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
00:09infinite universes where there could be another us, maybe an even cooler us. In fact, most
00:13likely a 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.
00:22So if Doctor Strange just isn't hitting the mark for you, then we've got you covered.
00:25I'm Amy from WhatCulture and here are the 10 best multiverse movies ever.
00:2910. Spider-Man No Way Home
00:31It 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-Man No Way Home.
00:41Whilst certainly not a perfect movie, No Way Home proved how the multiverse could be
00:45harnessed to deliver massively crowd-pleasing fanservice by colliding three cinematic eras
00:50of Spider-Man into one single movie. The presences of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's Peter
00:54Parkers of course stole the show, though seeing the likes of Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin and
00:59Alfred Molina'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 in the
01:08Multiverse of Madness seemed to prove, at least No Way Home made good on its fanserving promises.
01:13Beyond the obvious nostalgic appeal of seeing Maguire and Garfield back in these roles alongside
01:17Tom Holland's Spider-Man, it also gave the two former Spider-Men a chance to say goodbye to
01:21these characters after their respective runs ended, and we've got to be happy 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 days.
01:42Unlike most movies on the list, Donnie Darko doesn't hold your hand through its multiversal hooey.
01:46In fact, it kind of takes this a step further, enough that you really need to read an extra feature
01:51on the director's cut DVD, an excerpt from The Philosophy of Time Travel, a book featured in the
01:55film itself, to truly fathom what's going on. Even if you don't understand it entirely though,
02:00you'll probably feel Donnie Darko and appreciate its spectacularly weird, inventive take on both
02:05time travel and parallel universes. Armed with a small budget of just 4.5 million,
02:10debuting director Richard Kelly, who made the film at a mere 25 years of age, proved the possibilities of
02:15the multiverse movies on a smaller scale, with no less intelligence or intrigue.
02:198. 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 alternate
02:46universe 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
02:55fanservice 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
03:06a black 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.
03:55To squeeze the most references out of this meta concept, the film's villain Benedict also suggests
04:00he's going to use this magic ticket to bring the likes of Dracula, King Kong, Freddy Krueger,
04:04Hannibal Lecter, and Satan out of various movies, though luckily he's stopped before he's able to
04:09go through with it. As a film where every movie ever made is effectively its own universe, Last Action
04:14Hero 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 energies
04:45and become the titular, unstoppable, godlike entity. The final variant, Gabe Law, consequently vows to
04:51stop him, and so the obvious appeal of the movie lies in watching Jet Li face off against himself.
04:56It's a stupid good premise that the movie largely delivers on, even if this certainly isn't one of
05:01the more nuanced takes on multiverse. It is simply a kick-ass action movie with a brilliant gimmick and
05:06a ridiculous New Metal soundtrack. Yeah, sure, the soundtrack does date the film very obviously,
05:11but 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,
05:20a thrilling, secret multiverse movie in which US Army Captain Colter Stevens is tasked with
05:25repeatedly entering a digital simulation of a train bombing in order to discover the bomber's identity.
05:29Now, for the bulk of Source Code's runtime, we don't actually know that we're watching a multiverse
05:34movie, because it's only later revealed that the simulations are, in fact, parallel universes created
05:38by their experimental titular machine. Source Code is at once a fast-paced time loop movie,
05:43a rip-roaring Hitchcockian suspense picture, and a provocative existential sci-fi flick,
05:48all of them being superbly executed. While the universes we see throughout the film aren't
05:52particularly adventurous as far as multiverses go, much of the fun lies in the tiny variations between
05:57Stevens' different runs through the bombing scenario. It's incredibly different from Marvel in that
06:02aspect, but it's nice to note that multiverses don't need to be flashy in order to be entertaining.
06:064. Run Lola Run
06:08Somehow making Donnie Darko seem comparatively well-budgeted, 1998's German experimental
06:13thriller Run Lola Run was made for just $1.75 million, 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 Teichwa 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.
06:38Teichwa doesn't linger much on the metaphysical machinations of the situation, but rather revels
06:43in the beauty of the butterfly effect, demonstrating it perfectly in each high-tension,
06:48fast-paced 20-minute sprint. It begs audiences to consider how their lives could branch off in
06:53aggressively divergent directions with just a minor change, and that you never know which moment in
06:58your life might be a major nexus point for the future. Three, Coherence. And now we get to outdo
07:04both Donnie Darko and Run Lola Run on the budgetary front by bringing you Coherence, which was made on
07:10a budget of just $50,000. Coherence follows a woman, M, who begins to encounter strange occurrences
07:16whilst attending a dinner party with friends. The film's conceit revolves around the notion of
07:32duelling universes, and the utter chaos it causes for a group of unsuspecting people. It may not be
07:37the most visually remarkable film you've ever seen, but the brain-melting ideas it prevents about the
07:41multiverse more than compensate for the lo-fi production. As surreal as it is ultimately
07:46terrifying, this is a singular take on the cosmically horrific potential of an actual multiverse
07:51scenario. Two, everything, everywhere, all at once. Multiverse movies are all a rage at the moment,
07:57and whilst the Marvel Cinematic Universe has inarguably cornered the market on mega-budget,
08:02universe-hopping fare, they've been categorically outdone on a quality standpoint by a new movie made
08:07on a fraction of the budget. It follows Chinese-American laundromat owner Evelyn Wang, who's suddenly charged
08:13with saving the multiverse from a malevolent threat by slingshotting her consciousness into other
08:17universes, acquiring her alternate self's skills, and then using said skills to battle her enemies.
08:23Everything Everywhere All At Once is a frantically paced, hilarious, and totally insane film that somehow
08:28manages to balance out its surreal, absurdist action with genuinely heartfelt character-driven drama.
08:34At once shamelessly silly and totally earnest, this mesmerizing film tackles the multiverse with
08:40peerless levels of imagination, and hopefully the Academy won't forget about it next year.
08:441. Spider- Into the Spider-Verse
08:47Spider- Into the Spider-Verse was the movie that preempted the MCU in introducing mainstream
08:52audiences to the multiverse, and it basically proved to Marvel Studios just how lucrative that could be.
08:57Refreshingly led by Miles Morales' version of Spider-Man, this Oscar-winning film was one of
09:02the most visually stunning and dynamic animated films of all time, seamlessly blending disparate
09:07styles into an exciting and impressively coherent whole. Though for most, of course,
09:12the true joy lies in witnessing a bevy of diverse Spider-Man iterations team up, including more
09:17traditional Peter Parkers voiced by Jake Johnson and Chris Pine, Gwen Stacy's Spider-Woman,
09:22the fantastic Spider-Ham, Penny Parker, and Spider-Man Noir. The result is a film that acutely
09:28understands the playful potential of multiversal stories, and manages to fold its surrealist style
09:33into an emotionally engaging whole. Truly, it's an all-timer as animated movies, superheroes,
09:39and indeed, multiverse movies go. And on that note, we've reached the end of this list of the 10 best
09:44multiverse movies ever. Were there any others that you would have put on this list instead,
09:48let us know in the comments below. And check out WhatCulture.com for more lists and articles like
09:53this every single day. As always, I've been Amy from WhatCulture, and I'll catch you next time.
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