Dive into other realms with Inception and other best parallel universe movies ever

IMDb rating: 6.8

Directed by: Danny Boyle

Cast: Himesh Patel, Lily James, Sophia Di Martino

Movie duration: 116 minutes

Synopsis: After an accident, a down-on-his-luck musician Jack Malik (Patel) wakes up in an alternate world in which The Beatles never existed. He decides to use the opportunity and begins performing the rock band’s songs by passing them as their own. However, as he gains more and more fame (and money), he begins to have doubts and even regrets about the deceptions.

Why you should watch it: This movie has a unique premise, and Boyle goes to quite a few interesting places with it. Through this movie, he also comments on the cultural impact of The Beatles on not just Britain but the entire world (remember Beatlemania?). The tone is feel good, for the most part, and the movie also has a couple of cool cameos.

IMDb rating: 6.9

Directed by: Andrew Adamson

Cast: Tilda Swinton, Anna Popplewell, Georgie Henley, William Moseley, Skandar Keynes, Liam Neeson

Movie duration: 143 minutes

Synopsis: The Pevensie siblings — Peter (Moseley), Susan (Popplewell), Edmund (Keynes) and Lucy (Henley) — are rescued from London at the height of World War II when the English capital was being bombed by Adolf Hitler’s German forces. They end up in a country home, where Lucy, the youngest of the Pevensies, inadvertently enters a fantasy world through a wardrobe. The world, called Narnia, is stuck in an eternal winter because its ruler, the tyrannical White Witch (Swinton), has spread her evil magic all over the land. Under the tutelage of wise and noble lion Aslan (voiced by Neeson), Lucy and her siblings decide to wage war against the White Witch to free the oppressed inhabitants of Narnia.

Why you should watch it: An imperfect yet charming adaptation of one of the great classic fantasy stories, this movie will satisfy even the most concerning fantasy movie fans among you. It is based on CS Lewis’ fantasy book of the same name, which is up there with The Lord of the Rings in the pantheon of fantasy literature. The quality of CGI has aged surprisingly well and the visuals do evoke the feel of a richly imagined fantasy world. Best of all, this movie is suitable for people of all ages.

IMDb rating: 7.1

Directed by: Frank Darabont

Cast: Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden

Movie duration: 126 minutes

Synopsis: After a small town in Maine becomes enshrouded in a mysterious, preternatural fog, an artist, David Drayton, gets trapped in a supermarket with his son and a group of other customers. Things exacerbate when nightmarish creatures begin to come out of the murk and violently kill anyone who comes in contact with the mist. As panic sweeps across the supermarket, people get more and more desperate. Despite the monstrosities, it might be the inherent darkness of human nature that may prove to be the survivors’ actual undoing.

Why you should watch it: Based on Stephen King’s novella of the same name, The Mist is a scary horror film, but it is not about monsters at its core — not really. Instead, it is a gripping, terrifying take on the state of the human mind in the face of utter terror. Even the most well-meaning people, the film says, are capable of the worst atrocities imaginable when they are afraid. The Mist is also extremely entertaining and features brilliantly gory visuals and throughout the story, there is a compelling sense of tension. You might wonder how it is a parallel universe movie. While the movie itself is not set in a parallel universe, the mist itself is an alternate dimension. It is not properly explained in the movie but in the novella, it is hinted that the mist is a gateway to a world that is home to these monstrous creatures who enter our world and wreak havoc.

IMDb rating: 7.6

Directed by: Eric Bress, J. Mackye Gruber

Cast: Ashton Kutcher, Amy Smart, Melora Walters

Movie duration: 113 minutes

Synopsis: Evan Treborn (Kutcher) has suffered from blackouts since he was a kid. In those blackouts, he loses memory of all the events that occur during them. Now older, he realises that he can access those lost memories by reading the journal entries that he wrote to cope with his multiple psychological traumas. He tries to repair his dark past by experimenting with his new ability to time-travel, but as always happens in stories like these, his ‘interventions’ have unforeseen consequences.

Why you should watch it: Critics did not love it movie, but The Butterfly Effect is actually thought-provoking. Kutcher is quite remarkable here. And this character was not easy to portray as you will learn after watching the movie.

IMDb rating: 7.8

Directed by: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert

Cast: Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ke Huy Quan

Movie duration: 139 minutes

Synopsis: A Chinese immigrant Evelyn Wang (Yeoh) works as the owner of a launderette in the United States. She is at her wits’ end and not just because of her job. Her marriage with Waymond Wang (Quan) is at an end, and she is unable to connect with her American-born teen daughter Joy (Hsu) because of the generation gap. However, things get even stranger for her when an alternate-reality version of Waymond tells her that she is the one last hope of the multiverse against an entity that threatens to end everything.

Why you should watch it: This movie proved that the concept of multiverse did not have to be reduced to cameos or callbacks (we are looking at you, Spider-Man: No Way Home), and that it can be more inventive and even somewhat bonkers. Yeoh gives a tour de force performance, portraying the pain and confusion of a harried woman with the ease of a veteran. She deservedly went on to win an Oscar for her performance.

IMDb rating: 8

Directed by: Richard Kelly

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Holmes Osborne

Movie duration: 113 minutes

Synopsis: A teenager Donnie Darko (Gyllenhaal) is haunted by visions of a man in a rabbit-like suit called Frank, who informs him that the world will end in 28 days. Donnie begins to commit inexplicable acts as he becomes increasingly detached from reality. The question at the centre of his mind (and the movie) is whether the world will really end and if his visions are true.

Why you should watch it: We do not know that Donnie Darko is really a parallel universe movie for sure since the ending leaves room for more than one interpretation. However, I’d have been remiss not to include it since it is considered a classic of this genre. It also gives a hint into the talent that Gyllenhaal has. The performance he gives is not as refined as some of his later work, but it is still engaging as there is a raw quality to it, like almost a performance in a play.

IMDb rating: 8.2

Directed by: Guillermo del Toro

Cast: Ivana Baquero, Ariadna Gil, Sergi López

Movie duration: 120 minutes

Synopsis: In post-Civil War Spain, a young girl called Ofelia (Baquero) travels with her pregnant mother Carmen (Gil) to meet her stepfather Captain Vidal (López). The place is a military outpost. There, Ofelia is led by a large insect to an ancient labyrinth, where she meets a faun. The creature tells Ofelia that she is the reincarnation of Princess Moanna, the daughter of the king and queen of fairies. Ofelia then embarks on a dangerous quest to finish three certain tasks and reclaim her destiny.

Why you should watch it: If Narnia is not the kind of fantasy story that appeals to you and you find it juvenile, Pan’s Labyrinth is the antidote you need. It is far more mature in its themes and symbolism, and being a del Toro movie, it features some astonishingly good and haunting creature design.

IMDb rating: 8.4

Directed by: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman

Voice cast: Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Liev Schreiber

Movie duration: 117 minutes

Synopsis: A Brooklyn teenager Miles Morales (Moore) gains spider-like abilities after he is bitten by a radioactive spider. However, his universe’s Peter Parker dies, and he is left alone to protect the world from the evil designs of Kingpin (Schreiber). But he unexpectedly gains allies from other universes like Peter B Parker (Johnson) and Gwen Stacy (Steinfeld). Together they team up against Kingpin to stop him from destroying all reality even as Miles struggles to figure out his new Spider-powers.

Why you should watch it: This Spider-Man movie came at a time when we were getting tired of the superhero genre. Bursting with a stunning art style, a thumping soundtrack, a heartfelt story and well-drawn characters (well-drawn in more ways than one), it quickly melted away whatever concerns the naysayers had about it.

IMDb rating: 8.6

Directed by: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson

Voice cast: Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Jake Johnson, Daniel Kaluuya, Oscar Isaac

Movie duration: 140 minutes

Synopsis: Brooklyn teen and the Spider-Man of his universe, Miles Morales (Moore) is thrust into an unwanted adventure after a villain with a grudge against him called Spot destabilises the multiverse. Miles reunites with his friend and love interest from the previous movie, Gwen Stacy (Steinfeld) who reveals the existence of a secret Spider-Society led by the enigmatic and powerful Miguel O’Hara or Spider-Man 2099 (Isaac). In his adventures, Miles meets other kinds of Spider-People, including the British version, Spider-Punk (Kaluuya).

Why you should watch it: While the first film, subtitled Into the Spider-Verse, is also on the list and was a starter to the multiverse, this one takes it further, building on the strengths of the original. The visuals are as stunningly psychedelic and even more imaginative, the soundtrack is amazing, and the action is heart-pumpingly good. This movie, and its prequel, can teach a thing or two to MCU about how to make the concept of multiverse visually interesting and more meaningful.

IMDb rating: 8.7

Directed by: Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski

Cast: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss

Movie duration: 136 minutes

Synopsis: Computer programmer and hacker Neo (Reeves) learns that the world he has lived in all his life is actually a mirage, a simulation created by sentient and malignant machines to keep humanity enslaved. In the real world, they are keeping humans hooked to devices in which they “dream” their simulated lives. The same devices allow the machines to harness the bioelectric power of humans.

Why you should watch it: Because it is one of the finest sci-fi movies ever that would make you question reality. Additionally, its impact is immeasurable. The ideas in it, the action and the visual effects — all have influenced cinema as a medium ever since its release. Among other things, the movie also gave birth to the iconic phrase “glitch in the matrix,” which is used to denote things or occurrences that seem to defy the laws of nature.

IMDb rating: 8.8

Directed by: Christopher Nolan

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy, Dileep Rao, Marion Cotillard

Movie duration: 148 minutes

Synopsis: In the future, exploring your subconscious is possible. Also possible, although rarer and illegal, is entering others’ subconscious and extracting valuable information or planting whole new ideas. Master thief Dom Cobb (DiCaprio) is one of the few capable of the latter. He is given a task by a Japanese businessman Saito to plant an idea in the mind of a wealthy heir to a business empire Robert Fischer (Murphy) to dissolve his father’s company. To help him in the task, Cobb assembles a team, which includes his friend Arthur (Gordon-Levitt) an architecture student Ariadna (Page), a forger and identity thief Eames (Hardy) and a pharmacologist Yusuf (Rao) to accomplish the goal. However, Cobb has his own inner demons to deal with, including his wife Mal (Cotillard) — who despite being deceased — pops up now and then.

Why you should watch it: Inception is an all-around thrill ride that also sneaks in some heavy ideas like regret, guilt and the nature of reality. It also challenges your perceptions and will keep you guessing until the very end. If all that weren’t enough, it is also surprisingly action-packed — that zero-gravity scene is for the ages.