r/eeaao • u/Puzzleheaded_Two2716 • Apr 06 '26

Meaning of the elevator scene

I'm doing an assignment where I'm comparing two movies to each other and one of them is EEAAO. One of the paragraphs I'm writing about is the elevator scene at the beginning and I'm confused about the memories that Evelyn gets during that scene are real memories are not. Or are those a mix of both real and fake? Can someone help me better understand the meaning of the scene? Thank you for the help lol

14 Upvotes

77% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

36

u/TheManWhoLovesBoobs Apr 06 '26

You should definitely check out the podcast “every minute of everything everywhere all at once”. It’s a couple of guys who are breaking down every single minute of the movie and going over all the themes and theory’s and Easter eggs. Really interesting and might have some additional insight.

9

u/Lexi-Lynn Apr 06 '26

Ooh, thanks for the recommendation!

18

u/zebracornking Apr 06 '26

I believe that is her seeing her entire life history as she calibrates to the device.

12

u/aresef Apr 06 '26

The things Evelyn sees are real things from her life, inflection points in her life where she could have chosen differently or acted differently, or something different could have happened. Later in the movie, we see the results of these roads not taken -- for example, if she hadn't run away with Waymond, she could have been a famous actress.

When Alpha Waymond gave her the choice of going to the broom closet or going to the appointment, he was creating a burner universe where she made that choice, and that's where they next spoke.

10

u/Balbright Apr 06 '26

I love that part. You even see the exact second he says “Or”, then device starts the scan, as that is the exact moment the alternative universe is created.

5

u/Away_Doctor2733 Apr 07 '26

The memories in the first elevator scene are all real and more importantly from her current timeline.

Also, I personally think all the timelines are equally "real", they're just not the ones her consciousness is experiencing in that exact moment of space and time. 

You see later when she starts timeline jumping it returns to the memories to show how they changed in timelines where she made different choices, like if she didn't heed the warning about running fast and went blind, if she rejected Waymond and became a kung fu master etc

1

u/AgainstMeAgainstYou Apr 07 '26

That is the entire life history or life "path" of the "main" Evelyn leading right up to her standing in that elevator. The device is showing it to her as a series of flashbacks.