I think we can all agree that some movies, especially space movies, go so far beyond what is realistically possible that they suspend belief. But as the majority of us have not been in outer space, it is, at times, hard to know what is fact and what is fiction. Which is where our real life astronauts come in:

Chris Hadfield is a Canadian retired astronaut, engineer, and former Royal Canadian Air Force fighter pilot. He was the first Canadian to walk in space, has flown two Space Shuttle missions and served as commander of the International Space Station (ISS).

Garrett Reisman, an American engineer and former NASA astronaut, was a backup crew member for Expedition 15 and joined Expedition 16 aboard the International Space Station for a short time before becoming a member of Expedition 17.

Nicole Stott is also an American engineer and a retired NASA astronaut. She served as a Flight Engineer on ISS Expedition 20 and Expedition 21 and was a Mission Specialist on STS-128 and STS-133.

On this list are 10 movies reviewed by the experts above.

Possible spoilers ahead!

10 Space Myths We Believe Because Of Movies

10 Interstellar (2014)

Interstellar is a science-fiction epic, directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway among others. Set in a future where a failing Earth puts humanity on the brink of extinction, it sees an intrepid team of NASA scientists, engineers and pilots attempt to find a new habitable planet, via interstellar travel.

But when a real-life astronaut says “I’m confused”, you know it’s bad. And according to Hadfield, there just isn’t much else to say about this fictional interpretation of what happens in a black hole. As no one has actually been in one and lived to tell the tale, we simply don’t know what exactly happens in there.

Reisman’s opinion of the bookshelf tesseract is not that favourable, but he does still rate the movie at an 8 as they did get a lot of the other scientific facts, especially around relativistic effects, right.

9 Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

“Look, any movie with a talking raccoon is OK in my book,” says Reisman.

The scene above is more or less on par with a talking raccoon, though. Even though Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) is wearing a helmet to protect himself from the effects of the vacuum outside his spacecraft, what about the rest of his body? While we as the viewers know that it’s fictional and highly dramatized to portray his self-sacrificing love for Gamora (Zoe Saldanha), it is still interesting to hear our real-life astronauts’ explanation of what would actually happen to someone exposed to a vacuum in this way.

First up, barotrauma. This refers to the gases inside your lungs and sinuses that will start expanding very quickly once exposed to a vacuum as there is no longer any air pressure pushing against them. Then, compression sickness, also known as bends, suffered by deep-sea divers who come up to the surface too quickly, not allowing the gases inside and outside your body to equalize. Not good, obviously, but also not quite as dramatic and gruesome as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s portrayal in Total Recall.

8 Total Recall (1990)

The 1990s, Total Recall was seen as one of the greatest action movies of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career. It’s also one of the smarter movies that the actor was ever involved in. To this day, many of his fans are still wondering exactly how the movie ended. Was Douglas Quaid (played by Schwarzenegger) actually a secret agent who had false memories of his life implanted? Or is most of what we see throughout the film just the playing out of the false memory that was implanted?

Our astronauts, as one would expect, are less interested in the complexities of the plot and far more concerned with the practical and scientific elements of the movie. The shattering helmet, for example. According to Stott, helmets are far more durable than we see in the clip above. Although there are parts that could possibly be cracked by sharp pieces of metal, for example, visors are constructed of very durable, sturdy polycarbonate that simply does not shatter on impact.

7 Gravity (2013)

All of our experts agree that if you want to know what it looks like in outer space, there has never been a better movie than Gravity. The sights and sounds are very accurate and reminiscent of exactly what she experienced on her space walks, Stott recalls. The scenery, especially in the opening scenes of the slow-turning earth and stunning lighting, truly gives you the raw emotion of how breathtakingly beautiful it is up there, says Hadfield … “Just don’t pay attention to what any of the astronauts are doing.”

Reisman agrees that, although beautifully shot, the movie defies the laws of physics. It deals with space debris causing havoc on the international space station. And yes, rightly enough, there is a lot of stuff floating up there. However, according to Stott every little piece bigger than a fist is tracked by a scientist on earth and a huge cloud of debris suddenly surprising the space walkers is just unrealistic.

During the scene where the 2 main characters are making repairs to the Hubble telescope, Sandra’s character releases the straps tying her to the robot arm and goes floating off into space as if there is some external force exercised upon her and not the equipment. In another scene she grabs Clooney’s tether and he tells her that she must let him go to save herself. Why? Once she has stopped his momentum, he wouldn’t be going anywhere. Even the satellite whizzing by at around 120mph is so far from reality that our real life astronauts just laugh. Satellites travel at 5 miles per second, 10 times faster than a rifle bullet. They would have literally no time to identify what they are seeing.

6 Armageddon (1998)

Most of us, I think, would agree that this movie very much falls into the fictional category. It’s pretty obvious that much of what happens is total nonsense. Hadfield calls it tragic-comic. “It’s as bad as any space movie has ever been. It’s just atrocious.”

Stott, however, noticed some redeeming factors. Especially the swimming pool scene above. According to her, what you see on screen is pretty much exactly what she herself experienced and remembers about training in NASA’s big pool. When you’re training underwater, she says, you are surrounded by safety divers helping you with the equipment and getting in and out of the pool. “Thankfully, in space it’s actually easier to move around.”

Although she agrees that the 12 day training is more or less impossible, her opinion is that NASA was just trying to familiarise the crew with what it would feel like up in space. Thus the pool and T-38 jets. Real life astronauts go through the same processes in order to learn to work complex systems in similar environments.

10 Joys And Terrors Of Space Exploration

5 First Man (2018)

Before astronauts become astronauts, they usually have some other technical career. Often, they start out as test pilots, as was the case with Neil Armstrong and his fellow crew members. In the movie, Armstrong is seen flying an X-15. Nothing wrong with that. The representation, though, is flawed. According to Hadfield, an X-15’s vibrations would be so minute as to be imperceptible. If your aircraft is rattling to the extent this one is, there’s got to be something wrong. And then somehow, for some unknowable reason, it all suddenly goes dead quiet. Where did all that sound disappear to?

Even the sky as seen through the aircraft’s windows is all wrong. In real life, the higher you go, the darker it gets. In the movie, the colour of the sky goes from sky blue to light blue and then suddenly goes to black.

But the most disappointing thing about the movie, Hadfield says, is the glum atmosphere and lack of joy around the mission. Being an astronaut is a great adventure and although the members of the crew are all aware of the seriousness and potential dangers of the situation, they are also awed and overjoyed at the mere possibility of being in outer space.

4 Passengers (2016)

How do you create gravity if there’s no planet around? According to our experts, spinning the spacecraft you’re travelling in will create a gravity-like pseudo force: centrifugal force, to be exact. Much like the washing machine rides at amusement parks, the spinning effects a force that pushes objects (including people) against the outer edges of the vehicle.

The swimming pool scene in Passengers is a great visual representation of what would happen to the water once the ship has stopped spinning and the centrifugal force has therefore gone. Not that that is likely to happen, according to Hadfield. It would take a great external force (or brakes) to stop the motion of such a huge vehicle in outer space. The other hiccup here is that the force would not magically reappear and send everything crashing down like in the movie. To get such a massive metal structure spinning again would take considerable time and effort.

But what happens when the globules of water amass in a big blob is very realistic and exactly what happens to droplets of water in the international space station. Even tears, according to Stott.

3 The Martian (2015)

Reisman rates this movie at a 9 because other than the idea that puncturing the glove of your space suit will cause it to act like a jet pack and propel you around space like Iron Man, the movie is pretty accurate.

Hadfield disagrees. According to him there are several scientific misnomers. For one, Matt Damon’s character, Mark Watney, would not be quite as buff as he is in the movie. The red planet’s gravity is only about 38% of the earth’s. Mark would therefore only weigh about one third of his portrayed weight. The atmosphere is also incredibly thin on Mars – you would have to climb Everest four times to get to the height where the air is equally as thin on earth. And when you know that, many of the scenes outside the spaceship become problematic.

The idea behind Watney growing his own crop of potatoes on Mars is not far from the truth though. All he needs is nutrient-rich soil (which he recreates using his own excrement), together with heat, water and oxygen. And these can be created with relatively simple chemical reactions using the spaceship’s supplies, something every astronaut is thoroughly trained in.

2 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Reisman and Hadfield both really love this movie, and even the science holds up really well. In short, the movie is beautifully, artistically and quite realistically portrayed.

When Hadfield returned from his first ever space-walk, he had no words to explain to his wife what he had seen. Other than “it’s exactly as they imagined in the movie”. Quite a feat considering the film was made before man even landed on the moon! The movie also makes use of the idea of creating centrifugal force to simulate gravity by rotating the international space station. And, according to Reisman, they even got the speed right: about 1,5 rpm which will result in around ½ a G (G = Gravitational Force). More or less half the gravity you will feel on earth, enough to keep the passengers and other objects more or less in place.

1 Apollo 13 (1995)

“Maybe the most realistic of all the space movies,” says Hadfield.

Apollo 13 tells the story of astronauts Lovell, Haise and Swigert, who, during the Apollo 13 moon mission, find themselves stranded when their spacecraft gets damaged. Several master alarms sound and the astronauts realise “Houston, we have a problem”. Hadfield himself has used the famous line on a few occasions and says that it truly is the most impactful sentence imaginable. Everyone who hears it immediately stops what they’re doing and pays attention to what the commander is going to say next.

This docudrama beautifully portrays the process of problem solving that happens on a daily basis in spaceflight. Not as dramatically, thankfully, but the principle is the same. According to our experts, director Ron Howard went to great lengths to ensure the accuracy of what is shown in the movie. Even the dialogue during the intense scenes is practically a carbon copy of NASA’s transcripts. Reisman even goes so far as to say that it’s as close to a documentary as the director could get without hauling all his equipment into outer space.

10 Historical First Images Captured Of Space

The Shaolin are a historically secretive people. From their humble beginnings in the Henan providence of China, their culture has continued to push the limits of the human mind, body, and spirit.

After a terrible fire in 1929, much of their scarcely recorded history was lost. But a monk named Jin Jing Zhong compiled decades of living knowledge. With blessings from the head of Shaolin, the Training Methods of the 72 Arts of Shaolin was created. You might question how many of these were real, but they’re all fascinating.

10Pulling Out Nails
Bo Ding Gong

Drive a nail into a plank of wood, then remove it with three fingers. A student will practice this for months. If one can remove the nail easily with the thumb, forefinger, and middle finger, then one can progress to removing the nail with the thumb, ring, and pinky finger. Immeasurable strength from even the weakest appendages is a true axiom of Shaolin training. Every finger on both hands must be trained to produce large bursts of strength as well as matching muscular endurance.

Over time, the nails are driven deeper into the wood. When this becomes easy, the wood is dampened before the nails are inserted, and they are allowed to rust. An advanced student in this technique would train by removing rusted nails driven in to the hilt with two fingers, or perhaps one. The fingers of the student must possess the strength to depress the wood itself to successfully remove the nail. Upon mastery, the fingers will be strengthened enough to take on more difficult techniques, such as the Diamond Finger.

9Striking With Foot
Zu She Gong

If someone has ever told you to “go and kick rocks,” it probably was not in a pleasant way. That exact activity, however, is step one to this Shaolin discipline. Anyone who has, accidentally or otherwise, lost the inertia battle to a heavy object knows the toe-shattering pain it can cause. Zu she gong belongs to the hard force of yang, and students will begin training this technique by kicking small rocks like soccer balls—in bare feet.

The purpose of this mastery is to develop the strength and resilience of one’s foot, until kicking a pillow would feel the same as kicking a boulder. In combat, it is said in Shaolin texts that one will be able to kick an opponent as far as the stones one trains with. Such a hardened, developed kick to the lower portion of the body immediately shatters the opponent’s balance. A kick such as this to the head could easily be deadly.

8Skill Of Light Body
Jin Shen Shu

Though the “Skill of Light Body” has become a popular mythos in martial arts films, it is a very real Shaolin practice. Shaolin testaments make reference to men of 100 “jins,” or 50 kilograms (110 lb) resting on branches like butterflies or bees—even gliding like sparrows. This is a truly fascinating practice of Shaolin, complete with a very unique and seemingly impossible training routine.

The training begins with a massive clay bowl filled with water and a student walking along the rim carrying a weighted backpack, perhaps with lead soaked with pigs blood. Students will walk along the rim of this bowl every day for hours. On the 21st day of each month, a “calabash-sized” dipper of water is removed. Additionally, more iron (or bloody lead) is added to the backpack. While the water initially prevents the bowl from tipping and swaying, it becomes increasingly difficult and awkward for the student to navigate the circumference without falling in, out, or over.

The apprentice must continue this until the backpack weighs a total of 5 JINS (2.5kg), and the bowl is entirely empty. When the student can master this, the process is repeated, the large clay bowl is replaced with a large wicker basket filled with iron chips. More weight is added to the backpack, and one must repeat the training until the basket is entirely empty.

These are just the first two steps. Advanced training methods include walking across grass without crumpling it. Further training is exclusive knowledge passed orally through generations. In 2014, a monk managed to run atop a lake on sinking plywood planks for over 385 feet (118m)

7Skill Of A Golden Cicada
Men Dan Gong

The Skill of a Golden Cicada is also widely known as “The Iron Crotch,” and it is not fun.

Initial training beings with intense meditation, aimed to clear the mind of all distain and anxiety for the literal torture to follow. A benchmark, albeit strange, of this mental training is being able to spontaneously summon an erection during meditation—but by concentrating qi to the base of the navel, not by having inappropriate thoughts (hopefully).

From here, the de-sensitivity training beings. One must flick one’s own testicles. Thousands of times. When this is no longer painful, the training upgrades to more extreme methods, which can involve rolling pins, punches, kicks and even blows from weapons directly into the crotch. Some monks even tie ropes around their testicles, pulling great stone weights across fields to master this skill. With careful healing and massage therapy to the tissue, damage to reproductive health can be reduced but inevitably not prevented.

As odd it is may seem, this technique can be combined with the broader family of iron techniques to strengthen all weak points of the body. This can render a monk’s external surface uniformly resilient to strikes. The strength to accomplish the Skill of a Golden Cicada is truly something to behold.

6Method That Reveals The Truth
Jie Di Gong

At its core, this technique is a series of difficult evasive and tactical tumbles. Falling face down upon a stone floor without flinching, somersaults that contort and warp the spine, and even maneuvers that “bounce” the student off the ground are steps on the road to mastery. When one has mastered these “eighteen somersaults” one may progress on to an additional 64 more complicated (and dangerous) tumbling techniques.

Great masters who have perfected this technique can do an uncountable number of somersaults in an uncountable number of ways. Not only does is this said to strengthen Qi, but skin, bones and muscles grow stronger as well.

5Ringing Round A Tree
Bao Shu Gong

A student will require an unusual training partner for this study—a fully grown tree.

The exercise is simple enough; wrap one’s arms around the tree, and pull until your energy is entirely expended. After the first year, progress will begin to show. The first step to mastery is the ability to shake loose a few leaves of the tree. Another year of the student shaking leaves from the tree must pass—the same intensity, without stopping. The student must continue throughout their life with this practice, only reaching mastery once they have completely uprooted the tree

Even the small trees used for this training requires immense, constant force over the course of years to loosen the roots. If a master of this practice ever clasps his opponent as he does the tree—fatal injury can occur easily.

4Iron Head
Tie Tou Gong

There is a reason head-butting is forbidden in sports such as mixed martial arts—the risk of traumatic brain injuries. The iconic Shaolin “Iron Head,” however not only recommends these sort of blows but prescribes them as a regular training regimen. Students strengthen the frontal bones, temporal bones, and top of the skull to a near superhuman rigidity, rivaling that of stone.

The objective is fairly basic: Knock objects into your head, and your head into objects slowly and gradually over years to strengthen the bones in the skull. With dozens of micro fractures, combined with healing and repetition, the bones reshape to the pressure, and can become incredibly resilient. However, this can take dozens of years of daily practice to achieve, each time with the risk of permanent injury.

The first basic training regimen recommended in the methodology of the Shaolin involves wrapping one’s head in silk and gently banging the head against a stone wall. After one year, the student will remove a few layers of silk and continue the process for a minimum of 100 days; after that, the silk is removed completely. From here, students will practice with more extreme methods, such as knocking their skulls together for hours, cracking frozen blocks atop their heads, and even sleeping in headstand positions. Specific exercises and techniques to strengthen the temples, mouth, and eyes follow this technique as well.

In a rare example, a Shaolin monk has held an electric drill to his temple for 10 seconds and emerged unscathed.

3The Iron Bull Technique
tie Niu Gong

Training for the iron bull technique, at the most basic level begins with scraping one’s own stomach. Daily and nightly, with the fingers and palms at first, and blades. This is done during training and rest alike. After sufficient skin hardening, one proceeds to strikes to the core and continue knife-scraping the stomach and obliques.

When blows no longer render pain, hammers are used. Wooden at first, gradually upgrading into iron. A monk will stand motionless as fellow students deliver full force blows to the stomach with iron hammers—this will continue for quite some time. There are more advanced training methods, such as “knocking a bell,” where a monk will absorb blows from a log battering-ram weighing hundreds of kilograms.

It is said masters of this technique will be able to endure strikes, cuts, slashes, and even stabs to the stomach without a single scratch—even the ability to withstand blows “delivered by the Immortals” themselves.

2One Finger Of Chan Meditation
Yi Zhi Chan Gong

After 40 years of intense Shaolin training and meditation, Xi Hei Zi would wander the country, visiting every monastery in the northern and southern provinces, and no man was able to overcome him. The legend claims it is due to this technique.

At the very beginning when Xi Hei Zi started training, he hung a weight from a tree branch on a path that he traveled each day. Each time he passed the weight, he would thrust his finger into it—from the maximum possible distance, his fingertips just barely grazing the surface. The weight would swing. After years of this, and constant meditation, he discovered that when thrust his finger, even if he did not physically touch the weight, it would swing.

After this, he would meditate, while striking his fingers at lamps. At first, the flame would only sway, but he would practice for hours nonetheless. Soon, he could extinguish the flame. He would place paper shades around the lamp, and is said to have been able to pierce the paper and extinguish the flame from a distance. After 10 years of this training, he replaced the paper shades with glass ones. When he could extinguish the flame without breaking the glass, his aim was attained.

1Diamond Finger
Ya Zhi Jin Gang Fa

As a young man, the monk Hal-Tank visited Chicago, where he demonstrated his skill: a handstand—his entire body weight—atop one index finger. The weak muscles in the index finger should crumple, and the bones should snap under the strain. This is quite an amazing feat for a young man, but what truly makes this feat incredible is when the monk was documented performing this skill over 50 years later. Nearly 90 years of age, the legendary monk Hal-Tank was able to replicate his incredible one-finger handstand—his Diamond Finger. His poise is breathtakingly peaceful during the act—deep in meditation, he balances unflinchingly atop his fingertip.

Until his death in 1989, he was still the only man able to perform this technique. Though he is now deceased, this legendary monk provided a rare, documented demonstration of Shaolin skill and a fascinating glimpse into the world of Shaolin.

Richard is a freelance television and film producer based in Los Angeles, California.

When a filmmaker creates a world for a viewer and invites them in, it isn’t surprising that the visitor might see this world in a different light. After all, most movies only last a couple of hours, and there is little time to create a fully-detailed backstory. This leaves room for imagination and interpretation.

Often, these fan theories are simply flights of fancy that add nothing to the basic plot. Sometimes, however, fans have come up with ideas that make the film more interesting and allow us to watch it again with a different perspective. Let’s look at ten fan theories that are better than the actual movies.

Related: 10 Far-Out Theories About Beloved Sitcoms

10 Titanic

The perhaps unlikely relationship between Jack and Rose, passengers on the Titanic, begins when Rose considers throwing herself into the Atlantic. Tortured by the pressures of her social class, her loveless engagement, and the demands of her mother, Rose sees suicide as the only way out.

Never short of a word or two, Jack tries to persuade her not to do it—if only because the water would be cold. Jack tells her he knows what he is talking about because he once went ice-fishing with his dad and fell in. Sufficient information, you might think, but Jack adds an unnecessary detail—the ice-fishing took place on Lake Wissota. All is well and good, but a dam created Lake Wissota in 1917. Five years after the Titanic sank.

As their relationship deepens during the four days, they chat about their future. Jack suggests riding the roller coaster on Santa Monica Pier. Lovely, but they would have to wait—there was no roller coaster there until 1916. There are other anachronisms. Jack smokes filtered cigarettes that hadn’t come onto the market, his rucksack is a future model, and his hairstyle is more New-Romantic than the pre-WWI era.

Some fans believe that a director as meticulous as James Cameron would not have let these errors creep into his movie. So, what is the fan theory? Jack is a time traveler who goes back to save Rose.

As the film stands, there is no obvious sequel, but add time travel, and anything is possible.

9 Harry Potter

Harry grows up an orphan living a dreary life in the Dursley household. The Dursleys are Harry’s aunt, uncle, and cousin, which are horrible to 11-year-old Harry. But why? Harry is an unassuming, polite, and likable boy who is, after all, a close relative. There is no earthly reason why they shouldn’t like Harry.

We learn Harry’s parents were wizards, and Harry will go to a school where the staff will hone his innate magical skills. Harry ends up in a struggle against Voldemort, who is protected by Horcruxes that must be overcome if good is to triumph over evil.

Who better than Harry to fight Voldemort? But why did the Dursleys hate him? Unless Harry is one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes.

A Horcrux is a part of your soul. If Harry is a Horcrux created by Voldemort, then Harry is essential to Voldemort’s survival, and Harry can never destroy his antagonist without destroying himself. We see in the movies that a Horcrux can affect the emotional environment in its surroundings. Harry is influencing the Dursleys negatively.

If this theory is true, we will have to watch the whole series again in a different light, and we may just find some pity and understanding for the Dursley family.

8 Pulp Fiction

In one of the first scenes in the movie, Jules and Vincent go to an apartment to recover a case that belongs to their boss, Marsellus. The conversation with the boys living in the apartment suggests they owe Marsellus money. In fact, they have Marsellus’s attache case.

Vincent finds the case and confirms that it holds what they are looking for. One of the boys pulls a gun on Jules and Vincent and fires a full clip at them. They are miraculously unhurt. At the end of the movie, someone aims to steal the case. Jules opens it, and the thief stares in wonder. We never see what is in it.

Marsellus, a gang boss, has an unexplained bandage on the back of his head. One story has it that the devil can steal your soul through the back of your head. The combination lock of the case is “666.” Does the case contain Marsellus’s soul? Is the devil driving the storyline?

7 The Shining

We have all heard the conspiracy theory that the 1969 Apollo moon landing was a fake. To pull it off, the authorities needed expert help. Who better for visual effects than Stanley Kubrick, the director of the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey? The story goes that Kubrick’s 1980 horror movie The Shining has clues that are tantamount to a confession on Kubrick’s part.

Let’s consider Stephen King’s original novel. In the book, the “evil” room is number 217, and Danny sees the specter of one child. In the film, Kubrick has changed the room number to 237. The average distance from the earth to the moon is 237,000 miles (it’s actually a little more). Danny sees two dead twins in the movie. Surely a reference to the Gemini (twins in astrology) project that led to the Apollo program. Finally, Danny wears a sweater with an image of the Apollo rocket knit on the front.

Even the title reflects the moon. It couldn’t be clearer.

6 The Wizard of Oz

There is something surreal about the world of Oz. The characters seem so odd that it must be about something more than a girl trying to get back to Kansas.

In one fan theory, the Cowardly Lion is the central figure. He represents William Jennings Bryan, a presidential candidate known as “The Great Commoner.” Bryan hated the gold standard that tied the dollar’s value to the price of gold. In this interpretation, “Oz” is an ounce, Dorothy is the ordinary citizen, the Scarecrow represents farmers, the Tin Man stands for industrial workers, and the Wizard is the President of the United States.

The band is following the yellow brick road—gold.

5 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

The much-sought-after tickets to enter the chocolate factory are invitations to death! Visitors become fewer as they tour the vast building in various vehicles. But each vehicle has a capacity for exactly the number of people left. This suggests that everything is planned beforehand and that Willy and his workers are, perhaps, cannibals who are eating the guests off-camera.

We can take this theory even further by looking at the 2005 remake starring Johnny Depp. In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Willy Wonka (Depp) informs the group that everything is edible. “Everything in this room is eatable. Even I’m eatable, but that is called cannibalism, my dear children, and is, in fact, frowned upon in most societies.”

Coincidence?

4 The Matrix

In the fourth century BC, the Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi said he dreamed of being a butterfly. When he woke, he couldn’t be certain that he was a man who had dreamed of being a butterfly or that he was a butterfly dreaming of being a man.

Neo has the same problem in The Matrix. When he emerges from the imaginary world, he can’t know whether the “real” world is real or simply another construct.

Fans happily scour the movies for evidence that Neo is still living in an alternative reality. This explains some oddities that occur in the “real” world.

3 Grease

Danny and Sandy meet at the beach, sing, and dance their way through a romance with its usual teenage challenges. But the popular movie contains fantasy sequences—especially the ending—that don’t comfortably fit the story.

Unless the whole tale is a fantasy, there are references to Danny saving Sandy from drowning, but perhaps, he didn’t. Sandy’s imagination constructs the whole story as she drowns and dies, with Danny unable to help the girl.

Sandy’s first line is:

“I’ve just had the best summer of my life, and now I have to go away.”

Yes, but not back to her native Australia; she is dying. This makes the film much darker and explains why everything works out well for each character—it’s Sandy’s last wish. Sandy is not an unusual name but oddly relevant to her fate.

2 The Silence of the Lambs

There are many fan theories about this film. Two stand out that might change the way you view it.

In one, Hannibal preyed on Buffalo Bill when he was treating him and turned a damaged personality into a killer. This was an insurance policy. Hannibal knew that if the FBI ever caught up with him and he was jailed, the FBI would need his help in catching Bill. A situation that Hannibal could exploit to escape captivity.

The second theory is that the FBI is taking serial killers and turning them into assassins. Hannibal is part of the program, and Clarice Starling is a candidate. This one is a little far-fetched, but you will view Clarice’s boss differently.

1 Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Neal is trying to return to Chicago to spend Thanksgiving with his family. His flight is diverted to Wichita because of atrocious weather. Here, Neal hooks up with an unwanted travel companion in the shape of Del. The two have completely different personalities, and the clash between them is the comic hinge of the movie. Neal likes to have control; Del is a ceaseless chatterer who constantly goes on about his wife.

After various misadventures, the pair finally reach Chicago, they go their separate ways, but Neal decides that he should go looking for Del, who he finds sitting alone at the railway station. Del admits that he has nowhere to go and that his beloved wife, Marie, has been dead for years. Off they go to Neal’s house, carrying Del’s large trunk.

The fan theory is that the trunk contains Marie’s body, Del’s dead wife. Watch the film again and think of Del as a crazed murderer—you will see it differently.