Synopsis

Evelyn Quan Wang was a middle-aged Chinese American immigrant who ran a laundromat with her husband, Waymond. They had eloped to the United States two decades prior and had a daughter, Joy. The laundromat was being audited by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Waymond was trying to serve Evelyn divorce papers. Evelyn’s demanding father was visiting for her Chinese New Year party.

Evelyn was reluctant to accept Joy’s lesbian relationship with her non-Chinese girlfriend Becky, and introduced her to her father as Joy’s “good friend”. At a meeting with the IRS inspector, Waymond’s body was taken over by Alpha-Waymond, a version of Waymond from the “Alphaverse”. Alpha-Waymond explained that many parallel universes exist and the Alphaverse had developed “verse-jumping” technology. The multiverse was now threatened by Jobu Tupaki, the Alphaverse version of Joy, whose mind had been splintered after Alpha-Evelyn pushed her to extensively verse-jump. Jobu had created a black hole-like “everything bagel” which could destroy the multiverse.

Evelyn was given verse-jumping technology to fight Jobu’s minions. She discovered other universes in which she had made different choices and flourished. She also learned of Waymond’s plans for divorce. Alpha-Waymond believed that Evelyn, as the greatest “failure” of all Evelyns in the multiverse, had the untapped potential to defeat Jobu.

Jobu revealed she had been searching for an Evelyn who could see, as she did, that nothing matters while killing the Evelyns that didn’t see as she did. She brought Evelyn to the everything bagel, explaining that she wanted to use it to allow herself and Evelyn to truly die. Upon looking into the bagel, Evelyn was persuaded and acted nihilistically in her other universes, hurting those around her.

As Evelyn was about to enter the bagel with Jobu, she paused to listen to Waymond’s pleas for everybody to be kind even when life doesn’t make sense. Evelyn had an existentialist epiphany and decided to follow Waymond’s advice, using her multiverse powers to find what hurts those around her and brings them happiness. In doing so, she repaired her damage in the other universes and neutralized Alpha-Gong Gong and Jobu’s fighters.

Critique

Evelyn Wang, a weary owner of a laundromat, is preparing for a meeting with an IRS auditor while trying to cook food for a Chinese New Year party that will live up to the high standards of her visiting father. Suddenly, she is visited by another version of her husband Waymond from the Alpha verse, and is thrust into a universe-hopping adventure that has her questioning everything she thought she knew about her life.

In the IRS office building in Simi Valley, Evelyn must battle IRS agent Diedre, a troop of security guards, and possibly everyone else she’s ever met. With the help of her husband, she embarks on a journey through the multiverse, discovering metaphysical wisdom along the way.

Michelle Yeoh gives a virtuoso performance as Evelyn, and is the anchor of the film. Her daughter Joy, played by Stephanie Hsu, is the lynchpin of the story, representing a growing generational divide. Through unconditional love, Evelyn and Waymond are able to reverse the compounding of generational trauma, and learn to cherish the moments of love and camaraderie.

In this love letter to genre cinema, the Daniels posit that chaos reigns and life may only ever make sense in fleeting moments, but it’s those moments we should cherish. Everything Everywhere All at Once is a reminder that sometimes these moments happen over time, and sometimes they happen all at once.