Review: Parrallels

About

Ronan and Beatrix each receive a message from their father, Alex, who requests they meet him. Curious, they separately converge at their father’s house, where they find him missing, though Ronan recovers a strange, ball-shaped device. When Harry, Beatrix’s friend, arrives, he joins them in their attempts to locate their father despite Ronan’s dislike for him. Harry, a public defender, suggests that they contact the police. However, Captain Stone can offer little help to them, as they have no evidence of wrong-doing. He directs them to the building Alex described and tells them that it is abandoned.

The three find the building empty and covered in graffiti that describes alternate timelines and histories. Initially dismissive of the seemingly nonsensical graffiti, they discover that the building has transported them to an alternate Earth devastated by nuclear blasts. When they see a roving patrol shoot down pedestrians, they flee back into the building, where they meet Polly. Polly, a traveler between worlds, explains that the building transports anyone within it to a new, random world if they return to it in exactly 36 hours. In hostile worlds such the one in which they currently reside, she suggests that they stay inside the building and do not interact with the locals. (From Wikipedia)

Review

I really enjoyed this movie. The whole concept of moving back between an infinite number of words, all so different, with the use of the building really intrigued me.

It has suspense… You never know what you’ll find in any given universe, and you only have 36 hours to get back. If you get detained, you better make sure you get back to the building before you’re stuck in that world forever.

Mystery… With every possible reality, what will you find next? An alternate you living your dream life? Zombies? Unicorns? The world run by an alien race? Anything is possible!

The ending, though… It leaves you with way more questions than answers. It’s pretty much a cliffhanger.

Turns out that it was originally a TV pilot and not a movie. That explains a lot.

In fact… there’s a petition to turn it into a full series. Sign the petition here.

Inspired

I’m so intrigued by the whole idea behind Parallels that I based a short story I wrote for a compilation on the ideas from the movie. I didn’t steal from it—just took some of the concepts and spun them in different directions.

My short story is called Terra Weaver and is about Stella, a Terra Weaver, who travels between realms to keep them from coming to harm and collapsing into each other. Each world started out exactly the same, but with time they all become more different. The changes harm their worlds, which is why the Terra Weavers are necessary. They aren’t supposed to interact with the residents, but Stella can’t help feeling bad for them.