10 Confusing Movie Questions We Still Don't Understand
3. Who Took Tanner's Sheet Music? - Whiplash
Damien Chazelle's Whiplash centres around a drum enthusiast called Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller) who will do anything to make it in the industry even if it means putting up with the verbal and psychological abuse of his tyrannical conductor, Terence Fletcher (JK Simmons).
In Fletcher's band, Andrew starts as a reserve for the core drummer, Carl Tanner. When Andrew loses the music sheet during a jazz competition, he replaces Tanner in the band, since he can't perform without visual cues. This momentary setback triggers a set of events that allows Andrew to earn his official place in the band (until he's kicked out, of course).
However, it's never revealed what happened to the Tanner's sheet music Did a rival band member take it? Was Andrew correct in thinking a janitor misplaced it?
The most common theory is that Fletcher stole the sheet to teach the boys a lesson. This idea is plausible since Fletcher was complaining in the prior scene that the band keeps frivolously leaving their music folders lying around. The fact Fletcher behaves calmly (by his standards) when he learns Andrew lost the folder gives this theory some weight. However, there is no irrefutable evidence Fletcher is the culprit.
Since the disappearance of the sheet music played a major factor in Andrew's rise and fall, it's surprising nobody gets to the bottom of this mystery.