He is already dead.

Interesting viewpoint and maybe a little too deep for this type of film, but saying it's not disputable is rather presumptuous.

The entire movie doesn't seem to be (or play like) a flashback, but rather a linear story with flashbacks thrown in for a backstory and character development. Without these flashbacks you'd never learn about Kowalski, the troubling events of his life or care when he [eventually] dies at the end. Instead all you'd have is nothing more than a guy you know nothing about in a car driving fast. I've read many theories about this film and the one theme that continues to reoccur is that he's simply "hopped up" on drugs and intentionally crashes into the bulldozers because he believes he'll make it through (not because he's suicidal or already dead).

I see how you could loosely apply your theory to this film, but I'm of the belief that Kowalski simply makes a bet that he can drive from Denver to San Francisco in 15 hours and tragically perishes from a drug influenced car accident.

BTW: If he's already dead, how did he die? He clearly makes it back from San Francisco 'ALIVE' with the black Imperial for Sandy.



"I don't want your watch, man. I want your friendship!" - Lightfoot

Dylan Thomas, 1914 - 1953

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

I think you're bang on the money here, or that it was a drug fueled hallucination.

or it is just a foreshadowing. It was a common strategy to show the ending or part of it, at the beginning. Don't over-analyse.

Interesting theory! They say the same about the Lee Marvin character in Point Blank, that he is dying and the movie we see is his flashback.