Bizarre Grease fan theory reckons Sandy was dead all along

That flying car at the end of the movie is taking her to heaven

John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John as Danny and Sandy in Grease

The world of fan theories is a bizarre, entertaining and often downright outrageous one. The latest internet speculation fits snugly into that third bracket, with Grease fans morbidly discussing the possibility that Sandy was in fact dead or dying the whole time.

That’s right, Olivia Newton-John’s iconic high schooler who ended up driving off into the sunset with her greaser boyfriend Danny (John Travolta) in a flying car was, in fact, ascending to heaven. Or at least, that’s what one imaginative Redditor believes was really happening.

Posted some three years ago, atomicbolt’s theory has randomly become a hot topic online again this week. It goes something like this:

Sandy drowned while at the beach with Danny

The beginning of the 1978 movie sees the young couple enjoying a holiday romance at the beach. Sandy gushes about it in “Summer Nights’” while Danny sings “I saved her life, she nearly drowned”. The theory suggests that actually, Sandy did drown.

The rest of the film is her fantasising as she dies

This is dark stuff. The outlandish Redditor reckons that as Sandy drowned “her brain deprived of oxygen and she had a vivid coma fantasy involving her summer fling with Danny where they shared a magical year of high school together”.

“Goodbye, Sandra Dee” is her farewell song to the world

Nope, it doesn’t mean ‘goodbye to my self-conscious current image, it’s time for a re-invention’ as you thought. It means, ‘goodbye everyone, I’m going to die now’. Doesn’t have quite the same appeal, does it?

The flying car is taking her to heaven

When Danny drives Sandy off into the skies in his beloved Greased Lightning at the end of the movie, that is her finally dying. Or, as the Redditor puts it, “as Danny desperately tries to resuscitate her on the beach, she sees herself flying into heaven in her dying moments”.

In brief, “the entire movie was a drowning woman’s coma fantasy”, apparently. Sarah Michelle Gellar enjoys it anyway.