Spoiler Alert: Spoilers for the movie Whiplash followFew directors in recent memory have had as meteoric an ascent as Damien Chazelle. His 2014 Sundance breakoutWhiplashproved a huge sleeper hit and won three Oscars, most notably Supporting Actor for JK Simmons. His follow-up,La La Land, was one of the most successful movie musicals of the 2010s and made Chazelle the youngest person ever to win a Best Director Oscar. And while his next two films,First ManandBabylon, didn’t prove nearly as successful (Babylonin particular was amassive box-office bomb), both of them have aged better than you’d expect and remain underappreciated.
Regardless of where his career goes next, it’s hard to deny that the one-two punch ofWhiplashandLa La Landwas maybe one of the most exciting for any filmmaker in recent memory. Both movies were exhilaratingly crafted and acted, and they did nothing if not announce Chazelle as a major player to be reckoned with. And considering how beloved they still are among film junkies, it’s perhaps inevitable that someone would suspect the two were secretly connected. Yet a popular Reddit theory posits exactly that and argues thatLa La Landis actually a stealth sequel toWhiplash.
Do ‘Whiplash’ and ‘La La Land’ Secretly Connect?
Two years ago on the FanTheories subReddit,a user posited a theorythatWhiplashandLa La Landtake place in the same universe. The specific connecting link?JK Simmons played a role in both films(albeit only an extended cameo inLa La Land), andthe theory states that his character in the latter, Bill, is actually secretly Terrence Fletcher, the antagonist ofWhiplash.
The theory speculated that after Fletcher gets fired near the end ofWhiplashfor his abusive teaching methods, he relocates to Los Angeles and becomes a restaurant owner.Most tellingly is the fact that “Bill” is similarly cantankerous, unjustly firing piano player Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) after disobeying his orders to only play Christmas music for the patrons. And while it’s not nearly as severe as the extreme verbal abuse Fletcher regularly resorts to, it’s still easy to be reminded of his mantra, “not quite my tempo.”
But the speculation doesn’t stop there. Since Sebastian plays jazz music in the diner, the fan theory also argued that this reminded Bill/Fletcher too much ofWhiplash’s Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller), the pupil who got him fired from his long and storied career at Shaffer. In the aftermath, he’d become resentfulof jazz musicand, specifically, the likelihood that Neiman likely would’ve enjoyed a successful career as a musician while his own reputation was ruined. Thus,his reasons for firing Sebastian would’ve been specifically rooted in his harbored resentment, rather than just for Sebastian’s insubordination.
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Does the ‘Whiplash’-‘La La Land’ Theory Hold Water?
But outside the obvious JK Simmons connection, is there really much basis in this theory? We’d argue it’s a stretch. Simmons’ involvement in both films can be mostly attributed to his positive working relationship with Chazelle onWhiplash, and the fact that directors always have specific actors they love working with (a notable recent partnership beingRyan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan). And whileWhiplashandLa La Landexplore similar thematic material, namely the costs of following one’s dreams,the grounded and cynical world of the former couldn’t be more different than the dreamlike, fantastical look at Los Angeles in the latter.
But even looking specifically at the actual text of both films, there’s not a lot to support the theory that the two are secretly connected. To begin with, it ignores a lot of the subtext that madeWhiplash’s climax such a fantastic mic drop.The ending concert takes place after Fletcher has already been fired, and while he does allow Neiman to perform with his professional band in hopes to humiliate him, he’s quickly upstaged. Neiman guides the band into a performance of “Caravan” against his orders, and when he reaches an extended outro drum solo, Fletcher goes from infuriated to impressed.
Having spoken the entire film about wanting to discover the next Charlie Parker, Fletcher realizes he’s found him, and finally nods his approval. As such,Fletcher would no longer have any real resentment towards Neiman, and certainly no reason to turn against jazz as an artform (the fact that he still has a band of his own also means he’d likely still have a successful career).
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‘Whiplash’ and ‘La La Land’ Would Still Make a Great Double Feature
All this being said, outside the Damien Chazelle in the room, bothWhiplashandLa La Landdo still share one big thing in common — they’re fantastic films. In fact,because they take such polar opposite approaches to exploring musicians and artistic passions, they would actually make a fantastic double feature. WhereasWhiplashtakes a gritty, tragic look at where obsession ends and self-destruction begins,La La Landis significantly more uplifting anda perfect romance, albeit still bittersweet. And both movies prove that it’s no wonder Damien Chazelle became a household name as quickly as he did, even if they don’t actually exist in the same universe.
La La Land
