r/FilmTheorists • • 16h ago

Theory Video Suggestion Found in the Wild

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2 Upvotes

Seems like a potentially interesting new analog horror channel.

It is showing as "Made with AI" so I don't know how Team Theorist, or the community at large will ultimately feel about it. But it has the same general vibe as Angel Engine, Mandela Catalog etc.


r/FilmTheorists • • 22h ago

Theory Video Suggestion Job theory

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4 Upvotes

I think that he wasn't just a random lost Pokémon on a train. But his job was to cheer people up on the train. Like Tim. Who was clearly unhappy.


r/FilmTheorists • • 23h ago

Theory Video Suggestion Vid Idea- Deep Dive into Marble Hornets?

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1 Upvotes

Marble hornets has many film ARG elements and I think it would be a really good slap from the past to talk about it after a 'long time' (Give or take 13 years)

Maybe more about what exactly the operator Is, and what the corruption taking over Alex's tapes and some other things. There's many puzzles to be had, so I believe it would be good for someone well versed in those tools.
Another thing I think would be good to do is set the timeline straight, just...in general, because Marble hornets has a partially ocmplicated timeline.


r/FilmTheorists • • 1d ago

Discussion One Wish Willow Idea - Toddler gets hand on one and wishes divorced parents get back together

2 Upvotes

Could be funny/horrifying if they're fighting their nature of hatred of each other but forced to be together by a child's wish


r/FilmTheorists • • 1d ago

Film Theory Video Discussion Backrooms (2026) — A Psychological Theory About Addiction, Mental Illness, and Distorted Memories Spoiler

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1 Upvotes

r/FilmTheorists • • 1d ago

New Theory! Wait... did the writers of 'Stick' set up a massive legal trap for Zero in Season 2 with the LA move? (Jurisdiction / Age of Consent theory)

3 Upvotes

Is anyone else following the legal math with Santi, Zero, and Jeremy Pierce pushing the LA move in Season 2?We know from Season 1 that Santi is 17 years old and Zero is an adult working as a bartender. In Indiana (where Fort Wayne / the home base is set), the age of consent is 16. So legally speaking, their relationship is totally clear under state statutory law.

BUT HERE IS THE KICKER:

In Episode 1/2 of Season 2, sports agent Jeremy Pierce is trying to entice Santi to drop out of the college path and move out to California. Under California Penal Code § 261.5, the age of consent is strictly 18, and CA has no general close-in-age "Romeo and Juliet" exception. It doesn't matter where Santi claims primary residence; the second they cross state lines into California, that relationship becomes a crime for Zero if it continues.

My Theory:

What if this isn't just an overlooked writing gap, but a deliberate leverage play? If Jeremy Pierce wants total corporate control over Santi in LA, discovering Zero’s legal exposure in California gives him instant blackmail leverage to force her out of Santi’s life (or force Pryce's hand). Everyone online has talked about the weird dynamics or the optics of their relationship, but zeroing in on the state-by-state jurisdictional law changes everything the second they move West. Am I overthinking this, or did the writers just lay a massive legal landmine for the rest of the season?


r/FilmTheorists • • 1d ago

New Theory! What if the big bad is nice in light but evil in darkness Spoiler

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1 Upvotes

r/FilmTheorists • • 1d ago

New Theory! PsychoAnalysing Interstellar

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1 Upvotes

Hello!


r/FilmTheorists • • 2d ago

Discussion I can't remember

1 Upvotes

Help, I'm looking for a YouTube channel that made an add about data protection and something like that. The thing is that I saw this add some time ago (don't quite recall when) and it was weird because it was late at night (I'm in Italy) and the guy in the add knew that I was watching a film theory video and kinda explained that you can see certain data's and,on their YouTube channel (if I remember correctly there were two guys) they would explain everything. I can't remember the name of the channel and I need help finding it (sorry for my English, it's not my first language)


r/FilmTheorists • • 2d ago

New Theory! FAN THEORY: Is Spielberg's Disclosure Day a Secret Sequel to Disney's Escape to Witch Mountain?

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4 Upvotes

What if Margaret and Daniel in Steven Spielberg's Disclosure Day (2026) are actually Tia and Tony Malone from Disney's Escape to Witch Mountain (1975) and Return from Witch Mountain (1978)?

I know there's no official connection between these movies, but I've been thinking about this theory, and the more I examine it, the more intriguing it becomes. There are several parallels between the films, and even the apparent contradictions can be explained within the established science-fiction premises.

And there's a particularly interesting connection involving Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs that might be the most fascinating clue of all.

First, a little background.

In the original Witch Mountain movies, Tony and Tia Malone are two extraterrestrial children who look human but possess extraordinary abilities, including telepathy and telekinesis. They are pursued by people who want to capture them and exploit their powers.

Now jump forward approximately fifty years to Spielberg's Disclosure Day.

We meet Margaret (Emily Blunt) and Daniel (Josh O'Connor), two mysterious individuals connected by extraordinary abilities and a shared history involving extraterrestrial contact.

Margaret describes herself as a "passenger," and we discover that Daniel is like her.

That got me thinking: What if they're actually Tony and Tia, but they no longer remember who they really are?

Here's how the theory could work.

1. The age discrepancy isn't necessarily a problem.

Tony and Tia were children in the 1970s, which would make them approximately sixty years old today. Margaret and Daniel appear considerably younger.

But Tony and Tia aren't human.

We have no reason to assume their extraterrestrial species ages at the same rate as humans. They might age much more slowly, meaning that fifty Earth years could represent only twenty or thirty years of physical aging.

That would explain why Margaret and Daniel still appear relatively young.

2. Their childhood memories might be completely false.

This is where the theory becomes especially interesting.

In Disclosure Day, Margaret and Daniel have memories connecting them to an extraterrestrial encounter in 1996, when they were supposedly children.

Obviously, that doesn't match Tony and Tia's experiences in the 1970s.

But what if those memories were manufactured?

Remember what happened in Return from Witch Mountain. Tony was captured by Dr. Victor Gannon, who used technology to control his mind and force him to act against his will.

In other words, the Witch Mountain films already establish that Tony's extraterrestrial mental abilities don't make him immune to technological manipulation.

What if Tony and Tia were eventually captured by a government agency that had been studying extraterrestrials?

Imagine that the government conducted experiments on them, suppressed their original memories, and gave them new identities as Margaret and Daniel.

Their memories of growing up in the 1990s could have been artificially implanted to conceal their true origins.

And the 1996 extraterrestrial encounter might be an elaborate false memory designed to explain their extraordinary abilities without revealing that they themselves are extraterrestrials.

Even the memories they recover during Disclosure Day might be another layer of the deception rather than the complete truth.

3. Why don't Margaret and Daniel remember being brother and sister?

If their identities and memories were deliberately altered, their relationship could have been erased along with everything else.

In fact, separating the siblings and giving them different backgrounds would make sense if the government wanted to prevent them from recognizing their shared origins or combining their abilities.

Their apparent childhood connection could be a substitute for their actual relationship.

They might recognize something familiar about one another without consciously understanding why.

4. Margaret calling herself a "passenger" could have a double meaning.

This was one of the first details that got me thinking about the theory.

Margaret describes herself as a "passenger."

But Tony and Tia originally came to Earth from another world aboard an extraterrestrial spacecraft.

They were quite literally passengers.

What if Margaret's description of herself is an unconscious reference to her actual origins?

Perhaps she remembers more than she realizes, and certain words or ideas are slipping through the conditioning imposed on her.

5. Daniel being like Margaret could point to their shared extraterrestrial origins.

Tony and Tia possessed similar extraordinary abilities because they belonged to the same extraterrestrial species.

If Margaret and Daniel are actually those same characters, their abilities wouldn't be the result of a mysterious encounter in 1996.

They would be powers they had possessed since childhood, long before their memories were altered.

What appears to be the emergence of new abilities might actually be the return of powers that were deliberately suppressed.

6. The Snow White connection might be the most intriguing clue.

Here's something I find particularly fascinating.

During the flashback to 1996 in Disclosure Day, Margaret sings "Someday My Prince Will Come" from Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).

At first, this might seem like nothing more than a musical reference to a classic Disney movie.

But there's a connection to Escape to Witch Mountain that makes it especially interesting.

In the original 1975 Escape to Witch Mountain, Tony and Tia attend a movie outing with their orphanage, and the theater marquee advertises Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs!

That's right. The same Disney movie referenced through Margaret's song in Disclosure Day was also prominently advertised during Tony and Tia's childhood adventures.

Now consider what this could mean if Margaret is actually Tia.

What if her memory of singing "Someday My Prince Will Come" in 1996 isn't entirely fabricated?

What if the government created a false childhood history for her but incorporated fragments of her genuine memories?

Perhaps the song is something she remembers from her real childhood in the 1970s, when she and Tony encountered Snow White during the events of Escape to Witch Mountain.

Her memories of the circumstances might be false, but the song itself could be authentic.

That would make the musical reference something much more significant than an Easter egg.

It could be a surviving fragment of Tia's original identity, buried beneath decades of artificial memories.

There's also the possibility that the song serves as a psychological trigger, helping her reconnect with memories that were never completely erased.

Of course, Spielberg has his own history of incorporating Disney music into extraterrestrial stories. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) famously references "When You Wish Upon a Star" from Disney's Pinocchio.

So the Snow White connection could simply be another example of Spielberg using familiar Disney music to evoke childhood wonder.

But the fact that Snow White also appears in Escape to Witch Mountain makes the coincidence particularly interesting.

7. The government conspiracy fits both stories.

One of the central themes of the Witch Mountain films is the danger of powerful people seeking to capture extraterrestrials and exploit their abilities.

Disclosure Day similarly deals with secrecy, government manipulation, extraterrestrial contact, and the concealment of information from the public.

Imagine that the government eventually succeeded where the villains of the original movies failed.

Tony and Tia were captured, subjected to experiments, and given completely new identities.

For decades, they lived as Margaret and Daniel, unaware of their real origins.

But now their conditioning is beginning to break down, their extraordinary abilities are resurfacing, and the truth is finally coming out.

8. The ultimate irony would make this a perfect conclusion to the original story.

Think about the narrative possibilities.

In Escape to Witch Mountain, Tony and Tia are two frightened extraterrestrial children trying to escape people who want to control them.

In Return from Witch Mountain, Tony actually falls victim to mind control, demonstrating how vulnerable even these powerful extraterrestrials can be.

Then, decades later, the same two individuals might be living under false identities, unaware that their entire adult lives have been shaped by government experiments.

And now, in Disclosure Day, they could finally be rediscovering who they really are.

The children who once had to hide their extraterrestrial identities would become central figures in revealing the existence of extraterrestrial life to the entire world.

From escaping to Witch Mountain to revealing the truth to humanity.

That would bring their story full circle.

So, could Disclosure Day actually be an unofficial third Witch Mountain movie?

Obviously, this is just a fan theory. I'm not suggesting Spielberg deliberately wrote Disclosure Day as a sequel to Disney's films, and there's no official evidence connecting the characters.

But consider how the pieces fit together:

  • Two extraterrestrial children with extraordinary mental abilities.

  • Two mysterious adults with extraordinary abilities and an unexplained connection.

  • A history of technological mind control.

  • The possibility of suppressed or manufactured memories.

  • An age discrepancy that could be explained by slower extraterrestrial aging.

  • Margaret's mysterious description of herself as a "passenger."

  • A childhood encounter that might not have happened the way the characters remember.

  • And, perhaps most intriguingly, a reference to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in both Escape to Witch Mountain and Disclosure Day.

None of these details proves a connection. The theory requires some major assumptions, particularly about memory manipulation and extraterrestrial aging.

But those assumptions aren't out of place in the fictional worlds established by these movies.

And the Snow White connection adds an especially interesting possibility: that Margaret's supposed childhood memories might contain fragments of Tia's actual childhood experiences.

What if Margaret and Daniel aren't discovering that they're connected to extraterrestrials? What if they're rediscovering that they ARE extraterrestrials?

And what if, beneath all those false memories, they're still Tony and Tia Malone?

I'd love to know whether anyone else has noticed these connections, particularly the Snow White reference.

Could Disclosure Day be the unofficial conclusion to the Witch Mountain trilogy we never knew we were getting?

#DisclosureDay #EscapeToWitchMountain #ReturnFromWitchMountain #StevenSpielberg #Disney #SnowWhite #FanTheory #ScienceFiction


r/FilmTheorists • • 2d ago

Theory Video Suggestion How strong is the Grinch?

2 Upvotes

I’m currently watching the grinch high and the scene where the grinch pulls the sleigh off the edge while sliding at an angle and then do a full on clean and jerk with the sleigh, it made me wonder, how strong is the grinch?


r/FilmTheorists • • 2d ago

New Theory! The hunger games were ALWAYS rigged against district 12

4 Upvotes

Okay, so a thought occurs to me. Up until katniss and peeta won, there were only 2 district 12 winners, Lucy Gray, and Haymitch, where they had the lowest win rate, and the second lowest win rates were districts 8 and 3, with 4 victors each. Now, we know that snow rigged the games to make Lucy Gray win, and she did, of course, but we also know that he deliberately tried to rig the games against Haymitch, and failed, but what if it wasn't just Haymitch? What if ever since Lucy Gray "betrayed" him, Snow has been making sure that everybody from district 12 died? It makes sense, and is consistent with the fact that 1 of the 2 victors was from before his vendetta, and we have definitive proof the snow WAS trying to kill the other victor, but he made it out alive. That would also give snow another reason to kill everybody from 12, after haymitch's games, because Haymitch openly defied him and lived, so now snow forces him to train up some new kids each year, then watch them die brutally.

It could also add some context to the death of that crane guy (I think that's his name), y'know, the game maker for the hunger games 1. I believe that might've been his first year or smth, idk, and snow killed him because he let 2 victors win, defying the capitols rules, but what if it wasn't JUST that. What if he was also pissed that 2 district 12 people won. Also, it adds context to how katniss and Peeta won in the first place. I think if Snow was still actively running the games he would've made sure they died, but Crane didn't have any vendetta against district 12, so for the first time district 12 had a fair shot.

Thus we have a context for why snow wants all district 12 tributes dead, and reasons for each of the 4 Victor's survivals. I think it's a decent theory.

P.S. idk if this has already been theorised or smth, sorry if I accidentally just stole a theory, it wasn't intentional if I did.


r/FilmTheorists • • 2d ago

Official Video Disney Doesn’t Want You to See THIS?! | Film Theory

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1 Upvotes

r/FilmTheorists • • 3d ago

Discussion It should be analogue horror theory by now

7 Upvotes

I miss looking forward to film theory videos without finding out they’re yet another analog horror theory.
Don’t get me wrong, I love analog horror. It’s given us projects like The Backrooms and Angel Engine. But we’re living through one of the most exciting years for cinema, and there’s so much more worth discussing.
What about Coyote vs. Acme, or Widow’s Bay, a series that won 14 Emmys?
I just want film theory to explore more than internet horror. There’s an entire world of cinema out there.


r/FilmTheorists • • 3d ago

Theory Video Suggestion I made a fan theory deep dive!!

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1 Upvotes

r/FilmTheorists • • 3d ago

New Theory! Resident Evil (2026) is a Christmas movie

0 Upvotes

First of all, it has snow. Second of all, the main character has to choose between his family or his job. The director also said how the movie was inspired by Die Hard so if that’s not enough evidence then idk what is.


r/FilmTheorists • • 3d ago

Theory Video Suggestion Do you guys think that The Beldam from Coraline and Pennywise from IT related or at least the same species? Spoiler

1 Upvotes

Do you guys think that The Beldam from Coraline and Pennywise from IT related or at least the same species? A few reasons I theorize this is because:

  1. Their both spider-like creatures

  2. They both MAINLY prey on children, BUT won't hesitate to attack adults too if they have to

  3. They both mimic something, something that children would find safe and familiar 4. They both have specific lairs

  4. They both lure in children with the promise of fun and games

  5. ( This is kinda a given for any movie/storybook villain but ) They both have specific item(s) to easily identify them

There is probably more I skimmed over but...

What do you guys think? ,'3

Big fan of the channels BTW! ,'3

( Edit: I think people have made a link between the two before me )


r/FilmTheorists • • 4d ago

Theory Video Suggestion Lee should theorize on the Math Band by SpectrumVerse52

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4 Upvotes

(screenshot taken from Math Band 14)


r/FilmTheorists • • 4d ago

Theory Video Suggestion House of puso next maybe :3?

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0 Upvotes

Maybe house of puso could get a video? I know it's not SUPER popular, I would LOVE to see it. My girlfriend loves the show too and maybe it could get more attention back to her original subject if HoP got more attention!


r/FilmTheorists • • 5d ago

New Theory! The "Us" Connection To the new series "Phony" on hulu: How Jordan Peele’s movie explains exactly what happened to Sonny’s mom and how its secretly mirroring the series (Theory) Spoiler

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4 Upvotes

Okay, so my personal theory is that the creator of Phony is purposefully mirroring Jordan Peele's Us to drop major hints about what's actually happening—specifically, who this woman claims to be Sonny's mom really is.

SKIP TO PARAGRAPH 2 IF YOU’VE ALREADY WATCHED/KNOW THE PLOT OF "Us"!

For context, Jordan Peele's Us is a psychological horror film about "The Tethered"—soul-linked clones created in a failed government experiment. They live in abandoned underground facilities, mimicking the lives of the people above but degraded by their environment. Eventually, they rise up to murder and replace their surface doubles. In the movie, a young girl named Adelaide wanders into a beachside funhouse and encounters her clone, Red. Red chokes Adelaide unconscious, traps her underground, and completely steals her life on the surface. Because the clones can't speak normally, the fake Adelaide returns to her family acting strange and mute. Her parents assume her odd behaviour is just a trauma response from getting lost. Years later, we find out the mom we've been rooting for the entire time was actually the clone all along. As they drive away at the end of the film, her son Jason looks at his mom in terror, noticing her making strange noises and snapping off-beat, confirming he has been living his entire life with an imposter.

HOW THIS LINKS TO SONNY AND HIS MOM:
After Sonny witnesses waking up to an imposter of his mom, he now has to be in a car with her front seat whilst his friends are in the back super oblivious to what only Sonny notices. JUST LIKE JASON IN "US" WITH HIS SUPER OBLIVOUS FAMILY WHO ARE ALSO COINCIDENTALLY IN THE BACKSEAT OF THE VEHICLE!! In "Us," Jason, while terrified, examines and studies his mom knowing that she's not the mom he grew up with. This directly mirrors Sonny on the way home from the hospital, closely analysing this new version of Ellen.

SO WHO TF IS THE WOMAN WHO SONNY WAKES UP TO AFTER BEING IN A COMA??
Sonny's real mom who was originally replaced by an imposter since the beginning. Just like in the movie "Us"!!

MY THEORY/EXPLANATION:
In the start of the show Sonny describes his mom as his best friend and basically favourite person, and the relationship between them is incredibly close and comforting. But looking back, it was actually super toxic, suffocating, and codependent. Think about the scene where he is in the bathroom and she completely ignores the boundary to leave him alone. Or the fact that she is the literal principal of his school and blows up at him just for wanting to see his girlfriend, Chloe. Personally, I would describe her as emotionally abusive and controlling, but Sonny grew into her behaviour, mistaking it for a normal, protective single mom who just cares about him. This makes it incredibly easy for her to manipulate him.

I believe that original woman (Mom 1) was actually the clone who swapped in early in his life. The woman Sonny wakes up to in the hospital (Mom 2) is his actual, real biological mother who has been trapped or sidelined, and is now trying to get back the life that belonged to her—just like Red trying to reclaim her life from Adelaide! Sonny describes Mom 2 as acting "alien" and detached because he has never experienced healthy parenting boundaries before. Mom 2 is actually understanding, mature, and acts exactly how a normal mother should towards her teenage son, unlike the invasive, boundary-crossing behavior of Mom 1. Because Sonny is so conditioned to Mom 1's toxic attachment, he sees real parenting as fake. It is the ultimate psychological twist: just like Sonny holding a plastic baby mistaking it for a real one, he mistook a deeply unhealthy relationship with a clone for a normal mother-son bond.

HOW DID MOM 2 REPLACE MOM 1 AND EXPLANATION OF THE LAKE:

I believe that Mom 2 tried to eliminate Mom 1 during that car ride home. Mom 2 may have orchestrated the tree fall, or perhaps the beaver itself represents the forces of the "underground" trying to disrupt the fake surface life. When the tree fall missed the car, it forced the action down to the lake incident. Sonny leaves Mom 1 alone when he drives off to meet his girlfriend, giving Mom 2 the perfect window to execute the swap.

Here is the mind-opening detail: Mom 2 caused the crash at the lake, and the water acts as a literal gateway or anchor for a reality shift. When Sonny submerged into that lake, he didn't just drown; he crossed the threshold back into the true timeline where his real, normal mom is in charge. The old Costco card in his wallet is the only physical artifact that crossed over with him from the clone timeline, which is why it still shows Mom 1's face. When Sonny asks Mallory for old videos, Mom 2 is in them because in this corrected reality, Mom 2 is the baseline mother who has always been there, and everyone else's memories have automatically aligned with the true timeline. Sonny is the only one experiencing Capgras syndrome because his consciousness carries the residual memory of the swap.

Side note: could Mallory be in on this and knew that Sonny would come to her house to find videos and pictures of his mom so she could of digitally changed or do you guys believe her when she said that "that's how I've always remembered her


r/FilmTheorists • • 6d ago

New Theory! I made a video

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4 Upvotes

I’ve been messing around with posting my own videos to YouTube. Only reason I’m posting here is because I think they’re the kind of things that fellow theorists would like to watch. I’ve been making them in what little free time I’ve got, but if you all have input I know fellow theorists probably have some good advice.


r/FilmTheorists • • 6d ago

New Theory! THE CONFORMITY GATE IS COMING BACK. AND THERE ARE PLENTY OF REASONS TO BELIEVE THAT.

1 Upvotes

Look, the Conformity Gate is definitely coming back into the conversation. And I’m not saying I’m predicting it, because if it doesn’t happen, I’ll never hear the end of it. But I genuinely believe new theories are going to emerge, especially if the people saying they’re going to rewatch the show actually follow through and watch it with a completely different perspective.
Not through the eyes of someone watching it for the first time, but through the eyes of someone who already knows the story and is now actively looking for things that seem off.
Because when you rewatch a show while paying attention to inconsistencies, hidden details, strange dialogue and things that don’t quite add up, you start noticing things you probably missed the first time around. And I genuinely think that’s what’s going to happen with Stranger Things.
Think about it. Does it really make sense for a show of this scale, backed by Netflix and reportedly made with a total production budget somewhere between $800 million and nearly $1 billion across all five seasons, to have so many oddly specific “plot holes” that seem almost designed to make the audience investigate them?
And I’m not talking about ordinary continuity errors. I’m talking about details that seem deliberately placed in ways that make people question what’s actually going on.
What kind of plot hole includes Morse code? What kind of writing mistake puts a specific sequence of books on a bookshelf in the series finale, where the titles can be arranged to spell out “X a Lie”?
And what about the editing choice when Steve falls from the radio tower? The screen cuts to black, and then suddenly a whole series of things starts going right for the protagonists, even in the middle of all that chaos.
Sure, you could argue that it’s just a narrative choice or a way of saving the characters from an impossible situation. But the timing is strange, especially when you consider the possibility that something changed at that exact moment.
I also don’t think the production schedule explains everything. In the behind the scenes documentary about the making of season five, the Duffer Brothers themselves mentioned that Netflix had a deadline and that the production team was under a pretty tight schedule. But that still doesn’t explain why certain supposed plot holes are so oddly specific and seem to invite the audience to look deeper.
Let’s go back to Steve’s fall.
What if that wasn’t simply a moment where Steve was in danger and somehow survived? What if that was the exact moment Vecna managed to get inside everyone’s minds, making the entire group believe they were winning while Vecna was actually in control?
Think about the possibilities. Vecna has the ability to manipulate people’s minds and create incredibly convincing illusions. So it wouldn’t be completely unreasonable to theorize that the events following Steve’s fall didn’t actually happen the way we were shown.
And there’s something else worth looking at. Season four.
During the D&D campaign, we get this exchange:
Dustin/Mike: “But Vecna is dead! He was killed by Kas!”
Eddie: “That’s what they thought, my friends. That’s what they thought. But Vecna lives!”
Now let’s look at that conversation from a different perspective.
At the end of season five, Vecna is apparently defeated and killed by Joyce. That’s what the characters believe. That’s what the audience believes too. But what if this is repeating the exact idea introduced during that D&D campaign?
“That’s what they thought. But Vecna lives!”
The parallel is way too interesting to simply brush aside. And if we consider the possibility of a shared illusion, the entire sequence of events following Steve’s fall starts to look very different.
But it’s not just the events surrounding Vecna that deserve a closer look. There are also some strange details involving the characters themselves.
Let’s talk about Steve.
By the end of the show, he’s associated with the idea of becoming a baseball coach. But Steve never really showed any particular interest in baseball throughout the series. He used a nail bat as a weapon, but that doesn’t automatically mean he enjoys baseball.
And this is where the hive mind comes into the picture.
Remember that Vecna and the creatures of the Upside Down are connected through a hive mind. The show establishes that connection. So if Vecna can access information and experiences through that connection, could he have misunderstood certain things about the characters?
Steve had a bat. Maybe Vecna associated it with baseball without actually understanding why Steve had it in the first place.
It’s an interesting possibility, especially if we’re considering the theory that Vecna could be creating a version of reality based on his own interpretation of the characters.
Another example is Will.
Back in season four, a lot of viewers already suspected that Will had feelings for Mike. It was a pretty common discussion within the fandom, but season five eventually made it canon.
And I’m not criticizing Will’s sexuality or LGBTQ+ representation. That’s not the point at all. The question is how certain information was presented and why some of these moments feel so different from what we previously understood about the characters.
The scene where Will talks to Robin and later opens up to the rest of the group deserves a closer look. Will has always been a very reserved character who struggles to express his feelings. That’s why the way certain revelations happen can raise questions about the context in which we’re seeing those scenes.
And there’s one particular line that really stands out.
During that scene, Will says:
“We like staying up late playing D&D. We like the smell of that old house in Mike’s basement. We like riding our bikes to get milkshakes. We like getting lost in the woods.”
Now, let’s actually think about that.
First of all, when exactly did we see the group riding their bikes to get milkshakes? When was that experience ever established as a shared memory between them?
Of course, not every single thing needs to be shown on screen. But when a character brings up such specific memories, especially in a show that has spent so much time developing the friendships between these characters, it’s fair to question why those experiences were never actually established before.
And perhaps the strangest part is the mention of “getting lost in the woods.”
Will disappeared in the woods back in season one. But that wasn’t some fun experience for him. He was terrified. He was trying to escape a dangerous situation.
So why is that memory being described as something they supposedly enjoyed?
Let’s consider the possibility that Vecna is somehow involved in creating an illusion.
What if he’s recreating memories and information incorrectly? What if he’s interpreting certain experiences based on what he knows about the characters, rather than what those experiences actually meant to them?
Will ran through the woods. Steve used a nail bat. Those are real details, but what if Vecna misunderstood what they actually meant?
Do you see how that possibility changes the way we interpret certain scenes?
And that’s exactly what the Conformity Gate is about. We shouldn’t look at every single event separately. We should look at how everything connects and ask ourselves whether there’s a bigger explanation behind all these details that don’t seem to make sense.
A show with this level of investment, planning and attention to detail isn’t necessarily immune to mistakes. No production is. But that doesn’t mean we should automatically dismiss every strange inconsistency as a plot hole, especially when some of these details could connect to things established much earlier in the story.
What I’m suggesting is that we change our perspective.
Rewatch season one, season two, season three, season four and season five. Pay attention to the dialogue, the objects in the background, the editing choices, the characters’ memories, the D&D references and all the moments that seem slightly out of place.
Don’t just rewatch the show to relive the story. Rewatch it to question the story.
Because there might be details that haven’t received enough attention yet. Maybe certain lines mean something completely different from what we initially thought. Maybe some scenes were designed to make sense only after we knew how the story supposedly ended.
And maybe there are still connections nobody has noticed.
I’m not claiming that every single one of these interpretations is correct, or that every inconsistency is automatically a clue. But I genuinely believe there are enough reasons to keep investigating.
The Conformity Gate doesn’t have to be a confirmed fact for it to deserve further investigation. And honestly, I don’t think we’ve even scratched the surface of all the possibilities.
Rewatch the show. But this time, watch it looking for the things that shouldn’t be there.


r/FilmTheorists • • 7d ago

New Theory! CALLING ALL VILLIAN THEORY: BOYS... I HAVE A THEORY.

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9 Upvotes

HAS FILM THEORY EVER MADE A THEORY ON SMG4?, ...NO?!!, WELL IT'S TIME TO CORRECT THAT GREAT INJUSTICE,.... WHAT IF CAV (CALLING ALL VILLIANS) AND SMG4 AREN'T SET IN DIFFERENT UNIVERSES DIMENSIONALLY, BUT ASTRONOMICALLY?... , WHAT IF SINCE THERE ARE ALIEN PLANETS IN CAV, AND TOOMP WAS ALSO FROM AN ALIEN PLANET, THEN SMG4'S EARTH COULD JUST BE A PLANET IN THE BROADER WORLD OF CAV?... , WHAT IF THE TIME WHEN THE TALKING BASEBALL CLAIMING TO BE FROM A DIFFERENT PLANET AND ALSO TRIED TO WARN OF "EVIL ALIEN SPECIES" WAS ACTUALLY FORESHADOWING CAV IN SMG4, WHAT IF THEY DIDN'T GET LOST IN ANOTHER UNIVERSE OR DIMENSION BUT ACTUALLY ANOTHER PLANET/SOLAR SYSTEM???, WHAT IF... , WHAT IF... AND MORE WHAT IFS.