# What is a show/movie theory that you came up with? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 18, 2020, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-show-movie-theory-that-you-came-up-with/920922 "2020-09-18T15:12:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2022, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-show-movie-theory-that-you-came-up-with/920922/241 "2022-01-09T22:44:32Z")
Teacher was wrong. Bells have nothing to do with angel wingination. People always think they understand the Divine, but they are wrong. Clarence still got his, though. We’ll just never know while we are on earth, ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2022, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-show-movie-theory-that-you-came-up-with/920922/242 "2022-01-09T23:24:40Z")
Gets his wings. Yes… [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/_vmdbUrc1J0/hqdefault.jpg "An Angel Gets Its Wings || Robot Chicken") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vmdbUrc1J0) ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2022, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-show-movie-theory-that-you-came-up-with/920922/243 "2022-01-09T23:45:04Z")
My theory about The Matrix films is that the machines keep the humans in The Matrix out of a mutual relationship of Asimovian protection and using human minds for their processing power. Not as a source of energy as described by Morpheus and other human characters. In the Animatrix, they allude to an “arrangement” proposed by the machines to the U.N, which the humans apparently found a abhorrent. My theory is that at that time, environmental collapse was already underway and inevitable. The machines determined the only way to “save” humanity was to preserve our bodies in pods while uploading our brains to live out our lives in The Matrix. By blocking out the sun, all the humans did was accelerate the timeline and force the machines to do their best to throw a working Matrix together. Which is why the first versions failed and the Matrix is still kind of wonky. > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > _Cars_ is set in a post-apocalyptical world. Humanity had reached the port of building AI systems but there was a war where nanotech weapons killed off all biological life. > > What we see in the movie are the AI’s that survived the war. Their society is controlled by giant underground AI systems which manufacture the surface AI’s we see. The surface AI’s were designed to serve human beings but there are no longer any humans around for them to serve. So the underground AI’s erased all knowledge of humans from the surface AI’s memories so they wouldn’t realized what was missing from their existence. The cars we see are mimicking human existence without being aware that human beings ever existed. I’ve long theorized that Stephen King’s Maximum Overdrive / Trucks, the children’s show Blaze and the Monster Machines and Cars all take place in the same universe at different points in their history. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-show-movie-theory-that-you-came-up-with/920922/244 "2022-01-10T01:44:27Z")
I think the “Mad Max” is just an apocalypse legend…a folk hero theory is… unsatisfying. It doesn’t really make sense considering the first two are explicitly the same character and if Miller hadn’t cast Bruce Spence in the captain role in Thunderdome, there would be no question that the third was explicitly the same character…Fury Road monkey wrenches the continuity…BUT… If the Max moniker is used to folk tales, the Max in the story has to be someone… So my theory/head canon is the Feral Kid from Road Warrior is Max in Fury Road. The timeline doesn’t make sense otherwise. Fury Road takes place either after the fall of the Great Northern Tribe or during a time when the Kid was essentially on “rhumspringa” (sp) and had patterned his life after the Road Warrior he met as a kid. That’s why the name reveal matters in Fury Road…It’s the kid taking on the mantle of Max. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2022, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-show-movie-theory-that-you-came-up-with/920922/245 "2022-01-20T01:23:52Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I’ve long theorized that Stephen King’s Maximum Overdrive / Trucks, the children’s show Blaze and the Monster Machines and Cars all take place in the same universe at different points in their history. I’ve never actually seen Cars, believe it or not, aside from seeing the theme park version of Radiator Springs, but one thing struck me: this is a world where not only the sapient beings are living cars with a civilization built around supporting them…but a lot of natural terrain features a car-themed, too. Mountains shaped like Cadillac fenders, mesas shaped like hood ornaments, etc. This doesn’t feel like something you’d see in a world where the humans merely died out and their mechanical creations continued on without them. This is a world where the very laws of nature were strangely machine-themed from the start, the sign of some intelligent force creating them. There are theological implications from this—but perhaps not the obvious one. It’s possible that this is a world created from the outset to have completely alien, unlikely forms of science and ecology bending badly to support the lives of race of machine-creatures, most of whom don’t really have a rational point to existence if not as the tools to a non-existent form of life. But what if that’s just it. It’s NOT a world of machine-life…because they’re not alive. Not anymore. Before I come to my conclusion, an artistic note: Cars was directed by John Lasseter. A much earlier film pitched by him, to Disney—which passed on it, but ultimately did distribute it, and produce the sequels—that featured animated inanimate objects? [_The Brave Little Toaster_ (1985).](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brave_Little_Toaster) And as plenty of 80s-90s kids can remember…what was one of the most deeply notable bits of Brave Little Toaster? A musical number called “Worthless.” [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/-UfsEj7AOGI/hqdefault.jpg "Brave Little Toaster - Worthless") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UfsEj7AOGI&t=65) The Cars are “living” in a world designed to accommodate and support them, where they can fulfill their functions, but there are no humans to control them, use them, or throw them away. They’re in machine Elysium. They’re all dead. Argument against this theory: at least some of the Cars characters have apparently died (in-universe), or been put in physical peril. Possible counter-argument: this is actually machine Limbo, or something akin to one of the Buddhist interpretations of the afterlife, and dying in Cars-land merely means reinCarnation to another state of existence, depending on their Carma state. (Sorry) ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2022, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-show-movie-theory-that-you-came-up-with/920922/246 "2022-01-20T02:19:47Z")
But why does the town of Radiator Springs have sidewalks? ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2022, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-show-movie-theory-that-you-came-up-with/920922/247 "2022-01-20T13:15:38Z")
I mentioned this in the ‘Ozark Season 4’ thread-- Jason Bateman basically plays the same character in Arrested Development and Ozark: a guy who thinks he’s a problem solver and smarter than everyone else in the room, but is not as smart as he thinks he is, and often digs himself into even more complicated and perilous situations due to his actions.Only now, the situations are less funny and more murdery. On the surface he seems very confident and self-assured to the point of smugness, but cracks will show through the veneer sometimes. So it’s fun for me, when I watch Ozark, to imagine that Michael Bluth changed his identity and became Marty Byrd. The initials even match! He probably had a lot of monogrammed cuff links or shirts he wanted to hang onto. The family timeline even works for Marty Byrd’s kids being biologically his, since Arrested Development ended in 2006, 16 years ago. There may have been a year or two of overlap while he was establishing the Marty Byrd identity and starting his new family while still Michael Bluth. ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2022, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-show-movie-theory-that-you-came-up-with/920922/248 "2022-07-18T13:51:24Z")
George also used his influence with the town to get that teacher fired and her violent, drunk husband thrown in jail. “Bad enough she let you walk home without a coat, but now she’s telling you horseshit like ‘Everytime a bell rings, an angel gets their wings???’…thats it. Thats it!! Everyone stop singing!! Listen to me!!!” ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2022, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-show-movie-theory-that-you-came-up-with/920922/249 "2022-08-02T01:20:52Z")
I thought I’d posted this a long time ago, but in reviewing the thread (and searching), I can’t find it. It has to do with the well-established fact that Pheobe, on _Friends_, can speak fluent French. She does this so many times, I think that Lisa Kudrow has at least a passing knowledge of the language. Now, lots of Americans speak French, but Pheobe never finished high school, let alone attended college, and has never had enough money to travel. However, on the episode “The One with Pheobe’s Ex-partner,” Pheobe says that her mother used to work on a barge when she was little, and she was on the barge as well, so she was pretty young. I looked at a map, and there are routes back and forth from New York to Quebec, so I checked, and yes, there actually was a long-established barge route from NYC to Quebec. So there were probably lots of Quebecois workers on the barge as well, and maybe some of their kids. And Pheobe probably spent some time actually in Montreal, or Quebec City as a child. Of course she speaks French. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2022, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-show-movie-theory-that-you-came-up-with/920922/250 "2022-08-02T07:58:30Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > However, on the episode “The One with Pheobe’s Ex-partner,” Pheobe says that her mother used to work on a barge when she was little, and she was on the barge as well, so she was pretty young. I looked at a map, and there are routes back and forth from New York to Quebec, so I checked, and yes, there actually was a long-established barge route from NYC to Quebec. So there were probably lots of Quebecois workers on the barge as well, and maybe some of their kids. And Pheobe probably spent some time actually in Montreal, or Quebec City as a child. > > Of course she speaks French. I always just assumed that “Buffay” was a French name, and that her mother was either French or Quebecoise and spoke French to her as a child. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2022, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-show-movie-theory-that-you-came-up-with/920922/251 "2022-08-02T14:26:59Z")
Buffay was her father’s last name. I’m not sure if her mother’s maiden name was ever mentioned. Neither her father (Bob Balaban) or birth mother (Teri Garr) seemed to speak with any sort of accent. Of course that doesn’t prove or disprove either of their ethnicities, and her birth mother didn’t raise her. But I do like **RC** ’s barge theory. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2022, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-show-movie-theory-that-you-came-up-with/920922/252 "2022-08-02T16:45:11Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I always just assumed that “Buffay” was a French name, and that her mother was either French or Quebecoise and spoke French to her as a child. It would be spelled differently if it were French. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2022, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-show-movie-theory-that-you-came-up-with/920922/253 "2022-08-02T17:27:39Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > It would be spelled differently if it were French. It would likely be spelled differently if it were French filtered through, say, Ellis Island. Have a friend named LeCraw, their Ellis Island ancestor was dubbed ‘Dell LaCraw’ because the kid at the table didn’t know French, much less the proper spelling of ‘Delacroix’. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2022, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-show-movie-theory-that-you-came-up-with/920922/254 "2022-08-02T17:33:26Z")
That’s really not that common, because people came through Ellis Island with papers, and the Ellis Island secretaries just copied names from the papers people presented. The phonetic spellings happened to people from Russia and China. More likely would be that they spell “Buffet,” correctly, but mispronounce it, and the mispronunciation would stick. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2022, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-show-movie-theory-that-you-came-up-with/920922/255 "2022-08-02T17:54:17Z")
In Better Call Saul Season 3, Kim Wexler met with Gatwood Oil about oil rights where an underground deposit of oil crossed state borders. We then see her car get stuck in the sand, and when she tried to free the car, it rolled and nearly hit an oil well. I was beyond certain that in a future scene she was going to discover a gusher in that squishy ground on the correct side of the property/state line, entitling Gatwood to a whole lot of unexpected oil rights – presumably they’d have rewarded her handsomely for this. Then she crashed her car and broke her arm, and the show never looked back. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2022, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-show-movie-theory-that-you-came-up-with/920922/256 "2022-08-02T18:06:10Z")
Was it ever spelled out on the show? Because otherwise, who’s to say it wasn’t actually “Bouffet”? Also, I’m not sure her parents were married. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2022, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-show-movie-theory-that-you-came-up-with/920922/257 "2022-08-02T18:25:57Z")
On _Lost_, when the castaways discovered the mysterious hatch on the island, and were arguing over whether or not they should try to open it, Locke was one of the most vocal advocates in favor of opening it. I came up with the theory that the hatch led to a super top secret research facility, and Locke was really a spy. He orchestrated the whole plane crash to get him onto the island, because he was trying to steal the top secret information that was stored in that facility. He was just using the other survivors to help him complete his mission. My theory obviously didn’t pan out. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2022, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-show-movie-theory-that-you-came-up-with/920922/258 "2022-08-02T18:41:41Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I always just assumed that “Buffay” was a French name, and that her mother was either French or Quebecoise and spoke French to her as a child. We know her grandmother is French. Her great great grandmother is “[Nesle Toulouse](https://bjs.scene7.com/is/image/bjs/19378?$bjs-Initial480$)” ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2022, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-show-movie-theory-that-you-came-up-with/920922/259 "2022-08-02T18:56:54Z")
IMDb spells it “Buffay,” which is probably what I’ve seen. I think it was shown on a poster or video cover when her sister was doing porn, and there was a film called _Buffay the Vampire Layer_. It may have been shown other times as well, because I remember being surprised the first time I saw it. I’d assumed it was “Buffet.” [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108778/?ref\_=nv\_sr\_srsg\_0](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108778/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0) the page for _Friends_ ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2022, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-show-movie-theory-that-you-came-up-with/920922/260 "2022-08-02T21:02:37Z")
In Pulp Fiction…God killed Marvin. The gun didn’t just ‘go off’. Jules was going around saying how he was the Avenging Arm of God and God heard that shit. So God said, “Oh you my Holmes huh? Ok Holmes…I’m gonna save you AND your partner. And then you REALLY WILL be my Holmes. I own your ass after this.” Now God, he loves the Believers, like Jules, cause they believe. And he wants to convert the unbelievers like Vincent. But the fence-sitters?? He will ‘spit them out of his mouth like luke-warm water’. Vincent: “Marvin, what do you think about all this.” Marvin: “Man I don’t even have an opinion.” Vincent: “Well you got to have an opinion. Do you think that God came down from heaven and…” BLAMMMMM [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-show-movie-theory-that-you-came-up-with/920922.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-show-movie-theory-that-you-came-up-with/920922.md?page=14)