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WARNING: THIS PAGE CONTAINS SPOILERS.

Oldboy (2003) Theory

The story begins where the film Oldboy (2003) leaves off. The game symbolizes a gruesome journey of a boy to reach his sister. When they meet at last, according to the Oldboy theory, there was something unusual and bizarre, though they at last met in peace (flies were buzzing at the last scene). All the contents are fears, struggle, social barrier and post-traumatic estate of the boy's sister's death.

The Test Theory

The boy dies somewhere in the forest and is placed in his own personal hell, where his fears are animated and emphasized to the most horrific extent possible. He had a fear of spiders, swimming, heights, darkness, being controlled and people/socializing. These fears may also represent something about his life, for example he may have been controlled a lot by other people or bullied (linked into people/socializing). Maybe darkness represents times of depression and swimming may represent struggle.

The boy is perhaps in a place he absolutely despises in the city, somewhere which he would do anything to get away from. The cogs could represent the city is somewhere that changed him drastically. The gravity puzzles show his fear of heights and the spider may be of death. Perhaps the spider even is death. The traps show his need for freedom and the tribal boys represent loneliness or rejection.

When he finally breaks out of Limbo (the place between life and death, the place where you have nowhere to go) he sees his sister burying him. According to some religions, you can only escape limbo and be decided of where you shall go when you are properly buried. His sister buries him and that is when the game ends, his decided place of rest (heaven or hell) unknown. It is however, probable that he was in a test throughout limbo and he passed it, earning his place in heaven.

Fears Theory

Every obstacle in the game represents a fear of the boy. As he progresses to find his sister, he faces his fear of drowning, darkness, spiders, bullies, being powerless (Mind-control grubs), heights, and finally, death. He finds his sister burying his body. However, he overcomes it all and reunites himself with his sister, in heaven.

Journey Through Limbo Theory

Our hero, the nameless boy, wakes up in the middle of the forest, unknown of where he is or where he is going til the first achievement. As he travel through the forest, the spider represents his early-life fears of spiders. As the spider dies, the boy realizes there are worse things to fear than the spider. 

As the forest changes to a more urban scene, an introduction of a new enemy, the brain slugs. these slugs present the government, trying to control our hero, making him to act like a puppet.

Lunar's Theory

The boy died in the forest and awakens in Limbo (which is the world between life and death). According to many old tales, the soul can only get out of Limbo until the body is properly buried. The boy continues through Limbo until his sister finds and buries his body. So in the ending scene, she is not digging but she is covering his grave. She senses him and he sees her one last time before going to heaven.

Cereal Assassin's Theory

(See * for Supporting Details)

Our hero and protagonist, the nameless Boy, is killed during a car crash*. He awakes in Limbo (a.k.a Purgatory), a state of existence between life and death, with an unknown goal. As he makes his way through the world of Limbo, confronted by various creatures and traps, he realizes the world is filled with danger. At the end of his adventure, he crashes through what appears to be glass (this would also support the "car crash" death). Upon confronting his sister/female friend, he sees her preparing a sort of memorial. At this point, the Boy is at peace, and quietly dies. Years later, his sister/friend dies as well, resting both of them at peace.

The Treehouse Theory

The boy and sister fell out of a tree house as it collapsed. The boy wakes up in Limbo after dying and searches for his sister. The spider represents fear. The tribal characters represent loneliness. The rain represents depression. Cogs represent structure and progress. (remembering the treehouse). Gravity represents falling down from the treehouse. At the end he finds his sister. She is digging to be sure if she is dead, and the boy realizes they are both ghosts. At the ending both go to heaven.

The tree house at the beginning shows what had happened at the ending. When you crash, it is like he breaks through the Limbo but is still dead as he notices his sister (or female friend) is digging like she is looking for something important.

The nameless boy himself may be Limbo - his eyes represent heaven, his body darkness and death.

The girl also has no eyes. And, maybe Limbo is wretched through like she lived, and on the main menu there are bodies from the end that describes that they died where they stood.

Bjorvy's Theory

The boy dies in a car crash in the forest, and wakes up in Limbo and he desperately begins searching for his sister. The different scenarios encountered is the boy's fears. His fear of dark forests, of being alone, of large cities and factories, of spiders and strange creatures, and of other people. To find his sister and to be at peace, he has to brave his fears to find the one thing that could soothe him. In the end you fall out of a wall of glass, which is the last thing the boy saw when he was alive. Falling out of a windshield. He then wakes up in the forest, similar to how the game starts, but as he has overcome his fears, he finds his sister on a hill and can peacefully pass on.

Randy's Theory

The end is where it all began. The ladder you can see is in fact leading to the tree house the boy was playing in with his sister (the girl) before he fell and died. Instead of going into the after life he travels through "LIMBO" in order to say one last good bye to his sister. So throughout the game the boy is actually dead. The ending portrays his sister mourning over his body at the bottom of the treehouse and as he approaches she feels his presence, thus completing the farewell.

The Coma Theory

The nameless boy and his sister fell off the tree house, driving them both near to death, and his journey in Limbo is him in a coma, struggling to let go of the life he had (the puzzles) when he was alive in order to find his sister (she could also represent acceptance). Everything that is in Limbo symbolizes their life together: the treehouse represents their childhood, the spider represents their fears, the cogs and broken down construction represent the place they were born in, and the people represent everyone around them.

(It is possible they both lived a sad life, seeing as Limbo has a very depressing setting, and the only one who ever made them happy was each other, thus the boy's thirst to defeat his fears and rejoin with his sister.) In the last puzzle, going through the glass wall represents his acceptance of his fears and his past, allowing him to find his sister, who was also looking for him by digging through the dirt under the treehouse. When they meet, it is both of them accepting a peaceful death, together this time.

The boy and his sister fell out of their treehouse, while being driven to the hospital the car crashes and rolls into a forest.The machinery represents how his life clicked together but never felt natural.The giant spider represented how small he felt in the world and how he never felt strong.At he end when he breaks through glass is when he remembers he is dead.He flows through the air until he drops to the ground as if his death had just been replayed in slow motion.His sister is digging a grave looking for her brother as they were separated when they died.They reunite and rebuild the ladder to the treehouse and go to heaven as they escape the limbo.The whole limbo is a test to see who deserves to go to heaven or hell.And the boy and his sister defeated It.

The Pathway Theory

The boy and the girl probably were orphans, both sad of being ignored, they escaped to the forest.  ( the reason because the bodies were just forgotten to decay ). It's a fact that they have fallen from the tree house. The girl sat on the hatch, and when the boy opened it, both died. The boy never bothered about where they went after this life, but the girl, like any other, asked one time in her life about the death, so she was able to just "jump" to the place where she died, in order to leave when she wants, but she decided to wait her brother.

Despite being as ignorant as any of the children who lives there, he has a goal, and even though he does not know what is death, he wants to find his sister, that's what motivates him.

Since they do not have a goal, children confined there (mostly small boys), eventually become wild and aggressive, trying to prevent others to find the happiness. The animals therein are natives, since the traps are fruits of sick minds of those who stayed there (a fact that is observed in most of the same is done for two individuals to manipulate without risk).

When he finds his sister, both leave the LIMBO, finally forgetting their bodies for decomposing on the shade of the humid and unfeeling trees who were once their home, and letting the time erase the trails of their pointless lives.

The Dream Theory

The boy and his sister went to the forest to play. When the boy took a nap he "woke up" in limbo. Fearing for his sister's safety he goes to the tree house and fears the worst (the dead person hanging)but convinces himself that it is not her. Not seeing her there he goes to look for her. He knows her fears (the spider) and he also knows that she can't swim (which is why he can't). He fears of strangers (the random kids he meets), and is confused as to what happened to his sister (the puzzles).

His want to find his sister is shown by "traveling the world for her" going through the forest, the field, and city. His fear of never finding her is shown when he sees a girl but is never able to reach her. The end when gravity starts to shift the boy realizes that he is asleep allowing him to "change his dream". In the end he goes through the glass and wakes up where he started to find that his sister was just fine all along.

The Repeat Theory

The boy is stuck in Limbo after dying from ether drowning or a trap of some sort. this is proved by the abundance of bear traps and that water kills the boy. also, the abrupt end is due to him having to repeat the nightmare over again... never to truly reach the end.

Reliving a Life Theory.

The nameless boy is actually an adult man reliving the main points of his life as he dies in an electrical machinery accident.

The man remembers his abusive childhood in the countryside where his only solace was his younger sister. He was frequently bullied in school and was pushed into a lake one day, nearly drowning. As he grew older the man got a job working with machinery in the city. He didn’t enjoy the work or the location, and hadn’t seen his sister since he left home. One day at work the man dies in a tragic machinery accident, his last wish being to see his younger sister again. At the end of his reliving of his life, he finally returns to the forests of his youth and sees her one last time.

Murder Theory

After his death, the nameless boy sets out to murder his sister from beyond the grave. The various creatures and hostile enemies symbolize the boy’s subconscious attempts to stop himself from killing his sister manifesting as his fears and his bullies. He approaches his sister once, but is unable to kill her and forces himself to walk away. After breaking through the last mental wall preventing him from doing so, the boy finds his sister playing by his grave. He approaches, and she looks up.

Crash Theory

The nameless boy in Limbo and his family were moving the day he died.(The car has his mother, sister, and him). The boy had not yet put on his seat belt when his mother nearly crashed into another car that was on the wrong lane.(Making his fear other people) They swerved and fell into the lake.(Thus his fear of water) There he finds himself in the world of Limbo and finds himself with boxes,(The moving boxes) the spider,(which he fears worst) ,and puzzles to make sure his is ready to pass on. Once he finishes all of the obstacles, he is ready to say his final goodbye to his sister, who is grieving him by the treehouse that they used to play on.

When he is only a few steps away from his sister, she senses his presence, she sits up confused... then happy.

Crash Theory (Alternate Version)

The nameless boy‘s family has just made a traumatic move from their old home in the countryside to a house in the city. The boy is unhappy in the city, and is frequently bullied by other students at his school. He and his sister convince their parents to take a day trip to the woods where they used to live. On one of the forest roads, the family’s car crashes, killing both the boy and his sister. Their parents are knocked unconscious.

While their bodies remain unburied, the boy and the girl enter Limbo. The girl plays by their old treehouse while the boy tries to find her, encountering Limbo’s twisted version of his own fears (spiders, drowning, mind control, death, being stabbed) and his bullies. The boy eventually reaches his sister as their bodies are buried under their favorite treehouse, and they play under the treehouse together and move on to the true afterlife.

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