Film Theory: Bill Cipher is Still ALIVE… and I Found Him! (Gravity Falls)

He broke childhood a bit by solving each and every puzzle, but as his tenure comes to an end, brains will break and minds will bend, as we answer one last question, with one final CRAZY THEORY. *Manic laughter* Hello Internet, welcome to Film Theory, the show that knows that when there are no cops around, everything is legal. Today, after six long years, we finally return to the wild world of Gravity Falls. In case you don't know, Gravity Falls was a Disney series about twins Dipper and Mabel Pines, who are spending the summer with their great uncle Stan in the town of Gravity Falls, Oregon.

However, things are strange in this neighborhood. There are cryptids in the forest, codes to de

cipher

, mysteries to unravel. At the end of the series, Dipper, Mabel and all their friends face the malevolent Bill Cipher, a universe-hopping demon from the second dimension who possesses godlike powers and wants to take over the three-dimensional world. . Every element of this show was incredible, it's hands down my favorite animated series of all time and honestly it was the pioneer in getting a fanbase to start theorizing about your show. I mean, there are plenty of children's cartoons where each episode begins with backwards whispered text or ends with a coded message hidden in the credits.

The show's creator, Alex Hirsch, was way ahead of his time in that regard. And not only is he a talented creator, but he's also a really amazing guy. In fact, he attended our last charity livestream a few years ago to help us raise money for childhood cancer research at St. Jude. He didn't suspect that he was going to test him. Is Bill Cipher

still

alive

? I mean, fictional characters exist in a liminal space between the living and the dead, evoked by our attention and our imagination. Well played, Alex. Well played. By the way, Alex, if you end up watching this at some point, know that I really appreciate you being there.

He was locked into the show that day, so I didn't get a chance to thank them in person after the segment. I'm really sorry about that. And honestly, it's one of my biggest regrets from the last decade of content creation. Thank you for being so generous with your time and for everything you were willing to do that day. Also, my friend Ryder was there. He has a channel, FootofaFerret. It covers your work a lot. He's another big fan who couldn't say hello to me because he was busy helping me behind the scenes with all the musical material for the show.

Ryder, this is your chance. Say hello to Alex. Hello, Alex Hirsch. Hey, bye. By the way, he was also the voice of our outdoor Bill Cipher. Anyway, enough of making amends for the sins of the past. Back to Gravity Falls. Why am I talking about it now, eight years after the show ended? Well, aside from it being important to the channel's history, Fear Rises in general and it's just one of my favorites, the real reason, if I'm honest, is that it's Ollie's favorite show at the moment. He adores it, which is great because it means I get to see it all again.

Every night, he has half an hour of television and, I'm not kidding, we've seen this scene like a hundred times. Ollie's life goal now is to build mech suits out of trash. In Style Theory, I briefly mentioned that Ollie wanted to go to a haunted convenience store this past Halloween. He was from Gravity Falls, season one, episode five, The Inconveniencing. And let me tell you, re-watching Gravity Falls with Ollie has really rekindled my love for the series. I always wanted to be able to get back to him somehow, but I could never find the right angle to attack him.

I mean, this is a show built by theorists, for theorists. All debris and clues have been removed. I didn't really feel like there was much new ground I could cover. At least that's what I thought, until I discovered the black edition of Journal Three. In case you don't know, within the history of Gravity Falls, Diary Three is a collection of all the strange, paranormal and supernatural things that live in and around the city of Gravity Falls. It's a huge part of the main plot of the show. However, as we learn halfway through the show, much of the diary's contents are written in invisible ink, which can only be read under a black light.

Now, after Gravity Falls ended, Disney released a real-world version of Journal Three, with a ton of additional information about the show and its history. But fans were disappointed that none of the blacklight details were included in that final release. Enough so that a year later, Disney released another version with those secrets printed inside. Only 10,000 copies of this book were made, so it was super exclusive merchandise that only the most passionate Gravity Falls fans could get their six-fingered hands on. Unfortunately, I was not one of them. But luckily, this fandom is full of generous people who just want to share their knowledge.

And thanks to Tumblr user ForDarkIsTheSuede, we can all take a look at what exactly is inside this thing. And wow, let me tell you, this added a lot to the story of Gravity Falls. Not only that, but I think it also opens up a new mystery that longs to be solved. You see, my friends, the black edition of Journal Three sent me down a rabbit hole that led me to only one conclusion. Alex Hirsch, creator of Gravity Falls, is Bill Cipher. Or rather, he is possessed by Bill Cipher in the real world, just as we saw happen with characters like Dipper, Ford and Stan in the series.

And not only is he possessed, Alex is aware of that possession and is actively fighting Bill's influence in a way you would never expect. Theorists, give me your hand, it's time to make a deal. So let's be on the same page about what's really in the blacklight issue of Journal Three. There is a lot of history about many different corners of this universe. For example, we learn a lot more about the Gnome Society, including a code that reveals Shmebulok's true deep thoughts. There are secret messages hidden in cow places, there's a whole page comparing the Gravity Falls characters to tarot cards, it seems like a short

film

Lee should read at some point.

I mean, I could go on and on about this. There are literally hundreds of pages of new information. But for a bit of a deep and relevant example here, on the page titled A Bit of History, Black Light reveals that Bill Cipher has contributed to shaping human civilization throughout all time. He tricked the ancient Egyptians into building a portal to a nightmarish realm that led a jackal-headed man to Earth, thus giving us Anubis. Later, he had the Egyptians build the pyramids as a tribute to him. Much later, Bill helped George Washington defeat the British during the American Revolution, but also gave him nightmares so bad in the process that he ground his teeth to dust while he slept.

That's why Washington had to replace it with wooden teeth. Do you know the Eye of Providence on the dollar, Bill? That pyramid with the eyeball? Washington apparently applied it to the dollar in an attempt to appease Bill. One dollar

bill

. Get it? We even learn that Bill helped Stanley Kubrick fake the moon landing, hoping that NASA would help Bill build a portal, implying that humans have never been to the moon in the Gravity Falls universe. Pretty crazy, right? But one of the biggest additions to the black light sections, and what made me fall down this rabbit hole in the first place, is actually in the blank pages of the book.

See, although most of the book's unseen secret notes are written by Ford, there are some contributions from other characters. Soos, Mabel, Dipper. But most disturbing of all is that there are also notes written by the isosceles himself, Bill Cipher. And they are all over these blank pages. In them, he gives a sort of speech to the reader to help Bill, telling him to say the words Bill Cipher three times so that he can get into his mind. Basically, it's Bill making a Beetlejuice reference. However, what is most interesting is that Bill subtly explains exactly how he writes in this book.

He says, quote, six freshly torn off fingers, and that means Captain Bill is running the ship. And later, Sixer is about to wake up, which means Bill can manipulate Ford's body while he sleeps. So what if he could actually do that with Alex Hirsch here in the real world? Now, obviously, that would be a strange logical leap for me. Why should I assume that Bill owns the series creator? Well, even though the entire book is in the Gravity Falls universe, there is one place where Alex Hirsch ends up writing as himself, the book's prologue, where he explains what exactly the book is.

That there are only 10,000 copies, that it is the most accurate version of Journal 3 and that it explicitly tells readers about the secrets of black light. But what really caught my attention is that if you hold up this image of Hirsch on the page and shine a black light on it, you get a little message from Bill himself. In fact, if you compare this to Bill's writing elsewhere in the book, it's exactly the same. Bill definitely wrote this and it lets us know that Bill was here. And while one might assume that it's just him telling us that he's here writing diary notes, notice the placement of Bill's message.

Bill's note is not in the diary pages, as it will be in the rest of the diary. He is on the paper in Alex's note, on which he wrote the prologue. What this proves is that Bill is

alive

, well, and playing with Alex's stuff after Alex has written it. And the placement behind Alex's image certainly seems to imply that he is here, as in here inside Alex Hirsch's head. And the more I looked into it, the more I realized that this was all intentional. The end of the show breaks up into a huge multi-part story arc called Weirdmageddon, where Bill takes over the town.

For all of these episodes, the show's usual intro sequence is replaced with a new one, starring Bill and all of his monster friends. And wouldn't you know it, but in all of these intros, the title card that's supposed to say Created by Alex Hirsch is actually replaced with Created by Bill Cipher. We also get a look at another Gravity Falls novel, the upcoming Book of Bill. Now I am very excited about this release. I was actually pretty sad it wouldn't be out in time to cover it on the channel, but hey, it gives Lee something to talk about when he takes over.

Anyway, what's the problem with this book? Well, officially, Alex Hirsch is credited as the author. And that makes sense, right? He is the one who wrote it. But the whole trick of the book is that it is written in the voice and from the point of view of Bill Cipher himself. Now, you might think this is just a simple case of writing and character. But if you visit the official Bill's Book page on his publisher's Penguin Random House website, you'll find some clues that suggest there might be something more here. The author's official blurb describing Alex Hirsch reads as follows, quote: Despite rumors, he was not possessed by a demon while he wrote this book.

We repeat, not demonically possessed. It seems like something suspicious that they are really trying to drive home there. I don't know about you, but it seems to me that the author protests too much. But perhaps the biggest clue in all of this is the fact that we've already seen Alex Hirsch possessed by Bill. In 2015, while Gravity Falls was

still

airing, Hirsch was scheduled to do a Reddit Ask Me Anything. And yet, when asked about it on Twitter, Hirsch denied that he was doing anything. He made it very clear that he had to be asleep at the scheduled time.

So when it came time for the AMA, an AMA did happen, but it was with Bill Cipher. And at the end of the AMA, Bill flatly confirms that he, first of all, is taking over Hirsch to do the AMA. He is using Hirsch's body to click on the keyboard while Hirsch slept, just as he did with Ford writing notes in the Blacklight Journal 3. Quote from the AMA finale, Well, it looks like the boy's REM cycle is up. about to finish. , then he should take a stand and burn it to the ground. And if you think Bill wouldn't want to materialize in our world, you'd be wrong.

Bill's whole gimmick is that he's tired of being two-dimensional. He says so in Weirdmageddon Part 3. Do you think those chains are tight? Imagine living in the second dimension. Flat minds in a flat world with flat dreams. And the first thing he does in Weirdmageddon once he escapes his two-dimensional prison is take on a three-dimensional physical form. Basically, show how many different surfaces he can have. Ah, it's happening! Finally, finally it's happening! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! Physical form? I don't care if I do! What do you think Bill would do if he ever realized that Gravity Falls was, in fact, a two-dimensional world?

A cartoon created by real people living in a three-dimensional space. He would probably want to reach out to that world and take over it. Which is exactly what we see him do throughAlex. But before we delve deeper into Bill Cipher's conspiracy, I want to take a minute to thank the sponsor of today's video, Rocket Money. True story, friends. With this job, we have to get a lot of different streaming services so we can stay up to date with everything. And with all those different subscriptions floating around, things tend to get lost in the shuffle. For example, last month I discovered that I had been paying for two Max subscriptions in the same email.

One was for an old subscription he had since starting the streamer and the other was through Amazon Prime. And do you know how I

found

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No more sitting on the phone on unwanted service calls feeling like you're trying to get out of a deal with Bill Cipher. Just a couple of taps and bam! Subscription cancelled. Just by cutting out that extra Max subscription, Rocket Money helped me save hundreds of dollars this year. In fact, they've already helped cancel over $500 million worth of subscription services, and the average customer actually saves $740 a year. Yes, that number surprised me too. If you want to get started with Rocket Money for free, check it out by visiting rocketmoney.com/

film

theorists. That's rocketmoney.com slash f-i-l-m-t-h-e-o-r-i-s-t-s, or, you know, just save yourself the trouble and click the link in the top line of the description because it's so much easier.

One last thank you to Rocket Money for sponsoring today's episode. Now let's get back to unraveling the mystery of Bill Cipher. Lee, take it. In 2016, when Weirdmageddon first aired, after the end credits, people noticed that an image of a real-life Bill Cipher statue appeared on the screen, followed by some random numbers. Now, you theorists probably recognize this as a series of

cipher

ciphers, and at the time, Gravity Falls fans recognized it too. And so began the Gravity Falls ARG known as Cipher Hunt. Basically, it was a giant scavenger hunt organized by Hirsch to help keep interest in Gravity Falls alive and give fans a big send-off before Disney decided to continue the series through comics and books.

It was very long and very deep, with cryptograms and hidden codes, encouraging people to go to real-world locations in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Japan and Russia, and even featuring real phone calls with Grunkle Stan. Hi, I'm Grunkle Stan and I have a riddle for you. The thing that has two legs during the day, four legs at night, and is red and white, and I, I, I don't know, I'm not good at these riddles. In the end, the hunters were led to the real Bill Cipher statue hidden in the woods, with messages from Grunkle Stan encouraging them to shake Bill's hand.

Shaking hands, of course, is Bill's primary way of reaching binding agreements and getting into the minds of his victims. But here's the interesting thing. Buried next to the statue of Bill Cipher was a box containing various prizes, so to speak. Some were just fun, you know, like plastic coins and gems, a signed sketch, and a band that said: Mayor of Gravity Falls, that kind of thing. But two of the most interesting? There was a copy of Diary 3 and a black light. Doesn't that sound familiar? Yes, although this was not one of the 10,000 super exclusive copies made, it used the same idea.

Inside this copy of Diary 3 was Hirsch's own sketch of Grunkle Stan, Soos, and Old Man McGucket. But, when the black light illuminated the page, he revealed another sketch of Bill himself, telling the reader to remain paranoid. A secret drawing of Bill, hidden in a special copy of Diary 3, buried under a statue of Bill himself. That's very similar to what we see with the special black light version of Diary 3 that sent us down this rabbit hole to begin with. But here's why all this is important. I want you to go back and watch Weirdmageddon again. When Stan shakes Bill's hand, Bill turns into a statue as his astral form leaves Bill Cipher's body to enter Stan's body.

And that statue is in the exact same position we see in the show after he shakes her hand. Now, the clear implication here is that this is supposed to be the same statue from the end of the show. But what if it's another statue? One made after Bill escaped? One made after you've made another deal to get into someone else's head? A deal made with Alex Hirsch. First of all, we know that Bill probably escaped at the end of Weirdmageddon. When the gang finally defeats Bill, this happens. And that's it! Here we have you! And that's it!

The gang has broken the oath! You're con- Clearly, this audio is backwards. If you reverse it, it says this. AXOLOTL! My time to burn has come! I call upon the ancient power to return! He is making a deal with the all-powerful axolotl so he can return to another dimension. And we know it's probably showing up in other universes now, as it's visible in other franchises like Rick and Morty, Big City Greens, The Owl House, DuckTales, and even The Simpsons. Buy cryptocurrencies, fools! And that's canon, by the way. As confirmed by Alex Hirsch himself, through our live broadcast.

Bill Cipher is now officially connected to The Simpsons canon, because he recently appeared in one of The Simpsons intros, right? Yes, I can confirm it. Bill Cipher is Simpsons canon. WHAAAA- So what's stopping you from jumping into our universe right now? And if there is now a statue of Bill Cipher here in our world, then that probably means someone else must have given Bill the hand to end up here. Someone who is not a fictional character in our universe. Someone real. Someone like Alex Hirsch. So, all of this really makes for a fun meta story for the Gravity Falls fandom.

Bill Cipher was always a character who could jump between universes, so it's fun to imagine that our universe could be one he jumps to. But why should we worry about this? And what if Bill is taking control of dear Alex Hirsch's head? Well, for one thing, it means you really need to be careful the next time you shake Alex's hand at a meet-and-greet. But most importantly, it shows that the battle against Bill is not over yet. In fact, I think the battle has continued without any of us realizing it. The reason we haven't all been doomed by a new pyramid-shaped overlord taking over our sad reality, just like Dipper, Ford, and Stan, is because Alex Hirsch won't let Bill win without a fight.

In fact, he's doing everything he can to banish Bill forever. And without using a memory gun. No, he's using his own career. But to understand how, we first have to talk about what was probably the biggest mystery of this entire show, the Bill Cipher Zodiac. Watching the series, this thing was everywhere. He is literally made fun of in every episode. By the end of the series, they have set this up as a prophecy explaining the only true way to banish Bill Cipher once and for all. It is fulfilling the symbols that surround this Zodiac. Each symbol aligns with a certain character, ten in total.

And they have to team up to defeat Bill once and for all during Weirdmageddon. And yet, in the end, this Zodiac does not bear fruit. After all the setup and teasing, this Zodiac doesn't actually work because Ford and Stan refuse to hold hands. Stanley, come here! You're the only one left! Between him and me, I'm not always the bad twin. Between me and him. Grammar, Stanley. Oh, grammar Stanley, you! Basically, Alex Hirsch creates this huge thing, sets up this huge Chekhov's gun, and it's never used. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love the way this show ends, but it always seemed strange to me that this Zodiac ended up being such a big mistake.

Now, however, I think I finally understand it. As I was preparing this episode, I began to realize more and more that these symbols looked familiar to me. Not because they were in Gravity Falls, but because they correspond with other projects Alex Hirsch has worked on over the years. The six-fingered handprint obviously references Gravity Falls itself. But the shooting star, for example? Well, that lines up perfectly with Kid Cosmic, a show about a boy who gains superpowers from cosmic power stones that land near his house. Hirsch worked as a writer on two of the stories in that series.

The question mark? Well, that could point to a few of Hirsch's projects, but the one that fits the best is the conspiracy comedy show Inside Job, which Hirsch co-produced, wrote, and starred in. Then, of course, you have The Pentagram, which seems appropriate for Hirsch's work on The Owl House, a story about witches and demons. Not only did he work as a creative consultant for that series, but he also lent his voice to Hootie and King, the self-proclaimed King of Demons. Speaking of his work as a creative consultant, the glasses? They look a lot like the signature glasses worn by the Mitchell family in Mitchells vs.

Netflix's the Machines, a film on which Hirsch was a story consultant and voiced the character of Dirk. What's up with Dipper's iconic tree symbol? Well, I think this lines up with another Disney series, Amphibia, which takes place in a swampy area covered in trees. The characters live in a giant tree. The wood aesthetic even carries over to almost every episode with the title cards. Hirsch received a special shout out in the episode The Hardest Thing, and also voiced a couple of roles in the episode Wax Museum, which, go figure, turns out to be an episode paying homage to Gravity Falls.

Hands off the merchandise! The old man confused with a grotesque lifeless being. It always works! And what about the heart symbol with the crack and the dots? Well, this lines up pretty well with Hirsch's first job as a writer and narrator, working on the show Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. Here, he co-wrote and storyboarded the episode Gone Wishin', whose story revolves around Captain Canuckles physically stealing and then breaking the heart of a mermaid. A heart that literally breaks in half. Ahhhh! Almost so specific that it lines up perfectly. So that covers us for seven. And from this point on, the comparisons start to get a little weird.

Many of these are likely symbols that will appear in Alex's process, but then again, remember what they said on the show? Not all symbols need to be literal, Dipper. With that in mind, and broadening our horizons a bit, we can find matches for at least two more of these final symbols. For example, the oyster symbol here. Before working on Gravity Falls, Hirsch was a key creative on another Disney series called Fish Hooks, a show set inside a giant fish tank, where you could presumably find similarly shaped shells. As for the ice, if we really wanted to stretch things out, the ice cubes could represent the Super Mario Brothers movie, for which Hirsch gets special thanks.

There were rumors that Hirsch was originally attached to write and direct everything, before departing due to creative differences. Anyway, the Mario movie, of course, begins in the frozen snow kingdom, where Bowser defeats an army of penguins and steals a superstar. Like I said, that's a pretty big scope. It could also be that that simply hasn't happened yet in Hirsch's career. And finally, there is the flame. That one is strange and strangely specific and, once again, I haven't

found

a good match for it. But I will say that I hope the llama is representative of the last project in this Alex Hirsch Zodiac, since Pacifica is the last one to join the Zodiac in Gravity Falls.

And once those final projects arrive, Hirsch will have done what he set out to do from the beginning of his career, and Bill Cipher will be banished once and for all. Now, between you and me, I recognize that this is completely fictional. Is Alex Hirsch really fighting an interdimensional pyramid demon with cartoons he's making in the Hollywood studio system? No, obviously not. But I can say with confidence that Alex Hirsch is absolutely the type of person who would plant this idea in his works, no matter how absurd or esoteric it may be. Gravity Falls first premiered in 2012, right around the time I started creating theoretical content here on YouTube in 2011.

And can I tell you, at that time, Theorizing? It just wasn't really a genre of entertainment. Sure, there were some fans who became very passionate about specific interests they loved, but as a wide-ranging pop cultural trend? No, it wasn't the same. The programs are notThey created it with theorizing in mind as they do today, with every trailer, website, and Easter egg tailor-made for a 15-minute deep analytical dive into its implications. But shows like Gravity Falls? They came and changed that. Alex Hirsch is a theorist through and through, and he creates a show with hidden secrets, lore, and mysteries that he leaves viewers to decipher for themselves.

As someone who has thrived off of all of that, both in my professional life and, more importantly, in my personal life, I can't express how much I respect that and how much it means to me. So Alex, thank you. Not just for attending a livestream a couple of years ago, but for helping inspire a beautiful community of theorists. And hey, if you ever need help defeating Bill, well, I've never dressed up as a llama, but there's certainly a first time for everything. But hey, that's just a

theory

. A cinematographic

theory

. And cut. And hey, if you at home want another Gravity Falls theory right now, check out our video explaining why this show shouldn't end and exactly where Bill Cipher might appear next.

Admittedly, this one is a little old, but it's still one of my favorites we've done on the channel. Or if you want something a little wilder and edgier, check out our video explaining how Gravity Falls is not only in the same multiverse as our world, but also in the world with Rick and Morty. And now I say for the last time: see you all next week.