Everything Everywhere All at Once
Everything Everywhere All at Once is a 2022 American independent absurdist comedy-drama film written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who produced it with Anthony and Joe Russo and Jonathan Wang. The film incorporates media from several genres and film mediums, including surreal comedy, science fiction, fantasy, martial arts films, immigrant narrative, and animation. Michelle Yeoh stars as Evelyn Quan Wang, a Chinese-American immigrant who, while being audited by the IRS, discovers that she must connect with parallel universe versions of herself to prevent a powerful being from destroying the multiverse. The film also stars Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, James Hong, and Jamie Lee Curtis.
Kwan and Scheinert began work on the project in 2010. Production was announced in 2018, and principal photography ran from January to March 2020. The works of Hong Kong film director Wong Kar-wai, as well as the children's book Sylvester and the Magic Pebble and the video game Everything, served as inspiration for several scenes. Also inspired by contemporary scholars such as philosopher Mary-Jane Rubenstein, the film explores philosophical themes such as existentialism, nihilism, surrealism, and absurdism, as well as themes such as neurodivergence, depression, generational trauma, and Asian American identity. Its soundtrack features compositions by Son Lux, and collaborations with Mitski, David Byrne, André 3000, John Hampson, and Randy Newman.
Everything Everywhere All at Once premiered at South by Southwest on March 11, 2022, and began a limited theatrical release in the United States on March 25, before a wide release by A24 on April 8. Grossing $143 million against a $14–25 million budget, it became A24's highest-grossing film. The film garnered widespread acclaim from critics and received numerous accolades. At the 95th Academy Awards, it won seven out of the eleven awards it was nominated for: Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for Kwan and Scheinert, and Best Editing. The film also won two Golden Globe Awards, five Critics' Choice Awards, a BAFTA Award, and a record four SAG Awards, including Best Ensemble.
Plot
Evelyn Quan Wang is a middle-aged Chinese immigrant who runs a laundromat with her husband Waymond in Simi Valley, California. Two decades earlier, they eloped to the United States and had a daughter, Joy. In the present day, Evelyn is enduring multiple struggles: the laundromat is being audited by the Internal Revenue Service ; Waymond is attempting to serve her with divorce papers in an effort to spark a discussion about their marriage; her rigorous father is increasingly irritable with Evelyn and her life; and she has a strained relationship with Joy, who is battling depression and has a non-Chinese girlfriend, Becky, whom Evelyn is reluctant to accept.At a tense meeting with IRS Revenue Agent Deirdre Beaubeirdre, Waymond's body is taken over by Alpha-Waymond, a version of Waymond from the "Alphaverse." Alpha-Waymond explains to Evelyn that many parallel universes exist because every life choice creates a new alternative universe. In the Alphaverse, the now-deceased Alpha-Evelyn developed "verse-jumping" technology, which enables people to access the skills, memories, and bodies of their parallel selves by performing bizarre actions that are statistically unlikely. The multiverse is threatened by Jobu Tupaki, the Alpha-Joy whose mind was splintered after Alpha-Evelyn pushed her to verse-jump beyond her endurance. Jobu experiences all universes at once and can verse-jump and manipulate matter at will. Jobu has created a black hole-like "Everything Bagel" that forms a toroid singularity that could destroy the multiverse.
Evelyn is provided verse-jumping technology to fight Jobu's minions, who are converging on the IRS building. She uncovers other universes in which she made different choices and flourished, such as becoming a kung fu master and film star. She also learns that Waymond intends to file for divorce. Alpha-Waymond believes that Evelyn, as the greatest "failure" of all Evelyns in the multiverse, possesses the untapped potential needed to defeat Jobu. Gong Gong is taken over by Alpha-Gong Gong, who instructs Evelyn to kill Joy to prevent Jobu from using her to access Evelyn's universe. Evelyn refuses and decides to face Jobu by acquiring powers through repeated verse-jumping. Alpha-Gong Gong, convinced that Evelyn's mind has been compromised like Jobu's, sends soldiers after Evelyn. While they fight, Jobu locates and kills Alpha-Waymond in the Alphaverse. As Jobu confronts Evelyn in her universe, Evelyn's mind begins to splinter, causing her to collapse.
Evelyn uncontrollably verse-jumps alongside Jobu across many bizarre and diverse universes. Jobu discloses she does not intend to fight, but that instead, she has been searching for an Evelyn who can see, as she does, that nothing matters. She teleports Evelyn to the Everything Bagel, divulging that she wants to use it to allow herself and Evelyn to truly die. Upon looking into the Bagel, Evelyn is initially persuaded, and behaves cruelly and nihilistically in her other universes, hurting those around her.
Just as Evelyn enters the Bagel with Jobu, she pauses to listen to Waymond's pleas in her universe for everybody to stop fighting and to instead practice kindness, even when life is senseless. Evelyn has an existentialist epiphany and decides to follow Waymond's absurdist and humanitarian advice, utilizing her multiverse powers to fight with empathy and bring happiness to those around her. In doing so, she repairs her damage in the other universes and neutralizes Alpha-Gong Gong and Jobu's fighters. In her home universe, Evelyn reconciles with Waymond, accepts Joy and Becky's relationship and divulges it to Gong Gong, while Waymond convinces Deirdre to let them redo their taxes. Jobu decides to enter the Bagel alone as, simultaneously in Evelyn's universe, Joy pleads with Evelyn to let her go. Evelyn tells Joy that even when nothing makes sense and even though she could be anywhere else in the multiverse, she will always want to be with Joy. Evelyn and the others save Jobu from the Bagel, and Evelyn and Joy embrace.
Sometime later, with the family's relationships improved, they return to the IRS building to refile their taxes. As Deirdre talks, Evelyn's attention is momentarily drawn to her alternative selves, before she grounds herself back in her home universe.
Cast
- Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn Quan Wang, a dissatisfied and overwhelmed laundromat owner; and as several other versions of Evelyn in alternate universes.
- Stephanie Hsu as Joy Wang, Evelyn's daughter; and Jobu Tupaki, Alpha-Evelyn's omnicidal daughter whose growing nihilism is a threat to the entire multiverse.
- Ke Huy Quan as Waymond Wang, Evelyn's meek and lighthearted husband whose altruistic outlook runs contrary to Joy's nihilism; Alpha-Waymond, from the Alphaverse; and other versions of Waymond in alternate universes.
- James Hong as Gong Gong, Evelyn's demanding father; and Alpha-Gong Gong, Alpha-Evelyn's father in the Alphaverse who wants Evelyn to sacrifice Joy to impede Jobu.
- Jamie Lee Curtis as Deirdre Beaubeirdre, an IRS Revenue Agent; and as other versions of Deirdre in alternate universes.
- Tallie Medel as Becky Sregor, Joy's girlfriend.
- Jenny Slate as Debbie the Dog Mom, a laundromat customer.
- Harry Shum Jr. as Chad, a teppanyaki chef working alongside an alternative Evelyn in another universe.
Production
Development
Co-directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, known as the Daniels, began researching the concept of the multiverse as early as 2010, after being exposed to the concept of modal realism in the Ross McElwee documentary Sherman's March. Kwan described the release of the animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which also deals with a multiversal concept, as "a little upsetting because we were like, 'Oh shit, everyone's going to beat us to this thing we've been working on. He also stated "Watching the second season of Rick and Morty was really painful. I was like, 'They've already done all the ideas we thought were original!' It was a really frustrating experience. So I stopped watching Rick and Morty while we were writing this project".In early drafts of the screenplay, the directors planned for the main character to be a professor and have undiagnosed attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ; through his research for the project, Kwan learned that he had undiagnosed ADHD.
Scenes in which Evelyn trains in martial arts and becomes an action film star were visually and contextually inspired by the films of Wong Kar-wai. Chris Lee of Vulture writes that they "conjur a mood of exquisite romantic yearning that will be instantly recognizable... as touchstones" of Wong's works. The universe in which Evelyn and Joy are rocks was influenced by the children's book Sylvester and the Magic Pebble and the video game Everything.
Kwan has said the idea of the everything bagel "started as just a throwaway joke", a play on a type of American bagel called an "everything bagel", which is baked with a large variety of toppings. Scheinert said they spent time attempting to develop the religion of bagel followers, but encountered complications: "Jobu Tupaki's a nihilist; should there be dogma? Should there be a book? What should their practices be as a religion? The bagel stuck because it became such a useful, simple symbol that we could point to as filmmakers. And you don't have to explain it much beyond the joke."