With all of its swashbuckling heroes, sidesplitting comedy and utter ridiculousness, The Princess Bride is undoubtedly one of the most beloved movies of all time. Very few films seem to get everything right, but Rob Reiner's masterpiece was one of them. From the sick grandson framing device to the final kiss between Wesley and Buttercup, everything in between worked together to tell a very complete story.
The Princess Bride will celebrate its 35th anniversary later this year, but it's one of those films that warrant a re-watch regardless of its age. Back in 2020, there was even a virtual cast reunion and script reading that ended up being a successful political fundraiser. So, it's clear that fans can't get enough of the sword fighting, clever quips and heartfelt themes. In fact, fan theories about The Princess Bride still make the rounds, one of which involves the famed "Battle of Wits" scene.
The scene happened after the "Man in Black" (which, of course, was Wesley) bested the swordsman Inigo Montoya (though neither of them would be able to beat Aragorn from The Lord of the Rings) and Fezzik the giant. But with Buttercup in his sight, he had a final challenge to face -- Vizzini's intelligence. So, he decided to challenge the brainy Sicilian to a Battle of Wits. Thinking highly of himself and wanting a chance to prove his intelligence, Vizzini accepted.
Wesley proceeded to pull out a container of Iocane Power, turned around and poisoned one of two glasses of wine. Then, he told Vizzini to choose who would drink from which glass. After a lot of reverse psychology, rambling, stalling and trickery, Vizzini chose a glass, drank and died. When Buttercup inquired what had happened, Wesley explained that both glasses were poisoned, and he had simply developed immunity to Iocane Powder.
From that, it was clear that Vizzini was doomed regardless of his choice. However, one particular fan theory makes Vizzini's demise even worse. Proposed by Homeschool-Winner on Reddit, the theory states that Wesley didn't poison either glass of wine. Instead, he poisoned Vizzini when the latter inhaled the powder. It still would have gotten into his system and killed him either way. If that was the case, Wesley simply had to stall long enough for Vizzini to keel over.
While fans have believed that both glasses were poisoned for decades (and Wesley certainly wouldn't be the first person to poison himself for a cause), there's a reasonable amount of proof to substantiate the Princess Bride theory. First off, the way that Wesley handled the container of Iocane indicated that he only had a little of it. So, it seems unlikely that he would have been able to spend the last few years building up an immunity to the poison if his supply was so limited. On top of that, it seems unlikely that he would have had a reason to build up an immunity. Again, if Iocane powder was difficult to acquire, then the chances of someone trying to poison Wesley with it would have been slim. So, he would have had little reason to dangerously try and build immunity.
Two things work against this Princess Bride theory, though. While tracking Buttercup's captors, Prince Humperdinck also smelled Wesley's vile of poison and didn't die from doing so. This can be explained by saying that the prince was an expert tracker and didn't allow himself to inhale the poison, whereas Vizzini inhaled it deeply. For that matter, Humperdinck himself could have developed an immunity to the poison since there's always someone trying to kill royalty. However, the thing that truly disproves this theory is that Wesley told Buttercup that he had poisoned both glasses. She was his true love, and he had no reason to lie to her over something so trivial. So, while Vizzini dying by inhaling Iocane is an interesting theory, it's probably false. But either way, Vizzini lost the "Battle of Wits."
