The surreal sci-fi antics of Everything Everywhere All at Once introduced audiences to a bunch of alternate universes, including one where raccoons can cook and another where everybody has hot dog fingers. Everything Everywhere All at Once revolves around laundromat owner Evelyn, who on one of the most mundane days of her life – involving an IRS audit – is launched into an action-packed interdimensional adventure that will decide the fate of the multiverse. Along the way, Evelyn visits a wild array of alternate realities, ranging from exhilarating to utterly bizarre.
Everything Everywhere All at Once was one of the biggest surprise hits of 2022. It received a ceremony-best 11 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, and became the first A24 movie to gross more than $100 million (via Variety). Written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively credited as Daniels, Everything Everywhere All at Once mashes up genres, including family drama, absurdist comedy, mind-bending sci-fi, and martial arts action. Everything Everywhere All at Once explores almost as many genres as it does universes. Here's a list of the latter.
12 Evelyn’s Universe
The Evelyn that the movie follows is the most average and unspectacular version of the character. She doesn't star in movies or put on concerts or make scientific discoveries; she does laundry and taxes. Alpha Waymond tells her he’s seen thousands of Evelyns, and she’s the worst in the multiverse: “You have so many goals you never finished, dreams you never followed. You’re living your worst you.” This makes her perfect for the task at hand because she’s a blank slate, free to absorb all the best powers and abilities of her other selves in the battle against Jobu Tupaki.
11 The Alphaverse
The Alphaverse is the central universe where alternate dimensions were first mapped out and the verse-jumping ability was invented. When EEAAO's Alpha Evelyn discovered the multiverse, her experiments unwittingly turned Alpha Joy into the villainous Jobu Tupaki. In the quest to stop her from destroying the multiverse with a cosmic bagel, Alpha Waymond verse-jumps into Evelyn Prime's universe to recruit her for the battle. Although the movie doesn’t confirm it, it’s possible that the Alphaverse was the original universe from which all the other timelines and realities have been spun off since the beginning of time.
10 A Near-Identical Universe To Evelyn’s
When Jobu Tupaki’s goons first attack Evelyn, and she attempts to verse-jump to pick up some useful abilities, she only makes it to a very similar universe to her own. The only difference between this universe and the one she comes from is that, here, her IRS audit by the unlikable EEAAO character Deirdre isn’t interrupted by a multiversal adventure, and her day goes on as normal. In this universe, Evelyn has a breakdown and smashes up the laundromat with a baseball bat, signs Waymond’s divorce papers, and yells at Deirdre. But she also makes amends with everyone and convinces Joy to stay in the family.
9 The Hot Dog Finger Universe
One of the silliest universes in Everything Everywhere All at Once is almost the same as the prime universe, except humans evolved to have hot dogs for fingers. In this universe, Deirdre isn’t auditing Evelyn as an IRS agent; she's her live-in romantic partner. Evelyn uses this universe to support her heartwarming theory that there’s “always something to love,” one of Everything Everywhere All at Once’s best quotes. In a world where humans are cursed with hot dogs for fingers, they do more with their feet. In spite of her floppy, ludicrous hot dog fingers, Deirdre learns to play beautiful music on the piano with her toes.
8 The Rock Universe
During one of Evelyn and Jobu Tupaki’s interdimensional fights, the movie falls silent as they end up in a universe where intelligent life never formed on Earth. In this universe, Evelyn and Jobu appear as rocks and speak to each other in subtitled dialogue. Jobu tells Evelyn that most universes are like this, and it’s very peaceful. These rocks speaking to each other with on-screen subtitles make for a great minimalist visual gag, although the rocks have some of the saddest lines in Everything Everywhere All at Once. The rocks start moving in stop-motion animation as Evelyn tries to embrace her corrupted daughter, and Jobu resists.
7 The Animated Universes
From Space Jam to Enchanted to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, animated alternate realities are a staple of interdimensional movies. There are a couple of cartoon dimensions with different styles of animation in the multiverse of Everything Everywhere All at Once in addition to the stop-motion animation with the googly-eyed rocks. One briefly glimpsed universe is animated in a slick anime style, and in one surprising break during a fight montage, the characters turn into crude, childlike, hand-drawn doodles.
6 The Martial Arts Movie Star Universe
This version of Evelyn is a lot like the actor who plays her in EEAAO, Michelle Yeoh. In this universe, after being saved from muggers by a kung fu master, Evelyn became a student of this master and trained to become a similarly skilled martial artist. This allows Evelyn Prime to absorb her fighting abilities. Not only is this Evelyn a badass martial arts master; she used those skills to become a beloved movie star in the martial arts genre. The montage of her Hollywood career features a lot of red-carpet footage of Yeoh herself at the premieres of her previous movies.
5 The Sign Spinner Universe
Not all the alternate universes in Everything Everywhere All at Once have Evelyn leading a much more exciting life than the one consisting of laundry and taxes. One of the Evelyn variants in EEAAO spends her days twirling a sign outside a pizza restaurant. The movie doesn’t spend a lot of time in this universe. It’s unclear if this Evelyn is married to Waymond, or whether she had Joy in this world. She might own the pizzeria she’s advertising, or she might just work there. This universe gives Evelyn Prime the ability to beat up a henchman with his own riot shield.
4 The Singer Universe
While looking at the receipts Evelyn has submitted for tax deductions, Deirdre condescendingly suggests that she must be a professional singer because she wants to have a karaoke machine written off. As it turns out, in an alternate universe, Evelyn actually is a professional singer. This is yet another universe in which Evelyn became famous and successful. The blind opera singer Evelyn can be seen on-stage at a concert, performing to a huge crowd. Evelyn Prime's verse-jumping fights in EEAAO (which almost involved Jackie Chan) occasionally bump into the singer’s world and knock her off her performance.
3 The Maid Universe
In one of Everything Everywhere All at Once’s alternate realities, Evelyn works as a maid at the IRS office. She knows that one of the executives at the IRS has a secret sex room in his office because she vacuums it. It’s unclear if Waymond is a part of Evelyn’s life in this universe, or if she had a daughter here. When she’s fighting Jobu Tupaki’s henchmen with love, not hate, and verse-jumps into their original realities to make their lives better, she takes this executive to his secret sex room.
2 The Raccaccoonie Universe
Trying to recall the name of Pixar’s Ratatouille, Evelyn misremembers the plot and thinks it’s about a culinarily gifted raccoon, not a rat. As a result, in one of Everything Everywhere All at Once's best Easter eggs, she mistakenly thinks the title is Raccaccoonie. In one of the movie's many alternate universes, Raccaccoonie becomes a reality. In this universe, Evelyn works as a chef at a teppanyaki restaurant and learns that one of her co-workers has a raccoon under his hat pulling his hair to do his work for him. The fact that Evelyn’s misremembered Pixar movie has its own universe hammers home that anything is possible in the multiverse.
1 Every Other Briefly Seen Universe
While there are many prominent alternate universes seen in Everything Everywhere All at Once, a great many others show up very briefly in montages and other quick glimpses. Here is every one of these barely identifiable universes and Evelyn variants, where discernibly distinct:
- Piñata Evelyn Universe
- Cremated Evelyn - Moving Urn Universe
- Cat Evelyn Universe
- Bleeding Eyes Evelyn Universe
- Toxic Air Universe
- Lizard Evelyn Universe
- Bald & Bearded Evelyn Universe
- Priest Evelyn Universe
- Nun Evelyn Universe
- Skeleton Nun Evelyn Universe
- Face-Tattooed Nun Evelyn Universe
- Celestial Evelyn Universe
- Statue Evelyn Universe
- Baby Evelyn Universe
- Goatee Male Evelyn Universe
- Purple-Haired Evelyn Universe
- Tree Evelyn Universe
- Blonde Short-Haired Evelyn Universe
- Blonde With Cigarette Evelyn Universe
- Grapes Evelyn Universe
- Afro Evelyn Universe
- Dog Evelyn Universe
- Alien Evelyn Universe
- Straight Hair & Bangs Evelyn Universe
- Conical Hat Evelyn Universe
- Zoom Meeting Evelyn Universe
- Cold Evelyn Snowy Universe
- Painting Evelyn Universe
- Masked Evelyn Universe
- Floating Evelyn Face Universe
- Glasses Evelyn Universe
- Green Lipstick Evelyn Universe
- Easter Egg Evelyn Universe