Film Theory: Where is Rick Grimes? The Walking Dead's Final Mysteries SOLVED!

this video was sponsored by amc's the walking dead world beyond welcome to rick's walking dead emporium thanks for having me it is uh rough out there these days so what you selling oh you know stuff and things oh very descriptive i guess i'll just look around oh this this is very interesting i haven't seen anything like this before do you mind telling me what this is coral hello internet welcome to film theory hey coral what's glen's favorite restaurant dad please don't pop eyes popeyes coral ah rick you might be gone but your memes shamble on like an undead walker except that brings up a really important question where is rick grimes i think everyone who started watching the walking dead always assumed that at some point rick would have to die in some massive act of heroism he was our favorite southern sheriff the protagonist of the whole show in a series where everyone was at constant risk of biting the big one or getting bit by the big one more accurately and season 9 episode 5 what comes after seemed like it was going to be that moment our leader rick after losing his wife his son his friends heck even his own humanity during his journey is mortally wounded and facing down a marching zombie onslaught headed straight to the survivor's settlement i mean this is it nine and a half seasons in the making this was his climax he makes the hard choice to blow up a bridge and him along with it the plan works the zombies are thwarted rick is blown away but shocking everyone he doesn't die he's instead airlifted away in a mysterious helicopter via some sort of bizarre trade negotiated by former villain jadis i have a bee not an a i never had today he's heard but he's strong can you help him not a trick not anymore i'm trying to save a friend but friend who saved me i have something for you now we have a deal do we have a deal so why am i talking about this now this is old news as far as the walking dead's concerned we're already a season beyond this moment well first the mystery of the helicopter people is probably the most significant mystery of the walking dead franchise outside of you know what started the zombie outbreak in the first place and even that one might already be solved if series creator robert kirkman is to be believed since he gave us these two words on twitter space spore so with rick being the main character of the original series what happens to him is a pretty important question especially when he officially has a trilogy of movies coming out to tell the rest of his story but the why now question also relates back to this the announcement of a third series another branch on the walking dead media franchise obviously the original is still going and honestly stronger than it's ever been with its ongoing battle against the whispers in virginia then we have the spin-off prequel of fear the walking dead which started with a group of survivors in los angeles california and is currently following him through texas and this month the walking dead world beyond joins the fray and from what little we know about world beyond this one is actually significantly different according to what the creative teams have said about this new series world beyond takes place a full decade after the zombie outbreak and it focuses on the gen z teens who have known nothing but life with zombies and can i just say if the gen zers and world beyond don't refer to themselves as generation z for zombie that is a missed opportunity guys it's apparently a limited series event consisting of just two 10 episode seasons then it's done it's a more optimistic upbeat show more adventure than horror focused around quote a heroic group of teens sheltered from the dangers of the post-apocalyptic world who leave the safety of the only home they've ever known and embark on a cross-country journey to find the one man who can possibly save the world but look again at some of that trailer footage i've been showing you notice the helicopter you see that three-ring symbol it's the same group that abducted rick and jadis in short this new series seems to be the linchpin in the ongoing mystery around rick and the helicopter people and if i have any hope of solving who these people are before it's revealed in the shows now is my time to strike and that my friends is the why now also because i want to do this video back in march but then covet hit but then the series got delayed and then hey look the walking dead wanted to sponsor this episode so let's just get into it the walking dead at this point is basically the mcu with clues to this mystery being sprinkled across all its different avenues in the first episode of season five of fear the walking dead al is attacked by a very special zombie which is santalan franchise that kills these things off by the boat load the literal boatload sometimes what makes this particular walker special is that he's wearing a weird type of body armor black vertical stripes it's very slimming when al checks the zombie's pockets she finds this a series of maps and transparent overlays all with the three-ring markings of the helicopter people and all labeled with three letters c r m maps and overlays that directly parallel what we see briefly in one of the trailers for walking dead world beyond a map of new york and again the three letters c r m four episodes later in fear the walking dead we actually get to speak to one of the helicopter people isabelle and she tells us well not a lot but but a bit more we know that crm is the group's name that their wacky outfits are filled with wires in order to be bite proof and then the place i'm from i'm not going to tell you where it is i'm not going to tell you what it's called but there is something i will tell you if they figure out how to read the map it makes what we have what we're working towards vulnerable this is about the future and rebuilding what we all once had so with all this talk about the future it seems like the crm group is working on a cure or potentially creating children who are immune to the zombie virus and i do mean creating children you see that's how gene therapy works where in very rough terms new genes are added to a patient's cells to replace missing or malfunctioning genes if done early enough in an embryo's development the gene transfer can occur in all cells of the developing embryo leading to permanent changes that are passed down to subsequent generations in other words in a world where we know pretty much everyone is infected by the zombie virus space spore whatever change needs to happen at the cellular level affecting each and every cell so that humanity can get back to as isabel said the world it once had gene therapy might just be the only solution but for it to work it has to be in children children i say children like the ones we see living with the helicopter people children like the ones that we're going to be spending a lot of time with throughout world beyond and everything changed the end of the world was our beginning that line from the trailer may wind up being more literal than they expected in fact these aren't just any children they share a common trait a common bond looking at some of the earliest released footage from the series the group has a special name we are the endlings sounds like the sort of name i would give a special science project out to solve the world's genetic crisis this focus on genetics and gene-based solutions to the world zombie problem isn't just me grasping at straws here either let's go back to what jada says to the helicopter operator before they pick up her and rick i have a b not an a i never had today he's hard but he's strong can you help him clearly jadis is training humans with the crm for supplies we see here eating from a can bearing the three-ring logo as well as her eventual escape and this trading system is somehow tied to the division of a's and b's in season 9 episode 3 jadis is told by the helicopter people via walkie talkie that she needs an a what will it take she apparently gave him heath who disappeared back in season seven she tried to give him negan before he managed to escape and she almost gave him father gabriel but what does all of this mean what is the crm looking for what is this division of a's versus b's well it appears that anyone marked as an a is one a strong leader and two needs to be recently bitten or about to turn in season 8 episode 6 jadis puts rick in a shipping container with the letter a later that season episode 14 she does it again with negan in both cases she tries to get a zombie to bite them but they escape before she manages to do it but it's father gabriel who gives us our biggest clue jadis originally had him pegged as a bee before he stands up to her she offers him a chance to escape via the helicopter and he turns it down whatever this is i can't do it i have to tell rick and all this time i thought you were a b this shows a strength of will that both negan and rickshare putting him solidly in the a category next we see him season 9 episode 4 gabriel the newly deemed a is also tied up and ready for the zombie bite there's only one place left for me to go and you're the price of admission so an a is a strong-willed person who's newly bitten someone who will fight off the infection for as long as possible the way i see it they get bit and are immediately carried off in the helicopter because their strong-willed a's they fight off the infection for as long as possible allowing the crm enough time to fly them to their walled off protected community to do whatever experimentation or observation they need of the newly infected individuals they're looking for the genetic code to break this case wide open and they need the a's to do it but there's more at world beyond's new york comic-con panel last october chief content officer scott gimple revealed that the crm's three-ringed logo is representative of a network of three communities united in rebuilding society quote from him we've seen that three-circle symbol those three circles and i'm saying it here represent three different civilizations that are bound and entwined in some ways and in some ways very very different and quote this led many to believe that the three letters of crm relate to the three communities or the states that they're found in i actually disagree we see from isabel in fear the walking dead that this is an incredibly secret organization using coded maps to disguise their location we learn that team members who deviate from their mission must be wiped out and that the crm comes complete with reclamation teams that eliminate any unauthorized individual who even has a hint of what their secret operation might be so to think that they would create a cute name from their initials like some sort of post-apocalyptic in sync seems a little out of character no based on their strict code and technological strength i'd say that this is more of a military operation with the m as militia or military and the cr as some sort of general reference to the overall group like city reclamation capital reestablishment civic republic you see in a leaked shot from set we see these words civic republic omaha portland it appears to be the same stage where we see iris our main character speaking in the world beyond footage even down to the reference to monument day it's called monument day because we are all monuments to the past crm civic republic military or militia one of the two but perhaps the biggest question is where i started this episode talking about rick and his future so knowing that he was taken by the crm group where was he taken to i want you to live don't chase this story do not try to find me gonna have to give that one a big old negatory there izzy like al i just gotta chase the story so we know that whatever crm is they're gonna be spread across the country we've already seen their helicopters appearing in virginia for the walking dead and texas for fear the walking dead and we know it's three separate communities based on early footage the world beyond kids are starting their journey at a crm facility in nebraska notice that she's speaking at nebraska state university the logo on a sweatshirt and just a whole lot of nsu imagery throughout the trailer this is confirmed in a later trailer when they say this thing we're doing flowing cross country is big and then looking at a map of new york nebraska to new york certainly a cross-country journey going back to that leaked image of iris speaking at monument day we can reasonably assume that the second ring of the civic republic is portland oregon it says right there on the banner but for ring number three i think that's somewhere different i think it's where rick was taken you see a teaser for the first walking dead movie has already started to be released and with it comes a pretty cool easter egg a helicopter flies off to a city in the distance notice the silhouette of that city it's the skyline of philadelphia you see that sloping building right there it's probably the most unique of the bunch that's the fmc tower tall pointy one that's one liberty place philly's first skyscraper and probably most notably that really tall collection right there it's the comcast technology center so it looks like rick has gotten himself a one-way ticket to a zombie cure with a side of cheese steak so there you have it my friends my predictions for the future of the walking dead universe the crm or civic republic military an organization based in omaha portland and philadelphia is going to be doing genetic therapy research using children and an ab demarcation system in adults to try and find a cure for the zombie outbreak they're not quite bad guys i mean they are working on a cure to save the world but they're extreme in their methods in a gotta crack a few eggs to make an omelet sort of way which in turn leads many to question their motives iris's father the one they're searching for in the world beyond is some sort of genetic scientist and the big reveal at the end of the two-season event will be that the children were the solution to saving the world the entire time hidden inside their genetic code meanwhile when we rejoin rick in the movies it'll be in the third crm facility located in pennsylvania so what do you think am i right am i wrong the bummer is if i'm right everyone's just going to write this theory off as oh this was a sponsored video so they told you when in actuality that would have been dumb of them no i just did a bunch of research and feel really good about the conclusions that we reached today they're based in science they're based in in universe lore and quite frankly all the info that the creators of these shows are spilling out to us just shows that it pays to pay attention to all parts of a fascinating and carefully plotted out universe like this one so now all that's left is for us to tune into the premiere of world beyond and see how immediately wrong i am feel free to come back here and rub it in my face until those reveals happen or until my predictions get spoiled beyond belief remember it's all just a theory a film theory thanks to amc the walking dead world beyond for sponsoring this video and cut you

Channel: The Film Theorists

Views: 2,291,355

Rating: 4.9467149 out of 5

Keywords: the walking dead, world beyond, horror, scary, the walking dead ending, the walking dead world beyond, the walking dead world beyond trailer, walking dead, walking dead world beyond, walking dead trailer, new walking dead trailer, trailer, walking dead world beyond trailer, rick grimes, zombies, zombie apocalypse, ya, thriller, walking dead season 10, film theory, film theorists, matpat, film theory walking dead, the walking dead season 10 finale, the walking dead 10x16

Id: qoQcWvuBv84

Length: 14min 27sec (867 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 17 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/AliMiri92]

That was a great video, even tho we might get some news about where rick is in the world beyond i just really dont' wanna watch it, it looks lame af

[u/Durgo89]

I think this dude nails it

[u/vonmarks]

The three rings might be different groups but highly doubt Omaha, Portland and Philadelphia. Unless the leaders of Omaha and Portland are incredible dumb they wouldn’t enter into an agreement like that with out some sort of control. I.e. knowing the location of their third partner, having locals that are part of the army. The CRM seems like a group that is the surviving military and have unique resources to scout groups they find and assess what resources, doctors, fighters etc they want to take. I’m lost on how the new show is basically where the others are yet they seem way more organized and safe while lacking the necessary tools to get there. We watched some of the strongest and most dangerous get taken out yet somehow this new place has no shown way to defend itself, has over 9k people and 4 kids think for some inane reason they’re just going to hike to NY from NE(17 days walking according to google maps), with limited skills and a partial map of NY that still didn’t list a definite location. Then what? Knock on the door and say I want to talk to my dad?

[u/MagnificentClock]

*nods head