This Underseen Sci-Fi Did Multiverses Better Than Almost Anyone Else, and It’s Now Available on HBO Max

As explained in the Community episode “Remedial Chaos Theory” (which is weirdly one of the most effective modern texts on the multiverse theory), alternate realities are created at different decision points in a person’s life, with branching possibilities spiraling out infinitely from there, and it’s exacerbated when decisions are made by random chance. Two years before that Community episode, though, director Jaco Van Dormael filmed Mr. Nobody, a sci-fi drama in which an elderly man in the future recounts the different paths his life could’ve taken and the alternate realities that spun out from each choice he made (streaming now on HBO Max). In other words, it’s a thoughtful take on the multiverse from a time before every movie was about the multiverse, and it takes the concept a little deeper than, say, imagining if Spider-Man was a different guy in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Mr. Nobody is also sort of like a sci-fi version of the Gwyneth Paltrow film Sliding Doors, but without necessarily suggesting that any one timeline is the correct one — which, curiously, is often a hallmark of multiverse stories. The Community episode ultimately lands on a “correct” universe (which makes sense, since the episode also introduced “Darkest Timeline” to our cultural lexicon), but it also lands on a similar point as Mr. Nobody, which is that the best choice is to surrender to the natural flow of fate and not make any specific choice. That’s impractical, as far as life advice goes, but alternate realities aren’t as easily observed in real life as they are in movies and television, so there’s no way to know if missing a train sent you to the Darkest Timeline anyway.

Why is ‘Mr. Nobody’ Such a Unique Take on the Multiverse?

Jared Leto stars as Nemo Nobody in Mr. Nobody, the last-surviving mortal man in a world where everyone else is effectively immortal. Looking to learn more about Nemo’s interesting life, a journalist interviews him and discovers that he can remember multiple contradictory alternate realities that hinge on his decision to live with either his father or mother after they got divorced. Nemo falls in love with different women in different realities, he dies in a bunch of them in different ways, and he even visits a universe where he never existed at all. (Production on Suicide Squad probably would’ve been a little smoother without Jared Leto’s behind-the-scenes Joker pranks, but maybe Tron: Ares never would’ve happened then?)

What sets Mr. Nobody apart from other multiverse stories is that it goes beyond being a “wouldn’t this be interesting?” thought experiment and actually has something to say about what life would be like for someone who actually knows there are other realities where they made different choices. In Everything Everywhere All at Once (another all-time great multiverse story), Jobu Tupaki’s nihilistic rampage comes from the realization that, if infinite realities exist, then no one universe matters. Mr. Nobody’s point is that a universe where you choose to live with your mom is no more valid than a universe where you choose to live with your dad just because the outcome is happier, and also that knowing what’s going to happen is scarier than not knowing what’s going to happen.

Mr. Nobody is currently on HBO Max and VOD platforms.