Everything Everywhere All At Once has been dazzling audiences and critics alike in its limited release, as it takes an artistic approach to the notion of a multiverse, adding a new flavor to Hollywood’s latest mind-blowing science fiction concept.
Before this film’s release, the multiverse that audiences were most familiar with was that of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has been exploring the concept throughout its recent titles. The two takes on this intriguing sci-fi concept have proven to be quite different in their approach, creating two very different multiverses.
Chaos
A defining feature of Everything Everywhere All At Once‘s multiverse is that it is, in essence, pure chaos. There are few governing laws to keep the various universes in line, and any sense of order is nothing more than pure delusion. The sheer chaos of the multiverse was enough to cause Jobu Tupaki to lose her mind.
While the MCU’s version of the multiverse may be anything but orderly, there is a certain sense of natural organization that is inherent therein. Each universe seems to have its place within the much larger multiverse, as it is watched over by otherworldly beings like the Watcher and the TVA. Everything Everywhere‘s multiverse, on the other hand, as the title suggests, seems to be occurring in all places at all times with little to no organization.
Multiversal Beings
The story of Everything Everywhere revolves primarily around Evelyn Wang and her daughter, Joy. As it turns out, these two women are intricately tied to the multiverse in a way that most others are not. Because of this, they also prove to have the power to tap into other versions of themselves easier and with far more accuracy than others.
As of yet, there is no equivalent to Evelyn and Jobu Tupaki in the MCU. While there are otherworldly beings like the Watcher, these are also creatures beyond such measly confines as reality. Though the MCU has hinted at the existence of Nexus beings, it has yet to fully confirm the existence of people with intimate ties to other realities.
The Everything Bagel
One of the zanier bits of Everything Everywhere All At Once has to do with Jobu Tupaki’s pet project: the everything bagel that can destroy the multiverse. The interdimensional villain brought to life the age-old question: “What would happen if you put everything on a bagel?” In doing so, she planned to bring the unending chaos of the multiverse to a permanent end.
Though there are several threats facing the MCU’s multiverse shortly, none of them seems so powerful and final as the everything bagel. Born out of the pure chaos of the multiverse, Jobu Tupaki’s special project seeks to bring an end to all reality, something that has not yet been broached with the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Governing Bodies
Both the multiverse in Everything Everywhere and that in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have governing bodies of some sort, though the methods in which the respective multiverses are controlled prove to be vastly different, though they end in similar ways.
Despite its chaos, the multiverse of Everything Everywhere does contain the Alpha universe, which is the closest thing to an interdimensional authority the film has. On the other hand, the MCU’s multiverse seems to be governed on several different levels, including the Time Variance Authority. However, as viewers of the Loki series understand, even this organization was a ruse put on by a variant of Kang the Conqueror, leaving the TVA ineffectual and useless, just as the Alpha universe became by the film’s end.
Experiencing Multiple Realities
One of how Everything Everywhere All At Once takes the multiverse in a direction that rivals Marvel is in the capability of certain people, primarily Eveyln and Jobu Tupaki, to experience multiple realities at once. This is something that the audience experiences through Evelyn’s eyes on several occasions, as she finds her consciousness fractured across dimensions.
While inter-universe travel has been deemed possible in the MCU, no characters have yet been able to experience two different realities at once. Evelyn Wang, on the other hand, finds herself constantly drawn to other universes, experiencing two different moments at once. This proves irritating and distracting to her in her everyday life, but also speaks to her closeness to other realities.
No Variants
In her latest film, Michelle Yeoh gets the opportunity to play multiple versions of Evelyn Wang from across the multiverse. In one of the actress’s best performances to date, she plays versions of her character that run the gamut from lauded movie stars, to chefs, sign spinners, and even a hot-dog-fingered variant–yet these versions of the same character are never allowed to meet.
The MCU, on the other hand, likes to have fun with its variants meeting face-to-face. Cinematic and television endeavors like Spider-Man: No Way Home and Loki have explored the concept of having different versions of one character meet, with hilarity often ensuing.
Multiversal Villain Motives
Everything Everywhere All At Once sees the interdimensional Jobu Tupaki, an alternate version of Joy Wang (Stephanie Hsu) attempting to destroy the multiverse entirely after her mind has succumbed to its chaos. While she mirrors a certain multiversal MCU villain, she is very different in several ways.
While Jobu Tupaki and the MCU’s Kang the Conqueror are both very powerful multiversal villains, their motives are very different. Jobu seeks to destroy the universe, killing anyone who gets in her way. Meanwhile, Kang seeks to rule the different realities. Fans will have to wait until Kang’s next appearance in the MCU to know the full extent of his plans, however.
An Alpha Universe
Everything Everywhere All At Once introduces the concept of an “Alpha universe” through the alternate version of Evelyn’s husband, Waymond (Ke Huy Quan). This world was the first to make contact with other universes in the vast multiverse, and the most adept at verse-jumping, developing the technology that made such a feat possible.
While the MCU introduced the concept of a Sacred Timeline, a version of events that has been fore-ordained to happen by the Time Keepers, this idea was later proven to be a ruse put on by a variant of Kang the Conqueror. Thereby, it seems as though there is no main universe according to the MCU, but rather many universes that are equal.
Consciousness Override
Throughout the movie, Evelyn has frequent contact with an alternate version of her husband Waymond from the Alpha universe. Alpha Waymond takes over the body of another Waymond, living in his universe for a time before returning to his own.
Given that inter-dimensional travel is possible in the MCU, consciousness override is not an ability that would come in handy for its characters. As an alternative, Marvel characters simply travel to other universes, not finding it necessary to take over their variant’s consciousness.
Verse-Jumping And Jumping Points
One of the aspects unique to Everything Everywhere‘s multiverse is “verse-jumping”, the idea that someone from one universe could tap into the abilities and skill sets of another universe’s variant of themselves to assist them in their own goals. They do this through “jumping points,” or actions with such statistical improbability that it disconnects them from their reality enough to connect to another.
Much of the flavor and fun of Everything Everywhere All At Once comes from its bizarre jumping points, which lead to equally strange fight sequences. The MCU has no concept of verse-jumping, but rather treats each separate universe as nothing more than a destination to travel to and from. The characters cannot therein tap into the abilities of their variants as Evelyn Wang can. It is in this concept that the film finds itself becoming quite distinct from any other universe, especially that of Marvel.
