10. Ferris Isn't Real - Ferris Buellers Day Off
The Crazy Theory: An incredibly popular one to kick us off. Ferris Bueller's Day Off isnt actually a fourth-wall breaking John Hughes comedy, but a depressing tale of split personality that beat Fight Club to the punch by over a decade. Turns out Ferris was entirely fabricated from the mind of poor Cameron, using his imaginary friend to give him the confidence to defy his dominating father.
Why It Cant Be True: This theory perseveres thanks to peoples shaky memory of the film itself. You can immediately jump on board with it only to leave at the next station when you actually watch it again. Cameron may be the key audience relation, but theres no hiding Ferris is the protagonist with whole stretches of the film naturally dedicated to his adventures alone. Every subplot that gets screen time (Rooney's hunt and Jeanies escapades) comes through Ferris and hes introduced before and exits long after Cameron. If hes not real then so much of the day off becomes wasted time (actually an interesting notion and one of the few good things about this theory). Many of these 'Character X was imaginary' theories fall apart under the same argument and, aside from one very interesting example, I'm going to steer clear of them for the rest of this list.