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 a bit of the multiverse.
00:06It's a very cool concept, the idea of there being so many infinite universes where there could be another us.
00:11Maybe an even cooler us. In fact, most likely a much cooler us.
00:15But the point is that the multiverse doesn't start and end with Marvel.
00:18There's much more out 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
00:32It is impossible to discuss multiverse movies without bringing up by far the most commercially successful
00:37and 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 harnessed
00:45to deliver massively crowd-pleasing fan service by colliding three cinematic eras of Spider-Man into one single movie.
00:52The presences of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker's of course stole the show,
00:56though seeing the likes of Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin and Alfred Molina's Doc Ock in the mix was also a ton of fun.
01:02If introducing the multiverse to the MCU does feel a bit like opening Pandora's box,
01:06something the very messy Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness seemed to prove,
01:10at least No Way Home made good on its fan-serving promises.
01:13Beyond the obvious nostalgic appeal of seeing Maguire and Garfield back in these roles alongside Tom Holland's Spider-Man,
01:18it also gave the two former Spider-Men a chance to say goodbye to these characters after their respective runs ended,
01:24and 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,
01:31one of the definitive cult classics of the early 2000s,
01:34starring Jake Gyllenhaal as the titular teenager who narrowly avoids calamitous death
01:38before 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.
01:47In fact, it kind of takes this a step further, enough that you really need to read an extra feature on the director's cut DVD,
01:53an excerpt from The Philosophy of Time Travel, a book featured in the film itself,
01:56to truly fathom what's going on.
01:58Even if you don't understand it entirely, though, you'll probably feel Donnie Darko
02:02and appreciate its spectacularly weird, inventive take on both time travel and parallel universes.
02:08Armed 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,
02:14proved the possibilities of the multiverse movies on a smaller scale with no less intelligence or intrigue.
02:208. 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 universe
02:46and help the alternate Captain Kirk vanquish the villainous Nero
02:50By getting Spock to interact with the new Enterprise cast, and even Spock's own younger self,
02:54Trek 2009 delivered giddy fanservice in a clever and, at the time, wildly original way.
02:59That the multiverse aspect felt like an organic part of the story,
03:03the Kelvin timeline having been created by Nero after he travelled through a black hole
03:06and destroyed the USS Kelvin, thereby changing history, was just the icing on the cake.
03:117. The Last Action Hero
03:14You won't often hear it referred to as a multiverse movie,
03:16but Arnold Schwarzenegger's gonzo cult classic action satire, The Last Hero,
03:20is totally a multiverse film.
03:22The movie revolves around a teenage boy called Danny Madigan,
03:25who, courtesy of a magic cinema ticket,
03:27is inadvertently transported into the world of his favourite action hero, Jack Slater.
03:32What follows is one of the most riotous, adventurous,
03:34and downright clever action films of the 90s,
03:37albeit one that was apparently too forward-thinking to be appreciated at its time.
03:41Beyond the fun conceit of Danny hanging out with Slater in Slater's own over-the-top action movie
03:45world, Last Action Hero indulges in some outrageous snake-swallowing-its-own-tale
03:50metaness, such as revealing that in Slater's world,
03:52Sylvester Stallone played the lead role in Terminator 2.
03:55To squeeze the most references out of this meta-concept,
03:58the film's villain Benedict also suggests he's going to use this magic ticket to bring the
04:02likes of Dracula, King Kong, Freddy Krueger, Hannibal Lecter, and Satan out of various movies,
04:07though luckily he's stopped before he's able to go through with it.
04:10As a film where every movie ever made is effectively its own universe,
04:14Last 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,
04:24but it is a ludicrously entertaining take on the multiverse concept,
04:27and 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.
04:36The film follows rogue multiverse authority agent Gabriel Eulor,
04:39who attempts to kill all 124 versions of himself across the multiverse in order to
04:44absorb their energies and become the titular unstoppable god-like entity.
04:48The final variant, Gabe Law, consequently vows to stop him,
04:52and 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,
05:00even if this certainly isn't one of the more nuanced takes on the multiverse.
05:03It is simply a kick-ass action movie with a brilliant gimmick and a ridiculous new metal
05:08soundtrack. Yeah, sure, the soundtrack does date the film very obviously,
05:11but today it's kind of charming.
05:145. 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 Coulter Stevens is tasked with
05:25repeatedly entering a digital simulation of a train bombing in order to discover the bomber's
05:29identity. Now, for the bulk of Source Code's runtime, we don't actually know that we're
05:33watching a multiverse movie, because it's only later revealed that the simulations are, in fact,
05:37parallel universes created by their experimental titular machine. Source Code is at once a fast
05:42paced time loop movie, a rip-roaring Hitchcockian suspense picture, and a provocative existential
05:47sci-fi flick, all of them being superbly executed. While the universes we see throughout the film
05:52aren't particularly adventurous as far as multiverses go, much of the fun lies in the
05:56tiny variations between Stevens' different runs through the bombing scenario. It's incredibly
06:00different from Marvel in that aspect, but it's nice to note that multiverses don't need to be
06:04flashy 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, yet offers up a brilliantly energetic take on
06:20the notion of the parallel universe. The story follows Lola, who has just 20 minutes to come
06:24up with 100,000 Deutschmarks or her low-level criminal boyfriend, Manny, will be killed.
06:29Director Tom Tykwer chronicles three separate attempts by Lola to save Manny, each distinguished
06:33by minor variations which end up causing wildly different, and often fatal, outcomes.
06:38Tykwer 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
06:57moment in your life might be a major nexus point for the future. 3. Coherence
07:03And now we get to outdo both Donnie Darko and Run, Lola, Run on the budgetary front,
07:08by bringing you Coherence, which was made on a budget of just $50,000. Coherence follows a woman,
07:14M, who begins to encounter strange occurrences whilst attending a dinner party with friends on
07:18the night that a comet passes overhead. It's best going into the film whilst knowing very
07:22little about it, but basically the film's conceit revolves around the notion of duelling universes
07:27and the utter chaos it causes for a group of unsuspecting people. It may not be the most
07:31visually remarkable film you've ever seen, but the brain-melting ideas it prevents about the
07:35multiverse more than compensate for the lo-fi production. As surreal as it is ultimately
07:40terrifying, this is a singular take on the cosmically horrific potential of an actual
07:44multiverse scenario. 2. Everything, everywhere, all at once
07:49Multiverse movies are all the 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. It follows
08:03Chinese-American laundromat owner Evelyn Wang, who's suddenly charged with saving the multiverse
08:08from 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
08:38next year. 1. Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse
08:41Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse was the movie that pre-empted the MCU in introducing mainstream
08:46audiences to the multiverse, and it basically proved to Marvel Studios just how lucrative
08:51that could be. Refreshingly led by Miles Morales' version of Spider-Man, this Oscar-winning film
08:55was one of the most visually stunning and dynamic animated films of all time,
09:00seamlessly blending disparate styles into an exciting and impressively coherent whole.
09:04Though, for most, of course, the true joy lies in witnessing a bevy of diverse Spider-Man
09:09iterations team up, including more traditional Peter Parkers voiced by Jake Johnson and Chris
09:14Pine, Gwen Stacy's Spider-Woman, the fantastic Spider-Ham, Penny Parker, and Spider-Man Noir.
09:20The result is a film that acutely understands the playful potential of multiversal stories,
09:25and manages to fold its surrealist style into an emotionally engaging whole.
09:29Truly, 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.