Imagine for a moment if there existed infinite Earth’s, where each was slightly different from each other. This was the basic storyline of a 2015 movie titled “Parallels” that I watched on Netflix the other day, which vaguely reminded me of a television show I once watched back in the 90’s named “Sliders”, as it had a similar premise. By the time the movie ended, my brain was left pondering one thought. If there really were other versions of each of us in alternate realities, what would they be like?
Parallels is definitely a mind-bending 90-minute film that ironically was originally created as a pilot for a new television show. As of the time of me writing this though, it appears the standalone movie on Netflix is all that exists, which seems to be a major disappointment for just about every user’s review of it that I saw on the Internet. Regardless, its concept is definitely geek material for a science-fiction fan like myself.
The movie begins with estranged brother and sister Ronan and Beatrix Carver (Mark Hapka and Jessica Rothe) receiving cryptic messages on their cell phones from their father. Upon returning home, they run into each other and have no idea why their father even summoned them home. After all attempts to locate him come back empty-handed, they head out to the garage where they find a backpack in the trunk of his car. Within it the only thing out of the norm that’s found is a strange metallic orb. Meanwhile one of their neighbors and long ago friend, Harold (Eric Jungmann), has joined them and it’s overly apparent he hasn’t connected with either of them in years. The three of them eventually decide to go to the address left to Ronan and Beatrix on those mysterious voicemails where they find nothing but an old rundown and abandoned building. Ronan, being the most rebellious of the three, quickly enters its dirty main glass door entrance and proceeds to call out for his father to no avail. The others follow him in where they soon see bizarre graffiti-based messages scribbled on just about every cement wall. A loud alarm then begins to sound, along with a flashing bright white light, causing Beatrix to panic. She immediately leaves the building, followed by Harold and Ronan, only to discover they’re now standing in the city they left, except this one is desolated and demolished, apparently having been wiped out by a nuclear bomb. Thus begins the real adventure of this mind-bending sci-fi pilot movie.
After Parallels ended, I yearned for more only to sadly learn it hadn’t been picked up to series yet. Nonetheless, it left me pondering this idea of the existence of infinite parallel Earth’s, where each was slightly different from the next. So what if my Higher Power really did create not just one Earth, but countless Earth’s with numerous versions of all of us. What would I be like in each of them? While the movie at one point demonstrates some of that concept, I thought about all the various incarnations my own personality has gone through so far in this lifetime.
I’ve been the heterosexual closeted guy, the alcoholic, the sex and love addict, the corporate greed-based jerk, the preaching deacon, the annoying sports jock, the silent monk, the controlling Bed and Breakfast owner, the gambler, the hoity-toity world traveler, and plenty of other negative personalities as well. I can’t imagine being any one of them now, especially not for an entire lifetime, yet that is precisely the idea Parallels hypothesizes. Frankly, I’m truly grateful I’m not any one of those personalities these days but in all honesty, I’m also unsure of exactly who God has me becoming nowadays either.
Nevertheless, I’m quite content with this unknowingness of my future, because I’ll probably change personalities a dozen more times before I die. So thankfully, I was able to appreciate the great mind-bending sci-fi storyline of Parallels, because I realized I don’t ever have to be any of my old spiritually unfulfilling alternate realities ever again…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson