Grease: Sandy was dead all along

The most notorious Lubricate Fan theory suggests that Olivia Newton-John’s Sandy is in fact dying throughout the movie and the infamous teenage love story is nothing more than a fantasy. Starting out as a raunchier stage play than the eventual adaptation, Randall Kleiser’s 1950s set High School Musical was a mostly grounded navigation through the struggles of typical teenage years. While it has its moments of fantasy, The ending, in which Danny and Sandy fly off to their hopeless future always felt like it didn’t belong.

The ending’s strange and one particularly pertinent line of LubricateThe first big musical number is exactly what a compelling fan theory suggests is a grim undercurrent to the iconic musical. The theory says that Sandy never made it off the coastNever falling in love with Danny, and never dressing up in leather pants to bring down the house at the end of the year carnival event, because Sandy died. Arguably one of the most famous movie theories of all time, it offers a completely different perspective on the movie’s otherwise mostly upbeat tone, adding darkness where otherwise the musical is filled with light.

Why Grace’s strange ending inspired the search for answers

Fans believe the flying car does not make sense

Lubricate It’s not all just a realistic school comedy-drama. It contains two great fantasy sequences for the songs “Greased Lightnin'” and “Beauty School Dropout”, which very obviously play out in the imagination of the characters who sing the songs. The first is the T-Birds imagining their triumphs and how well the car will boost their boyish pride of machismo. The latter is the French version of Didi Conn imagine the discomfort of her future if her dream fails. Both are very much related to dreams, even if “Greased Lightnin” appears to play out in real time.

That just makes the final sequence of Lubricate Even more confusing, because when Danny and Sandy fly away from the carnival in Grist Lightnin’, it happens in the real world with all the characters very obviously awake. Notably, Sandy is surprised by the car taking off, which doesn’t fit in a dream sequence.

Sandy’s shock is nothing compared to the audience, who have just watched a fairly conventional high school musical that operates within normal rules of reality, ending with a car literally flying away to a happy ending. In this respect, it is no wonder that there was an opportunity for a fan theory to fill in the gap in logic.

Theory: Sandy really drowned during her summer vacation

Danny can’t save her

The starting point of the theory, which was initially posted on Redditis one of the lines in “Summer Night”, as Sandy and Danny tell each of their listening audiences their versions of what happened during their holiday romance at the beach. The only account that the audience can trust is the mention of the young couple bowling in the arcade, holding hands and drinking lemonade.

Crucially, the lyrics suggest that Danny and Sandy met when she got a cramp while swimming, and Danny saved her from drowning, before showing off “Splash aroundThis may sound like Danny exaggerating what happened to make himself look cooler in front of his friends. The theory suggests that it actually happened, but Sandy just imagined her would-be hero saving her. It is Sandy’s dying thoughts that imagine a happy ending that blossomed out of their meet-cute.

As the ending confirms Sandy died

“Goodbye to Sandra Dee” is a more concrete goodbye

from there, The Lubricate Theory suggests that from the prologue onwards, every event that happens in The movie takes place in Sandy’s mind. The reason everything wraps up so perfectly for each character, despite all the trouble on the way to the finale, is that it’s all Sandy’s tragic wish fulfilled. As a newcomer to Riddle High, Sandy would have been an outsider, but her reality is just like a dream; She is instantly accepted by the coolest group (the pink ladies), meets the boy of her dreams (again), and overcomes every issue that faces her.

And it’s not just her: Rizzo’s pregnancy scare, the dance competition that Danny wins (albeit with Cha-Cha), the drag race on Thunder Road… Everything ends with a happy ending, no matter how unlikely that may seem. Some suggest this is because the story is actually being remembered through rose-tinted glasses. Either way, it’s all a bit too convenient. When Greased Lightnin’ takes off for his maiden flight, the reason becomes clear. It is All was a fantasy.

The theory also suggests that Sandy’s sad reprise of “Look at me, I’m Sandra Dee” and the last two lines “Take a deep breath and sigh, goodbye to Sandra the…” Specifically secretly confirming that Sandy lost her battle and died. In this respect, the image of Grist Lightnin flying away with Danny alongside Sandy at the end of Lubricate is actually symbolic of her standing in the afterlife.

Her transformation is not of self-realization but of death. That metaphorical rise, then, is her rising to heaven in the final moments of her life dying out with her last breaths on the sand. It is tragic and dark, but there is a hint of beauty.

How Grease’s creators (and Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta) responded to the theory

They don’t agree with the Grease fans

The Lubricate Theory gained so much notoriety when its popularity rose that it came to the attention of stars John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. The first called it fun, although he poured insults on it in the telling USA Today that he knew”The writers of Grease, and I were around in the original days. I can’t take it too far.”

Travolta also went a little further, explaining that he didn’t believe that Sandy even had a brush with death as Danny claimed. And that his boast was no more than the same kind of show-off that made him believe Graced Lightning would be a near-heavenly machine:

[Danny’s] to brag; It was made to impress the boys. [Sandy and Danny] Have two different stories and someone is lying. Most likely, this is Danny.

Meanwhile, Olivia Newton-John called the theory “hilarious” and reveled in the idea of Lubricate Being the first zombie musical. Unfortunately for fans of the theory, the most notable response to the theory came from Lubricate Creator Jim Jacobs, who wasn’t such a big fan and said Sandy was dead.

He said TMZ that “Whoever made the theory must have been on acid. Sandy was very lively.” But then, it’s rare that the wishes of the creators are taken into account when fans come up with theories, and this one in particular improves the Lubricate Viewing experience, true or not.

It’s a much darker version of the Sandy Is Dead in Grease Theory

Sandy dies later in the story

Most versions of the “Dead Sandy” Lubricate Theory involves her death happening while she was meeting Danny on the beach. That’s not the case in this particular theory posed by one redditor. randomd0g says that most of the history in Lubricate Happens while Sandy is alive, including Donnie boasting about “saving” Sandy on the beach. Where the story diverges is when Sandy sings the “Sanda Di (Reprise).”

In this particular musical moment, Sandy sings “Goodbye to Sandra Dee,” while in Thunder Road. That goodbye, the theory suggests, is not just farewell to Sandy’s old life, but to life as a whole. The idea is that Sandy became so unhappy after her experiences at Rydell High that she decided to take her own life. This makes everything that happens after, like Rizzo revealing that she’s not pregnant, Sandy getting her makeover, and everyone pretending, the one big happy ending that only happens in Sandy’s imagination after.

The idea still suggests that the carnival is part of a fantasy sequence that Sandy had in her last moments of life; The last moments of life simply happen much later than other fan theories suggest. It makes Sandy’s flight in the car her movement in the afterlife and makes one very dark Lubricate Fan theory.

Arguments against the Sandy is Dead theory

Sandy being dead doesn’t make narrative sense

Other than the real team behind Lubricate Refuting the theory that Sandy is dead during the events of the movie, there is other evidence from the movie itself that would seem to discredit this idea. Much of the reasoning for this theory is that the flying car at the end of the film does not seem to fit, that it is too surreal of an ending, a fantasy sequence that does not make sense for everyone else to see. That, however, is just one of the things that musicals do.

The whole premise of musicals is that the songs are not only used to push the story along, but they also typically take place in the heads of the characters, not in reality. The entire cast of a musical has these experiences, and they can all be labeled as surreal.

Take the “Greased Lightning” sequence as another example of something fantastic in Lubricate. All the guys in the scene watch the car makeover play and sing about it, but none of it is real. It’s not just in one of their heads, like French’s dream sequence is. Once they have finished their song and dance, they go back to work on the car, seemingly unaware of what they just did.

Most of the musical sequences in the movie have fantastical elements, even in something as simple as everyone knowing the same dance moves or the same nonsensical lyrics. Sandy and Danny riding off into the sunset – quite literally – is just another part of the fantastic sequences in the movie.

Not all of the musical moments in the movie have the elements of fantasy, but there is another element of the musical moments that point to the events that are not all Sandy’s fantasy world. Not every scene takes place from Sandy’s point of view. If the movie was all Sandy’s imagination in her last dying moments, the story would be all her. Instead, there are moments that characters like Danny, Frenchy, and Rizzo all experience completely alone.

They all have moments of growth, not just Sandy. It wouldn’t be necessary for those if the movie was Sandy’s imagination. finally, Lubricate Proves to be a high school coming of age movie rather than a dying girl’s dream state.

Other popular grease theories

Sandy being dead is not the only alternative grace interpretation

Lubricate was released in 1978, almost five years ago, and such a long and timeless legacy has proven ripe for alternative interpretations of the story. While Sandy Dies on the Beach is the most well-known, there are dozens of others Lubricate fan theories, most of which offer a similarly dark spin on the colorful, high-energy musical. Danny and Sandy are dead in some variation of the same common fan theory. For example there is a popular idea that Danny and Sandy die in a car crash (supposedly represented by their skybound car in the final moments).

others Lubricate Fan theories focus on different characters, aspects or the world as a whole. The age of the actors in Lubricate has always been a point of suspicion, since the chests are clearly much older than high school. This is remedied by a popular Lubricate Fan theory that suggests the Pink Ladies and T-Birds are undercover police officers, and have infiltrated the school as adults posing as gang members.

Another focuses on Rizzo and her pregnancy scare. In the fan theory that suggests that Sandy dies in grease, Rizzo’s pregnancy is a false scare is placed to the events of the movie in Sandy’s head. The happy ending of the free teen pregnancy for Rizzo seen by the audience is a product of Sandy’s brain trying to create the best possible outcome.

A Otherwise Lubricate Fan theory suggests otherwise, and doesn’t involve Sandy being dead, either. The theory suggests that after Sandy offers Rizzo her help with everything she needs regarding the pregnancy, the couple went together for Rizzo to have an abortion. This is not very likely given the tone of the rest of the movie, but it is yet another interpretation of Lubricate That repositions the upbeat tone of the musical as a mask to hide much darker undertones.