Quote: pankakesparx456Okay I have a crazy theory about the movie Elf that I made as a joke but upon watching Elf a while back I noticed it actually has some merit to it
my coworker suggested I call it Buddy's Ladder because apparently it's really similar to Jacob's Ladder but idk if that's true at all
theory goes like this: Buddy actually made up all the elf/santa claus/north pole stuff in his head and kills himself at the end of the film.
Until the end of the movie, there is never a moment where the characters from the north pole interact with the characters from New York City(we'll get to the end of the movie in a bit). After Buddy starts his journey to New York City, the tone changes from the tone of the north pole. NYC obviously looks different from how whimsical the north pole looks, but there's other subtle changes too, like the color, which looks a bit murkier in New York, and the camerawork, which has more of a close-up, cheap, handheld style of filming as opposed to the more proper shots the north pole has. This gives the notion that New York City is a different reality to Buddy than the north pole was, but it leads me to believe it was all in his head because the movie doesn't start looking realistic until he gets to the read world. The ending is where it gets especially dark. After Buddy's dad yells at Buddy and says he doesn't care if he's his son, we eventually get to a shot of Buddy walking on a bridge. He overlooks the river where the bridge is and tells himself "I don't belong anywhere"(I think he also says "I have no one", but i could be wrong). Then, he looks up and sees Santa Claus, and the filmmaking goes back to this whimsical style that the north pole had. Based on how Buddy was acting on the bridge it's possible that he killed himself by jumping off of the bridge, as the fight with his father makes him think he's nothing and has nowhere he belongs. Maybe as he was falling he saw the last things he wanted; his father to apologize and accept him, being with his family, getting together with Jovie, for him to bring back Christmas spirit to New York City, and ultimately save Christmas.
There might be some holes in this theory, it's still a work in progress
NO NO NO NO NO! NO "IT'S ALL IN THEIR HEAD" THEORIES! NO NO NO NO NO!