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The multiverse of movie madness!
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00:00As we've most recently seen mainly looking at Marvel movies, we know that everyone loves
00:05a bit of the multiverse. It's a very cool concept, the idea of there being so many infinite
00:09universes where there could be another us, maybe an even cooler us. In fact, most likely
00:14a much cooler us.
00:15But the point is that the multiverse doesn't start and end with Marvel, there's much more
00:19out there, and to that point there's much better out there. So if Doctor Strange just
00:23isn't hitting the mark for you, then we've got you covered. I'm Amy from WhatCulture
00:26and here are the 10 best multiverse movies ever.
00:2910. Spider- No Way Home
00:32It is impossible to discuss multiverse movies without bringing up by far the most commercially
00:36successful and zeitgeist-grabbing of them all, the MCU's Spider- No Way Home. Whilst certainly
00:41not a perfect movie, No Way Home proved how the multiverse could be harnessed to deliver
00:46massively crowd-pleasing fanservice by colliding three cinematic eras of Spider-Man into one
00:51single movie. The presences of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's Peter Parkers of course
00:56stole the show, though seeing the likes of Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin and Alfred
00:59Melina's Doc Ock in the mix was also a ton of fun. If introducing the multiverse to the
01:03MCU does feel a bit like opening Pandora's box, something the very messy Doctor Strange
01:08in the Multiverse of Madness seemed to prove, at least No Way Home made good on its fan-serving
01:12promises. Beyond the obvious nostalgic appeal of seeing Maguire and Garfield back in these
01:16roles alongside Tom Holland's Spider-Man, it also gave the two former Spider-Men a chance
01:20to say goodbye to these characters after their respective runs ended, and we've got to be
01:24happy for them there at least.
01:269. Donnie Darko
01:28Multiverse movies don't get much weirder than Donnie Darko, one of the definitive cult
01:32classics of the early 2000s, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as the titular teenager who narrowly
01:37avoids calamitous death before learning of a grim prophecy that the world will end in 28
01:41days. Unlike most movies on the list, Donnie Darko doesn't hold your hand through its multiversal
01:46hooey. In fact, it kind of takes this a step further, enough that you really need to read
01:50an extra feature on the director's cut DVD, an excerpt from The Philosophy of Time Travel,
01:54a book featured in the film itself, to truly fathom what's going on. Even if you don't
01:58understand it entirely though, you'll probably feel Donnie Darko and appreciate its spectacularly
02:03weird, inventive take on both time travel and parallel universes. Armed with a small budget
02:08of just 4.5 million, debuting director Richard Kelly, who made the film at a mere 25 years of age,
02:14proved the possibilities of the multiverse movies on a smaller scale, with no less intelligence or
02:19intrigue. 8. Star Trek 2009
02:22J.J. Abrams made extremely clever use of the multiverse in his 2009 Star Trek reboot.
02:27Whilst most fans, pre-release, expected Abrams to give the flagging IP a full reboot,
02:32he ingeniously decided to set the movie in a parallel universe to the prime Star Trek universe,
02:37meaning that the adventures of the Enterprise's original crew still happened within this continuity.
02:41Better still, Abrams managed to have his cake and eat it too, by having Spock end up in the
02:45alternate universe and help the alternate Captain Kirk vanquish the villainous Nero. By getting Spock
02:50to interact with the new Enterprise cast, and even Spock's own younger self, Trek 09 delivered giddy
02:56fanservice in a clever and, at the time, wildly original way. That the multiverse aspect felt like
03:01an organic part of the story, the Kelvin timeline having been created by Nero after he travelled through a
03:06black hole and destroyed the USS Kelvin, thereby changing history, was just the icing on the cake.
03:117. The Last Action Hero
03:13You won't often hear it referred to as a multiverse movie, but Arnold Schwarzenegger's gonzo cult classic
03:19action satire, The Last Hero, is totally a multiverse film. The movie revolves around a
03:23teenage boy called Danny Madigan, who, courtesy of a magic cinema ticket, is inadvertently transported
03:29into the world of his favourite action hero, Jack Slater. What follows is one of the most riotous,
03:34adventurous and downright clever action films of the 90s, albeit one that was apparently too
03:38forward-thinking to be appreciated at its time. Beyond the fun conceit of Danny hanging out with
03:43Slater in Slater's own over-the-top action movie world, Last Action Hero indulges in some outrageous
03:48snake-swallowing-its-own-tail meta-ness, such as revealing that in Slater's world, Sylvester Stallone
03:53played the lead role in Terminator 2. To squeeze the most references out of this meta-concept, the film's
03:59villain Benedict also suggests he's going to use this magic ticket to bring the likes of Dracula,
04:03King Kong, Freddy Krueger, Hannibal Lecter and Satan out of various movies, though luckily he's
04:08stopped before he's able to go through with it. As a film where every movie ever made is effectively
04:13its own universe, Last Action Hero was a truly original and ahead-of-its-time take on the multiverse.
04:196. The One
04:20Look, nobody's going to say that Jet Li's The One is a work of high art, but it is a ludicrously
04:25entertaining take on the multiverse concept, and one which feels rather prescient in retrospect.
04:30Back in 2001, long before cinema audiences were used to hearing the word multiverse,
04:34The One spoke it aloud. The film follows rogue multiverse authority agent Gabriel Eulor,
04:39who attempts to kill all 124 versions of himself across the multiverse in order to absorb their
04:45energies and become the titular, unstoppable, godlike entity. The final variant, Gabe Law,
04:50consequently vows to stop him, and so the obvious appeal of the movie lies in watching Jet Li face off
04:55against himself. It's a stupid good premise that the movie largely delivers on, even if this
05:00certainly isn't one of the more nuanced takes on the multiverse. It is simply a kick-ass action
05:05movie with a brilliant gimmick and a ridiculous Nu Metal soundtrack. Yeah, sure, the soundtrack does
05:10date the film very obviously, but today it's kind of charming. 5. Source Code
05:15Duncan Jones' Source Code is one of the most original sci-fi movies of the 2010s, a thrilling,
05:21secret multiverse movie in which US Army Captain Colter Stevens is tasked with repeatedly entering
05:26a digital simulation of a train bombing in order to discover the bomber's identity. Now, for the bulk
05:30of Source Code's runtime, we don't actually know that we're watching a multiverse movie, because it's
05:34only later revealed that the simulations are, in fact, parallel universes created by their
05:39experimental titular machine. Source Code is at once a fast-paced time loop movie, a rip-roaring
05:44Hitchcockian suspense picture, and a provocative existential sci-fi flick, all of them being superbly
05:50executed. While the universes we see throughout the film aren't particularly adventurous as far as
05:54multiverses go, much of the fun lies in the tiny variations between Stevens' different runs through
05:59the bombing scenario. It's incredibly different from Marvel in that aspect, but it's nice to note that
06:03multiverses don't need to be flashy in order to be entertaining. 4. Run Lola Run
06:08Somehow making Donnie Darko seem comparatively well-budgeted, 1998's German experimental thriller
06:14Run Lola Run was made for just 1.75 million dollars, yet offers up a brilliantly energetic
06:19take on the notion of the parallel universe. The story follows Lola, who has just 20 minutes to
06:24come up with 100,000 Deutschmarks or her low-level criminal boyfriend Manny will be killed. Director
06:29Tom Tyqua chronicles three separate attempts by Lola to save Manny, each distinguished by minor
06:34variations which end up causing wildly different, and often fatal, outcomes. Tyqua doesn't linger much
06:40on the metaphysical machinations of the situation, but rather revels in the beauty of the butterfly
06:45effect, demonstrating it perfectly in each high-tension, fast-paced 20-minute sprint.
06:50It begs audiences to consider how their lives could branch off in aggressively divergent directions
06:55with just a minor change, and that you never know which moment in your life might be a major
06:59nexus point for the future. 3. Coherence
07:03And now we get to outdo both Donnie Darko and Run Lola Run on the budgetary front by bringing you
07:08Coherence, which was made on a budget of just $50,000. Coherence follows a woman, M, who begins
07:14to encounter strange occurrences whilst attending a dinner party with friends on the night that a
07:18comet passes overhead. It's best going into the film whilst knowing very little about it,
07:23but basically the film's conceit revolves around the notion of duelling universes and the utter chaos
07:28it causes for a group of unsuspecting people. It may not be the most visually remarkable film
07:32you've ever seen, but the brain-melting ideas it prevents about the multiverse more than compensate
07:37for the lo-fi production. As surreal as it is ultimately terrifying, this is a singular take
07:41on the cosmically horrific potential of an actual multiverse scenario.
07:462. Everything, everywhere, all at once
07:49Multiverse movies are all a rage at the moment, and whilst the Marvel Cinematic Universe has
07:53inarguably cornered the market on mega-budget, universe-hopping fare, they've been categorically
07:59outdone on a quality standpoint by a new movie made on a fraction of the budget.
08:03It follows Chinese-American laundromat owner Evelyn Wang, who's suddenly charged with saving the
08:07multiverse from a malevolent threat by slingshotting her consciousness into other universes, acquiring
08:13her alternate self's skills and then using said skills to battle her enemies. Everything,
08:17everywhere, all at once is a frantically paced, hilarious and totally insane film that somehow
08:22manages to balance out its surreal, absurdist action with genuinely heartfelt character-driven
08:28drama. At once shamelessly silly and totally earnest, this mesmerizing film tackles the
08:33multiverse with peerless levels of imagination, and hopefully the Academy won't forget about it next
08:38year. 1. Spider- Into the Spider-Verse
08:41Spider- Into the Spider-Verse was the movie that preempted the MCU in introducing mainstream audiences
08:47to the multiverse, and it basically proved to Marvel Studios just how lucrative that could be.
08:51Refreshingly led by Miles Morales' version of Spider-Man, this Oscar-winning film was one of the most
08:56visually stunning and dynamic animated films of all time, seamlessly blending disparate styles
09:01into an exciting and impressively coherent whole. Though for most, of course, the true joy lies in
09:07witnessing a bevy of diverse Spider-Man iterations team up, including more traditional Peter Parkers
09:13voiced by Jake Johnson and Chris Pine, Gwen Stacy's Spider-Woman, the fantastic Spider-Ham, Penny Parker,
09:19and Spider-Man Noir. The result is a film that acutely understands the playful potential of
09:24multiversal stories, and manages to fold its surrealist style into an emotionally engaging
09:29whole. Truly, it's an all-timer as animated movies, superheroes, and indeed, multiverse movies go.
09:35And on that note, we've reached the end of this list of the 10 best multiverse movies ever.
09:39Were there any others that you would have put on this list instead? Let us know in the comments
09:43below. And check out WhatCulture.com for more lists and articles like this every single day.
09:48As always, I've been Amy from WhatCulture, and I'll catch you next time.
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