Sandy Is Dead

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About

“Sandy Is Dead” is a fan theory surrounding the 1978 American musical film Grease which posits that the female protagonist Sandy Olsson had been dead throughout the entire movie and the rest of the plot follows a coma-induced fantasy of a dying woman.

Origin

On April 25th, 2013, Reddit user atomicbolt submitted the theory in a thread titled "A theory on the ending of 'Grease'."^[1] In an image (shown below), atomicbolt posited that Sandy drowned before the events of the film took place, and the film is the comatose fantasy of a dying girl that culminates in her and boyfriend Danny Zuko flying in a car off to heaven. As of September 8th, 2016, the thread has 1503 points, 80% upvotes, and 132 comments.

At the end of "Grease", Sandy and Danny get into a red convertible and drive away from the fair. The car promptly defies the laws of gravity and flies into the sky. How did the car fly? At the start of the film, we see Danny and Sandy meeting on the beach. Later, Danny explains through song that they first met when Danny "saved her life she nearly drowned". Sandy actually did drown on the beach that day. As she drowned, her brain deprived of oxygen, she had a vivid coma fantasy involving her summer fling Danny, where they shared a magical year of high school together. The visions get increasingly outlandish as time passes, until finally, as Danny desperately tries to resuscitate her on the beach, she sees herself flying into Heaven in her dying moments. The entire movie was a drowning woman's coma fantasy.

Spread

The theory's spread remained relatively tame, appearing in roundups of strange and alternative fan theories on sites like MentalFloss^[3] and Entertainment Weekly,^[4] until September 7th, 2016, when actress Sarah Michelle Gellar explained the theory to her followers on Facebook. ^[2] As of September 8th, her post, shown below, has nearly 10,000 reactions and over 2,000 shares.

Sarah Michelle Gellar 21 hrs Facebook Mentions Wait this has blown my mind- has anyone heard this theory about the movie #Grease At the end of the movie, Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsson fly off in a red convertible as they wave goodbye to their friends on the solid ground below, leading to the conclusion that the flying car was the final result of Sandy's fantasy. (As in she is dead) During the song "Summer Nights," Danny and Sandy recount how they first met and started a summer fling. The line, " saved her life, she nearly drowned," suggests that Sandy actually did drown and the whole movie is an elaborate musical fantasy due to the lack of oxygen getting to her brain. The flying red convertible also suggests that Sandy is happily being whisked away to heaven at the end of the movie. Wait what?!?!

The theory then began receiving mainstream attention, as sites including DailyMail,^[5] Entertainment Tonight,^[6] NME,^[7] New York Daily News,^[8] and more. The theory was a trending topic on Facebook on September 8th.^[9]