“Everything Everywhere All At Once” is an award-winning movie directed by Daniel Schienert and Daniel Kwan, distributed by A24 Films entertainment company. It was released in April 2022, and quickly gained its well deserving popularity that resulted in it obtaining seven awards. Including Best Picture of the Academy Awards, Oscars for multiple actors featured in the film and for its direction. It’s clear that this movie is highly recognized for its craftsmanship but that begs the question: what makes “Everything Everywhere All At Once” such a favorite among movie enjoyers? One of the many, many reasons as to why are because of the themes present in the film, and the unique ways they’re represented. A main theme being generational trauma and the complicated relationship between a mother and daughter.
A short plot summary is as follows: Evelyn, a woman unsatisfied with her current life and rocky relationships with everyone around her, suddenly finds herself as a chosen warrior for the multi-verse. A mission to defeat the number one threat of the universe, Jobu Tupaki, is pushed upon her. During this journey of crazy experiences and unlocking fighting powers, Evelyn goes through personal growth as she starts to find beauty in her life and the people included in it. While Evelyn is depicted having distant relationships with her husband, parents and daughter, the main talking point will be between Evelyn and her daughter, Joy.
The main antagonist of the film is a character referred to as Jobu Tupaki, someone who was created in a different universe and can now materialize or destroy anything–or anyone–she pleases. Jobu uses these powers for mostly harm, but searches the various universes for the version of Evelyn who is able to travel the multi-verse just as she can. It may be important to note Jobu Tupaki and Joy are the same people. Jobu is all of the different Joys that exist, meaning that all versions of Evelyn are her mother. Jobu was originally created in an alternate reality where her mother experimented on her, pushing her limits and resulting in the gain of her powerful abilities.
Themes of generational trauma
Right away in the beginning of the film, the audience is shown Evelyn’s relationship dynamic between her family. Her marriage with her husband is on the verge of divorce, she carries the weight of her father’s disappointment in her through every interaction and there is an obvious lack of connection between her and Joy. These are mainly reflections of stress factors present in Evelyn’s life such as financial struggle and maintaining the family laundromat. Though, a major factor in her treatment of Joy being critical, dismissive and disrespectful comes from her own relationship with her father. Their dynamic has been estranged since her teenage years, with him expressing his constant disapproval of her. Even when she would run from home to start a life with her current husband, her father did not make an effort to stop her. Not only did Evelyn not have a supportive parent to look up to, she never learned the healthy ways of parenting–or even what that should look like. So, she parents Joy the way she’s ever been taught to and passes down the same patterns that drove her away from her father, just as Joy is doing now.
Joy and Evelyn’s relationship
The character of Jobu Tupaki represents Joy and the effect of having little connection with her mother has on her. Jobu’s whole philosophy is nihilism; she has seen everything one could imagine within all of the universes, and she comes to the conclusion that nothing matters. She sees no meaning in the world and creates a black hole for the purpose of everything to stop existing, along with herself. This reflects how Joy in the main timeline (“main” being the one that the plot mainly progresses on) struggles with depression and self-worth. Not to mention how Jobu’s mere existence was caused by Evelyn pushing Joy past her limits with expectations, which further shows Jobu’s symbolism.
Despite Jobu viewing existence as meaningless, she still searches for the elite version of her mother. Not to destroy her but to get her to view life in the same way that she does, which she does end up doing when she does find her. This shows how Joy still craves and desires that connection with Evelyn. Deep down she just wants her mom to finally see her, even after being rejected for a long while. Jobu does end up succeeding for a little while, Evelyn gets enchanted by the black hole Jobu created and begins to adopt the same carelessness seeing that nothing in the world matters. That is, until her husband indirectly alters her perspective into the belief of, “if life is meaningless then she’s able to create her own meaning.” These two perspectives Jobu sees as disconnection, and tries to get Evelyn back on her side again before giving up and choosing to stop herself from existing by walking into the black hole. Evelyn fights with her at first, but then finds that connection between them. She acknowledges the unpredictability, nonsense and sometimes pain that comes with living but expresses how she will always want to exist here in this universe with her, no matter how difficult it may be. This repairs all of the insecurity Jobu had regarding their relationship, and creates a domino effect of healing every single one of the Joys across the multi-verse. Thus, saving the entire universe with family reconciliation.
“Everything Everywhere All At Once” does an amazing job with portraying the effects of generational trauma, and lack of connection with such important figures like one’s parents–along with many other applicable themes and concepts. Watching the movie and having visual guides will definitely help with better understanding all of the metaphors, so I highly recommend doing so if you haven’t already! Family issues are unfortunately a fairly common struggle many people experience. The film directors and writers incorporating this relatable concept into the story provides comfort to many as it has for me.
