Yazmin Arte: Everything Everywhere All at Once

Film Research

Opening frame with Evelyn, Waymond, and Joy. Colorful and indicative of love, company, enjoyment.

Evelyn in her home, at her table full of receipts prepping for the tax audit. Looking exhausted, worn out, with a yellow cast over the image.

The tax auditor looking at Evelyn from her perspective. Looking very confused at her, wonders if she is even paying attention or cares about the audit of her business.

This frame shows the moments Evelyn begins to verse jump. She is pushed in her chair towards the storage closet where she jumps. The shadow over her face changes color and she is pushed at a very high speed, losing the surrounding environment to a blur as she travels dimensions.

Alpha Waymond as he is attached to all the equipment required for him to jump dimensions. The color palette for Alpha Waymond's world focuses around the color green.

Evelyn at a screening for her movie in one of the alternate universes. She is professionally dressed and made up for the premiere and walks through the middle of the hall.

This frame is the moment where Alpha Joy's mind becomes fractured after all the trials of trying to access and control the different dimensions. While it is much darker, there is the same purple cast over the image.

Jobu Tupaki in the current universe arguing with a police officer before killing him to get to Evelyn. She is dressed with extravagant hair, makeup and clothing.

After Evelyn makes the decision to fight for her daughter and save her, she is attacked by all the people in the vicinity of the IRS building as the alphas jump into her universe to stop her from trying to save joy. She is using her different skills from verse jumping to fight.

This is the bagel. The black hole, the void, the ending to reality. It is an everything bagel that is burnt and black to depict the full void and chaotic intensity of putting everything on a bagel, just as Jobu Tupaki believes nothing matters and this is the fate of the world. Everything is null and void.

Evelyn begins jumping from one dimension to the other, immediately following each jump to become the same as Jobu. This frame indicates the breaking between dimensions and Evelyn's mind as she holds different versions of herself at the same time.

As Evelyn and Jobu/Joy reach the end of their battle, Jobu takes them to an alternate universe where they are just rocks. No people to talk to, no talking to each other, just rocks sitting on a cliff staring into oblivion.

In this moment, Evelyn comes to a realization that by mimicking her husband's kind and loving nature, she can begin to fight off the rest of the Alpha versions and bring them all together to fight the evil and save each other.

Here Jobu is putting up her final fight as she tries to enter into the void, or the bagel, but Evelyn won't let her. Again we see Jobu in a very strange and tacky look, addressing the concept of nihilism that her character fights so hard to be understood.

In the end, Evelyn finally gets through to her daughter and they embrace each other with love. This frame takes place outside of the laundromat during their Chinese New Year party. It's somewhat of a dark frame with the red neon light from the sign lighting up the space.

The final frame shows the family all together, looking happy and refreshed, prepared for the rescheduled appointment of the tax audit. Evelyn is staring at her husband in awe, after finding a new love and appreciation for him after his character inspired her to save the world in the way that he would.

Essay

Everything Everywhere All At Once is a science-fiction/action movie released in 2022 by A24 Productions. It follows Evelyn Wang, a middle-aged Chinese immigrant challenged with the responsibility of saving the world from an interdimensional rupture in reality that jeopardizes the infinite multiverse, as well as the state of her own family.

The movie opens with what seems to be Evelyn with her husband, Waymond and daughter Joy, enjoying a night of singing karaoke together before panning to a stressed Evelyn struggling to prepare her business receipts for her scheduled tax audit while simultaneously getting ready for her Chinese New Year party later that evening and running their laundromat. We are then introduced to her daughter, Joy who struggles to have a conversation with Evelyn about coming out to her grandfather while Evelyn runs around the laundromat, dealing with customers and rambling trying to keep track of time and her responsibilities. Evelyn then makes her way to her appointment with her father and husband when suddenly Waymond shifts and becomes another version of himself, known as Alpha Waymond. He explains to Evelyn there is a dangerous evil approaching her world and she is the only one who can save it and the rest of the infinite multiverse. He connects her to the multiverse, allowing her to jump from dimension to dimension through the act of verse jumping, which can only be done after completing a very strange act, such as eating chapstick or sniffing a fly. During her journey, she learns that the threat of multidimensional being, Jobu Tupaki, is actually her daughter from the first dimension, the Alpha Verse. She then learns that she is the original scientist that connected all dimensions and created verse jumping, and she is responsible for the villainous Jobu Tupaki, after pushing her daughter in the Alpha Verse past her limits trying to understand and control the connections between the multiverse. Jobu Tupaki’s mission can only be completed by either killing Evelyn or convincing her to follow into the everything bagel, a metaphor for a black hole that will eat and destroy everything. Throughout this journey, she also experiences glimpses of what her life could have been like had she not followed her husband to the US. After learning she must kill Jobu/Joy in order to save the world, she believes she can complete her mission by trying to understand Jobu and save her from herself, which leads to the Alpha verse turning against Evelyn and trying to kill her in order to get to Jobu and save the world. She must continue to jump different dimensions accessing the different versions and powers within herself to find her save the world from Jobu’s quest to destroy it and save her daughter from giving into the void and losing herself.

This film is categorized as a science-fiction/action movie that explores many themes such as depression, nihilism, family values and trauma, existentialism, absurdism, and more. The movie begins as what seems to be an easy to follow film about the life of a middle aged immigrant but then quickly shifts into this complex, chaotic, highly imaginative, profoundly deep piece of work that challenges your brain to follow everything everywhere and quite literally, all at once. It’s a film that requires all your attention as it moves quickly and follows, so it can be difficult to follow if you lose track or attention. It’s a great film that really digs deep into different themes of family life that everyone can relate to, as well as the immigrant experience which is a truly special part of many people's identities in many different ways.. Both of these themes tie together the main message of the film that nothing, yet everything matters and it’s truly your own perspective that dictates the meaning of what is important in life.

Words to Idea + Thesis Statement

Thesis Statement: Evelyn must embark on a chaotic, multidimensional journey to save the existence of reality from a malevolent being that jeopardizes the state of her family as well as her own life and identity.

Words: existentialism, nihilism, trauma, multiverse, dimensional, identity, family, metaphorical, abstraction, absurdism