What If the Strangers Weren’t the Real Villains in Dark City?

In Dark City, a man named John Murdoch wakes up with no memory in a city where night never ends. He soon discovers that strange people called “Strangers” are controlling everyone’s lives by changing their memories. As John tries to uncover the truth, he learns he’s being hunted for a crime he doesn’t remember committing. The mystery deepens as John discovers the power to control reality itself.

A popular fan theory suggests that the Strangers might not be entirely evil. Perhaps they were trying to understand humanity by experimenting with memories, but they were never truly malicious. This adds complexity to the villains, showing them as misunderstood rather than pure bad guys.

What if the Strangers had succeeded in their experiment? What if John had never gained control of the city? The world would have stayed trapped in a loop of altered memories and false identities.

One key moment in the film is when John realizes he can control the city’s reality. Imagine an alternate ending where John couldn’t change the world and was forced to live in an endless nightmare. A prequel could explore the origin of the Strangers and their past experiments in different cities.