EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE

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NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Evan B

The film opens with the Wang family happily singing karaoke in a mirror until they disappear. Cut ahead to the present day inside the hectic home of the Wang family. Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) and her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) are putting together documents for an audit, preparing a big birthday party for Evelyn’s formerly estranged father Gong Gong (James Hong) (who temporarily disowned Evelyn for marrying Waymond and moving to the US), and running a struggling laundromat they own. Evelyn is too busy to talk to Waymond (who has secretly drafted up divorce papers) and angrily rips googly eyes off wherever she finds them stuck to places in the laundromat (put there by her family as a joke that Evelyn doesn’t appreciate).

Their rebellious daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu) arrives with her girlfriend Becky (Tallie Medel). Evelyn and Joy have a strained relationship and they argue about Joy’s tattoos and whether she should come out to Gong Gong as he is elderly and curmudgeonly. Joy thinks her mom is using Gong Gong as an excuse and that Evelyn herself is really uncomfortable with her daughter’s sexuality. Gong Gong walks into the room where Evelyn introduces Becky as Joy’s “very good friend.” Gong Gong critiques Joy for her lack of Chinese language skills, and Evelyn tells Joy she’s getting too fat (Becky says Evelyn’s critiques are her way of expressing love). Everyone is too busy to notice Waymond seemingly being possessed and performing martial arts for a brief few minutes.

Waymond, Evelyn, and Gong Gong go to the IRS offices the next day to meet with their auditor. While in the elevator on the way to the appointment, Waymond is again possessed. He explains that he is a Waymond from another universe (referred to as alt-Waymond in this spoiler), who has inhabited her husband on this Earth, and says the multiverse is in danger. He writes a note to her with instructions to read when out of the elevator, before leaving Waymond’s body.

Title Card: PART 1 – EVERYTHING

The family meets with their auditor, a woman named Deirdre (Jamie Lee Curtis). Deirdre says that the family’s actions could be construed as fraud. As the meeting continues, Evelyn reads the note written by alt-Waymond. It tells her to switch her shoes, put in an earpiece and then imagine teleporting to a janitor’s closet. She does so and ends up in another one of her bodies in another universe, along with the alt-Waymond. The connection is tenuous as Evelyn keeps cutting between her conversation with Deirdre (who is threatening to repossess their laundromat) and alt-Waymond.

Alt-Waymond explains he’s from a universe calle the “Alphaverse.” There, they were able to master multiversal teleportation using a mapping program that tracks branch universes. In addition to teleporting into the body of an alt-universe version of themselves, they can also learn the skills and knowledge of any alt-universe person they inhabit. In order to teleport, the traveller must do something out of the ordinary (thus, why Evelyn had to switch her shoes) to harmonize themselves with an alt-universe bodies. He says an evil multidimensional traveler named Jobu Tupaki intends to bring chaos to the multiverse, and that Evelyn is the only one with enough innate goodness to stop Jobu. He notes that Jobu has been going through the multiverse killing versions of Evelyn, but thinks this Evelyn is the chosen one. At that moment, an alternate version of Deirdre appears and murders the bodies alt-Waymond and Evelyn are inhabiting – sending them both back to their original bodies.

Evelyn awakens to Deirdre agreeing to give them until that night to provide more documentation for their audit. Evelyn, still shocked by her experience in the alternate realm, punches Dierdre (and she also finds the divorce papers Waymond had drawn up). Deirdre calls security, forcing alt-Waymond to inhabit Waymond’s body and beat them up with his martial arts skills. This activity draws Jobu’s notice. It’s revealed that Jobu is none other than Joy from the Alphaverse. Alt- Waymond explains that in the Alphaverse, Evelyn pushed Joy too far in exploring the multiverse to the point where she is able to travel the multiverse at will, experience all realities simultaneously, and alter reality. The criticism and multiversal awareness drove Joy mad, leaving her with the belief that nothing is important given the infinite possibilities out there and the brevity of life. She developed a weapon that alt-Waymond believes will destroy the universe. He hopes Evelyn can stop this.

Alt-Deirdre inhabits Deirdre’s body (with sumo wrestler abilities) and attacks. Alt-Waymond instructs Evelyn how to tap into a universe where she is a martial arts master (by declaring her genuine love for Deirdre). Evelyn is unable to do this so alt-Waymond abandons her thinking he made a mistake that she was the chosen one. However, Evelyn is eventually able to travel and tap into her martial arts alternate’s skills. With her fighting prowess, Evelyn defeats alt-Deirdre, but is then arrested along with Waymond.

However, the police are attacked by Jobu (now inhabiting Joy) and killed in gruesomely cartoonish ways (i.e., exploding into confetti). A terrified Evelyn tries to tap into a power to fight Jobu, but in her panic accesses the skills from a world where everyone there evolved to have hot dog fingers. They are only saved when Jobu takes a special interest in this Evelyn, sharing some of her experiences with her and showing Evelyn a glimpse of her endgame. Suddenly, Alphaverse’s Gong Gong (in Gong Gong’s body) ambushes Jobu. Jobu decides to journey to the Alphaverse to confront them there.

Alt-Waymond returns to Waymond’s body (realizing he was right about Evelyn) and argues with alt-Gong Gong about what they should do. Alt-Gong Gong wants to have Joy killed while Jobu is distracted because that will block Jobu’s ability to enter this universe (and he’s done this in other universes). Alt-Waymond opposes this, believing Evelyn can save everyone. Ultimately, Evelyn sides with alt-Waymond and alt-Gong Gong calls in people from the Alphaverse to kill the trio – believing they have all been infected by Jobu (and worried that if Evelyn joins Jobu, Jobu will surely succeed).

In order to defeat them, Evelyn ends up drawing experiences from her doubles in various universes where she’s a martial artist, singer, hibachi grill cook (also revealed to be a universe where one of her co-workers has a raccoon called “raccacouille” under his chef’s hat to help him cook in a parody of Ratatouille), a maid, and sign spinner. Combining all these abilities allows her to be a formidable fighter. She defeats alt-Gong Gong’s minions, including in an excellent fight involving butt plugs (small role for Jenny Slate as one of the minions). Meanwhile Jobu kills alt-Waymond in his body.

Jobu returns and Evelyn prepares to fight her. But the strain of combining too many alternate skills at once (and spending too much time in bodies of other Evelyns) causes Evelyn to die from the stress. Jobu seems disappointed, and Waymond is devastated…

Part 2: Everywhere

Evelyn’s consciousness travels across the multiverse, experiencing the various lives she took skills and knowledge from (including in the hot dog finger universe, she is in a romantic relationship with Deirdre and everyone does things with their feet). We also learn in a universe where Evelyn decides not to get involved and just goes home to do her taxes that Waymond doesn’t really want a divorce, but wanted to do something to force Evelyn to discuss their growing apart. Eventually, Evelyn is able to channel her spirit back into her dead body and resurrect herself.

She runs back to her home where she confronts Joy and forces Jobu to emerge. Evelyn tries to fight Jobu, but Jobu uses her immense powers to overwhelm Evelyn (transporting her to worlds where they are in prison, where they are pinatas, and even where they are animated). Jobu then brings Evelyn to her base.

There, she reveals her device is an “Everything Bagel,” i.e., a bagel-shaped object upon which Joy has affixed everything in the universe. By looking into it, the viewer can experience all reality at once. She forces Evelyn to look and Evelyn begins to believe that nothing in life matters as humans are so insignificant. The pair are only able to take solace in a universe where life never emerged and they are sentient boulders.

After coming to agree with Jobu that there is no purpose to life, Evelyn begins destroying her relationships in the various universes she is connected to (even calling animal control on raccacouille). In her home universe, she signs Waymond’s divorce papers, refuses to turn in her taxes causing Deirdre to come with the police to possess the laundromat, and smashes the windows of the laundromat.

Jobu explains that by going through the center of the bagel, it will end her existence on all planes (ending the pain she feels due to the pointlessness of the multiverse). She asks Evelyn to come with her and Evelyn agrees. However, before she does so, Evelyn hears Waymond’s voice and teleports to the universe where she is a martial artist and she and Waymond didn’t marry. Waymond explains that he believes Evelyn didn’t marry him because she misconstrued his generosity as weakness. Instead, however, he says that being a loving person is how he finds meaning in the universe. This Waymond notes that he’d rather have lived a good life with Evelyn “running a laundromat” than the successful life alone that he lived.

Touched by his words, Evelyn begins to see the good moments in each of her multiversal lives. This is capped by returning to her universe, where she watches Waymond talk Deirdre into reversing her decision to seize their laundromat using kindness. She realizes that he was right – strength and meaning comes from true love. Despite Jobu’s efforts to have Evelyn go through the bagel with her, Evelyn refuses.

An irate Jobu teleports the bagel and goons from her homebase to Evelyn’s primary universe where it begins destroying everything. Waymond gets Eleanor, to forego violence and googly eye to herself as a symbol of her promise. Alt-Gong Gong and the Alphaverse forces show up to kill Jobu, Using her powers, Evelyn reads the deepest regrets of the combatants and fixes them, causing each opposing soldier to stop their attack. She also fixes the problems she caused with her other selves throughout the multiverse (i.e., making up with hot dog finger Deirdre, saving raccacouille from animal control). She confronts her father’s abandonment, saying that in trying not to be like him she drove away her own daughter. Her family now united, they all grab onto Jobu to stop her from going through the bagel.

Simultaneously, Evelyn in her tax-doing universe apologizes to her daughter. Joy at first rejects her mother’s attempts at atonement. Joy declares that life is too painful and humans are too small in the scheme of things to matter, so why should they try to fix their relationship? Evelyn counters that while all of that is true, it is these small moments of time that matter the most and that no single moment is more important than the fleeting ones they get to spend together. Evelyn and Joy embrace while Jobu is pulled out of the bagel hole and the bagel is deactivated. Jobu is also pacified due to Joy’s resolution with her mom.

Title Card: Part 3 All at Once

Jumping ahead, the Wong family is dropped off at the IRS building by Becky (who’s now been fully accepted, including by Evelyn and Gong Gong). As they walk inside, Evelyn shares a loving kiss with Waymond, showing that their marriage is now strong. They arrive at Deirdre’s office with their receipts properly ordered and to Deirdre’s praise for doing much better. The film closes as we see that Evelyn is still able to experience the entirety of the multiverse…. all at once.


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Evelyn's daughter Joy is the villainous Jobu who threatens to destroy the multiverse. Joy was driven mad by an alternate universe Evelyn's constant criticisms and the discovery of how insignificant a single life is in the scheme of the multiverse... and briefly even convinces Evelyn of the pointlessness of life. However, inspired by her husband Waymond's strength and generosity, Evelyn is able to fix the multiverse by resolving the regrets of her opponents. She is finally able to repair her relationship with Joy, thus saving the multiverse.