This Satanic Wall-E Theory Will Ruin Your Favorite Pixar Robot
"WALL-E" remains one of Pixar's best movies. There are even things in "WALL-E" only adults would notice, such as how the titular trash-compacting robot may not be as innocent as he seems. He may even represent Satan himself.
Redditor u/Vexelius posited a fan theory years ago asserting that WALL-E (Ben Burtt) is a stand-in for the devil who stripped humanity of paradise for a life of toil. In the movie, humans exist on a spaceship called Axiom. Everything is taken care of for the people, they don't have to work, and there's no war or discrimination (at least from what audiences see). Everything changes when WALL-E presents a seedling to EVE (Elissa Knight), showing how life can sustain itself on Earth once more. When Eve presents the seedling to Captain McCrea (Jeff Garlin), he realizes that it's time to bring humans back to Earth.
As the Redditor points out, this parallels the story of humans getting kicked out of the Garden of Eden. They write, "We have an entity (WALL-E/Satan) who gives an object (Seedling/Apple) to a (robot/woman) named Eve, which starts a chain of events that led to mankind losing a Paradise and getting stranded [on] Earth." One could argue that humans could create a new paradise on Earth, but how long could that last? Now, they have to work and farm whereas they previously had their every whim granted. And it's all thanks to WALL-E providing a seed of knowledge that there was another way to live.
If WALL-E is Satan, does that make AUTO God?
The fan theory of WALL-E being a metaphor for Satan is intriguing because the lovable robot is the movie's protagonist. The audience is meant to empathize with his journey and recognize that humans are meant to find a better way to live. So if WALL-E is the hero of this story while also being a metaphor for Satan, would that make God the villain? In this instance, God would most likely be akin to the Axiom's AI pilot, AUTO. In the movie, AUTO reveals that it has a "no return" directive, meaning it wants to keep humanity in "paradise" forever, even if it's to its detriment.
Redditor u/Vexelius posits what could transpire years after humans get back to Earth: "It wouldn't be surprising if, generations later, the people in WALL-E's universe [start] telling tales of a time when they lived in a place of eternal bliss until a tempter gave a woman named Eve a plant, which led to mankind's downfall." This viewpoint suggests "WALL-E" provides a new take on the story of Genesis, with the film's events perhaps occurring millennia ago.
Many commenters found the fan theory intriguing, even if some holes could be poked through it. Redditor u/FaceDeer even added something to support the idea that "WALL-E" is part of Genesis: "The ship is named the Axiom, which is a logical starting point for an argument. Appropriate if it represents the origin point for humanity." Along with the terrifying detail in the opening moments of "WALL-E," this is one Pixar movie where there's far more than meets the eye.