Media Analysis – Everything Everywhere All At Once

Everything Everywhere All at Once is a sci-fi movie which was released in March of 2022. This movie is directed and written by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who are collectively known as Daniels. Everything Everywhere All at Once (EEAAO) is centered around Evelyn Wang, a Chinese American immigrant in her 50s who is stressed and frustrated by her life. Her life changes drastically when she encounters the multiverse. This movie is known for its absurdness and silliness. There are sausage fingers, a bagel, googly eyes and conversation between two rocks to name a few. Also, this movie is perfect for anyone who is looking for costume ideas for Halloween. Although it is science fiction, throughout the movie, it covers a variety of genres such as comedy, action, drama, fantasy, and romance. Along with genres, it covers a wide range of themes such as individuality, parenthood, generational trauma, family etc.

Move 1: The most interesting thing about this movie is that it is not like the multiverse movies we have been seeing. It doesn’t just solely focus on the concept of multiverse, there is family drama, social issues and a wide range of emotions involved.

Move 2: When Evelyn is in the IRS office, the IRS officer points out all the business spending she has done as a singer, novelist, and many other professions which she is not. All of these represent the aspirations Evelyn had and in some of the universe she achieved these aspirations. For example, in one universe, she is a blind opera singer and in another, she is a film star. In all the universes, Evelyn has different adversities and advantages, she is lacking something everywhere which shows that we can never have a “perfect” life. In the alpha universe (the universe that invented verse jumping), there is a version of Joy (Evelyn’s daughter) whose name is Jobu Tupaki. Jobu can feel what all the other Joys in different universes feel. She feels everything everywhere all at once. She created the “everything bagel” which is a big black bagel that’s like a black hole. she believes that nothing matters because she has felt every universe and there are always problems and not a perfectly peaceful life. So, Jobu wants to go inside the bagel and destroy herself. This is a representation of what Joy has been doing to herself. Waymond is an optimistic person who is always positive and kind to others which Evelyn sees as naivety and despises him. But for Waymond, it’s a way of survival and how he chooses to live despite all the adversities. All the chaos in the multiverse ties into the subject of how we should live the life we have freely instead of thinking of other possibilities and making ourselves feel unworthy.

Move 3: There is a lot of symbolism in EEAAO. The everything bagel and the googly eyes together represent the concept of yin and yang. The everything bagel sucks everything into nothingness whereas the googly eyes represent the enlightenment of Evelyn when she realizes that love and compassion is the solution to survive in the chaos of life. Googly eyes is all over the movie There is a moment where the audience can see, in flashes, many other versions of Evelyn. However, the audience doesn’t get to know about these versions except for just a snippet of what the version looks like. This just shows the many possibilities without going in depth. Also, there are scenes with references to other movies such as “In the mood for love” and “Ratatouille”. The most unique part is that for the narrative of the film star Evelyn, they used real red carpet clips of the actress Michelle Yeoh who plays Evelyn. 

Move 4: There is so much going on in this movie that there is something for everyone. In this sense, everyone can relate to something in this movie and target a larger number of audiences. Since there is a lot going on, some audiences might get confused and miss some important details. A person could also be encouraged to watch the movie again several times just to comprehend all the details. In addition, it really depends on the audience how they interpret this movie. Some people might be caught up in the absurdness and idiotic things while other might be able to see through it and find some profound meaning. It looks like the creators intentionally made the movie absurd, silly, and ridiculous to prove that even though many things seem meaningless, we can give it our own meaning. This movie shows the struggles of human life which has a lot of layer to it, people get confused, frustrated, sad, happy, angry, depressed etc.

Move 5: Overall, Everything Everywhere All at Once is a movie that lives up to its title. There is so much going on that every single moment seems to have some meaning which should not be missed. The references to other movies and Michelle Yeoh’s real career show the creators’ admiration for these movies and the lead actress herself. That would also be meaningful for the people who are very familiar with these movies and the actress. Each character represents the different theme. Waymond represents kindness and love, the relationship between Joy, Evelyn and her father represents generational trauma. This cycle is broken by Evelyn when she comes to acceptance of who she is, her life and who her daughter is. She says to her Joy, “We can do whatever we want. Nothing matters.” The idea here is to not give up on life but also to not confine ourselves with expectations, regrets and not be lost in thought of what ifs.