Loved 鈥淓verything Everywhere All at Once?鈥 Can't get enough of 鈥淭he Flash鈥 and 鈥淪pider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse鈥 this month? Then this list is for you. We've compiled a non-exhaustive sampler of fiction about alternate universes and multiverses 鈥 from movies to TV to comics to books. It's a great starter kit if your media tastes run to asking: What if?
MOVIES:
鈥 (1946): In this Christmas classic, family man George Bailey grows increasingly frustrated as opportunities pass him by, and it takes an angel-in-training 鈥 on Christmas Eve 鈥 to dump him into a universe where he never existed and show him how important his life is.
鈥 (2022): After years of hints and slivers, including an emerging plotline in 鈥淪pider-Man: No Way Home鈥 (2021), Marvel goes full-on multiverse in this exploration of how realities can collide and start bleeding into each other.
鈥 鈥淪liding Doors鈥 (1998): misses a train 鈥 and doesn't. The two splinter realities unfold very differently, producing versions of her character that must be reconciled.
鈥 (2019): Jack Malik, aspiring musician, finds himself stranded in a near-identical universe where no one has ever heard of the Beatles (or Coca-Cola, for that matter). He starts singing the songs as if he wrote them. Hijinks and big feels ensue.
鈥 鈥淭he Butterfly Effect鈥 (2004): plays a college student who finds he can revisit his past and change things, and each time he does so a different reality is born.
鈥 鈥淭he Family Man鈥 (2000): After an encounter in a convenience store, arrogant Manhattan finance guy Jack Campbell wakes up in a very different 鈥 and less affluent 鈥 life in the New Jersey suburbs and finds himself married to and parenting with his old girlfriend, whom he had walked away from years ago. As he navigates his new life and the choices he made or didn't make to get there, a more complex picture emerges.
And for the kids ...
鈥 鈥淪hrek Forever After鈥 (2010): Shrek finds himself in an alternate, darker reality where he never got together with Fiona.
TV:
鈥 鈥淪tar Trek鈥 (1967 and beyond): A 鈥渕irror universe鈥 reveals a darker, more evil version of the show鈥檚 United Federation of Planets 鈥 the Terran Empire, punctuated by cruelty and assassination. This universe was revisited in multiple 鈥淭rek鈥 sequels in the 1990s and 2010s.
鈥 (2019-present): In season one, Nadia keeps dying at a party and keeps waking up in slightly different universes, though each awakening always ends with her death.
鈥 (2019-2022): In this striking hybrid of live action and animation, a young woman鈥檚 relationship with her long-dead father takes an unexpected turn after a car accident, when he shows up in a vision and tells her other realities are possible 鈥 including one in which he was alive and around for her upbringing.
鈥 鈥淔ringe鈥 (2008-2013): Sci-fi meets family drama meets law-enforcement procedural as a father makes an incursion into a parallel universe to save 鈥 and steal 鈥 another version of his son and deals with the world-changing consequences.
鈥 鈥淭he Man in the High Castle鈥 (2015-2019): It鈥檚 the 1960s, the Nazis and Japan won World War II and the world is playing out very differently 鈥 in sometimes unexpected ways.
鈥 鈥淔or All Mankind鈥 (2019-present): The Soviets won the space race and got to the moon first. This is how history played out afterward.
COMICS:
鈥 鈥淔lashpoint鈥 (2011): The DC Comics series that informed it addresses the damage that the main character, Barry Allen, does when he goes back in time to save his mother.
鈥 鈥淲hat If?鈥 (1970s on): This speculative series, which started in the comics and moved to streaming TV in 2021, takes different corners of Marvel鈥檚 鈥渕ain鈥 universe and remixes events and characters.
鈥 鈥淗ouse of M鈥 (2005): The Scarlet Witch reboots reality and changes the lives of some of Marvel's top heroes in fundamental and chaotic ways, including Spider-Man, Doctor Strange and Captain America. This series was one of the ingredients of the 2020
BOOKS:
鈥 鈥淭he Mirage鈥 (2013): This novel by Matt Ruff, author of 鈥淟ovecraft Country,鈥 posits a through-the-looking-glass world where American Christian fundamentalists were the perpetrators of 9/11, attacking the Twin Towers in Baghdad, located in the United Arab States. Characters include remixes of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.
鈥 鈥淓instein鈥檚 Dreams鈥 (1992): Dreamlike fiction by Alan Lightman that chronicles explorations into different permutations of time and alternate universes that Albert Einstein might have dreamed while coming up with the theory of relativity in 1905.
鈥 "The Space Between Worlds" (2020): A novel by Micaiah Johnson that chronicles a time when travel across the multiverse has become commonplace 鈥 which creates very distinct safety problems for some of those who travel.
