Mind Blowing Fan Theories Compiled by Reddit

Totoro is the God of Death

Totoro is in fact messenger of Death, and whoever sees him will soon die. The hospital that the sister’s mother was in was based on a real hospital for terminally-ill patients.

Later in the story the villagers find a slipper in a pond, which is in fact May’s, at this point she has already drowned in the pond. Satsuki lied that the slipper wasn’t Mei’s out of denial. Ever since this scene, the sisters appeared to have no shadow.

Satsuki pleaded the Totoro and the cat-bus to take her to where Mei is, while on the cat-bus, says “Nobody can see us…”, this scene is Satsuki leading herself to the land of the dead (by taking the cat-bus).

At the hospital, the mother says “I think I feel May and Satsuki smiling there in that tree…” Why don’t the sisters go and see their mom if they are already there? Why do they just leave the corn there instead? It is said that the sisters were dead at that point, and the Japanese pronunciation of “corn” is similar to “kill child”.

The final scenes seem to be a happy epilogue, but they in fact happened “before” the major events in the movie.

The movie was set in a place in Japan where there was a case of murdering of two sisters which happened in the 60s. This event took place on May 1st, while the sister’s names are Satsuki (May in Japanese) and Mei (May in English). In the real life case, the younger sister was missing first and the older sister was seen to be looking for her frantically. Next day, the younger sister’s body was found in the forest (stabbed to death). The older sister was in such a state of shock and kept rambling ambiguous words about seeing a “cat monster”, “great big racoon monster” etc to the police. The sisters were in fact from a single-parent family (mother died of illness).

The Ferris Bueller / Fight Club Theory

My favorite thought-piece about Ferris Bueller is the “Fight Club” theory, in which Ferris Bueller, the person, is just a figment of Cameron’s imagination, like Tyler Durden, and Sloane is the girl Cameron secretly loves.

One day while he’s lying sick in bed, Cameron lets “Ferris” steal his father’s car and take the day off, and as Cameron wanders around the city, all of his interactions with Ferris and Sloane, and all the impossible hijinks, are all just played out in his head. This is part of the reason why the “three” characters can see so much of Chicago in less than one day — Cameron is alone, just imagining it all.

It isn’t until he destroys the front of the car in a fugue state does he finally get a grip and decide to confront his father, after which he imagines a final, impossible escape for Ferris and a storybook happy ending for Sloane (”He’s gonna marry me!”), the girl that Cameron knows he can never have.

Quentin Tarantino’s movies are all connected:

Inglourious Basterds spoiler below.

It’s well known that all of Tarantino’s films take place in the same universe – this is established by the fact that Mr. Blonde and Vince Vega are brothers, everybody smokes Red Apple cigarettes, Mr. White worked with Alabama from True Romance, etc.

As it turns out, Donny Donowitz, ‘The Bear Jew’, is the father of movie producer Lee Donowitz from True Romance – which means that, in Tarantino’s universe, everybody grew up learning about how a bunch of commando Jews machine gunned Hitler to death in a burning movie theater, as opposed to quietly killing himself in a bunker.

Because World War 2 ended in a movie theater, everybody lends greater significance to pop culture, hence why seemingly everybody has Abed-level knowledge of movies and TV. Likewise, because America won World War 2 in one concentrated act of hyperviolent slaughter, Americans as a whole are more desensitized to that sort of thing. Hence why Butch is unfazed by killing two people, Mr. White and Mr. Pink take a pragmatic approach to killing in their line of work, Esmerelda the cab driver is obsessed with death, etc.

You can extrapolate this further when you realize that Tarantino’s movies are technically two universes – he’s gone on record as saying that Kill Bill and From Dusk ‘Til Dawn take place in a ‘movie movie universe’; that is, they’re movies that characters from the Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, True Romance, and Death Proof universe would go to see in theaters. (Kill Bill, after all, is basically Fox Force Five, right on down to Mia Wallace playing the title role.)

What immediately springs to mind about Kill Bill and From Dusk ‘Til Dawn? That they’re crazy violent, even by Tarantino standards. These are the movies produced in a world where America’s crowning victory was locking a bunch of people in a movie theater and blowing it to bits – and keep in mind, Lee Donowitz, son of one of the people on the suicide mission to kill Hitler, is a very successful movie producer.

Basically, it turns every Tarantino movie into alternate reality sci fi. I love it so hard.

The babies on Rugrats were figments of Angelica’s imagination

Ever wondered just how Angelica could talk to the babies? Angelica is the only one who can talk to the babies because they are a figment of her imagination. She is spoilt, sad and lonely, because her Mother is constantly working and has no time for her. Her relationship with her Dad is superficial and unsubstantial, no real love is ever shown to her.

So how did it come about that Angelica would have to imagine these babies? Tommy died soon after child birth, a fact reflected by Stu never leaving the basement, inventing toys that his son will never play with. Chuckie died in the car crash along with his Mum, also reflected in the actions of his father; the crash has made him a pathetic nervous wreck most of the time.

Most interesting is Phil and Lil. There never where any twins, there was just one baby. However this baby was a still born, and Angelica never knew the sex of the still born, so she invented twins of different genders.

Sadly, Angelica never uses her imaginary friends to comfort or entertain her, instead she is mean and nasty to them. She has invented this relationship with these babies so she can vent her frustrations of being a spoilt, lonely brat who has seen much hardship from these unfortunate parents; frustrations that can’t be satisfied by a typical childhood relationship with a doll, albeit a Cynthia one.

The alien invaders in Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds were E.T.’s

Not exactly a fan theory, but I thought Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds would have been 100x better if the final shot was that tripod falling down and its alien pilot falling out except for one crucial diffence : instead of a generic alien body, the aliens behind the invasion are E.T’s. You find out in the last few seconds of the movie that you’ve been watching a sequel to what you thought was a cuddly, family-friendly movie about a young boy and his alien buddy, but was actually about how a naive little kid thwarted authorities and helped the alien scout who laid the groundwork for an invasion and attempted genocide.

Disney’s Aladdin takes place in the future

“In one scene, Genie calls Al’s clothes “so 3rd century”. Genie was trapped for 10,000 years, so there is no way he could know of the fashion trends which have happened whilst he was in the lamp.

Which means at the latest Genie could have been trapped in the lamp during the 3rd century. If he spent 10,000 years in there, it is then AT LEAST the year 10,300AD when he gets out.

Conclusion: Aladdin takes place IN THE FUTURE. A post-apocalyptic world where only Arabic (and some Greek) culture survived. It has been so long that the name “Arabia” has been corrupted to “Agrabah”. The Islamic religion has atrophied to the point where there are no mosques, imams or prayer mats, but people still give praise to Allah in moments of happiness. Amazing technological marvels left behind by the previous civilization, like flying carpets or genetically engineered parrots which can comprehend human speech instead of just mimicking it, are taken for granted by locals or considered “Magic”.

The Genie proves this by making impressions of ancient, long-dead celebrities like Groucho Marx, Jack Nicholson, etc.”

-Anonymous (4chan)

Dr. Claw is the original Inspector Gadget

Okay, well. Obviously, Inspector Gadget can’t be the man’s real name. Whoever he was, he was a regular human who worked for the cops or whatever. Well I think that while on the job, something happened to him. Some terrible accident. Some explosion or collapse that left him completely destroyed. Once the cops found this, the chief (the guy in the show all of the time) decided to do something never before attempted. They used the newest and most secret technology to recreate this man with super human powers (sorta like the bionic man or whatever). They programmed this robot version of the inspector to look and sound just like him, even to think like him. He was programmed with the very best AI and all. He continued working for the company, even watched over his niece and dog, just like the real human version did. The only problem with all of this was that he didn’t die in the accident. No, the real human version survived, only he was changed. The accident deformed him, warped his brain, and made him see things differently. Once he discovered that they had replaced him with a robot doppelganger, he swore to destroy it no matter what it took. They had taken his life away and replaced it with a robot, that they now call Inspector Gadget. The human version decided to use everything he had and knew to fight against this robot version, and to do evil to the company that had ruined his life. He also changed his name. Now he is known as Dr. Claw. You never see his face because it is the face of Inspector Gadget, only deformed from the accident.

In the Haunted Mansion ride at Disney World you commit suicide and become a ghost

At the beginning of the ride the ghost host (the narrator) says the only way to escape the mansion is to die, and he shows that he hanged himself. Near the end of the ride there’s a moment where the ride vehicle turns around backwards and you go off a balcony, which according to this theory represents you jumping to your death.

Before this part of the ride the ghosts are all trying to scare you, but afterwards they sing excitedly and invite you to party with them. (The Grim Grinnin’ Ghosts song.) The only human character in the ride, a groundskeeper, appears after the balcony drop. He faces toward the riders and seems terrified of you.

Could be totally accidental, could be an intentional subtlety by the designers, but either way I’ve never looked at that ride the same way since.

Marty McFly from Back to the Future is actually one in a possibly infinite series of different Martys

In the first movie Doc is hanging out in his house in 1955, when Marty arrives at the door. Then what does he do? He uses the lightning storm to send Marty 30 years back into the future.

But wait! Great Scott! Theres a HUGE problem now. That means in 30 years Marty is going to show up in the Delorean, even though Elaine and George are still together. The means that in 30 years there will be TWO Martys. Infact thats exactly what happens in the movie, as soon as Marty arrives back in 1985 he sees HIMSELF getting in a Delorean and running from the Lybians.

So if Doc never repeated his experiment, one that he knew would end with him getting shot, and MArty going back to 1955, there would be a world with two Marty Mcflys. A paradox.

And this second Marty is a different Marty all together, he wasn’t raised by an alcoholic mom, or a wimp dad, he’s probably a different kid with different interests. He may not even like skateboarding or playing the guitar like the Marty we know and love.

My theory about the first movie is that this “Rock and Roll” Marty isn’t the first Marty either, but someone that the doc had to by any means make sure he went back in time tocontinue the cycle. Maybe the REAL original Marty that went back was some kind of geek lab assistant, but not this one, he loves Rock and Roll. So the doc builds a gigantic amplifier in his lab to entice Marty to hangout there until he day of the experiment.

Remember the phonecall that Marty wakes up to the night of the experiment, Doc is freaking out about how Marty has to get there at the precise time. ITs just a cycle of Martys each with slightly tweaked persolaties slightly better and worse home-lives, who each cause a slight change in the world that effects the next Marty.

The St. Elsewhere / Tommy Westphall Multiverse Theory

Who is Tommy Westphall?

Tommy Westphall was an austistic child on the TV series St Elsewhere who, it was revealed in the closing moments of the final episode of that series, had dreamt the entire run of the show.

What’s this about his Mind?

St Elsewhere has direct connections to twelve other television series – many of them direct crossovers of character to and from the series. Others make mention of specific parts of the St Elsewhere fictional universe, placing them within the same fictional sphere.

So?

If St Elsewhere exists only within Tommy Westphall’s mind, then so does every other series set within the same fictional sphere.

Check out more fan theories in the original reddit post or in the r/fantheories subreddit.