Reddit is home to some of the internet’s best batshit-crazy theories about everything, from a Knight Rider and Community conspiracy to a horcrux explaining why the Dursleys were so rotten to Harry Potter. Among the classic Reddit crazy theories is the notion that the eponymous lead from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off never existed; rather Ferris was the id to Cameron’s inhibited super-ego, with Alan Ruck‘s Cameron being the actual performer of “Twist And Shout” in a Chicago parade. That’s the Von Steuben Day parade, typically held on a Saturday in early September, meaning everybody already had the day off. Wake up, people; the truth is out there.
Of course, that theory requires one to overlook the extensive scenes shared between the “fictional” Bueller and Dean Ed Rooney, his sister, and parents. But those nagging details haven’t dissuaded Redditor/Ferris Truther AndrewTheCyborg, who believes that not only is Ferris imaginary, but that Cameron grew up to become Fight Club’s narrator, played in the movie by Ed Norton. This Reddit theory goes next-level bonkers, positing that after the end of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Cameron’s father completely flips out over his car being destroyed. The resulting abuse Cameron suffers is so extreme that he breaks from reality, erasing any history of his father, and eventually becomes the guy in Fight Club who imagines Tyler Durden. As evidence, AndrewTheCyborg cites the similarity between Alan Ruck and Ed Norton, and between the (imagined) plot of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Fight Club.
Considering that Chicago is very far from Fight Club’s Wilmington, Delaware setting, one could speculate that Cameron had a whole series of adventures before he wound up investigating car accidents. It’s possible that every Alan Ruck role is evidence of a further splintering of Cameron’s psyche. Maybe Emilio Estevez’s Billy The Kid from Young Guns II was just the hopped-up machismo of a stifled Henry William French. And is there no better avatar for unbridled, potent rage than the tornadoes in Twister? Those were likely figments of storm-chasing navigator Robert “Rabbit” Nurick. Or maybe someone on Reddit will decide that they’re all just Walter Mitty and be done with it.