20 jaw-dropping TV and movie fan theories

Through five seasons of Breaking Bad, Walter White was essentially responsible for many horrific events, including his brother-in-law's death and a tragic plane crash, but a fan theory, that has been given new life, ponders whether his drug empire also could have resulted in the zombie apocalypse on The Walking Dead. The most interesting and plausible sign that Breaking Bad is a prequel to The Walking Dead is the presence of blue meth on both series. The seed for this theory was planted in the second episode of The Walking Dead, in which Merle's secret drug stash strikes quite the resemblance to the product that turned White into a kingpin. Further hints at a possible connection between the AMC dramas include a red sports car and characters named Glenn, Gus Fring possibly being patient zero, and the description of Merle's drug dealer as a "janky little white guy," who Daryl quotes as saying, "I'm going to kill you b—." Breaking Bad's Jesse Pinkman does fit that physical description and sure did have a penchant for saying "b—." —Dylan Kickham

Sarah Michelle Gellar circulated a 2013 fan theory about Grease in September 2016 once it resurfaced. "Wait this has blown my mind - has anyone heard this theory about the movie #Grease?" the actress wrote on Facebook. "At the end of the movie, Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsson fly off in a red convertible as they wave goodbye to their friends on the solid ground below, leading to the conclusion that the flying car was the final result of Sandy's fantasy. (As in she is dead) During the song 'Summer Nights,' Danny and Sandy recount how they first met and started a summer fling. The line, 'I saved her life, she nearly drowned,' suggests that Sandy actually did drown and the whole movie is an elaborate musical fantasy due to the lack of oxygen getting to her brain. The flying red convertible also suggests that Sandy is happily being whisked away to heaven at the end of the movie. Wait what?!?!" —DK

Related: See the stars of Grease: Live with their big-screen predecessors

Could Jack Dawson's intentions for saving Rose in Titanic have been something other than love? The signs seem to point to yes. One fan theory posits that Jack is actually a time traveler who came back in time to keep Rose from committing suicide, because that would have caused a delay in the ship's course and potentially kept the Titanic from crashing, altering the course of history. Some signs that Jack is from the future include his anachronistic fashion (his haircut and backpack weren't common until later) and his mentions of man-made structures that weren't yet created in 1912 (a roller coaster on Santa Monica Pier and Lake Wissota). —DK

Related: 6 things Kate Winslet recalls from Titanic, 20 years later

Ever wonder how Dennis, Mac, and Dee look so attractive but seem to disgust almost everyone they meet on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia? One theory is they are unreliable narrators, and present the audience with an idealized version of themselves. Dennis uses cheap tactics and manipulation to sleep with women despite being actually attractive, Mac normally has good-sized muscles but is shown to be weak and not very intimidating, and Dee is an attractive woman but no sane man is ever interested in her. We already know these characters are insanely narcissistic, so perhaps that extends to how they have us see them: Dennis and Dee are attractive in their minds, but in reality are unattractive, and Mac presents himself with more muscle than he actually has. —DK

Related: 12 It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia gems

The Bender that all Futurama fans know is a reckless, misanthropic criminal, but according to a fan theory, the foul-mouthed robot is only this way due to an electrical issue that we see in the pilot. In the show's first episode, Bender is uncharacteristically depressed after learning that he has been making suicide booths. Another important facet to the theory is that when Bender reboots, his personality is set to a mode that befits his surroundings, which happens in the episode where he becomes a penguin. The theory states that when Bender gets electrocuted in the Hall of Criminals, he reboots to a criminal personality himself. —DK

Related: Futurama, greatest animated series ever

The cartoon mystery franchise Scooby-Doo never really explained why a ragtag group of four dissimilar teenagers decided to travel in a van to no known destination, so a fan was forced to develop a theory. As the show premiered in 1969, the same year as the height of the Vietnam War, the Scooby gang is driving to Canada to escape the draft. The theory posits that the clean-cut Fred was drafted, but ran away to be with his fiancée Daphne. Hippie Shaggy and activist Velma joined them as they both opposed the war as well. —DK

Related: Scooby-Doo characters, who is the coolest?

TV's most iconic animated family certainly doesn't seem to be full of geniuses, but according to one fan theory, it is! The theory puts forth that Lisa is the only member of the family who accepts her genius, while the others purposely quash their brilliance in order to live happy lives. Marge was once an amazing student, but left her academic pursuits behind to become a homemaker. In regards to Homer, it was revealed that a crayon lodged in his brain was what was suppressing his intelligence, and Homer very literally chooses to be dumb but happy rather than smart and miserable by putting the crayon back in his brain. Finally, in another The Simpsons episode, we see Bart was once a gifted child, but then his grades began to decline. The episode blamed it on a gene that makes the male Simpsons stupid, but Homer's crayon incident disproves that. Instead, Bart saw how happy his dad was in his life despite his lack of intelligence, and decided to strive for happiness instead of genius. He uses his brains to come up with elaborate pranks instead of schoolwork. —DK

Related: All the times The Simpsons predicted the future

This Rugrats fan theory is pretty creepy. It states that all of the babies were merely a product of a lonely girl's imagination. Angelica imagined her parents' friends having babies in order for her to have someone to play with. Chuckie and his mother died, which is why his father is constantly a nervous wreck; Tommy was a stillborn, leading Stu to always make toys for the son he never had; and the DeVilles had an abortion, so Angelica imagined male and female twins as she didn't know the gender. —DK

Related: Rugrats artists reimagines characters as adults

Fans love to speculate over hidden meanings in Disney films, but so often the ideas are huge stretches. This fan theory about Aladdin, however, has been confirmed by the film's directors, Ron Clements and John Musker. The speculation was that the peddler who welcomes us to Agrabah at the beginning of the film is actually the Genie in the form of a human. Viewers picked up on this after noticing that the peddler had four fingers and was voiced by Robin Williams. Clements confirmed this is true, and said there was a scene planned where the peddler reveals himself to be the Genie, but it was cut for time. —DK

Related: 25 interesting facts about Disney's animated hit Aladdin

In Latin, "nemo" translates to "no one." This helped spur the theory that Marlin's son doesn't actually exist in Finding Nemo, but is just an invention he uses in order to come to terms with the death of his wife. We see Marlin go through the five stages of grief in the film. First denial, when he invents Nemo's egg after the rest of his family are killed. Second anger, as he freaks out whenever Nemo is too far away from him. Third bargaining, as he convinces Dory to join his quest and then puts up with her. Fourth despair, when he sees Nemo flushed down the toilet. And finally, acceptance, as he is able to let Nemo go off on his own in the end. —DK

Related: See the voices behind the Finding Nemo characters

It's always funny to compare Bryan Cranston's dopey dad Hal on Malcolm in the Middle and his no-smiles Breaking Bad drug kingpin Walter White, but a very interesting fan theory seems to think there's more similarities between the two shows than just Cranston. The theory says that Malcolm grew up to be Walter White. Malcolm was very intelligent and had a knack for chemistry, but was also stubborn and manipulative, which are shared qualities with Walter. Plus, he would probably grow up to look like his father. In terms of name, Malcolm's surname is never spoken in the show, and we see that he has a special relationship with his grandfather Walter on his dad's side. —DK

Related: Frankie Muniz doesn't remember starring on Malcolm in the Middle

Upset over the various inconsistencies that arose in the later seasons of That 70's Show, one fan decided to try to explain what happened with a theory: Eric was in a coma for the whole second half of the show. In season 4 episode 15, Eric ventures out into a tornado while everyone else is at Snow Prom to pick up Donna from her radio station. In a subsequent scene, you can hear an announcer on the radio say that the warning has been lifted, and that "a local teen is in critical condition." If this teen was Eric, none of his friends or family would know until after the storm died down, and that's when his comatose mind would take over the storytelling in an attempt to imagine his life going on as normal. His mind finally lets go in the end, as he imagines his friends and family living without him, and shows up to say one last goodbye in the finale before finally dying. —DK

Related: 14 people you totally forgot were on That '70s Show

The end of Joss Whedon's Cabin in the Woods laid out a few rules for making a sacrificial offering to summon demonic beings to destroy the world, and one fan theory noticed that Willy Wonka is basically following this same formula while giving children a tour of his factory. Each of the kids is one of the five archetypes that CitW describes: Augustus is The Whore, whose lust for food leads to his downfall; Violet is The Athlete, who is a gum chewing champion brought down by an athletic challenge; Veruca is The Fool, a spoiled brat who blindly runs for clearly dangerous squirrels; Mike is The Scholar, a television expert taken down by his arrogance; and finally Charlie is The Virgin, mostly just because he has pure and innocent motives. —DK

Related: The Cabin in the Woods director breaks down his favorite monsters

Cobb supposedly uses a top as his totem, an object that will tell him whether or not he is in a dream. At the end of Inception, we see the top spinning and show a hint of a falter, creating a cliffhanger ending in which we aren't sure if Cobb is still in a dream or not. Really, though, the top doesn't matter. Cobb even says that the top is his wife Mal's totem. Cobb's totem is his wedding ring. In his dreams, he is wearing the ring, but when he is awake the ring is gone. That's how you know he is awake in the final scene; his wedding ring is gone. —DK

Related: Inception, that ending, and where critics go wrong

J.K. Rowling has stated that she based the name of her killing curse in the Harry Potter series on the harmless words every magician loves to use, "Abracadabra." Fans have circulated many theories about this link; some say that the word's widespread use among muggles is a sad relic meaning that wizards would often attack and kill muggles before the two worlds were separated. More optimistic fans, though, recall the spell-casting rule that the power of the spell comes from its intention. These fans theorize that the killing curse could have also been used to kill bacteria or viruses in the human body, and could have been used as a healing spell with a change of intention on what to kill. —DK

Related: Harry Potter, A to Z

Think Dexter's Laboratory is just a cute, innocent little show? Think again. One fan has theorized that Dexter's entire family was killed by one of his experiments gone awry, and he has created a new family in their likeness using his lab. The show's theme song suggests that Dee Dee has a tendency to blow up his experiments, followed by doom and gloom. Dexter is shown to have the ability to create clones and imbue intelligence; so making a new family is definitely in his wheelhouse. It could also explain why his family is so dim and oblivious to his lab. —DK

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The original Mad Max movies starring Mel Gibson began in 1979 and ended in 1985, so how should we explain the youthful Tom Hardy claiming to be Mad Max 30 years later in Fury Road? Well, some fans have a theory that Hardy isn't the original Max at all, but a character that we've seen before who has taken over the title. The guess is that Hardy's Max is actually The Feral Kid who appears in Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. The aging works, and the fact that Max speaks mostly in grunts like the child did is another validation of the theory. Plus, the kid as an old man narrates Road Warrior, just like Hardy's disembodied voice narrates Fury Road. —DK

Related: Fury Road actually deserves best picture at the Oscars

This is a pretty famous fan theory that posits the classic '80s film Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a lot more similar to Fight Club than you might think. The thought is that Ferris only exists in Cameron's mind, and Cameron is imagining this entire adventure-filled day as he lies sick in his bed. The whole movie, then, is in Cameron's mind, and Sloan is a girl that he has a crush on, while Ferris is an idealized version of himself who is not afraid to talk to her. —DK

Related: Ferris Bueller's Day Off: Where are they now?

A fan theory about Star Wars' Jar Jar Binks took off in 2015, and made it all the way to Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams. Made public on Reddit, the theory suggested that Jar Jar was not, in fact, "the bumbling idiot he portrays himself as," but rather, "a highly skilled force user in terms of martial ability and mind control," who manages to keep his powers veiled. Reddit user Lumpawarroo went on to highlight the creature's seemingly sinister motives, adding, "[Jar Jar] and Palpatine were likely in collaboration from the very beginning, and it's entirely possible that Palpatine was a subordinate underling to Binks throughout both trilogies."

"The one I heard that I think is so great is the Jar Jar is a Sith one," Abrams said of the theory at a Sirius XM Town Hall in 2015. "There was this unbelievably lengthy analysis, in a very seriously thought-out way, as to why it's obviously true that he is [evil]. That to me is remarkable. —DK

Related: In defense of Jar Jar Binks

When you think about it, the world of Pokémon is very strange. Why are kids allowed to just roam the world training monsters for battle? Over the years fans have come up with a theory for why Pokémon is the way that it is: Sometime before the events of the Pokémon games, shows, and movies, there was a great war. Given their powerful destructive capabilities, Pokémon were likely used as living weapons during the conflict. Lieutenant Surge, one of the original gym leaders from Pokémon Red and Blue, tells the protagonist straight up that "electric Pokémon saved me during the war!" That line from Surge was one of the core components of the original creepypasta post that first promulgated this popular fan theory. Surge certainly dresses like a veteran with his army camouflage, and there are few adult men of his age around in those games; it's mostly single mothers like the protagonist's, or old men like Professor Oak. That demographic arrangement would make sense after a destructive war, as does the proliferation of tall grass across the Pokemon landscapes — grown wild over scarred battlefields, perhaps? —Christian Holub

Others have added to this theory over the years. In a 2015 video from PBS Ideas Channel, Mike Rugnetta added that a Pokémon War would explain why the protagonist is sent out into the world with a Pokédex in the first place: "To either collect or verify information lost during the war, and to determine which species of Pokémon survived the conflict." The war would also explain why regions like Kanto and Johto seem so cut off from each other and can only be explored in different games. In this light, the Pokémon stories take on a rather beautiful subtext: The protagonist is not just going on a grand adventure, but also reconnecting these different regions and learning to live with Pokémon as friends and companions rather than soldiers and battle slaves. No one ever said peacetime was easy.  —CH 

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