Run, Lola, Run and Multiverse Theory
Hello, I am a student at Sinclair Community College and I am in proffesor Leonard's English 247 class, The art of Film. While watching this movie, I wondered what routes could be taken to tangibly answer some of the questions that the movie raises (like the alternate endings and related scenes within each sequence). I understand that part of watching a movie involves suspending reality so that some of these questions need not be answered. However, I thought it might pull more out to push the limits of how much of this might be possible in our own universe. Multiverse theory (as far as I understand it) is an idea that we live parallel to, possibly, an infinite amount of universes, and in each universe, a slight change may occur that deviates from the path that we are currently on. In other words, instead of taking a right, one might take a left and be late for work which results in being fired and a spiral into consequential events.
Run, Lola, Run demonstrates some of the same ideas. It takes a given variant from one universe and changes it (like Lola being tripped by the teenager on the steps) and records the consequential events afterwards. Looking at it this way allowed me to question how much of this might be a reality. Where could I be now had event A, B, or C not occurred? Where might other people around me be? Is the homeless man that I see holding the sign off of the main exit me in another universe? Entertaining the idea of it in the movie is one thing, but with what we know is possible in physics today, we might be able to do more than simply entertain but consider feasible. For me, this made the message of the movie more than a concept.
What is not a concept considered in Multiverse theory, but is demonstrated in the movie, is the interaction and lap over of each universe, like when Lola knows how to use a gun despite not demonstrating how to use it in the first universe until Manni shows her. Many people speak about intuition and gut feeling. The scene explored that idea in a unique way. This was the main thing that I took from this movie.
WQS