Fan theories are usually a product of love, and, more often than not, they heighten the experience of watching your favorite movie or TV series because of the extra level of thought involved. But sometimes theories are just theories, which is the case today. Just when a morbid fan theory about the entire plot of Grease being Sandy's weird coma dream was starting to gain some traction, the co-creator of the musical has promptly shut it down. Sorry, people who like really depressing things. Looks like Grease is just a musical romp after all.
Jim Jacobs, who wrote the original book and musical alongside Warren Casey, has come out to put an end to the theory. Jacobs spoke to TMZ and let them know that Sandy was alive the entire time and was never close to death's door. In his words, whoever came up with the theory must have "been on acid." So there you have it, folks. The events of the film actually happened. In the world of Grease, people just like to occasionally sign their feeling and flying cars aren't metaphors for rising to heaven; they're just cars that have the power of flight.
The theory in question has been around for a few years, but really gained some steam after a post on Imgur laid the theory out. The theory argued that the entire events of Grease were simply playing out in the mind of a comatose Sandy. In "Summer Nights," Danny Zuko tells his friends that he met Sandy after he saved her life when she nearly drowned. The idea postures the idea that she actually did drown, and that in the final moments of her life she fantasizes a life where she dates her rescuer, sings some songs, dances some dances, and becomes a cool girl in black leather pants. When Sandy and Danny take off at the end of the movie in their magical flying car, it's actually a metaphor for Sandy slowly rising to heaven. (Does that make Grease 2 her heaven? You gotta dream a little bigger there, Sandy).
Asides from the moments when people break into song and dance, Grease is pretty realistic, so a flying car does feel a little out there. In that regard, the theory at least made a little sense, though, I can't imagine Grease fans actually like it too much.
Jim Jacobs argues that the real phenomenon is that Grease is still popular four decades years later. Even now, people can remember the lyrics to most of the impossibly catchy songs. In two years, it'll be the films 40th anniversary, and it's still going strong. Fox recently retold the story in its broadcast of Grease: Live, wherein Sandy was alive and well and definitely not in a coma.
