10 Movie Fan Theories The Creators Completely Rejected

The Theory: The Big Lebowski is one of the most memorable movies of the 90s, in large part due to its varied ensemble of interesting characters - but are they all real?

That's right! This theory posits that Donny - expertly played by Steve Buscemi - isn't real, and is instead a figment of Walter's imagination. The Dude doesn't interact with Donny much throughout the movie, which led some viewers to believe that Walter was just making him up.

The Rejection: When asked about this theory by the Huffington Post, the movie's directors (Joel and Ethan Coen) hit back by pointing out that The Dude actually does interact with Donny, saying "doesn’t The Dude get covered by Donny’s ashes at the end of the movie?”

Ethan then said "well, you could say any of the characters are imaginary if you wanna stretch it that far", before Joel added "Ethan just pointed out something that’s very important, which is that all the characters are imaginary. They were all imagined. They don’t exist in reality. They were just made up for the movie."

So, it looks like the two dudes aren't buying this admittedly rather out-there fan theory, but at least we still have dozens of Donny best-bits montages on YouTube to enjoy.