There’s Nothing Quite Like Everything Everywhere All at Once

I f the “many worlds interpretation of reality” is true, and not “a fantastic piece of make-believe championed by some of the smartest physicists of our time,” as James Gleick, author of Time Travel: A History, put it, then there would be lots of universes in which I don’t exist. And there would be lots of universes in which Everything Everywhere All at Once, the latest film by directors Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (who as a duo go simply by “Daniels”), does not exist, either. I cannot speak much to the former set of realities. As to the latter, however, I have to say I feel sorry for their inhabitants. For I would not want to live in a world without this delightful, hilarious, thrilling, heady, and utterly bonkers film.

To attempt to summarize a movie that, in the course of its roughly two and a half hours, traverses multiple realities (occasionally simultaneously) is difficult, but one must at least try. The central character is Evelyn Wong (Michelle Yeoh), a put-upon matriarch who, as the story begins, is dealing with a series of personal crises: a struggling business (under investigation by an IRS agent portrayed alternatingly with bureaucratic sloth, fierce menace, and unexpected pathos by Jamie Lee Curtis), a troubled marriage (to husband Raymond, played by Ke Huy Quan); a visiting, disapproving father (the legendary James Hong); and a strained relationship with her daughter, Joy (Stephanie Hsu).

The weight of these experiences essentially forces a crack in Evelyn’s reality. Guided by an alternate-reality version of her husband, whose consciousness pops in and out of the body of his in-universe counterpart, Evelyn learns of a threat to existence itself, across all planes of being, one that she is, apparently, alone capable of facing. In one of the film’s many notes of humorous subtlety, Evelyn finds this difficult to comprehend; thinking herself a mediocrity and a failure, she wonders how she could possibly be the one Evelyn capable of saving all of reality.

Everything Everywhere All at Once is off to the races from there. The basic mechanics of its universe-jumping are explained well enough, and exploited to their full potential. Essentially, because there is an infinitude of realities, somewhere out there, some version of you is capable of anything; with the right training, tech, and a proper invocation of improbability (say, by, eating a stick of lip gloss), you can access that version of yourself. By such means does Wong, whose original self Yeoh at first portrays excellently as the very picture of harried mediocrity, transform herself variously into forms better suited to her challenges across the universe(s). Other characters, including those played by Hsu, Quan, and even the 93-year-old Hong, undergo similar transformations. It’s all driven by some of the most inventive action scenes I’ve ever seen in a movie.

Humor also abounds in Everything Everywhere All at Once. The example that stands out most to me is a kind of parody of 2001: A Space Odyssey involving hot-dog hands (one of many running gags) and an intentionally incompetent rendition of Also sprach Zarathustra by the infamous Portsmouth Sinfonia (the first time I’ve ever encountered it in film). Somehow, a live-action parody of Ratatouille involving a raccoon, a literal everything bagel, and other seemingly ridiculous plot points are ingeniously worked into the proceedings.

All of this is undergirded by a genuine and heartfelt emotional core. The film explores not merely the comedic or the kinetic implications of multiple realities but also the philosophical ones. The consequences of paths not taken, the contingencies that have brought us to the moments we inhabit, how to make sense of a world that can seem to lack meaning — through the lens of the multiverse, Everything Everywhere All at Once shines a light on our own reality, raising questions about our own lives and humbly attempting to supply its own answers. Are they complete? Is the film’s moral vision totally satisfying? Maybe not, but that’s an unfair standard.

It’s natural, after all this, to try to find something with which to compare what Daniels have created here. Blown away during the experience of watching the film, I certainly found myself trying to. Maybe it’s like a live-action adaptation of the Adult Swim cartoon Rick and Morty. Or maybe it’s like a combination of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, The Matrix, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Or maybe it’s like a five-year-old became an expert in theoretical physics and attempted to explain it to a three-year-old — or perhaps more like a fever dream of Stephen Hawking after he stayed up all night pounding energy drinks and watching kung fu movies. Or . . . oh, forget it. There’s nothing quite like Everything Everywhere All at Once. And I’m glad that, in this universe, both it and I exist, so that I was able to give it a watch. If, like me, you also exist, I heartily recommend doing the same.