10 famous movie mysteries and the theories that solve them (11 photos)

Not every film provides answers to all the intrigues hanging in the air. Sometimes the creators of films deliberately keep silent about certain nuances so that viewers themselves build theories or try to figure out the truth using the clues left in the films.





Meanwhile, a sign of a good film is debate about certain moments that last for years after its release.

We want to remember such riddles. All of them are well-known and probably interested you very much when watching them. Some of them have already been given a more or less unambiguous answer in the form of a confession from the director or revealed details from the script, while others remain a mystery to this day.

So, a few important questions that were not answered in the films themselves, and the likely answers to them.

How many repeating days did Phil Connors experience?



Film "Groundhog Day" (1993).

The film itself shows 34 rises of the main character in the same day, if you add to this number all his verbal references to how he tried to deal with himself, then it comes out to 42 days.

The director of the film, Harold Ramis, admitted that during filming he kept the 10-year mark in his head, and a little later clarified that there should be more time - something between 30 and 40. In any case, how did Phil manage not to go crazy , dont clear.

But there's something else. There's a line in the original script that Phil is actually stuck in a loop for 10,000 years! This idea was abandoned, but it sounds powerful.

Where did the Joker get his scars?





Film "The Dark Knight" (2008).

Talking about his scars, the Joker gives two different stories: in one, his father cut him like that, in the other, he did it himself because of his wife. Of course, you shouldn’t believe them, and a popular theory has long been circulating on the Internet, which at the same time reveals the character’s backstory, about which there is also not a word in the film.

The theory is that the Joker is an Iraq War veteran who suffered injuries during one of his combat operations, after which he hated the law of his country and went crazy. When the Joker discusses the injustice of peace and power in Harvey Dent's chamber, he mentions a hypothetical truck bombing of soldiers, possibly hinting at his own story.

What was in the unopened FedEx box?



Film "Cast Away" (2000).

Stranded on a desert island, Chuck Noland leaves one box of angel wings unopened. We were never shown what was inside.

The film's director, Robert Zemeckis, joked that there was a radiotelephone in the box - a humorous skit was even filmed later. But there is a real answer to this riddle. In one version of the script, the box contained two bottles of salsa verde and a letter from a woman asking her husband to return. The same woman Chuck meets at the end of the film.

What was in the suitcase?



Film "Pulp Fiction" (1994).

The most common option is still the theory that the “sucked” soul of Marcellus Wallace is inside. Co-writer of the film Roger Avary also said that at first he and Quentin Tarantino wanted to put diamonds inside, but that would have been too corny. In the end, it was decided not to come up with anything specific.

During the filming of the film, inside the suitcase there was only a yellowish light bulb, creating that same mysterious glow.

Where is Dominic Cobb in the finale - in a dream or in reality?



Film "Inception" (2010).

Director Christopher Nolan said it didn't matter, and the most important thing was that Dominic was reunited with his children. But a completely unambiguous answer to the question was given by actor Michael Caine, who himself was confused and directly asked Nolan what was reality in the film. To this, the director replied that when Kane’s character is in the frame, it is always reality. And since he was present in the final scene, it means it was a happy ending!

On the other hand, Cobb's children, both in his dreams and at the end of the film, surprisingly have hardly changed and wear similar clothes. This detail is undermined by the fact that two pairs of kids, one younger and one older, were cast for the film. That is, they still grew up, and thus the main character is in reality.

As for the top, it's a deception, since it's actually the totem of Cobb's wife, and his real totem is the wedding ring that appears on his finger only in his dreams.

Who was infected in the end?



Film "The Thing" (1982).

Is Childs infected in the last scene of the legendary horror film? There's a theory floating around online that at the end, MacReady's protagonist figures out the truth with the help of a bottle of whiskey he offers to Childs. After all, in fact, this is not whiskey, but a Molotov cocktail! He calmly takes a sip, since he is an alien monster who does not feel the difference, and everything becomes clear to MacReady - that is why he laughs, as if doomedly accepting his fate.

Another strong hint of Childs’ infection is the steam not coming from his mouth in the cold. However, the filmmakers later assured the public that they simply forgot to add it. Well, yes, well, yes, they forgot!

Did Riggan die at the end?



Film "Birdman" (2014).

In the final scene, the main character Riggan jumps out of the window of his hospital room, but when his daughter Sam rushes to the window, she looks up into the sky in delight. The main and rather gloomy theory is that Riggan died by shooting himself in the head during the performance, and the scene in the ward is his dying hallucination.

There is also a theory that Riggan walking out the window is a symbol of his acceptance of his own life. And his daughter, of course, is happy for him.

How did Jack Torrance end up in the 1921 photo?



Film "The Shining" (1980).

The ending is explained by two main theories: either Jack's soul was absorbed by the hotel (and some evil forces) after his death, and this photo shows all the stolen souls, or Jack is actually the reincarnation of a previous representative of the Torrance family, who was also a caretaker at hotel. In any case - mysticism!

Did Patrick Bateman commit all the murders that were shown to the audience, or did it only happen in his head?



The film "American Psycho" (2000).

There is no doubt that the main character is crazy, but it is likely that it did not come to real actions. This is emphasized by the testimony of one of Bateman's colleagues that Paul Allen, whom the hero allegedly killed, is in fact alive. Also, Bateman's journal with all sorts of creepy inscriptions and drawings may be proof that we only saw images from his imagination.

Overall, the film's ending left viewers thinking that they had encountered an "unreliable narrator" technique and should not believe what was shown before.

However, the film's director, Mary Harron, hinted quite transparently in an interview that she did not want to make the film ambiguous on this issue. She admitted that she regrets that she did not place the accents very well, and that Patrick Bateman is really a serial killer.

Why did the birds go crazy and start attacking people?



Film "The Birds" (1963).

Personally, Alfred Hitchcock, the director of the famous film, was of little interest in the reasons for the aggressiveness of birds; he only wanted to show the consequences. When creating the film, he was inspired by the story of the same name by Daphne Du Maurier and a real case in which in 1961 there were several bird attacks on residents of the settlement of Bodega Bay in California.

There are purely symbolic theories that the film shows a version of the Last Judgment, that is, nature and other forces punish people for their sins.

But scientists have also put forward a more down-to-earth hypothesis, explaining precisely those events in Bodega Bay. It's all about the toxins that some algae can produce. The toxins disorient the birds, and they begin to behave chaotically.

By the way, there is another mystery in the film itself - what ultimately happened to the heroes? Since in the finale they simply drive off into the unknown, surrounded by birds watching them. Whether the bird apocalypse ended here or not, we never knew.