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Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a movie or work of literature. 

The Search for Meaning  

Alpha Evelyn’s discovery of verse-jumping could have marked a major technological leap for humanity, allowing people to benefit from the skills and experiences of their alternative selves in other universes. Instead, the technology she develops results in her death and almost leads to the destruction of the multiverse. Alpha Joy becomes Jobu Tupaki when she is pushed too far in her training and her consciousness is divided across countless universes simultaneously. She experiences an infinite number of realities, as a new parallel universe is created with every choice she makes. As she learns to change reality around her, she reaches the pessimistic conclusion that nothing truly matters and there is no meaning in her life, nor in the lives of others. Distinctions such as “good or bad,” or “true or false,” hold no meaning for Jobu, as she now perceives reality as an infinite variety of different realities, and she can do, or be, anything she wants. When she brutally kills the security guards in the IRS office in Evelyn’s universe, her costume, makeup, and hairstyle change constantly, as do her fighting techniques, suggesting that she has lost all sense of her “true” self and no longer recognizes or cares about the consequences of her actions.  

Jobu adopts a deeply nihilistic attitude, rejecting the notion that there is any purpose or value in the universe. Because she thinks of life as inherently meaningless, she holds the lives of others in little regard, killing people for entertainment but still finding little satisfaction in it, because even these violent acts hold no meaning to her. The Everything Bagel, a dark void of pure destruction, serves as a fitting image for her nihilistic worldview. Jobu reveals that she created the Everything Bagel in order to end her own life and escape from an existence that she regards as pointless. After Evelyn verse-jumps extensively, she is briefly affected by Jobu’s pessimistic attitude and takes a savage glee in disrupting the lives of her various alternative selves, but she is pulled from the brink by Waymond’s firm belief in kindness. Ultimately, Everything Everywhere All at Once offers love, family, and positivity as a counter to Jobu’s nihilism.

Family Conflict and Resolution 

The Wangs are by no means a perfect and happy family, but their complex relationships, defined both by conflict and love, drive the story in Everything Everywhere All at Once. In her ordinary life, Evelyn struggles to connect with her daughter, Joy. Though she claims that she has accepted that Joy is in a long-term relationship with another woman, Becky, she is reluctant to introduce her own elderly father, Gong Gong, to Becky, claiming that he is from an older generation and could never understand Joy’s identity and choice in romantic partner. Evelyn is, in a way, stuck between generations. Years before Joy was born, Evelyn’s father could not understand her decision to marry Waymond, resulting in their long estrangement. Though Evelyn and Gong Gong are no longer estranged, she feels an enormous pressure to gain his approval, throwing an elaborate New Year’s Eve party at the laundromat to mark his trip to the United States and introducing Becky as Joy’s “friend,” an act that hurts Joy and drives a wedge between mother and daughter. Joy feels that Evelyn has used Gong Gong as an excuse, hoping to conceal her own discomfort with Joy’s same-sex relationship. Early on, the film illustrates that family can be the cause of conflict and pain. Evelyn has suffered as a result of her father’s inability to understand her, and now, she has unwittingly reproduced that unhealthy dynamic with her own daughter.  

Ultimately, however, the movie emphasizes the positive aspects of family. Though Evelyn might not always understand Joy, she nevertheless loves her deeply, and this love is central to the film’s conclusion. In Jobu, Evelyn recognizes Joy’s pain and despair. Instead of fighting Jobu, she decides to embrace this alternative version of her daughter, showing her the love and support that she has been unable to show Joy. The deep love between Evelyn and her daughter rescues Jobu from the brink of self-destruction and, in turn, saves the entire multiverse. Jobu, Evelyn realizes, has searched for her across the multiverse because she needs her mother’s support. Simultaneously, Evelyn realizes that she has failed to offer Joy the unconditional love that she so badly needs. Just as Evelyn saves Jobu from the Everything Bagel, so too does she repair her relationship with Joy. Even Gong Gong, in the final scenes of the film, seems to accept Becky as part of the family.  

The Futility of Regret  

Evelyn’s life is marked by regrets and doubts. She has had to put her ambitions, including her dream of being a professional singer, on the backburner as she addresses various personal and professional emergencies, and she struggles to find happiness in her hectic and mundane daily life. While helping customers in the laundromat, she is briefly captivated by a lush musical romance film, suggesting that she still longs for a different life, but she quickly returns to her tasks. At the IRS office, Waymond notes that Evelyn has attempted to pursue various career paths, such as writing a novel, becoming a singing coach, and serving as a masseuse, though she is unable to find success in any of these career fields.  

Evelyn, like many people, wonders if she has made the right choices in life. Unlike most people, however, Evelyn is able to see what her life would be like if she had taken another path when she is introduced to verse-jumping by Alpha Waymond. In another life, where she rejected Waymond in accordance with her father’s command, she is attacked by a thief and saved by a Kung Fu master, who trains her, spiritually and physically, in Kung Fu. In that universe, Evelyn becomes an actress and martial artist, and Evelyn is entranced by this vision of herself as a famous and successful woman. When she returns to her own life, she even tells a confused and hurt Waymond about what she has seen, suggesting that, at this point in the film, she regrets the choices that have led to her current life.  

Alpha Waymond, however, warns Evelyn that she cannot give into the temptation offered by her alternative lives, as this would invite chaos into the multiverse. Nevertheless, she continues to be tempted by these visions, including universes where she is an opera singer and a teppanyaki chef. Ultimately, however, Evelyn’s experiences navigating the multiverse underscore the futility of regret and hindsight. In the universe where she is an actress, she meets a wealthy and successful Waymond who expresses his own regrets, claiming that he would rather live a humble life with Evelyn than a prosperous life without her. Everyone, the movie suggests, wonders about their own choices and imagines that they might have been happier if they had undertaken a different path in life. Evelyn learns that she must move forward and embrace the life that she has with Waymond and Joy.  

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