So, since EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE (hereafter EEAAO) is pretty much 100% going to win the Best Picture Oscar … at least in the universe that all of us are living in … that Oscar win is going to “force” many people to see it who otherwise would not have (and who even, perhaps, would have avoided it). So, then, let me give you some preparation for watching it. This has nothing to do with my opinion of the film (I liked it), and I am not necessarily recommending it or encouraging you to see it (any encouragement or recommendation depends totally on the individual). Think of this more as a public service, since the number of potentially confused people will be exponentially raised.
All you need to know to follow/appreciate EEAAO is the theory of multi-verses.
WTF???
Okay, let’s slow it down. You know the universe that we live in, right? And that the universe, as we know it, contains absolutely everything … both known (our earth, our sun, our galaxy, other galaxies) and unknown (whatever the hell else is out there) … for as far out as space goes, which is infinite.
With me so far?
Okay. Now, there is a theory that the everything-ness, if you will … the all-encompassing vastness of “all there is” in our universe … is, oh so paradoxically, just one universe of many universes … or multiverses … and that the number of multiverses that exist is infinite.
Whoa, wait … is that true?
It’s true that it’s a theory … and that this theory is extremely useful in quantum physics. Beyond that, who the hell knows if it’s really true? (Answer: No one.)
And for the purposes of watching EEAAO, it’s not important if it’s actually true, just that you get this concept of infinite universes, or multiverses. That there is more than one “everything in the whole world that exists.” There’s the universe of everything that exists that we have found ourselves “trapped” in … and there are others we’ll never see or even know about.
If you’re hopelessly lost at this point, then you may well be lost watching EEAAO. It’s okay, a lot of people are. It doesn’t mean you’re stupid. A lot of VERY smart people (smarter than me, I might add) have trouble grasping this concept. So don’t be down on yourself if you don’t “get” it; you have LOTS of company.
Now, going along with this theory, multiverses are infinite. They never end. There’s always another one. And another after that, and then another and another.
Until?
There’s no “until,” there’s just even more multiverses. Infinity means: it doesn’t end.
But because they don’t end, there are bound to be multiverses that are similar to ours. Like, extremely similar. There are ALSO multiverses that don’t bear any resemblance to ours whatsoever. There is, in fact (or I should more accurately say, “in theory”), every variation of possibility imaginable. There’s a parallel universe where you, whoever is reading this, were born, but I, the person writing this, wasn’t. There’s a parallel universe where I was born but you weren’t. There’s a parallel universe where we were both born and everything happened exactly the same up to this point, except I never wrote this explanation of EEAAO. And one where I did write this explanation, but you never read it. And, if you happen to know me personally, one where we never met. And, if you don’t know me personally, one where we did meet.
But why, you ask, are versions of ourselves in every single one of these multiverses?
Oh, to be sure, there are other multiverses where versions of ourselves never existed. Where nothing resembling humans or the other animals we know ever came to be. Whatever you can imagine … and because we’re talking about the never-ending infinite … there’s a universe where things happened however you imagined they might. And one where things didn’t happen that way at all. And one where things happened in ways you will never think of. It’s not that there’s a version of each one of us in EVERY other multiverse … but because the variations are infinite, it INCLUDES universes with other versions of ourselves.
So, since these multiverses, both imagined and non-imagined, are infinite … forever endless, forever more of them … then every variation you can think of has already happened, will happen again in the future, and is happening right now. Because of infinity, there’s room for all of it.
Which brings us to the movie EEAAO. They don’t explain any of this in the movie, they just take the theory and run with it, and it’s your job to catch up and make sense of what you’re watching.
EEAAO operates on the assumption that multiverses are real and interconnected. The plot takes these interconnected multiverses and focuses on the ones that closely resemble the versions that include Michelle Yeoh and her daughter, because, through a how-did-they-what?-just-go-with-it-please, they rip holes through the space-time continuum and visit these other versions of their own universe. So every time you think, “Why does the daughter look like THAT now?” … it’s because you are seeing a similar but different version of her in a different multiverse.
That’s all you need to know … that there are alternate worlds with different versions of the characters. And for reasons it’s not important to grasp, they are all going to be destroyed … that is, all multiverses everywhere will obliterate and cease to exist … unless Michelle Yeoh does something to save them. It’s not really important to understand what she needs to do or why it must be her … just that that’s what’s going on. (And if it helps any, Jamie Lee Curtis has confessed that she doesn’t understand what’s happening in the movie herself … or at least she didn’t during shooting.) At its core, it’s about a mother and daughter healing their relationship … in an admittedly confusing way, with different versions of themselves in different multiverses. But that’s all there is to it.
If you want to see another example of a (never-made) movie that incorporates the theory of multiverses, I actually wrote a multiverse screenplay many moons ago, where the main character accidentally slips back and forth from his present reality into an alternate world where his life turned out differently. It is partially based on a true story, in that I fully expected that I would be living in a universe where I became a famous movie star, but somehow ended up in this weird alternate multiverse that we’re in now, where success as an actor never happened on any level. Multiverses were the only way to explain how this outcome happened instead of the desired one. Click the “Click here” button below to access a PDF of the screenplay.
READ “A REAL STAR”
An old screenplay by That Topping Dude that plays with elements of jumping across multiverses, similar to EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE.
