and sing a jolly line about getting "the fiancee out of the way".
If we remember back to the films prologue we'll see that the trolls have some impressive magical abilities. It's no trouble for them to alter a person's memory, completely scrubbing their mind of powerful memories and implanting false ones. It's not a stretch to imagine they took it upon themselves to meddle with Hans' mind to keep Anna away from him so she'd develop feelings for Kristoff. Now imagine Hans is still in there somewhere, unable to control his actions has he destroys his own life.
Jurassic Park Doesn't Have Dinosaurs
Here's the thing about DNA: it's not indestructible. Material containing DNA from dinosaurs trapped in tree sap would have decayed to point of uselessness long before John Hammond turned up sniffing around. So the science doesn't check out, it's a movie, it doesn't matter. But there's one cool part of Hammond's backstory we didn't get in the film and that his reputation as a showman. He can convince investors of anything to get their funding. He'd put on shows and make outrageous claims. He's something akin to a circus ringmaster or carnival barker.
Let's imagine that Hammond wants to make a park full of dinosaurs and has recruited the greatest geneticists in history and gave them a bottomless budget only to find out that dino DNA wasn't viable. What does he do? He puts on a show. Hammond and Doctor Wu get together and mix up lizard and frog and chicken DNA until they can create something that looks the business. Then they bring in some experts to see if they can be fooled.
It fills in a few continuity problems. The dinosaurs change appearance over the course of the series, even sprouting feathers in the third film. Our real world perception of what dinosaurs may have looked like has also shifted away from from awesome giant lizards and closer to awesome giant chickens. But if Hammond was trying to create dinosaurs that people would expect to see...that's what we saw in Jurassic Park. Bio-engineered monsters that look like picture book dinosaurs.
Deckard is a Replicant...and He Has Gaff's Memory
Holy guacamole, did you know Deckard in Blade Runner might be a replicant?! Ok, right, it's the oldest bloody theory out there. It's been around the block enough times for director Ridley Scott to release two new versions of the movie that add more evidence to the theory and then straight up confirmed it as true. So let's take it as a given that Deckard is a replicant and has no knowledge of this himself.
This makes Deckard different from the other replicants in the film as he thinks of himself as human. The others such as Pris and Batty know that they're replicants and how long they'll live. The one other exception is Rachel, a replicant who is nearly undetectable by the Blade Runners because she's had the memories of other person implanted in her mind. Logic tells us that if Deckard thinks of himself as human he must have been through the same process. But whose memories does he have?
Let's consider Gaff, played by Edward James Olmos. He's an almost incidental character. He's a cop who dresses in fancy clothes and mostly hangs out in the background. He closes out the film by saying to Deckard "it's a shame she won't live...but then again, who does?" Perhaps this is a philosophical reflection on the nature of man and machine...maybe it's a stark warning of what Deckard really is. More importantly, he leaves a tiny origami unicorn for Deckard at the end of the film...a unicorn Deckard had dreamed about. How else would Gaff know that unless they shared the same memories? Gaff walks with the aid of a cane, perhaps he was injured in the line of duty and downloaded his expertise into Deckard to continue his work as a Blade Runner.
Andy is the owner of the toys in the classic Toy Story and he has a younger sister, a mother and...well, there doesn't seem to be a father in the picture. It has been theorised that Andy's parents have, in fact, just divorced at the time of the first film. The first movie sees the family in a pretty big house and the ticking clock aspect of the story comes in the form of the family moving to a new house, one that appears smaller. It's possible they're moving into a smaller, more manageable home for a smaller family. Plus Andy is pretty spoiled at his birthday party, which is being held early before the move. He scored the biggest, most awesome toy available. It's like he needed cheering up.
The theories surrounding Andy's mother actually go further. Specifically in relation to Jessie the Cowgirl. You may remember that Andy often wears a red cowboy hat which doesn't look a thing like Woody's hat. It does, however, look a bit like Jessie's. It also looks like the hat worn by Jessie's old owner Emily. Perhaps in a strange case of serendipity Jessie has found her way home.
Toby is the Scranton Strangler
One of the best running gags in the US version of The Office is the Scranton Strangler. Characters would occasionally mention this local serial killer who first appeared as a newspaper headline and would get mentioned here and there, culminating with Toby acting on the Jury at the Stranger's trail.
But...what if they got the wrong man? Toby admits to Oscar that he didn't believe the man who was convicted for the crimes was actually guilty. There doesn't seem to be much to back this up unless Toby knew something the rest of the Jury didn't. When Michael refers to Toby as the 'silent killer', Toby responds "you'll see" to the camera. He also threatens to kill Clark under his breath. There's a number of sinister hints that suggest that the constantly crapped on Toby may have finally snapped.
Mystery Inc. Aren't As Wholesome As They Seem
Shaggy and Scooby smoke weed lol 420! Yeah, no. Here's a better one. The economy is devastated, forcing people who used to run successful amusement parks and the like committing elaborate crimes. This could be attributed to a war economy with wholesome family entertainment on the downturn. Given the era the show the set it's possible this was the result of the Vietnam War. What does this have to do with some teenagers roaming the country solving mysteries?
They're draft dodgers. Fred and Shaggy and been enlisted and the crew have hit the road to avoid them being shipped out. Hey, they're beatniks, it's what they do. They're not using education to dodge military service four times and then faking a medical condition the fifth time like some Donald Trumps we could mention, but they are draft dodgers.
Hope you enjoyed this run down of fan theories...if you have some more good ones make sure you post them in the comments!
