Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Everything Everywhere All at OnceIn between the franchise juggernauts Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the independent production company A24 released its own multiversal feature film. Even without a Disney-backed MCU budget, Everything Everywhere All at Once embraced the concept of the multiverse in more detail and with more ambition than those comic book films. The idea of the multiverse is simple: there exists an infinite number of universes and possibilities alongside our own. However, the directing duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, also known as the Daniels, complicate the multiversal story of a Chinese-American mother struggling to keep a laundromat in good standing with the IRS while at the same time barely keeping her own family together. When she is tasked with saving the multiverse by her husband from an alternate universe, she must harness her special skills and powers from across space and time in order to defeat the ultimate evil that threatens all of existence.
The story is far from streamlined, yet audiences embraced Everything Everywhere All At Once and helped it become A24’s highest-grossing film at the domestic box office. Now, the film that not only broke audiences’ minds but also hearts is finally available on digital. If you didn’t get a chance to see the film a second time in theaters or if you are watching it for the very first time, here’s how the various parts of Everything Everywhere All At Once work towards a complicated, rewarding, and emotional ending.
Jobu Tupaki and the Everything Bagel
The climax takes place in an IRS building where Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) and other agents of the Alphaverse take their last stand against Jobu Tupaki (Stephanie Hsu), a variant of Evelyn’s own daughter Joy and whose multiversal powers resulted from Alphaverse-Evelyn’s experiments. Tupaki’s power to see and feel everything everywhere all at once leads her to believe that nothing really matters, in any and every single universe. Her main goal, then, is to use an everything bagel — the literalization of everything not mattering — to suck all of the multiverse into an infinite void of nothingness.
Jobu Tupaki tries to convince Evelyn of her nihilistic vision, showing her how in every universe Evelyn’s attempt to keep her family together will always fail. This is why Tupaki has been searching for Evelyn, so that she can finally find someone who can understand why nothing matters and join her in the everything bagel’s path of destruction. Even in her quest to end the multiverse, Tupaki would rather not be alone in orchestrating all of oblivion.
Waymond Wang and the Power of Love and Kindness
When Evelyn seemingly succumbs to Jobu Tupaki’s nihilism, her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) gives her an alternate point of view. Rather than be lost in the chaos and infinite nothingness of the universe, Waymond finds a more open and optimistic belief. In a universe where Evelyn becomes a Kung-Fu action star, Waymond tells Evelyn, “You tell me it's a cruel world and we're all running around in circles. I know that. I've been on this earth just as many days as you.” He knows how someone like Jobu Tupaki can come from a place of despair and pessimism when faced with such inevitable doom and gloom. However, he finds a more meaningful outlook. Waymond states, “When I choose to see the good side of things, I'm not being naive. It is strategic and necessary. It's how I've learned to survive through everything.” He ultimately calls himself a “fighter,” and it is this optimism that ultimately convinces Evelyn that Jobu Tupaki is wrong, that there is more to living and existing than a void of nothingness.
Evelyn’s own Waymond (from her same universe) provides similar words of optimism that help her find the will to fight for what matters. “I know you are all fighting because you are scared and confused. I'm confused too,” Waymond explains, “All day, I don't know what the heck is going on. But somehow this feels like it's all my fault.” With the threat of their laundromat business being seized by the IRS, and with doubts surrounding his marriage to Evelyn and his intention to divorce her, what Waymond’s life has become is just one example in which someone can find it difficult to find hope. This is especially significant when taking into consideration the American Dream and how Waymond brought Evelyn to the United States from China. If his marriage and business are falling apart, is the American Dream even real? Was it all worth it? However, rather than give up on everything, Waymond finds the strength to confront life’s unexpected challenges through kindness: “I don't know. 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.”
This is exactly the lesson that Evelyn learns and applies in her fight to stop, and save, Jobu Tupaki. At the IRS building, rather than fight her Alphaverse adversaries through pure violence, she instead uses her multiversal powers to grant them some form of happiness — after all, with great power comes great responsibility. While Jobu Tupaki makes her way towards the void that is the everything bagel, Evelyn gives the people what they want, from their BDSM fantasies to even giving tax auditor Deirdre Beaubeirdre (Jamie Lee Curtis) the love that she deserves — in an alternate universe where people have hot dogs for fingers, Evelyn and Deirdre are in love. Evelyn gives them back the hope and happiness that opposes Jobu Tupaki’s nihilism.
Nothing Really Matters in the End, Except…
Once Evelyn reaches Jobu Tupaki (who is simultaneously her daughter Joy), she, Waymond, and even Evelyn’s estranged father Gong Gong (James Hong) attempt to pull Tupaki away from the void. Despite the generational trauma between Gong Gong and Evelyn, and now Evelyn and Joy, they all find hope in keeping their family together. But Jobu Tupaki needs a little more convincing.
Just as Evelyn seemingly is ready to let go of her daughter, she doubles down on her love for her and explains why that is enough meaning for them to hold onto. Evelyn reiterates the words and perspective of Jobu Tupaki, “Maybe it's like you said. Maybe there is something out there, some new discovery that will make us feel like even smaller pieces of shit. Something that explains why you still went looking for me through all of this noise.” But even when advances in science and technology make it seem like people are as insignificant as some rocks, even when nothing seems to matter, Evelyn tells her daughter, “no matter what, I still want to be here with you. I will always, always, want to be here with you.” Joy isn’t yet ready to accept this, “Here, all we get are a few specks of time where any of this actually makes any sense.” But Evelyn refuses to let go of her daughter and says, “Then I will cherish these few specks of time.” The two embrace and Jobu Tupaki, through Joy’s reignited love for her mother, abandons the everything bagel’s meaningless void for something worth living for.
In Evelyn’s universe, everything is set right, despite the difficulties of life. She and Waymond rekindle their marriage, Joy is happy to be with her family, and all together they are willing to face any challenge, even the IRS. Maybe Jobu Tupaki was right: nothing matters. But Waymond was also equally right: If nothing matters, then we get to choose what does. We have the choice to look at the bright side of things, and we get to choose who matters to us the most. Even something as trivial as doing laundry and taxes can mean the most if it means doing it with the love of your life.
Read more about Everything, Everywhere All at Once:
'Everything Everywhere All at Once': Everything (Everywhere) You Need to Know
How to Watch 'Everything Everywhere all at Once': Is the A24 Film in Theaters?
How ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ Uses the Multiverse to Explore Character Growth
How 'Everything Everywhere All At Once' Earns Its Kindness and Optimism