This Indie Film is the Perfect Multiverse Movie!

Have you ever wondered what your life could’ve been if things had been different? Maybe you could’ve accepted that other job offer, moved to a different city or asked someone out when you had the chance. Enter the multiverse theory, which explores the outcomes of our alternate decisions. Despite lacking hard scientific evidence that the multiverse exists, the entertainment industry loves to play around with it. Creating content where characters either meet their alternate selves or explore different possibilities of their lives had they made a slightly different choice. But sometimes, finding what you’ve been looking for isn’t always for the best.  James Ward Byrkit’s Coherence explores what happens when timelines and alternate worlds collide.

Mike and his wife, Lee, host a dinner party for their friends: Emily, Laurie, Hugh, Kevin, Beth and Amir on the night of Miller’s Comet. As the comet becomes visible, their phone screens crack and the power goes out. The friends light candles and carry blue glow sticks as they wonder what to do. Hugh and Amir decide to go outside to check on any neighboring houses for a working phone so that Hugh can call his brother. After returning, the two claim that the only house they saw with lights on looked like a carbon copy of Mike and Lee’s house. Freaked out, Emily, Mike, Kevin and Laurie venture out to find this other house. On the way, they passing through a wall of darkness only to find themselves facing this alternate house. However, they also encounter an identical group of four, only this group is carrying red glow sticks.

I’m no stranger to the odd sci-fi adventure that explore the multiverse and time travel. Hell, I reviewed two of the biggest films of 2022 that revolved around the multiverse! But I’ve never seen anything on the scale of Coherence. Despite being made on a budget of $50,000 and featuring a very small set, Coherence is probably the most complex film I’ve seen that addresses the multiverse while juggling our characters’ personal arcs. The dark mass the friends see acts as a portal to other timelines. And the choice to walk through the portal indicates whether they have any unresolved issues in their current reality. For instance, Emily stated at the dinner that she was supposed to be a famous dancer for a show she created. However, she was replaced and was made her replacement’s understudy. Due to her pride, she refused and lost that opportunity. The replacement is unable to perform on the night of the show, thus being replaced by her understudy who became famous. But in an alternate timeline, Emily swallowed her pride and was living the life she wanted. So what does our Emily do? She jumps to that “perfect” timeline, incapacitates that Emily and takes her place. However, this brings us to another major plot point: Schrodinger’s Cat.

For those asking, Schrodinger’s Cat is a thought experiment used in quantum mechanics devised by physicist Erwin Schrodinger. In this experiment, Schrodinger proposed a scenario where a hypothetical cat is placed in a box. However, the box also contains a jar of poison. So without opening the box, you have no idea if the cat is either dead or alive. Thus creating the reality where the cat is both dead and alive. Coherence uses Schrodinger’s Cat multiple times. First, when the comet passes by the house creating multiple realities. Until the friends leave the house, they (and we) don’t know if there was just one or more realities. Then, when the Emily we follow (I’ll nickname her “Prime Emily”) knocks out her alternate self and places the body in a car trunk. And finally, when a third Emily crawls into the house and escapes into a bathroom. Prime Emily also incapacitates this Emily with a toilet seat and hides the body in a shower stall and closes the door. Until someone opens the door, we’ll never find out her fate.

You’d think after all the mess, that Prime Emily would’ve gotten her happy ending. But you’d be mistaken. Even though she successfully assimilates into this “good” timeline, she will still suffer the same fate from her original timeline. Why? Because in this timeline, she and Kevin decide to continue their relationship and travel to Vietnam for a month. During that time, Prime Emily will be covered by her understudy. Remember what I said about her replacement in the original timeline? Her success will be short-lived as her understudy will outshine her. So all of Prime Emily’s efforts and strife will be for nothing. This echoes back to Mike’s toast at the dinner: “To the life that we do lead”. Although it seems like a throwaway line, I actually think it’s the film’s ultimate message. It’s not our life’s circumstances or luck that matters. What really matters is how we respond to our choices.

With how thematically packed the film is, you might think Coherence is a three hour long epic, but no. It’s actually a little under an hour and a half. But James Ward Byrkit makes sure to make every second count. Despite taking place in the same house and neighborhood, no two objects are exactly the same. A glass might be broken in one house, but intact in another. The same group of friends may be carrying red glow sticks instead of blue ones. Or even specific memories may be altered, such as Mike mentioning being the lead in a popular TV show, yet Laurie (a fan of said show) having no recollection of seeing him. Every small change is paramount to help us decipher which timeline our characters are in.

Despite being made in 2013, Coherence is still being heavily discussed by movie buffs today. With complex and unique commentary on the multiverse, Schrodinger’s Cat and personal motifs on choice and consequence, it’s no surprise that this film has endured the test of time. While some movies don’t require your full attention to understand the plot, Coherence is a film you must sit down and watch not once, not twice, but multiple times. I promise that your appreciation and understanding of the film will increase with each revisit. For those interested, Coherence is free on Tubi, Peacock, Pluto TV and Amazon Video.