Everything Everywhere All At Once
By Madeline Duarte | August 8, 2022
“In the tumult of modernity, both the ability to calmly and non-defensively “just be” in the moment and the capacity to sustain a sense of fantastic awe seem increasingly rare. Yet both may be seeds for resilient but flexible trees of meaning, which can stand immortal atop the bones that continue to accumulate beneath our feet”.
Daniel Sullivan, Spee Kosloff, Jeff Greenberg (2013)
CHOICE OVERLOAD
One phenomenon everything everywhere all at once explores is the consequences of choice overload in modern society, with the presence of endless probable life-paths and their potential to contradict meaning. As creatures with a unique sense of self, humans rely on meaning-based value systems to psychologically survive in the face of inevitable mortality. In today’s world, choice is abundant, whether it be which university to attend, which career path to take, which partner to commit to, or which brand of tortilla chips to eat, “leaving individuals largely on their own in the attempt to select a purpose in life from among the options society provides.”2
While the concept of choice seems attractive, psychologists have hypothesized this abundance of choice may have adverse consequences, including “decrease in the motivation to choose, to commit to a choice, or to make any choice at all… a decrease in preference strength and satisfaction with the chosen option… and an increase in negative emotions, including disappointment and regret”.5 This overwhelmed reaction to choice is portrayed in the elevator scene in which Waymond switches to his alphaverse form and puts the verse-jumping ear pieces on Evelyn sending her into a sped up play-by-play of every choice she has ever made to lead her to this moment. You watch as she says yes to Waymond after he proposes they leave for the United States, and witness her parents declaring she is no longer their daughter. You watch as they open their laundromat, and she realizes she’s pregnant. Flash forward and you see her daughter Joy telling her to essentially fu** off, then she receives a phone call about her sick father, which all leads her back to the present moment. All of these moments were a consequence of the decisions Evelyn made in her life, revealing the at-times crushing weight of choice. As Waymond tries to enroll Evelyn in saving the multiverse he says “I know you Evelyn. With every passing moment you fear you may have missed your chance to make something of your life,” pointing to the universal feeling of what could have been.
The overwhelming knowledge that every choice you have ever made has led you to where you are now could drive someone mad without a sense of purpose and meaning in their life. The utter randomness of the film itself screamed against a perfectly organized and cohesive paper. Just as the film asks of you to hold tight as it bounces from universe to universe, I ask that you hold tight as we bounce from section to section. In the end it will all make sense (hopefully). Let’s begin.
THE SHIFT FROM JOY TO JOBU
As a queer first-generation in her twenties, Joy represents the crucial stage in Erikson’s eight stages of development in which one transitions from identity discovery to the choice between intimacy and isolation. In forming her identity, Joy experiences a sense of despair, of wanting to give up and give in to the dark hole of nothingness. As Jobu, despite being depicted as the evil villain, her initial mission was to show her mother the darkness of the everything bagel, the feeling of nothingness and oblivion that she felt. Touching heavily on generational trauma, and the impact of endless expectations put on offspring, Joy’s relationship with her mother represents the dark side of the biosocial mode of Lifton’s modes of death transcendence. This mode encapsulates the sense that the things you value and believe are being passed down through your children.
Under the pressures of her mother’s expectations to absorb every possible lifetime in the alphaverse, as Gong Gong explains “you saw her potential so you pushed her past her limit”, Joy bursts into every single universe at once, becoming Jobu, the villain of the multiverse. Even the decision to give Joy her name can be symbolic for the biosocial mode of death transcendence, as her parents put the expectation of happiness into their child’s mere existence. Joy goes on to contradict her name’s essence by becoming Jobu Tubaki, destroyer of the multiverse. Symbolizing the modern challenge of endless sources of meaning combined with the problem of choice overload, Jobu mocks those who defend their worldview, as she knows the truth, that nothing actually matters. “Individuals in modern society receive less guidance regarding right and wrong and are more likely to find themselves uncertain of whether their actions are morally justifiable, as compared to past generations whose religion gave them a sense of universal moral certainty. This value gap is likely to present the greatest challenge to the search for meaning going forward”.5 Jobu holds this endless uncertainty in the form of existing in every single universe all at once, creating the ultimate contradiction of truths, leaving her void of any meaning.
THE DUALITY OF COUNTERFACTUAL THINKING
Joy witnessing Evelyn’s dissatisfaction with her own life puts an unspoken pressure on Joy to be the model child and make her parent’s choices and sacrifices worthwhile. “Counterfactual thinking, which juxtaposes reality against a hypothetical universe, is an essential feature of healthy cognitive and social functioning and also a ubiquitous part of life”,4 so to put the blame on Evelyn for not actively choosing her life and the impact that had on Joy would be unfair. However, it is still important to understand the consequences of both upward and downward counterfactual thinking and the impact of regret on parent-child relationships. As Evelyn jumps from universe to universe, playing with the concept of counterfactual thinking by placing her in all of the possibilities of her life, she initially resents her “real” life, and goes so far as to tell Waymond how amazing her life would have been if she had never married him. Jobu represents the outcome of not actively choosing the life you have, and the impact that has on your family.
The film takes this alternate life-path on as it catapults Evelyn into many lifetimes where she makes choices different from the one she’s in, and in all of those lifepaths there is no Joy. This regret of one’s life but attachment to the outcome of their life path (children) is a tough spot to explore. In the scene where she is watching the premiere of her martial arts film and runs in to Waymond, he says to her “for what it’s worth, I would have been happy with a life of doing laundry and taxes with you”, causing Evelyn to reevaluate her priorities and expectations in her life- what really matters? Success and approval? Or love and connection? Counterfactual thinking is a slippery slope if one believes they would be happier with different life circumstances, as happiness is connected to meaning, and as the film reveals, nothing really matters unless you make it matter. Evelyn understands this in the end when she says to Joy, “of all the places I could be, I just want to be here, with you”. After having experienced every alternate life-path, she realizes what matters most to her- her family. She realized the contradiction of wanting a different life and loving the people in her life, and decided to let go of the part of herself with one foot always out the door. Beyond all of the expectations we have for ourselves, what truly matters most is love and connection.
CREATION OF THE EVERYTHING BAGEL
“Existing in a state of meaninglessness is tantamount to being in an “existential vacuum,” an inner emptiness that lacks a meaning worth living for”.1 This existential vacuum is represented by Jobu Tubaki’s creation of the everything bagel- the ultimate worldview threat. She explains, “You see, when you really put everything on a bagel, it becomes this → the truth → nothing matters. It feels nice doesn’t it, if nothing matters, then all the pain and guilt you feel from making nothing of your life, goes away… sucked into a bagel”. This pain and guilt Jobu speaks of points to the existential feeling of making a choice in a world of endless choices, and attaching to meaning when you know nothing matters. As she bounces between lifetimes and experiences, she realizes things just happen, and none of these things intrinsically mean anything. A huge distinction between modern society and societies of the past is the presence of religion as a unifying mode of meaning and morality. The importance of religion has declined in modern years, leaving society in its place to provide meaning to its members. As Crescioni and Baumeister explain in their piece, The Four Needs for Meaning, the Value Gap, and How (and Whether) Society Can Fill the Void, “Society provides little guidance regarding how to choose among the many possible goals… leaving individuals largely on their own in the attempt to select a purpose in life from among the options society provides”.2 This “on your own-ness” they speak of is represented in Jobu’s isolation of existing everywhere all at once, and calls to the duality of Erickson’s intimacy and isolation as she dreams of someone else experiencing what she experiences.
The transition from Joy to Jobu, and the threat of Jobu to enter the everything bagel leading to the destruction of self, speaks to the depression and suicidal thoughts that accompany perceived burdensomeness and alienation. “The interpersonal-psychological theory of suicidal behavior theory asserts that when people hold [these] two specific psychological states in their minds simultaneously, and when they do so for long enough, they develop the desire for death”.3 Joy’s experience of perceived burdensomeness could be sourced to the multiple points in her life where she disappointed her mother, with the biggest moment being her coming in to her queer identity. In the beginning of the film, you can see how distressed Evelyn is by the fact that Joy has a girlfriend, avoiding the conversation surrounding whether Becky is invited to their Chinese new year party. When Gong Gong asks who Becky is, Evelyn explains that she is a good friend, ultimately dismissing any acceptance of her daughter’s identity. In the flashbacks Evelyn experiences of her life in the elevator, you can see Joy in her teenage years yelling and fighting with Evelyn, creating a sense of disconnect and disappointment. As the film transitions to the alphaverse version of Evelyn and Joy, Gong Gong explains how Evelyn put too much pressure on Joy to become everything, causing her to completely shatter into every universe at once, leaving her isolated and lonely. In her loneliness, she decided to put everything on a bagel, creating the ultimate threat to the uniquely humanistic psychological survival strategy of meaning. The distinction here is that she experienced this threat alone- eliminating the one aspect of human existence that is constant for creating meaning- connection. She even alludes to this in her hopes to show her mother how she feels, the desperation and disconnect she experiences in every waking moment.
Those who are depressed and suicidal crave connection, but this is easier said than done when you believe you are a burden, and that you are alienated from those around you. I witnessed the deterioration of my own brother as he denied himself the lifesaving experience of connection, believing it would only further confirm his mindset that he was nothing but a problem, leading to his own suicide. Evelyn’s commitment to “becoming like” Jobu rather than defeating her was an ode to the parent trying to understand their child in the grips of depression and meaninglessness, even as they push you away and tell you to leave them be. The scene of Jobu walking towards the center of the bagel, and her entire family linking arms to keep her alive was a heartwarming, and for me, heartbreaking, visualization of the power of love and connection despite meaninglessness and desperation. It screamed to the audience that sure, nothing matters to the human in isolation, but a human connected to their loved ones can find meaning in the mere experience of feeling seen, and held.
THE GOOGLY EYE VS THE EVERYTHING BAGEL
A huge piece of symbolism throughout the film is that of googly eyes, which Evelyn complains about in the laundromat as she is trying to find a customer’s clean clothes and finds two googly eyes stuck to the bag by Waymond. Her obvious annoyance toward him represents her inability to validate playfulness, as she remains compulsively preoccupied with staying busy so as to not have to face the reality that she is unsatisfied with her life. Waymond, on the other hand, is shown repeatedly finding joy in small moments throughout the film. On the security cameras, while Evelyn is complaining about how she has to fix everything since Raymond is too nice for his own good, you can see Waymond dancing along with one of the customers to a song from the jukebox. When criticized for his kindness by Evelyn, Waymond responds with “when I choose to see the good side of things, I’m not being naive. It is strategic and necessary. It is how I learned to survive through everything”. Countless times throughout the film, you witness the receptiveness of the world to Waymond’s acts of kindness. One example is Waymond bringing homemade cookies to the IRS agent, Deirdre, despite her relentlessness in rendering their business illegitimate, leading to a second chance to re-file their taxes and avoid being charged with fraud and gross negligence.
To be a googly eye in a world of everything bagels speaks to the contradiction between appreciating little things and collapsing everything into nothingness. The two symbolically contradict each other as the googly eye is a black hole surrounded by light while the burnt bagel is a hole of light surrounded by darkness. Breaking that symbolism down even further, the googly represents knowing nothing matters (the dark pupil in the center) and surrounding yourself with light despite knowing nothing matters. The white part of the googly eye represents creating your light and sharing it with others (as he places them randomly about the building with the intention of making people smile). The everything bagel, on the other hand, represents a much grimmer mode of existing and speaks heavily to the depressed and suicidal soul. The light in the center of the bagel represents the soul wanting to feel connected to meaning, as Jobu herself craves a companion in her nothingness. The darkness surrounding the center of the bagel represents all of the contradictions, the heartbreaks, the disappointments, the confusion, well, it represents everything. The everything bagel as a whole represents the soul-crushing experience of everything all at once if one faces it without any sense of meaning and connection.
PLEASE, BE KIND
“The only thing I do know is that we have to be kind. Please, be kind. Especially when we don’t know what’s going on”-Waymond. Everything Everywhere All At Once calls to the experience of despair many of us are engulfed in surrounding the state of our world. With the rise of capitalism, residential mobility, and globalization alongside continuing intergroup violence and environmental uncertainty, traditional meaning systems are increasingly drawn into question, and our ability to experience awe at the more wondrous aspects of existence potentially fades”.6 Waymond presents the only solution he can to all of this: kindness. As Evelyn shifts from Jobu’s tactics of pessimistic nihilism to Waymond’s tactics of optimistic nihilism, you see the birth of meaning and connection take over the film. In the final fighting scene in the IRS office, where all of the alphaverse characters are attempting to defeat Evelyn, you watch as she takes what she knows about each person, and uses her kindness to distract them. Spraying her perfume in the face of the man from the laundromat who said she smells just like his wife used to smell, stops him from killing her. Proclaiming to Deirdre “You are not unlovable. There is always something to love. Even in a stupid, stupid universe where we have hot dogs for fingers, we get very good with our feet” stops Deirdre from smashing a metal club in to her face. Evelyn risks everything, every universe, every possible lifetime, to understand her daughter, revealing how important feeling seen, feeling heard, and feeling understood is to the well-being of our kind. Reminding people of their uniqueness, what brings them joy, what makes them feel connected is the only constant we have in this messy, confusing, meaningless world. Everything Everywhere All At Once stands as a reminder of this for anyone who loses sight.
Madeline Duarte is a twenty four-year old student at the University of Arizona studying Psychology and Gender and Women’s Studies. She is fascinated by all things existential, and seeks to merge the wisdom of gender studies and psychology for a more inclusive understanding of human behavior. She spends her free time writing, experimenting with music, and envisioning alternate futures. Having lost her brother to suicide at eighteen years of age, Madeline feels called to explore the human relationship with death.
REFERENCES
Cozzolino, P.J., Blackie, L.E.R. (2013). I Die, Therefore I Am: The Pursuit of Meaning in the Light of Death. In: Hicks, J., Routledge, C. (eds) The Experience of Meaning in Life. Springer, Dordrecht.
Crescioni, A.W., Baumeister, R.F. (2013). The Four Needs for Meaning, the Value Gap, and How (and Whether) Society Can Fill the Void. In: Hicks, J., Routledge, C. (eds) The Experience of Meaning in Life. Springer, Dordrecht.
Joiner, T. (2009, June). The interpersonal-psychological theory of suicidal behavior: Current empirical status. Psychological Science Agenda.
Kray, L. J., George, L. G., Liljenquist, K. A., Galinsky, A. D., Tetlock, P. E., & Roese, N. J. (2010). From what might have been to what must have been: counterfactual thinking creates meaning. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98(1), 106.
Scheibehenne, B., Greifeneder, R., & Todd, P. M. (2010). Can there ever be too many options? A meta-analytic review of choice overload. Journal of consumer research, 37(3), 409-425.
Sullivan, D., Kosloff, S., Greenberg, J. (2013). A Terror Management Perspective on the Creation and Defense of Meaning. In: Hicks, J., Routledge, C. (eds) The Experience of Meaning in Life. Springer, Dordrecht.