Before, All at Once.
Warning: This movie contains spoilers for “Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)”, alongside a few mentions of “Before Sunrise (1995)”. Please do watch the movie(s) before reading this piece!
One of human’s most basic of programming, I think, is the desire for us to explore; be it exploring this world, the universe, and our place in it. The voices in our head that pushes us to understand the unknown, the unrevealed, and the untold is a familiar sensation that all of us would share in common.
Daniels’ “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is an attempt by the directors (and its writers’) to make sense of this mystery, about the uni(multi)verse and how we fit in the grand scheme of things. The movie entails the story of Evelyn Quan Wang, a women of Chinese-descent who is running a laundromat with her husband, Waymond, before she descents into a struggle for the fate of the Multiverse.
The movie is extremely complex, filled by scenes that would make your eyes and brain ache (for one reason or another). It’s also a movie that is full of depth, with a number of different stories playing concurrently. Yet behind all of the mind-blogging visuals and edits, the movie is extremely simple in its messaging and themes, many of which would make you bawl out and cry in the theater, over and over again.
And that’s why, despite all of its complexity and intricacy, the movie reminds me of another film, one that is almost completely different to EEAAO: Before Sunrise (and the Before Trilogy, as a whole).
If you had watched both of these movies, it may come to your attention that EEAAO and Before Sunrise are two extremely contrasting movies.
EEAAO is a movie that operates on a very high-concept, illustrating the different branches of multiverse and how a single choice and action (no matter how small it is) would create different outcomes of your life. It covers the many varying possibilities that our universe could have been; ranging from one where Evelyn still continues her laundromat business, to one in which became a chef, to one where everyone has sausage for hands, and even one where life never materialised on earth.
This is in contrary with Before Sunrise, a movie that entails the story of two strangers who met in a train, before they decide to spend the night together, talking about life, the universe, and the relationship that we form as human being. The movie makes us accompany both of the main characters, Jesse and Celine, while they visit a variety of different places in Vienna — be it landmarks or even places as simple as a Cafe — in their journey.
Before Sunrise is very simple and straightforward, and it’s very low-concept in its execution too.
Yet despite its difference in concepts and execution, what unites the two movies in my eyes is that both are extremely intimate films, focused on answering a basic question that has plagued humanity for so long:
“Why were we placed here, on this rock in the middle of nowhere, and what are we meant to do in this very moment?”
The question posited above is extremely simple, and it’s used in almost all movies. It’s one of the simplest question that a movie could ask, because it’s the main contention that pushes this world’s population to progress and persevere to this day.
That’s why we study, that’s why we work, and that’s why we survive.
The need to find meaning and purpose is an essential piece and puzzle that humans try to acknowledge through our very own actions everyday. It’s the reason why I’m writing this piece right now, and it’s probably the reason as to why you’re reading this piece too.
This is the basis of philosophy, ethics, traditions, and (to an extent) even Religion; and that’s because answering the puzzle that is our existence would also unlock the other mysteries that confounds us.
Because understanding why we exist would also answer how should we exist.
One of the main thesis of EEAAO is a human’s basic need of connection, no matter how powerful, a person (or being) is.
This thesis is best demonstrated by motivation that is held by its “antagonist”, Jobu Topaki, or the Alphaverse Version of Evelyn’s daughter, Joy Wang.
Joy’s sole motivation in the movie was not that she wanted to take over the Multiverse, or destroy it. What drives her to scour and wreak havoc across different realities is just simply to find a version of Evelyn that could understand her.
Joy wanted to find a version of Evelyn who could relate to her new-found struggle: the understanding that the vast amount of possibilities that the universe offers also entails that nothing that we do matter, because that very same infinite possibilities means that we’re not important — that you’re just another version of you living another life, one maybe as just as painful as the others.
That’s why she set out to die — and find an Evelyn that would accompany her in that feat.
And this is when the movie places its first possible answer for the question I posited above: maybe our existence is without answer, that it’s meaningless. That all of the burdens that had haunted us in our dreams and mind are not all that important, which would in turn make all of the heart-wrenching decisions we were forced to take insignificant.
Joy: “Every New Discovery Is Just A Reminder…”
Evelyn: “We’re All Small And Stupid.”
This realization of insignificance hurts Evelyn just as much as it had hurt Joy, because the Evelyn that acts as the protagonist was describes to be living “the worst” life of all the Evelyns in the universe.
She had a lot of goals, dreams, and aspirations — none of which would bear any fruit. And that question of “what if” puts a strain on her and how she views her connection with other people and especially her family.
The realization especially tested the connection that she had with her husband (Waymond), because she chose him over her family. For her, it all of the heartache that she had experienced since that decision was for naught, that the choice was (to crudely describe) “unrewarding”.
She agreed to divorce (and stabs) him, because she claims that her life is “so much more beautiful” without him.
She could have been rich and famous (as she was in another universe), yet in her reality they’re both stuck managing a failing laundry.
Evelyn and Joy, with all their power and knowledge, feel pain in knowing the infinite possibilities of life, but I think that this agony is not an exclusive pain that aches both of them only; I think that it’s a pain that we share altogether.
We’ve all had doubts about our lives, and we’ve all asked “what if” to ourselves when live had not turned out the way we wanted it to be. And this strains the way we perceive others around us, and ourselves too.
Just as Evelyn perceived Waymond as a “mistake” in her life, I think that there is a room in which we’ve complemented the connections that we’ve made with others, and how that aforementioned connection had impacted us in our very own personalized path.
There has to be people that we’ve regretted letting into our lives — and there are those that had turned into blessing for ours.
The question that plagues a number of us is: are we counted as the blessings, or are we the regrets?
Does anyone see me in the same way Evelyn (for a few minutes) see Waymond?
But even if we’re blessings, a new question arises. For an ordinary guy like me, who does not, in any metric, has anything that makes sets himself apart from anyone else in the world, we kept on asking:
Would people still want me around when they realize that they don’t really need me in their life anymore?
And personally, there’s just that innate fear that I have.
Is it true that people only tolerate me around not because of who I am?
Maybe, I’m only kept around because of a specific need, whatever it may be, and I’ll be left hanging when that’s fulfilled by alternatives, when they realize that there are others that could give the things that I could offer them — Just without me.
And that’s probably a net positive for them. Just like how Evelyn viewed Waymond after the realization sets in.
The idea of connection also persists throughout Before Sunrise (it’s probably what the entire movie is about), as the movie sets out to explore how two individuals who were previously strangers forms a bond together.
As Jesse and Celine wander around the city of Vienna, it becomes quite clear that the film is establishing Celine as an idealist — a romantic, someone who sees the beauty in life and in relationships.
“Isn’t everything we do in life just a way to be loved a little more?”
The quote above, uttered by Celine, is one that truly resonates with me, because it’s true.
In essence, we do the things that we do because we crave attachment. We seek it because we realize that it’s one of the few things that actually would give us something permanent in this ever-changing world: memories.
Memories stays with us forever, irrespective of us being conscious of it or not. The way we think, the movies that we loved, the types of books that we read, or even things as menial as how we eat our food — are all results of memories, bonds, and attachments with people whom we once shared a moment with in this flying rock, regardless on how the moments were shared.
I’ve loved listening to music ever since I was young, and my very first memories of loving it was listening to my mother sang me to bedtime when I was a toddler. I’ve been fond of comics and manga since the early age, and that’s due to my sister’s huge collections of books.
Yet I’ve also started writing and arranging words when I was young , and I never truly remembered when I started, and who truly influenced me to start writing.
I’ve even adapted many of my father’s traits, unconsciously, only to realize it after people pointed it out to me.
I’m an amalgamation of connections that I once had, or continue to share — and I will keep on shifting and changing, with more connections that I will make in the future.
And this is probably what Celine was pointing too: we need to feel and be loved for us to be able to find ourselves.
Everything Everywhere and Before Sunrise’s theme eventually overlaps beautifully in the final act of the movie, when the pessimistic and absurdist tone of the shifts due to Waymond and his attempt to connect once more with Evelyn. Rewatching the scene, I was reminded of these particular words that came out of Celine’s mouth in Before Sunrise:
“If there’s any kind of magic in this world it must be in the attempt of understanding someone sharing something. I know, it’s almost impossible to succeed but who cares really? The answer must be in the attempt.”
Waymond’s action in the very final act, in which he attempted to communicate with Evelyn despite the fact that he was stabbed and confused, is a profound way to tell the audience about how the second of question should be answered: we should live kindly, irrespective of the reasons for our existence.
As Waymond says it: it costs you nothing to kind.
This perspective that Waymond hold is opposite to Joy and Evelyn’s.
When both Joy and Evelyn realizes that nothing matters, it makes them question whether or not what they’ve been doing throughout their lives and worth it or not. Waymond instead sees that life, no matter how it treats you, is worth to be strived for, and to be kind while traversing our very own journeys.
Because that’s just how we are able to survive without being consumed by the regrets and “what-ifs” that clouds our minds everyday.
“When I choose to see the good side of things, I’m not being naive. It is strategic and necessary. It’s how I’ve learned to survive through anything.”
Only through Waymond’s warming words then Evelyn would also understand, that she should not feel guilt for all her failures and missed dreams— because Waymond never felt sorrow for all of his missed opportunities, as long as he is with her.
He feels happy with Evelyn, despite them only going around in circles, and even if all that they do is just managing laundry and taxes.
His love for her, literally, traversed through time and space.
This nuance would be transferred by Evelyn to Joy too, as she rebukes Joy’s feeling of being disappointment, that Evelyn would be better off without Joy in her life.
Joy: “Here all we get are a few specks of time where any of this actually makes sense.”
Evelyn: “Then I will cherish these few specks of time.”
For Evelyn, it didn’t matter anymore if the world was not always good to them. All it mattered for her was that there are going to be times when they’re going to be happy, and that’s more than enough.
Even in the very worst versions of ourselves, where we feel that we are unlovable, there is always a side of us that’s more than worthy to be loved by someone, and moments when we can feel happy and content.
We just have to be kind, waiting for those specific moments and someone.
We may not be placed in the world for a specific purpose, and that may be a question that haunts our species for the rest of our existence — but that does matter?
The fact that we exist in the very first place is a blessing — and so are the connections we made with others, irrespective of any outcomes.
