YMMV / My Own Private Idaho

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Did Scott ever care for Mike or was just using him until he inherited his money? Was Scott actually gay and leaving Mike for Carmella a way of becoming who his father wanted him to be?
• Fanon: It is generally accepted that Scott is the one who picked up Mike at the end, due to the fact the driver is wearing the same clothes as Scott and in one version of the script it was actually Scott before it was changed to be more ambiguous.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • River Phoenix, who plays Mike, died not long after this film's release from a drug overdose. His character ends up abandoned and alone and…well…left for dead. Not to mention the copious drug use in the film by the hustlers, including Mike.
  • One of the other aforementioned hustlers was Gary, who was played by actor and model Rodney Harvey. He became addicted to heroin while filming the movie and would also die of an overdose seven years later.
• The Woobie: Mike, through and through. He never is able to find the mother he yearns to be reunited with so badly, is eventually dumped by the man he loves, and ends up on the side of a road unconscious- while two jerkasses steal his shoes and bag. Poor Mike deserves so much better than what he got throughout the film.