Everything Everywhere All at Once features a sci-fi universe with access to parallel worlds; credits: A24

Everything Everywhere All at Once became a part of the best films to watch this year in no time at all. Created by Dan Kwan, the idea for the film originated inside the filmmaker's mind during a road trip back in 2016. 

Revealing how he came across the idea, he shared that back in that year, he traveled to Big Sur and browsed wedding venues with his fiancee. On the drive around the area, the actor entered a stupor which made him think of a sci-fi idea. 

The film takes after the concept of Hitchhiker's Guide but is paired with a sci-fi world retelling. The character in the film is seen to travel from one verse to another if they happen to perform some weird task. Once they enter the other verse, they can acquire new talents and skills, and these skills are retained by them when they come back to their own verses. 

The film operates on a barely-there logic when it comes to the strict science of the subject, yet the storyline is enchanting and captivating. The filmmaker shared that he grew up reading sci-fi books and getting such an idea made him very excited. 

Kwan shared the idea with his collaborative partner Daniel Scheinert when he came back from Big Sur. The two had worked together on Swiss Army Man the same year. The film starred Daniel Radcliffe as a corpse. 

Scheinert recalled the experience and shared that Kwan came back from the trip, excited with the idea of a sci-fi film that demanded people to be stupid so that they could get into other universes. Initially, they did not have an idea on how to shape the sci-fi arc into a story that could then be a film.

But given a year or two, a shape slowly started emerging, adding more to the arc of the plot like hurtling the characters into existential spirals if they wished to check out the parallel worlds or receive some superpowers. Hence, the two came together to combine "existential crisis and fight scenes," later giving rise to Everything Everywhere All at Once. 

Explaining how they incorporated other ideas into the film, Kwan revealed that they used the fill as a landfill for all the stray and unsettling ideas they had. Everything fit right into the absurd theme of the film and soon it was chock-full of content that the film was ready to burst at its seams. 

Around this time, the filmmaker and his friend decided to get down to the more serious work of the film and actually dedicate efforts to giving it actual shape. The project was then seconded by Anthony and Joseph Russo, the directors of Avengers: Endgame. They received monetary aid from these people and themselves worked to bring up a rough draft for the film. 

The film then traveled into its production stage where the creators were able, to begin with, the scripts and also start table read sessions for it. The two greatly appreciated the initial help they received from the Avengers directors. 

The story of the film revolves around a laundromat owner who realizes that she has to do something to save the multiple universes they lived in before a great evil took over. Apart from sci-fi, the film is a melting point for various tropes and arcs along with starring a mostly Asian cast in the film. 

The filmmakers did receive a setback when they tried out finding Studios to bring their scripts into action. While the sci-fi plot of the film does jump at you, there is so much else going on that Studios did not appreciate much. 

Amazon asked the creators to meet them for a second draft of the idea and then they would decide to work on it. And then Apple too denied them access to their Studio, citing the majorly chaotic theme of the film as the reason. The brand has an image to uphold, and Everything Everywhere All at Once did not fit into the picture. 

Finally, it was A24 that came to their rescue in the end, and the two collaborators, dubbed Daniels, came to work with the Studio that had helped them direct Swiss Army Man. A24 is also known for its recent Oscar win in the Best Picture category with Moonlight and has worked on other great projects like Hereditary, Eighth Grade, and Midsommar. 

The Studio did not have a budget to accommodate the crazy ideas of the film initially, but by the time the film's write up was done, they had just enough funds to comfortably work on the film and its demanding action sequences. 

The film was then shot at the Studio in just about 38 days back in early 2020, before the onset of the pandemic. Soon, COVID 19 kicked in the States, and had to adhere to the lockdown rules. 

Everything Everywhere All at Once stars Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Curtis, Stephanie Hsy, Ke Huy Quan, and James Hong. The cast member is extremely appreciative of the shooting culture they had on the sets of the film and the family feeling the Daniels had helped bring about on the film sets. 

The film has now been hailed as one of the best films of the year 2022 yet and garnered quite a lot of positive reviews and critical feedback. The film also opened with a solid $50,965 per screen in its first two weeks of release. The popularity of the movie has spread countrywide, allowing Kwan and Scheinert to claim the success they always deserved.