12 Movies That Everyone Misunderstands (And What They Mean)

Most of the time, a movie's story and message are pretty straightforward. Love conquers all. Absolute power corrupts. Being John Malkovich is not as fulfilling as just being yourself. Pretty simple, pretty standard. Thanks for watching, onto the next movie or onto the rest of your life.

But some movies are notoriously layered. The story can be a giant metaphor or the ending is ambiguous, hinting at a specific interpretation. But many audience members don't have an appreciation for subtlety. That's when the fan theories and Reddit threads go buck wild.

There are levels of meaning that people frothingly argue about for years about movies. And yet, with all the resources available to us, people still manage to misunderstand and misinterpret the messages those movies are trying to get across.

We asked our readers to find the most widely-misunderstood movies and set the record straight, in handy meme format. Here's what they told us.