Coherence : My review

From the childhood, I was very fascinated about the universe. I always wondered that, is this the only universe, where living things can exists? If yes, then why? After passing out the school, I have understood the physics, quite a bit, and understood the fact that, what are the necessary things required for the existence of life. At the same time, I came to know about the concept of space dimensions. When I came to know that the ants can not see the world exactly in the same way that we see, I was quite captivated.

  While I was looking in search for another universe, I came to know about a theory, published by Hugh Everett III, back in 1954, in which I came to know about a new concept, called Parallel Universe. Here according to Hugh, there exist parallel universes, exactly like our ­universe. These universes are all related to ours; indeed, they branch off from ours,and our universe is branched off of others. Within these parallel universes, our wars have had different outcomes than the ones we know. Species that are extinct in our universe have evolved and adapted in others. In other universes, we humans may have become extinct. I believe that we can not see the other universes just because they are belonging to another space dimension. There comes some events, or some specific times, when these two dimensions can collide, or can overlap to each other, and in that time, we can face the other 'we'.

   Now,why this long introduction is here? Actually I am going to tell you about a movie, I saw back in my college days, which was completely based on the theory of Parallel Universe. It is "Coherence". It is an American science fiction thriller (though it is kept under the horror genre by IMDb), directed by James Ward Byrkit, released in 2013. It was starring Emily Baldoni, Maury Sterling and Nicholas Brendon. It was the directorial debut film for Byrkit.

The plot is quite interesting. Eight friends are reunited in one of their house. It is important to tell the names of the friends: Kevin, Kevin's girlfriend Emily, Kevin's ex-girlfriend Laurie, Hugh, Hugh's girlfriend Beth, Amir, Mike, and Mike's girlfriend Lee. The day when they are reunited, there is a comet, that was passing by the earth. It was Miller's comet. It was passing the earth after 100 years. Now the events are started to take significant changes.

   On the first scene, we see that Emily was driven a car, and was talking to Kevin by phone. But after some time she couldn't hear from Kevin, and then she heard a cracking sound. She saw that the screen of her phone was broken, by some unknown event. She entered into Lee and Mike's house. After some times, all of the friends came, and they were united. Suddenly Hugh and Mike saw that their phone screens were broken. Emily told them about the same incident that she had faced earlier. They also noticed that there was no network, not in the computer too. Lee had some glow sticks that they used for light, and they decide to use the blue glow sticks. Everyone went outside and saw one  house after two blocks that still had power. When they were back inside, a glass was broken, which they didn't notice before. Hugh and Amir went to the other house to ask to use their phone, and a few minutes later they came back with a box. Inside they found a ping-pong paddle and pictures of themselves, including one that was taken that night, with numbers written on the back. On a notepad, Emily wrote down the numbers from the box, looking for a pattern, but couldn't find one. Hugh said that at the other house he saw a dinner party set for eight people. They realized the other house was an alternate of theirs. They began to write a note for the other house, only to find the same note already on their own door. Emily, Kevin, Mike, and Laurie decided to go to the other house to see what's happening. While there, they met copies of themselves, and both groups flew back to their own homes.

   Emily's group explained others that they met copies of themselves, except the copies were wearing red glow sticks instead of their blue glow sticks. Hugh went to his car to get notes of a physics lecture. After reading those notes, they understood that the comet had created a split reality, and that one of the realities would be collapsed when the comet pass. The group started arguing about how to deal with the other house. Mike hysterically planned to kill their doubles before the doubles could kill them. They considered stealing the physics notes from the other Hugh's car. Mike went to blackmail the other house's Mike, to prevent them from getting the lecture notes.

   Now the picture suddenly take turns to another way. It's revealed that Hugh and Amir were from the house with red glow sticks. They took the box and went back to the other house, then the Hugh and Amir with blue glow sticks returned. They explained that they had found two notes at the other house too. They realized that there were more than just two realities, and they switched from one house to another when they went outside and walked through a dark area.Emily told that this dark area was the entrance to another reality, but it was a one way process, you couldn't get returned to the previous one. Outside, they heard someone smashed Hugh's car window, and they went out to investigate. While outside, Emily had a sweet conversation with her husband, before realizing she's talking to a Kevin from a different reality. The group decided to put a random marker in front of their house. As the marker, they left a random object and photos of themselves in a box, and on the back they wrote down the numbers they got from rolling dice. They checked how their new numbers compare to the numbers from the other house's box, which they had written on the notepad earlier. Emily realized that the numbers written on this notepad weren't the same numbers she wrote on the notepad earlier. When she asked other people, she found that Lee and Beth are the only ones whose memory matched with the notepad, because they're the only ones who hadn't left the house since they wrote the numbers on the notepad. Kevin and Laurie were the only ones whose memory matched with Emily's memory, since they're the only ones who had traveled with her the whole time. Hugh and Amir remembered a third set of numbers, since they switched realities when they switched to the red glow stick house and again when they switched to the current house. Mike remembered a fourth set of numbers, since he switched realities when he went to blackmail himself.

   The situation deteriorates further when a blackmail note arrived. Mike mentioned that if there's a dark version of their group, maybe it's them. Another Mike arrived and tried to kill them. On this moment Emily left the house, and looked through several different houses, finding several where things were even worse. Finally, she found a reality where no one seemed aware of the split and there was a happy Emily. In this reality, the relationship of Kevin and Emily had stayed strong. She planed to replace this reality's Emily. She destroyed a car window to lure the group outside, then ambushed her double with ketamine. But her double was able to crawl back inside, forcing Emily to subdue her again in a bathtub. She then headed to the living room and fainted. She waked up the next morning and was unable to find her double, yet everything was looking fine. She searched outside and ran into Kevin. After their meeting, his cell phone rang, to which he answered "That's weird. It's you calling me." Upon taking the call, he glanced at her suspiciously.And here the movie ends!

   Yes, you are right! It completely freaked me out when I first saw this film, back in my college days. After the ending, I had a completely different mindset about my own existence. This is a very simple plot from one side, but it is also a very complex plot too. Emily told her friends that previously when this comet was passed through the earth, on the very next day, he told to police that the man here was not her husband. When police asked that how she was so sure, then she replied that I had killed my husband yesterday night. Actually, according to the concept of parallel universe, there are millions of other universes, exactly like ours. Just because the are existing in a different reality (different space dimension), that is why we can not collide with them. But due to some changes in the reality, like change in electromagnetic field, or some other interference, These universes can come into the same dimension, but with the same reality. It means, suppose in my house, I am writing this blog, but the other me is drinking a cup of coffee, sitting in a exactly same looking house, like that. According to the movie, This time, the comet was entered into the earth's atmosphere on Antarctica, and then collided. Due to this change in the magnetic field, the power cut was happened. That is why, I think we can not just categorize this movie as science fiction, because it can be real science. It is also a reality. But there is only one complex part. Since there were so much multipliers of these eight people, that's why sometimes we get confused, just as the characters, but this confusion was created by planning. Though I am not a very big fan of science fiction movies (not books), but just because of this mind-blowing and  groundbreaking plot, I like this movie very much.

Plot reference : Wikipedia

Picture reference : Google

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