3. Sandy From Grease Is Actually Dead
Though I'm referring to a particular theory in this instance, this type of theory is completely ridiculous. It's a sort of off-shoot from the they were dead all along fan theory, which needlessly kills off entire casts of characters before the events of their films even take place. Pointing out the inanity of this specific example pretty much applies to every other related example. The theory spawns from an inexplicable detail at the end of 1978's Grease, which sees John Travolta's Danny and Olivia Newton-John's Sandy take off in a flying car. It's a profoundly cheesy moment in a profoundly cheesy film, but fans have since taken to the internet in order to try and explain the moment rationally. Surely a flying car can't be a metaphor. Surely it means that Sandy actually dies at the beginning of the movie during the beach scene flashback, the scene that depicts Sandy and Danny's summer fling. I saved her life she nearly drowned is the song lyric this particular theory hinges on, apparent proof that the character is actually dead, hence the ascension to musical heaven at the very end. Oh, and that's why everyone is singing, too. Forget the fact that musical theatre has been around for over a thousand years and is just a form of dramatic expression...the whole point of the film is to depict the complexity of high-school relationships, and to tell a tale of love overcoming staggering odds (all through foot-tapping songs). The same goes for all they're actually dead fan theories: there's just no point. There's no point in Grease if Sandy has been dead the whole time, there's no point to the plot or themes or the commentary on high-school relationships. It might be different if the theory aligned with the actual point of the film, but that's just never the case.
Brian Wilson
Contributor
Commonly found reading, sitting firmly in a seat at the cinema (bottle of water and a Freddo bar, please) or listening to the Mountain Goats.
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