One of Hollywood’s hottest recurring trends in recent memory is movies and TV shows about the Multiverse, which is based on the theory that our universe is just one of an infinite amount of alternate timelines that exist concurrently. The topic would become especially popular after the Marvel multiverse became canon to the Marvel Cinematic Universe but it is truly nothing new to pop culture. Just take a look at some of the best multiverse movies and TV shows from over the years, along with a tip on how to watch them.
Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)
Director: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, Jamie Lee Curtis
What it’s about: A laundromat owner becomes the last hope to save her world and an infinite amount of other realities from a powerful, interdimensional traveler.
Why it is one of the best multiverse movies: The dazzling, action-packed Best Picture Oscar winner, Everything Everywhere All At Once is one of the best A24 movies yet and also earned Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, and Jamie Lee Curtis Academy Awards for their performances.
How to watch Everything Everywhere All At Once
- Stream Everything Everywhere All At Once on Max
- Rent or buy Everything Everywhere All At Once on Amazon
- Buy Everything Everywhere All At Once on Blu-ray on Amazon
Happy Death Day 2U (2019)
Director: Christopher Landon
Starring: Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard
What it’s about: Just moments after escaping a time loop, a college student finds herself thrown into the same nightmare but in a whole new timeline.
Why it is one of the best multiverse movies: Following one of best time loop movies in recent memory, Happy Death Day 2U ups the ante by adding interdimensional travel into the mix.
How to watch Happy Death Day 2U
- Stream Happy Death Day 2U on Peacock
- Rent or buy Happy Death Day 2U on Amazon
- Buy Happy Death Day 2U on Blu-ray on Amazon
Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness (2022)
Director: Sam Raimi
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Xochitl Gomez
What it’s about: A sorcerer must protect a teenage interdimensional traveler from a villain who wants to use her ability for their own interests.
Why it is one of the best multiverse movies: The first MCU movie to actually explore some corners of the Multiverse is Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness – one of director Sam Raimi’s best movies in which he lets his iconic, macabre vision run wilder than it has in years.
How to watch Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
- Stream Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on Disney+
- Rent or buy Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on Amazon
- Buy Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on Blu-ray on Amazon
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
Director: Jon Watts
Starring: Tom Holland, Benedict Cumberbatch, Zendaya
What it’s about: An attempt to make the world forget about his secret identity causes Peter Parker to come face-to-face with foes from alternate dimensions.
Why it is one of the best multiverse movies: Before Doctor Strange actually entered the Multiverse, he gained experience on the subject in Spider-Man: No Way Home – a stunning, emotionally-charged love letter to the best Spider-Man movies of the past.
How to watch Spider-Man: No Way Home
Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse And Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse (2018-2023)
Director: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman; Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson
Starring: Shamiek Moore, Hailee Steinfeld
What they are about: After a radioactive spider bite gives a teenager extraordinary abilities, an accident involving a strange machine brings him face-to-face with other beings like him but from alternate realities.
Why they are some of the best multiverse movies: Various unusual variations of the webslinger (including Spider-Gwen and a Spider-Ham) shared the screen in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – the first two parts of a trilogy that will end with the upcoming superhero movie, Beyond the Spider-Verse.
How to watch Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
- Rent or buy Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse on Amazon
- Stream Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse on Netflix
- Rent or buy Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse on Amazon
- Buy Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse on Blu-ray on Amazon
Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (2013)
Director: Jay Oliva
Starring: Justin Chambers, Kevin McKidd
What it’s about: Barry Allen struggles to return to his world after waking up in another where he has no powers, Bruce Wayne’s father is Batman, and other anomalies are present.
Why it is one of the best multiverse movies: Another great animated superhero movie about alternate realities is Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox – the first feature-length adaptation of the famous comic book arc in which the speedster accidentally creates an alternate timeline.
How to watch Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox
- Stream Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox on Max
- Rent or buy Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox on Amazon
- Buy Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox on Blu-ray on Amazon
The Flash (2023)
Director: Andy Muschietti
Starring: Ezra Miller, Michael Keaton, Sasha Calle
What it’s about: After using his powers to alter history, Barry Allen finds himself in an alternate reality and must team up with a younger version of himself to find his way back home.
Why it is one of the best multiverse movies: The same comic book that inspired Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox served as the basis for The Flash, which involves two different Batman actors don the cape and cowl (Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton in an awesome return) and a great variation of Superman’s cousin, Kara Zor-El.
How to watch The Flash
- Stream The Flash on Netflix
- Stream The Flash on Max
- Rent or buy The Flash on Amazon
- Buy The Flash on Blu-ray on Amazon
Crisis On Infinite Earths (2019-2020)
Director: Various
Starring: Melissa Benoist, Ruby Rose, Grant Gustin, Stephen Amell
What it’s about: Supergirl, Batwoman, The Flash, Green Arrow, and others must team up with heroes from other realities to save the Multiverse.
Why it is one of the best multiverse TV events: The CW’s The Flash TV series did its own version of Flashpoint before the Arrowverse adapted another iconic cross-dimensional comic book event, Crisis on Infinite Earths, into a five-part TV event, each one being an episode of a different series from the shared universe.
How to watch Arrowverse’s Crisis on Infinite Earths
- Stream Supergirl Season 5, Episode 9 on Netflix
- Stream Batwoman Season 1, Episode 9 on Max
- Stream The Flash Season 6, Episode 9 on Netflix
- Stream Arrow Season 8, Episode 8 on Netflix
- Stream Legends of Tomorrow Season 5, Episode 1 on Netflix
Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths, Parts One-Three (2024)
Starring: Darren Criss, Jensen Ackles, Matt Bomer, Stana Katic
What it’s about: The Justice League must team up with heroes from other realities to save their world and others.
Why they are some of the best multiverse movies: Years after the Arrowverse aired its interpretation of Crisis on Infinite Earths, a trio of animated new DC movies based on the event would be released.
How to watch Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Parts One-Three
- Stream Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part One on Max
- Stream Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part Two on Max
- Stream Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part Three on Max
Community - Season 3, Episode 4 (2011)
Director: Jeff Melman
Starring: Joel McHale, Danny Pudi
What it’s about: At a housewarming party, Jeff decides to choose who will bring up the pizza from downstairs by rolling a die, despite Abed’s warning that it will create six different timelines.
Why it is one of the best multiverse TV events: Another iconic TV event exploring alternate realities is “Remedial Chaos Theory” – one of the best Community episodes for how it cleverly (and often darkly) imagines how the simplest of decisions can result in a vast variety of different outcomes.
How to watch Community
Sliders (1995-2000)
Creator: Tracy Tormé, Robert K. Weiss
Starring: Jerry O’Connell, John Rhys-Davies
What it’s about: A young science prodigy accidentally creates a portal that sends him and others on a journey through multiple parallel universes, hoping that the next slide is the slide home.
Why it is one of the best multiverse movies: Sliders was a fun, adventurous TV series that specialized in cross-dimensional travel on a weekly basis.
How to watch Sliders
Altered States (1980)
Director: Ken Russell
Starring: William Hurt, Blair Brown
What it’s about: While experimenting with rare hallucinogenic drugs while floating in a sensory-deprivation tank, a professor experiences startling visions of other worlds that begin to affect him both mentally and, supposedly, also physically.
Why it is one of the best multiverse movies: If experiencing life in another dimension sounds fun to you, you may think again when you see Altered States - one of William Hurt’s best movies and one of the most surreal horror movies ever made.
How to watch Altered States
John Dies At The End (2012)
Director: Don Coscarelli
Starring: Chase Williamson, Rob Mayes, Paul Giamatti, Clancy Brown
What it’s about: Two young slackers become the only hope for humanity when a drug known as “Soy Sauce” sends users into alternate dimensions, but often with grotesque and deadly results.
Why it is one of the best multiverse movies: Multiversal travel by way of mind-altering and body-transforming substances is also the main concept behind John Dies at the End – a fun inventive horror-comedy movie based on the novel by Jason Pargin (writing as David Wong).
How to watch John Dies at the End
- Stream John Dies at the End on Tubi
- Rent or buy John Dies at the End on Amazon
- Buy John Dies at the End on Blu-ray on Amazon
The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension (1984)
Director: W.D. Richter
Starring: Peter Weller, Clancy Brown
What it’s about: A multi-skilled rock star and his team race to stop an impending invasion by an alien race from a bizarre parallel universe.
Why it is one of the best multiverse movies: Another fun sci-fi movie about interdimensional travel starring Clancy Brown is The Adventure of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension – a delightfully zany, visually arresting, and awesomely cheesy cult favorite.
How to watch The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
- Stream The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension on Tubi
- Stream The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension on MGM+
- Rent or buy The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension on Amazon
- Buy The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension on Blu-ray on Amazon
The One (2001)
Director: James Wong
Starring: Jet Li, Carla Gugino
What it’s about: A cop goes head to head with his doppelgänger, who is hunting down every last alternate version of himself after learning he grows stronger with each kill.
Why it is one of the best multiverse movies: Another action-packed, but more tonally earnest, dimension-spanning adventure is The One, which then-retired actor and future Everything Everywhere All At Once star Ke Huy Quan worked on as a stunt rigger, coincidentally.
How to watch The One
Mr. Nobody (2009)
Director: Jaco Van Dormael
Starring: Jared Leto, Daniel Mays
What it’s about: In a futuristic utopia where agelessness is universally common, a journalist interviews the world’s last mortal man but grows puzzled at which one of the three life stories he tells is the truth.
Why it is one of the best multiverse movies: Mr. Nobody is a thought-provoking, visually astonishing, and inspiring meditation on the power of decision and consequence and also, quite simply, one of the weirdest freaking movies I have ever seen.
How to watch Mr. Nobody
Sliding Doors (1998)
Director: Peter Howitt
Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, John Hannah
What it’s about: The destiny of a young woman from London, particularly the outcome of her love life, hangs in the balance based on whether or not she manages to catch a train on time.
Why it is one of the best multiverse movies: A more grounded meditation on the power of decision and consequence whose exploration of alternate realities is more of an experiment in story structure is the clever romantic dramedy, Sliding Doors.
How to watch Sliding Doors
- Stream Sliding Doors on Amazon Prime
- Stream Sliding Doors on Peacock
- Stream Sliding Doors on Tubi
- Buy Sliding Doors on Blu-ray on Amazon
Run Lola Run (1998)
Director: Tom Tykwer
Starring: Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreau
What it’s about: The fate of a young German woman and her boyfriend depends on whether or not she manages to collect a large sum of money within 20 minutes.
Why it is one of the best multiverse movies: Another (somewhat) grounded movie released in 1998 that experiments with story structure by exploring the concept of alternate timelines is Run Lola Run – a high-adrenaline instant classic that is technically three films in one.
How to watch Run Lola Run
Yesterday (2019)
Director: Danny Boyle
Starring: Himesh Patel, Lily James
What it’s about: A young, struggling musician suddenly finds himself in a world where The Beatles never existed (among other pop culture phenomena) and uses his knowledge of their music to further his career.
Why it is one of the best multiverse movies: One of the most lighthearted titles on our list of multiverse movies is Yesterday, which is more of a straight-up fantasy but with grounded and relatable themes, such as losing one’s self to ambition.
How to watch Yesterday
Coherence (2013)
Director: James Ward Byrkit
Starring: Emily Baldoni, Nicholas Brendon
What it’s about: A suburban dinner party takes a sour turn when a comet passes overhead, somehow causing an unusual situation that puts old friends at odds with one another and with their own selves.
Why it is one of the best multiverse movies: I am not at liberty to say anything else about Coherence because, just by including it on this list, I have already given away more about this refreshingly clever, thoroughly haunting, and partially improvised brainteaser than I would like to.
How to watch Coherence
I wonder if there is another reality in which a variant of myself has never seen or heard of the titles above and gets to watch them all with a clean slate for the first time. If anything could make me envious of an alternate me, it would certainly be that.
