Life is full of critical moments and decisions. What if you turned left instead of right? What if you didn’t date that person in high school? What if you went for that job? How different could life be, and would it actually be better or worse than the reality you’re in?
As Candide & Co set out on their journey and discover a world full of possibilities and realities, we are asked ‘is this really the best of all possible worlds’??
Here are 8 films where the characters’ destinies take a completely different path or venture into parallel realities depending on the decisions they make, fate and, in some cases, a little bit of magic. SPOILER ALERT!
Sliding Doors
After missing a train, the story of Helen (Gwyneth Paltrow) splits into two parallel lives. She experiences two very different realities, both good and bad, with very different outcomes.
Everything Everywhere All At Once
A middle-aged woman (Oscar winning Michelle Yeoh) seeking meaning in her mundane life is swept into a mind-bending adventure in which she alone can save the world by connecting with the different lives she could have led.
La La Land
Aspiring actress Mia (Emma Stone) and jazz musician Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) struggle to make ends meet while pursuing their dreams in this Oscar winning musical. Reconnecting years later, they look back on the decisions which sent their romance down a certain path and wonder what could have been.
Edge of Tomorrow
Major William Cage (Tom Cruise) is an officer who has never seen combat but is conscripted to fight an alien invasion of Earth. He is killed in battle but finds himself thrown into a time-loop reliving the same day again and again until he learns how to defeat the aliens.
About Time
On his 21st birthday, Tim (Domhnall Gleeson) discovers a family secret which allows him to travel back in time and change events in his life. His attempts to get a girlfriend, land his dream job and make his family happy turn out to not be as easy as he thinks.
The Butterfly Effect
Attempting to undo unpleasant past events, Evan Treborn (Ashton Kutcher) finds that every time he revisits blackouts he experienced as a child he ends up making everything worse. Can he prevent more tragedies from happening and save the girl he loves?
Run Lola Run
Lola (Franka Potente) races against time to save her boyfriend from his gangster boss. Three different scenarios play out depending on minor events, choices and missed opportunities which happen on Lola’s run, leading to three different, but not necessarily happy, endings.
Source Code
Soldier Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes up in someone else’s body and discovers he is part of an experimental government program to find the bomber of a commuter train within 8 minutes. He must revisit the journey and learn from past mistakes to stop the bomber and get the girl.
