Directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, “Everything Ewerywhere All at Once” was released in theaters in 2022, winning 7 Oscars and grossing over $140 million.
Whether it’s at home Marvelin Spider-Man (animated or not) or elsewhere, the multiverse is on the rise. And it’s not Everything Everywhere All at Once who will prove the opposite. Directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, this feature film follows a woman immersed in an infinite number of universes, whose key seems to be to resolve her relationship and family problems. Winner of 7 Oscars in 2023 (including Best Picture), it was also a box office success with more than $140 million grossed worldwide.
But by exploring the existence of alternative universes (some of which are downright wacky), the film carried by Michelle YeohJamie Lee Curtis or Ke Huy Quan can lose the viewer who is not necessarily used to this type of story. In this article, we explain everything you need to know to fully understand Everything Everywhere All at Onceand especially its end.
Everything Everywhere All at Once tells the story of Evelyn Wang, in financial difficulty due to the management of the laundromat that she runs with her husband Waymond. The business is on the verge of bankruptcy and her couple is close to divorce. In the middle, her daughter Joy tries to make her accept his romantic relationship with another woman, Becky, but does not feel listened to or accepted by her mother, who cannot announce to her own father, Gong Gong, Joy’s romantic situation.
During a particularly stressful day, Evelyn meets an alternate version of her husband, Alpha Waywmond, who came from a multiverse to save his world. He is threatened by Jobu Tupaki, who wants to eradicate all worlds so that nothing remains. Because Evelyn acquires the ability to jump from one universe to world and has unsuspected abilities from different universes, skills that will allow her to fight against Jobu Tupaki. She then discovers different alternate versions of herself, but none of them are really satisfying.
Warning, spoilers. During her quest, Evelyn discovers that Jobu Tupaki is actually Alpha Joy, an alternate version of her daughter pushed to the limit by Alpha Evelyn, another alternate version of Evelyn. Adopting the nihilistic philosophy, Alpha Joy realizes that nothing makes sense and that it is better to destroy all forms of life, especially her own. Almost convinced by seeing that chaos reigns in each universe, Evelyn is almost won over to his cause, until Waymond’s positivism convinces her to fight for her people. She ends up telling Jobu Tupaki that she will always be by his side, no matter what his choices are.
At the end ofEverything Everywhere All at OnceEvelyn reconciles with her husband and daughter, confronts her father, and reaches an agreement to resolve the financial situation of her laundromat. Everything seems to be back to normal, until the heroine’s attention is momentarily drawn to the multiverse. However, she manages to ignore it and stay in her own universe.
movie sheet
Synopsis – While her life is particularly difficult, Evelyn Wang finds herself exploring parallel worlds where she discovers all the lives she could have led.
The phenomenon film directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (nicknamed “the Daniels”) was released in theaters in France this Wednesday, August 31, 2022. CThe feature film once again explores the concept of the multiverse with an aging Chinese immigrant who must save the world by exploring alternate realities and the lives she could have led.
Internationally, critics are won over: the American review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives it 95% positive reviews from the press and 89% from viewers. But what about the French press? It is also seduced by the Daniels’ cinema proposal, garnering a score of 4/5 stars on Allociné. Among the positive reviews, The Parisian even considers that Everything Everywhere all at once is “as original as it is crazy and phenomenal”, moving and creative, nothing less. Franceinfo salutes a “complete work, which innovates and has fun by going beyond the classic codes of action movie.” Le Figaro also says it is won over, describing it as “wacky, fantastic, at the crossroads of all narrative paths”. The feature-length film’s screenplay, which explores the multiverse, promises to be totally original, while the press emphasizes that it “disrupts the codes” (Rolling Stones) of cinema, even tipping into “cosmic-scale chaos” (Première).