The character that would become Evelyn Quan Wang was originally written to be portrayed by Jackie Chan, until Kwan and Scheinert reconceived the character as a woman, feeling it would make the husband–wife dynamic in the story more relatable,[6] naming the character Michelle Wang, after their favorite to cast in the role, Michelle Yeoh, who said, "If you ask the Daniels, when they started on this draft, they focused on, 'Well, we are doing this for Michelle Yeoh.'"[7] The character's first name was eventually changed to Evelyn. With her resemblance to the version of Evelyn as a martial artist and film star,[8] Yeoh opposed naming the character Michelle. "Evelyn deserves her own story to be told. This is a very ordinary mother [and] housewife who is trying her best to be a good mother to her daughter, a good daughter to her father, a wife that's trying to keep the family together [...] I don't like to integrate me, Michelle Yeoh, into the characters that I play, because they all deserve their own journey and their stories to be told".[8]
It was announced in August 2018 that Yeoh had been cast to star in what was described as an "interdimensional action film" from Kwan and Scheinert, with Anthony and Joe Russo attached to produce.[9]
Fictional character biography
Evelyn Quan Wang was born in China. In the main universe, as a young woman, she elopes with her husband Waymond Wang to the United States against the wishes of her father who threatens to disown her.
Once in California, she finds herself disappointed with their living conditions and with the drudgery of running a laundromat. She finds joy when their daughter Joy is born, but later struggles with her as a rebellious teenager.
One of Evelyn's unfulfilled ambitions in life was to become a professional singer. The story suggests that she tried and failed at writing a novel, becoming a chef, teaching, becoming a singing coach, and in becoming a masseuse.
In the present day, Evelyn Wang is stressed out as she tries to sort piles of receipts, as the laundromat is being audited by the IRS. Her husband Waymond tries to serve Evelyn divorce papers in an attempt to get her attention so they can talk about their marriage. She is also concerned about preparing for a Chinese New Year party at the laundromat that evening, which her demanding father (Gong Gong) will be attending. When their adult daughter Joy arrives to help them, along with her non-Chinese girlfriend Becky, Evelyn says that she accepts their gay, mixed-race relationship, but implies that her own father would not approve, and avoids Joy's pleas to discuss whether or not Becky is welcome at the party.[10] Unable to have a meaningful conversation with her mother, Joy leaves the laundromat in tears with Becky, and Evelyn is left subdued.
In the elevator at the regional IRS office, Evelyn has her first encounter with Alpha-Waymond, a version of Waymond from the "Alphaverse", and sees a flashback of her own life. She is distracted and unable to focus during a meeting with IRS inspector Deirdre Beaubeirdre, who questions why they have claimed a karaoke machine as a business expense, and scolds her for not taking the meeting seriously and for not bringing their daughter to help translate as promised. Meanwhile, Evelyn is having discussions in parallel in a janitor's closet with Alpha-Waymond, who tells her that every disappointment and failure she has experienced in life has made her uniquely qualified to save every world in the infinite multiverse from catastrophe. Deirdre gives the family an extension until 6 pm that evening, but Evelyn – confused by Waymond's sudden mention of divorce and berated by her father for never completing anything – punches Deirdre, landing them in trouble with security.
Alpha-Waymond reappears to help Evelyn out of this difficult situation. She learns, as they dodge security officers and more monstrous versions of Deirdre together, that many parallel universes exist because every life choice creates a new alternative universe. In the Alphaverse, the brilliant late Alpha-Evelyn developed "verse-jumping" technology, which enables people to access the physical skills, knowledge, and memories of their parallel selves by performing bizarre actions that are statistically unlikely. As chaos ensues around them, Evelyn herself experiences verse-jumping, briefly discovering other versions of herself including the glamorous kung fu film star that she could have been if she had refused to marry Waymond all those years ago.
All universes are now under threat of complete annihilation due to the all-powerful Jobu Tupaki, whose mind was splintered due to excessive pressure from Alpha-Evelyn; she can verse-jump and manipulate matter at will. When Evelyn has her first direct encounter with Jobu Tupaki, who is dressed like Elvis and coldly and disrespectfully destroys two police officers, it finally hits home with her that Jobu is simply another version of Joy, who is extremely unhappy. Evelyn and Jobu, dressed in a tennis outfit, face off in a tense one-on-one conversation. Evelyn blames Jobu for all of Joy's "failures", while Jobu starts to entice Evelyn with the empty nihilism of the Everything Bagel she has built, which has eased her pain with the realization that "nothing matters". As the force of the bagel starts to destabilize the multiverse, Alpha-Gong Gong appears in an electronic wheelchair to temporarily crush Jobu.
Alpha-Gong Gong instructs Evelyn to kill Joy to stop Jobu from using her to enter Evelyn's universe. Evelyn refuses and decides to face Jobu by gaining equivalent powers through repeated verse-jumping. Alpha-Gong Gong, convinced that Evelyn's mind has been compromised like Jobu's, sends soldiers after Evelyn. While they fight, Jobu locates and kills Alpha-Waymond in the Alphaverse. As Jobu confronts Evelyn in her universe, Evelyn's mind splinters, and she collapses.
Evelyn uncontrollably verse-jumps alongside Jobu across bizarre and diverse universes. Jobu reveals she does not want to fight at all, but that instead, she has been searching for an Evelyn who can see, as she does, that nothing matters. She brings Evelyn to the Everything Bagel, explaining that she wants to use it to allow herself and Evelyn to truly die. Upon looking into the Bagel, Evelyn is initially persuaded, and behaves cruelly and nihilistically in her other universes, hurting those around her.
Just as Evelyn enters the Bagel with Jobu, she pauses to listen to Waymond's pleas for everybody to stop fighting and to instead be kind, even when life does not make sense. Evelyn has an existentialist epiphany and decides to follow Waymond's absurdist[11] and humanist[12] advice, using her multiverse powers to fight with empathy[13] and bring happiness to those around her; in doing so, she repairs her damage in the other universes and neutralizes Alpha-Gong Gong's fighters. In the universe where humans evolved to have hot dogs for fingers, Evelyn reconciles with her partner Deirdre;
In her home universe, Evelyn reconciles with Waymond, accepts Joy and Becky's relationship–and tells Gong Gong of it–while Waymond convinces Deirdre to let them redo their taxes. Jobu decides to enter the Bagel alone while, simultaneously in Evelyn's universe, Joy begs Evelyn to let her go. Evelyn tells Joy that even when nothing makes sense and even though she could be anywhere else in the multiverse, she will always want to be with Joy. Evelyn and the others save Jobu from the Bagel, and Evelyn and Joy embrace.
Sometime later, with the family's relationships improved, they return to the IRS building to refile their taxes. As Deirdre talks, Evelyn's attention is momentarily drawn to her alternative selves, before she grounds herself back in her home universe.
Other versions
This section explores the alternate dimension versions of Evelyn featured throughout Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Alpha-Evelyn
Evelyn Tupaki, informally known as Alpha-Evelyn, is the mother of Jobu Tupaki and the inventor of multiversal travel, whose actions lead to her daughter becoming one with all other versions of herself, and becoming an omnicidalnihilist who seeks to destroy the multiverse.
Hot Dog Evelyn
In the Hot Dog Dimension, where humans evolved to have hot dog fingers and use their feet more often, its Evelyn is married to Deirdre Beaubeirdre.[14]
Actress Evelyn
As part of the film's metatextuality with the "real world" of the viewer,[15][16] one of the alternate versions of Evelyn—a famous martial arts movie star—is a portrayal of Yeoh herself, with footage of her from the red carpet of Crazy Rich Asians and other films being used to represent the character.[16][17][18]
Miscellaneous
Further alternate versions of Evelyn appear throughout the film, including a Chef Evelyn whose coworker is living through a raccoon-focused version of the film Ratatouille, and numerous random Evelyns who Jobu Tupaki kills in her pursuit of Evelyn, as well as others Evelyn inhabits, including a Rock Evelyn.[14]
Reception
Most reviewers called Michelle Yeoh's performance as Evelyn as the best of her career,[19][20][21]Rotten Tomatoes calling her "outstanding",[22] and David Ehrlich of IndieWire calling it the "greatest performance [she] has ever given".[23] Marya E. Gates of RogerEbert.com also called Yeoh "the anchor of the film, given a role that showcases her wide range of talents, from her fine martial art skills to her superb comic timing to her ability to excavate endless depths of rich human emotion, often just from a glance or a reaction."[24]Maureen Ryan of Vanity Fair highlighted how "Yeoh imbues Evelyn with moving shades of melancholy, regret, resolve, and growing curiosity" and adding that she "makes her embrace of lead-character energy positively gripping."[25] Adam Nayman of The Ringer called the film "a love letter to Yeoh [and] extremely poignant, giving its 59-year-old star a chance to flex unexpected acting muscles while revisiting the high-flying fight choreography that made her a global icon back in the 1990s".[26] Tasha Robinson of Polygon named the scene of Evelyn and Joy Wang as rocks with their dialogue appearing as on-screen subtitles, all while trying to find common ground, as one of the best movie scenes of 2022, saying "...it's a perfect moment. Like so many EEAAO sequences, it turns between emotions on a dime. But the quiet of the moment is essential. Out of context, it's just an odd moment between rocks. But within the context of the film, it's a breather the audience and characters both desperately need, and the emotions are so heightened that just the sight of rock-Joy and rock-Evelyn sharing a companionable laugh is remarkably heartening and hilarious",[27]Armond White of National Review writing of the same sequence how "Yeoh brings adult stability to the blackout-skit chaos and cast of "stupid human" clowns",[28] and Robert Lee III of Collider complimenting her "surprisingly effective emotional core".[29]The A.V. Club included Evelyn Wang on its list of the "15 Best Movie Moms Of All Time," with Cindy White writing that the character's "...love for her daughter crosses universes and spans realities. It's so strong, you can feel it coming through the screen, even when the two of them are rocks."[30]
Michelle Yeoh Choo Kheng is a Malaysian actress. Credited as Michelle Khan in her early films in Hong Kong, she rose to fame in the 1980s and 1990s after starring in Hong Kong action films where she performed her own stunts. These roles include Yes, Madam (1985); Magnificent Warriors (1987); Police Story 3: Supercop (1992); The Heroic Trio (1993); Holy Weapon (1993); and Tai Chi Master (1993).
Section 31, in the fictional universe of Star Trek, is an autonomous intelligence and defense organization that carries out covert operations for the United Federation of Planets. Created by Ira Steven Behr for the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Inquisition", the organization was intended to act as a counterbalance to the utopian portrayal of the Federation.
Ke Huy Quan, also known as Jonathan Ke Quan, is an American actor. As a child actor, Quan rose to fame playing Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and Data in The Goonies (1985). Following a few roles in the 1990s, he took a 19-year acting hiatus, during which he worked as a stunt choreographer and assistant director.
A false ending is a device in film and music that can be used to trick the audience into thinking that the work has ended, before it continues.
An everything bagel is a type of bagel baked with a mix of toppings. The exact ingredients vary, but recipes often include garlic flakes, onion flakes, poppy seeds, sesame seeds and kosher salt. The bagels are made with regular dough and the name is independent of additional fillings such as cream cheese.
Everything is a simulation game developed by artist David OReilly. It was released for the PlayStation 4 on March 21, 2017, for Microsoft Windows and macOS on April 21, 2017, and for Linux on April 28, 2017. A Nintendo Switch version of the game was released on January 10, 2019. It was released in Japan on February 13, 2020. The player takes control of various lifeforms and inanimate objects, exploring the manually generated world and finding new things to control. Everything features quotations from philosopher Alan Watts and has no clear goal aside from occupying more objects within the game.
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, known collectively as the Daniels, are an American filmmaking duo. They began their career as directors of music videos, including ones for "Houdini" (2012) by Foster the People and "Turn Down for What" (2013) by DJ Snake and Lil Jon, both of which earned them nominations at the Grammy Awards.
Everything Everywhere All at Once is a 2022 American absurdist comedy-drama film written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who produced it with Anthony and Joe Russo and Jonathan Wang. The film incorporates elements from several genres and film media, including surreal comedy, science fiction, fantasy, martial arts films, immigrant narrative, and animation. Michelle Yeoh stars as Evelyn Quan Wang, a Chinese-American immigrant who, while audited by the IRS, discovers that she must connect with parallel universe versions of herself to prevent a powerful being from destroying the multiverse. The film also stars Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, Jamie Lee Curtis, and James Hong.
Star Trek: Section 31 is an upcoming American science fiction television film directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi and written by Craig Sweeny for the streaming service Paramount+. It is intended to be the first television film in the Star Trek franchise and part of executive producer Alex Kurtzman's expanded Star Trek Universe. A spin-off from the series Star Trek: Discovery, the film follows Philippa Georgiou, who is an agent of Section 31, a secret division of Starfleet tasked with protecting the United Federation of Planets.
American Born Chinese is an American fantasy action comedy television series created by Kelvin Yu for Disney+. It follows tenth-grader Jin Wang, who is struggling to fit in with his peers. When he is tasked with showing new exchange student Wei-Chen around, he is unexpectedly thrust into a battle between mythical Chinese gods, including Sun Wukong and Guanyin. The series is based on the 2006 graphic novel American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, who drew inspiration from his own adolescent years in the 1990s, incorporating elements from Chinese folk tales and mysticism found in the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West.
Stephanie Ann Hsu is an American actress. She received critical acclaim for her dual role as Joy Wang and Jobu Tupaki in the film Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
The 95th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 12, 2023, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During the gala, the AMPAS presented Academy Awards in 23 categories honoring films released in 2022. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner, with Weiss also serving as director. Comedian Jimmy Kimmel hosted the show for the third time, following the 89th ceremony in 2017 and the 90th ceremony in 2018.
Everything Everywhere All at Once (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack album to the 2022 film of the same name directed by the Daniels. The original score is composed by the band Son Lux. The album also features other musicians performing the tracks, including Mitski, David Byrne, André 3000, Randy Newman, Moses Sumney, Surrija, and yMusic.
The 29th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, honoring the best achievements in film and television performances for the year 2022, were presented on February 26, 2023 at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Century City, California. The ceremony streamed live on Netflix's YouTube channel, starting at 8:00 p.m. EST / 5:00 p.m. PST. The nominees were announced on January 11, 2023 by Ashley Park and Haley Lu Richardson via Instagram Live.
The 94th National Board of Review Awards, honoring the best in film for 2022, were announced on December 8, 2022.
The 57th National Society of Film Critics Awards, given on 7 January 2023, honored the best in film for 2022.
The 16th Houston Film Critics Society Awards were announced on February 18, 2023, at the Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston (MATCH) in Texas. The nominations were announced on January 10, 2023, with The Banshees of Inisherin and Everything Everywhere All at Once leading the nominations with nine each. Both films won the most awards with three each, with Everything Everywhere All at Once winning Best Picture. The nominees for the Texas Independent Film Award were announced on December 7, 2022.
Shirley Kurata is an American wardrobe stylist and costume designer based in Los Angeles, California. In 2023, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design, for her work on the absurdist comedy-drama indie film Everything Everywhere All at Once.
↑ Nordyke, Kimberly (March 12, 2023). "Oscars: Complete Winners List". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on March 13, 2023. Retrieved March 15, 2023.
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