Everything Everywhere All At Once is a meticulous, complex movie despite having a mistake, but the movie’s goof could have a deeper meaning.
It’s normal for movies to have goofs that weren’t caught prior to their release, but one potential mistake in Everything Everywhere All At Once might have a deeper meaning. The Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All At Once tells the story of Evelyn Quan, a Chinese American immigrant who is deeply dissatisfied with her life running a laundromat with her husband, Waymond. Once she discovers that she is actually living in a multiverse, Evelyn’s life gains a much bigger purpose as she tries to stop Jobu Tupaki. While Everything Everywhere All At Once is meticulously executed, one supposed mistake could reveal another layer of the movie.
Evelyn is first introduced to Everything Everywhere All At Once‘s multiverse and “verse-jumping” when another version of her husband, Alpha Waymond, appears and gives her a set of instructions. One of the instructions that Alpha Waymond gives Evelyn is “don’t forget to breathe.” However, there appears to be a mistake in this instruction, as the first time Evelyn receives the instructions, “breathe” is misspelled as “breath,” but when she looks back, the word is spelled correctly. While the “breath” versus “breathe” detail could merely be a goof, it could actually point to a new layer regarding the movie’s unique timeline, given the nature of Everything Everywhere All At Once’s universe.
Is Everything Everywhere All At Once’s Goof A Timeline Clue?
Movie goofs can happen, but when it comes to Everything Everywhere All At Once, each seemingly mundane detail could point to a new timeline or verse, and thus must be carefully examined by viewers. The clues pointing to new timelines in the multiverse of Everything Everywhere All At Once are often minuscule and have little meaning at first until Evelyn verse jumps, revealing their significance. This means that the “breath” versus “breathe” detail could potentially point to several different details regarding the movie’s timeline, such as a different Waymond, a new multiverse/timeline, or even both.
However, given the detail itself and other clues in Everything Everywhere All At Once’s timeline, “breath” versus “breathe” is likely a goof. Though a complex movie, Everything Everywhere All At Once doesn’t unfairly trick the audience, and most of its clues are later explained in the movie. Additionally, clues to other timelines are either nonsequiturs or otherwise humorous. A good illustrator of these patterns is Raccacoonie, which was a seemingly mundane yet amusing utterance between the Everything Everywhere All At Once characters until it’s revealed that the Ratatouille parody exists in its own multiverse. Because it doesn’t follow those patterns, the “breath” versus “breathe” detail is likely just a goof.
Everything Everywhere All At Once’s Mistake Proves How Good It Is
Rather than detracting from Everything Everywhere All At Once’s success, the goof at the beginning of the movie proves just how good it is. Ultimately, the fact that audiences even have to ask whether “breath” versus “breathe” is a goof or a real clue demonstrates how effective and well-executed Everything Everywhere All At Once’s multiverse concept is. These kinds of details are the hallmark of a well crafted movie that give it both rewatch value and thus staying power, and this will be the case for Everything Everywhere All At Once if its Golden Globe wins and other nominations are any indicator.
