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Science fiction and popular culture are becoming more infused with complex scientific theories made digestible to everyday audiences. The ideas of alternate dimensions, parallel universes, doppelgangers - these are nothing new to the cinematic arts. We’ve seen them since The Twilight Zone’s “The Parallel” in 1963 and the recurring mirror universe on Star Trek (1966), to the television show Sliders (1995) and components of Stargate SG-1 (1994), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997) and Fringe (2008) employing the concept of parallel universes. Recently, shows like The Big Bang Theory (2007) and films like The Theory of Everything (2014) have increased awareness of modern scientific theories among laypeople and have been incorporating the fundamentals of more complicated scientific research into the things we watch. In short, we’re becoming a society of people with a minor understanding of complex and potentially unprovable scientific concepts. And those concepts are being drawn on more frequently to create new narrative works of fiction that offer almost limitless potential.

The most obvious theoretical idea in Parallels (2015) is one of parallel universes. In physics, a parallel universe is defined as “any of a hypothetical collection of undetectable universes that are like our known universe but have branched off from our universe due to a quantum-level event.”

In science fiction and fantasy, its definition is slightly altered to “a separate universe or world that coexists with our known universe but is very different from it.”

Of course, as with most theoretical science, the definition contains a bunch of other terms that also have long, complicated definitions. A quantum-level event, for instance, is a heady concept on its own. “The Many-Worlds Interpretation (MWI) of quantum mechanics holds that there are many worlds which exist in parallel at the same space and time as our own. The existence of the other worlds makes it possible to remove randomness and action at a distance from quantum theory and thus from all physics” - Stanford University

The many worlds theory is also called MWI, relative state formulation, the Everett interpretation, the theory of the universal wavefunction, or the many-universes interpretation.

Trying to truly understand everything on the above-linked Stanford University page is an adventure in futility for all but the smartest alive. But what’s important is comprehending the basic idea that our world could be one of many infinite worlds operating in tandem. Everything that could have happened in our pasts, but didn’t, may have happened in another universe, which had an impact on everything after it.

That leads to yet another discussion about what defines a “world.” Stanford says “The concept of a “world” in the MWI belongs to part (ii) of the theory, i.e., it is not a rigorously defined mathematical entity, but a term defined by us (sentient beings) in describing our experience. When we refer to the “definite classically described state” of, say, a cat, it means that the position and the state (alive, dead, smiling, etc.) of the cat is maximally specified according to our ability to distinguish between the alternatives, and that this specification corresponds to a classical picture, e.g., no superpositions of dead and alive cats are allowed in a single world.”

In Parallels, we see a number of examples of the above fictionalized through a layman’s interpretation. For instance, consider the “advanced tech” version of Earth where Harry (Eric Jungmann) and Beatrix (Jessica Rothe) are a couple. One can assume that on that version of Earth, Harry was more persistent and vocal about his crush on Beatrix, which resulted in their relationship. In the “main” world, Harry never told Beatrix how he felt, and kept his feelings on the sideline. Some thing from their pasts happened in that world which didn’t happen in the “main” one, which caused a split, and changed everything that followed. That’s how the basis of Parallels works.

Whatever scientific principles Parallels draws from, it’s important to remember it remains a work of fiction. Diretor Chrisopher Leone said he knows the science of the Parallels world would never hold up, and that’s fine. It’s science fiction. During a Reddit AMA, he told someone “I read a fair amount of science, and there are quantum physicists who take parallel universes extremely seriously, so I can wave that around a little bit. But it’s ultimately driven more by the fiction: basically a weird idea that has its own internal logic. I have noticed my rules tend to have more of a scientific logic to them, or else a deliberate illogic, rather than being magical.”