8 Fan Theories That Totally Change Your Favourite Movies

2. Travis Bickle Died In The Shootout - Taxi Driver

Taxi Driver's ending is one of the blackest jokes Scorsese has ever committed to film (and that's really saying something). After failing to assassinate U.S. Senator Palantine, loner Travis Bickle instead sets his psychotic aims lower, taking on the pimps of teenage prostitute Iris. A gory shootout ensues, but then, following a failed suicide,Travis is retconned by society to be a hero, mythologised by the media. In a wonderfully ironic twist, this undying praise appears to prove too much for the cabbie, despite him having chased the idea of being special for the whole film.

However, to get to that version of the ending you first must go through the moment that could very likely be Bickle's last. There's a distinct chance he actually died in the shootout, either by Harvey Keitel's or his own gun, with the entire hero worship merely part of a last-moments fantasy; the closing moments are so psychedelic it could easily be a representation of an end-of-life dream state. And if that's the case then things change drastically; instead of showing how vastly differently this disturbed individual could be regarded, the film is saying the down-trodden will never achieve their dreams.

This alternate theory has a pretty overwhelming effect on Taxi Driver, completely changing the entire point of the film. And, with the truth having been debated since its release in 1976, it's unlikely any unanimous opinion will ever be reached.