7 Everything Everywhere All At Once Facts About The Film

2022 brought us so many great films, which is why awards season time is shaping up to be exciting. My favorite film from 2022 was Everything Everywhere All At Once. Seeing all the questions people have about the film, I wanted to make an article that answers the most asked questions. From the film’s meaning to the original score, I hope you enjoy 7 insider facts about Everything Everywhere All At Once.

Everything Everywhere All at Once Facts Explained and Meaning

Everything Everywhere All At Once carries many different themes, including generational trauma, parenthood, individuality, acceptance, and love. Life could be meaningless, represented by Jobu Tupaki’s nihilism.

Life could also be seen as beautiful moments and making the best of situations, illustrated by Waymond’s character. Evelyn is caught between these two conflicting ideologies. The core message at the center of Everything Everywhere All At Once is that while life is fleeting, what makes life meaningful is appreciating and celebrating moments and each other.

Script 

Here’s the 2017 draft of Everything Everywhere All At Once. Click on the image to view the PDF version of the script.

Cast

The main cast includes Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, James Hong, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Jenny Slate.

Michelle Yeoh stars as Evelyn Wang and has appeared in films including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Crazy Rich Asians, Shang-Chi And The Legend of The Ten Rings, and Tomorrow Never dies.

Ke Huy Quan returned from a 20-year acting hiatus to star as Waymond Wang. He’s starred in films such as Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies.

Stephanie Hsu stars as Joy Wang and Jobu Tupaki. Stephanie has starred in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Asking For It and Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings.

James Hong, a prolific American actor with over 650 credits, stars as Gong Gong. James Hong has most notably starred in Mulan, Turning Red, Big Trouble in Little China, and Chinatown.

Jamie Lee Curtis stars as Deidre Beaubeirdre. Jamie Lee Curtis has most notably starred in Halloween, True Lies, Knives Out, and Freaky Friday.

Jenny Slate stars as Big Nose. Jenny Slate has most notably starred in Marcel The Shell With Shoes On, Zootopia, and I Want You Back.

The Everything Everywhere All At Once Budget

The budget for “Everything Everywhere All At Once” was $14 million. As of December 2022, the film grossed an estimated $103.5 million at box offices, making “Everything Everywhere All At Once” the first A24 film in history to gross over $100 million.

Here is a breakdown of the box details for Everything Everywhere All At Once.

• Budget: $14,300,000
• Opening weekend: $501,305
• Gross (US & Canada): $77,191,785
• Gross (World): $141,059,707

Where To Watch

Currently, you can stream “Everything Everywhere All At Once” on Hulu, Prime Video, Showtime, and Apple TV. Additionally, the film is available on Blu-Ray.

Rock Scene

With no dialogue, how do two rocks “talking” to each other in a desolate location make you cry? Before we dig in, SPOILER ALERTS ahead.

In the film Everything Everywhere All At Once, one of the core conflicts is between mother Evelyn and daughter Joy. Life could not form in this particular universe, and it is where Jobu Tupaki feels most at home. For the first time, she’s joined by her mother. As they have a conversation about how meaningless things can be, they share a laugh.

In a scene that is meant to be seemingly simplistic, these two rocks share a moment of love between a mother and daughter. The nuances of each character and numerous worlds don’t matter. They have a loving moment between a mother and daughter without the world’s chaos mattering because nothing else is happening in this world other than this moment.

Original Music

The music is Everything Everywhere All At Once is composed entirely by American experimental band Son Lux. Check out more from them and hear the soundtrack, including 49 tracks and collaborations with Mitski, David Byrne, Randy Newman, Moses Sumney, and more.

You can also stream the soundtrack on Feature FM.

Jackie Chan, not Michelle Yeoh?

Jackie Chan was written as the lead character in the original screenplay instead of Michelle Yeoh. According to IndieWire, director Daniel Kwan states, “We were having trouble figuring out the casting for the father figure, and one of us started wondering what happens if we take Michelle’s character and flop it and she becomes the protagonist. And the film just opened up in a completely different way.”

Who Made those Hot Dog Hands in Everything Everywhere All At Once?

The hot dog hands were created and explicitly molded for Jamie Lee Curtis and Michelle Yeoh by designer Jason Hamer. Hamer and his team also were responsible for creating the “Raccaccoonie” puppet. 

Absolutely, (Story of A Girl) and Everything Everywhere All At Once

The song, “Absolutely (Story of a Girl),” appeared by accident when Alpha Waymond speaks the lyrics, “Your clothes never wear as well the next day, your hair never falls in quite the same way,” to Evelyn.

Daniel Kwan, one of the film’s directors, explained in a Zoom interview with Mashable, “The words just came out of my fingers, not knowing where they come from, the muses were filling my body. And I wrote, ‘Your clothes never wear as well the next day, your hair never falls quite the same way.’ And I was like, ‘Ooh, that feels good. But I definitely stole that from somewhere, and I don’t remember where.’ And so I Googled it, and I was like, ‘Oh shit.’”

Instead of deleting the line from the screenplay, The Daniels reached out to the lead singer of the band Nine Days, John Hampton, who helped create a few alternate versions of the song.

In the movie, these versions appear in three scenes – in the RV parallel universe, in the background of the restaurant universe where Evelyn is a chef, and the last, in a BDSM dungeon where director Daniel Scheinart makes a cameo as a man leaving the dungeon.

Multiverse Footage filmed by The Daniels

Some of the multiverses you see as Evelyn is being pulled across dimensions were filmed across their travels over 2020 / 2021 by directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinart. The Daniels mention in the behind-the-scenes features on the Blu-Ray DVD how they used random footage they filmed over the two years the film was in post-production.

Who Did the Stunts in Everything Everywhere All At Once?

The film’s two prominent stuntmen and actors are brothers Brian and Andy Le from the Youtube channel, MartialClub. Brain and Andy Le helped choreograph and perform integral fight scenes in Everything Everywhere All At Once. Check out their Youtube channel!

Everything Bagel vs. Googly Eyes = Core Conflict of Everything Everywhere All At Once?

Two of the core elements of the film – the bagel and the googly eyes, represent the core conflict in the middle of the film. The googly eyes represent Waymond and his positive approach to looking at life and its challenges. The everything bagel represents Joy’s idea that love and life are meaningless. Evelyn is trapped between these ideas, as life is viewed as fleeting.

VFX Team for Everything Everywhere All At Once

None of the VFX team went to school for VFX. The team was made of 9 people, with most of the effects done by five people. The team credits Youtube and online tutorials with helping them produce the fantastic effects in Everything Everywhere All At Once. Use that as inspiration to use tutorials and information to help create your indie films.

Conclusion

Everything Everywhere All At Once is a once-in-a-lifetime film. Blending different film genres and inspiration, The Daniels crafted a unique film genre. I’ve been excited to learn so much behind the scenes of the making of Everything Everywhere All At Once and share it with you.

Let me know if you learned anything new from my 7 Insider Facts About Everything Everywhere All At Once and leave a comment about your favorite scene from the film!