Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
Spoilers ahead.
Movie rating: 8/10
The multiverse is a hot concept these days, ever since Marvel Studios brought the concept to the fore of mass consciousness with the likes of Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Parallel universes are not a new trope in genre fiction. Back in the 1960s, Star Trek famously depicted the “mirror universe” populated by evil versions of our favourite crew members. In the ’90s, the TV series Sliders revolved around the concept of characters hopping across parallel realities. But the MCU is probably the most prominent example to date of the multiverse in film. Even so, the aforementioned Spider-Man and Doctor Strange barely scratched the surface of where you could go with this idea.
Everything Everywhere All at Once takes the multiverse concept and goes in more interesting, which is to say, more human directions than in the aforementioned superhero blockbusters. Evelyn Quan Wang (Michelle Yeoh) immigrated from China to the United States to elope with Waymond Wang (Ke Huy Quan) against the wishes of her father Gong Gong (James Hong). Years later, Evelyn and Waymond run a laundromat and are being audited by the IRS. Evelyn is also having trouble with her daughter (Joy) and won’t be truthful with Gong Gong about Joy’s non-Chinese girlfriend Becky (Tallie Medel). En route to a meeting with IRS inspector Deirdre Beaubierdre (Jamie Lee Curtis), Waymond’s body is suddenly taken over by an alternate version of himself from the “Alphaverse”, who informs Evelyn that a powerful being is threatening to destroy the multiverse.
That’s the basic setup. To go into more detail is difficult given how labyrinthine and far out the movie becomes. Suffice it to say a major plot element involves “verse-jumping” technology, which allows people to leap between different realities through bizarre and statistically improbable actions. Eventually it becomes clear that the threat to the multiverse is none other than the Alphaverse version of Joy, known as Jobu Tupaki. In the Alphaverse, Evelyn—a brilliant scientist who created the verse-jumping tech—pushed Joy too hard in verse-jumping to the point where Joy now sees all realities at once. Being able to perceive “everything everywhere all at once” convinced Alpha-Joy that nothing matters. In a moment of boredom, Jobu says, she put everything on a bagel which is like a black hole that threatens to consume the entirety of existence.
I’d heard this movie, written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, was something of a genre genre mashup, but it still managed to be different than I expected. Maybe all the critical raves and the fact that it was produced by indie studio A24 meant that all the action and fight sequences took me by surprise. In a sense this movie feels like an artsier version of the Marvel blockbusters that prioritizes the more interesting dramatic questions the likes of Multiverse of Madness barely touched upon. In my review of the latter, I wrote:
Themes of regret and loss are a perfect foundation to explore the multiverse. We’ve all made mistakes that we wish we could go back and correct… We’ve lost people that we wish we could be reunited with. Being able to travel to an alternate universe where things turned out differently is an intriguing concept. On the other hand, you can argue that the concept of the multiverse lessens the dramatic stakes even more in a fictional universe where characters already have a tendency to return from the dead. Characters who die in one universe can be brought back through another (see: Loki).
Kwan and Scheinert do more with these concepts than Marvel. Evelyn experiences more realities where she made different life choices. The most provocative is one where she did not elope with Waymond to the United States; instead, she learned kung fu and became a movie star reminiscent of, actually, Michelle Yeoh. In this reality Waymond himself also seems to be doing better—certainly appearing more materially well-off, dressed in a sharp tux and attending Evelyn’s movie premiere. I recall a review of the movie Seconds in the 1996 book The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, where author Daniel Pringle says the idea that “you’re happiest the way you are” is a clichéd sentiment that should be challenged more often. I appreciated how Everything Everywhere All at Once is willing to go there. When Evelyn verse-jumps for the first time and tells Alpha-Waymond, “I saw my life... without you... I wish you could have seen it... it was beautiful,” it’s legitimately shocking to hear, for the audience as well as Waymond.
One of my issues with the MCU multiverse, as I noted in my Doctor Strange review, is that when you have infinite realities where every different possibility is represented and people can jump between those realities, then nothing seems to matter. Even if a character dies, like Loki, an alternate version is standing by to return and headline his own Disney+ series. What’s great about Everything Everywhere is how it takes that dramatic problem with the multiverse and turns it into an overarching theme.
The threat of falling into nihilism is at the centre of this movie. By seeing every possible reality all at once, Jobu comes to believe nothing matters. On the other hand, she says, “If nothing matters, then all the pain and guilt you feel for making nothing of your life goes away.” Dissatisfaction with how one’s life has turned out is a classic and relatable movie theme, going back at least to It’s a Wonderful Life. Evelyn, it appears, feels that way about her own life—though I would say the movie is a bit harsh in that regard. Being married with a child and running a laundromat doesn’t seem like a bad life at all. But anyway, the movie suggests that it is precisely this Evelyn’s very ordinariness, compared to alternate versions of herself who is a master chef or movie star, that makes her so extraordinary:
Evelyn Wang: There is no way I am the Evelyn you are looking for.
Alpha-Waymond: No, I see it so clearly.
Evelyn Wang: See what? I'm no good at anything.
Alpha-Waymond: Exactly. I've seen thousands of Evelyns, but never an Evelyn like you. You have so many goals you never finished, dreams you never followed. You're living your worst you.
Evelyn Wang: I cannot be the worst. What about the hot dog one?
Alpha-Waymond: No. Can't you see? Every failure here branched off into a success for another Evelyn in another life. Most people only have a few significant life alternate life paths so close to them. But you, here, you're capable of anything because you're so bad at everything.
The impression I got was that the movie resolves the threat of nihilism by following a classic existentialist view: that in a meaningless and absurd universe, each individual creates their own meaning in life. At the climax, Evelyn has gained the same powers as Jobu by being able to see every reality at once. She uses this power to fight off a wave of attackers by helping them, through her touch, to obtain something that gives them satisfaction and thereby find meaning.
The most powerful image comes when Jobu is being sucked into the “everything bagel”, which to me represents nihilism, but is pulled back by Evelyn who in turn is held by Gong Gong and Waymond. Family, here, provides a bond that is one way we give meaning to our lives. You could substitute or combine that with other things, such as friendship—as It’s a Wonderful Life did with its famous line, “No man is a failure who has friends.” Near the end, back in her own reality, Evelyn tells Joy that “no matter what, I still want to be here with you. I will always, always, want to be here with you.” That moment really tugged at my heartstrings.
There’s a lot of off-the-wall stuff going on in this movie and it might take some repeat viewings to soak it all in. Occasionally it gets a little too convoluted, and maybe it runs a bit too long. But I was never bored and appreciated how bonkers the film was willing to go. It’s refreshing to see a wild concept like the multiverse filtered through the Chinese immigrant experience. The actors all do good work, and it was great to see Ke Huy Quan, whom I remember well as a child actor from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, return to acting as an adult in such an interesting role. It was also fun to see all the different realities, which the main appeal of these multiverse stories. The “Raccacoonie” universe made me realize I need to see Ratatouille now.
I should stress that even though you often see speculation about parallel universes in popular science journalism, there is no evidence for the concept in reality. However, if you take the idea as fantasy—just one element in the potpourri of genres here along with science fiction, comedy, and martial arts action—then it’s no more of a problem than other fantasy ideas such as magic in terms of being able to suspend one’s disbelief, sit back, and enjoy the film.
After watching Everything Everywhere and showering it with praise, I was flabbergasted to learn that Kwan and Scheinert were also the writers and directors of Swiss Army Man. The latter film has gained an infamous reputation in my family after we watched it last holiday season at my suggestion. It proved mind-numbingly awful, to the extent that my brother had to stop watching 40 minutes in. I gave Swiss Army Man a scathing 1/10 review at the time and wrote: “I've never had to apologize for suggesting a movie before, but this has the dubious distinction of being the first. I can't believe critics gave this positive reviews. An absolute chore to sit through, it's 97 pointless minutes you'll never get back.”
It’s truly mind-boggling that the same duo responsible for Swiss Army Man also wrote and directed Everything Everywhere All at Once. I guess I have to say Kwan and Scheinert have redeemed themselves, because I stand by everything good I’ve said about the movie. Then again, who doesn’t love a good redemption story?