Luke, thanks for another great movie recommendation. I finally watched it this afternoon. Great production quality consistently throughout the film. Great acting by everyone. I really enjoyed it. The first hook that really piqued my interested was at the beginning, when we see the headline about being the last mortal. That idea sounded very interesting.

I’m going to agree with Alex that the teenage love scenes were very realistic, or at least was very close what I can remember of my own teen years. I think they really nailed it.

Spoilers follow.

My interpretation was that the boy being in this decision superposition (perfect word for it, btw) allowed him to see all the possible futures of the universe, a universe that would only continue for another century (when the big crunch kicks in and time reverses). Because he could see every possibility, he would know exactly what decisions to make in order to survive just to the end of the universe (“end” being where time stops advancing). However, he still felt that every possible outcome of differing decisions was just as meaningful as the next.

I figured out the conclusion about 1/3 of the way into the movie. :-) However, I thought the decision stemmed from his passing of the three girls, since it was the earliest “decision” depicted — outside of the dessert shop, that is. If I studied your screencap more carefully before watching I probably could have nailed it down to the train scene.

My only complaint is a technical one. The sound balance was like that of a DVD produced in the late 90’s: the voices were very low and hard to hear a lot of the movie. It was probably done that way in order to better take advantage of dynamic range, so those loud noises would punch so hard (the explosion, the gunshot, etc.).

Have you ever seen the movie Next (the Nicolas Cage one)? It explores a related idea. The main character can see several minutes into future (and eventually even further), and so he can make his choices much more effectively. It didn’t get good reviews, and it’s nowhere near as good as Mr. Nobody, but I’d say it’s worth a watch just for its conclusion.

Mr. Nobody felt a little like a mix of Next (explore alternate choices) and, your previous recommendation, The Fountain (same character living multiple stories). However, this isn’t the first time I saw a movie where the main character’s name was Nobody: My Name is Nobody (my favorite Western).

Another similar movie to look into is Run Lola Run.

Finally, I don’t care what anyone says, personally I classify this as a science fiction film.

Spoiler

My conclusion was that actually all his possibilities didn’t actually happen – but would have been equally valid if he had chosen them. It was all in his mind. At the very end, however, when Anna appears by the bench where a version of him is sleeping, he realizes that is the right choice. That was the right path for him, one that supersedes all others. So he is happy and his old version can finally die. And time starts to go back to his 9-year old version, when he can finally make the decisions that will lead to his desired outcome.

@Alex Reinisch, he seemed to have confused the events as well. For example, in some of his choices, other people were involved in the accidents that actually killed him in some his other choices. I didn’t get the meaning of that, though.

@ Liudvikas:

Well, it is one of these movies that has SF elements, but it is not defined by them. Most people probably would not classify it as SF. It is more in that strange/quirky category. I guess that makes it accessible to people who usually get turned off by space opera type stuff.

Alex Reinisch wrote:

Teenage love scenes felt scary-accurate, thus realistic and moving.

I sort of never experienced teenage love like this – or rather my love was always unrequited when I was that age. Unfortunate I guess, but what can you do. Still, these scenes were captivating and vivid, and the bigger than life emotions of the characters did ring true for me.

@ Alex Reinisch wrote:

I was confused why Nemo was confusing names. I know just enough about quantum entanglement to think that without any separate collapsing of worldviews, there should be no cross-talk. Any ideas?

Have you read Neal Stephensons’ Anathem? I don’t want to spoil it too much, but one of the core philosophical discussions in the novel explains how the very nature of the human consciousness would allow for such crosstalk to exist – or rather how such crosstalk is essential to its actual function.

Alex Reinisch wrote:

I didn’t see the need for the “Big Crunch” and “time? bahaha” shenanigans.

Yeah, that was strange. I do not fully grasp the significance of that whole sequence either. I’m suspecting it is one of these things that was not supposed to be taken literally.

@Liudvikas //SPOILER-maybe?: Just wait for the Mars-related scenes. The movie as a whole didn’t strike me as sci-fi, but those scenes were fun
@Lucas Thank you for the recommendation. I’ll try to keep it short:
*Teenage love scenes felt scary-accurate, thus realistic and moving.
*Shots of: space elevator, elevated from bench Nemo, follow a raindrop, etc. Surprisingly interesting things to see.
*Constantly made me think. I liked that.
*I was confused why Nemo was confusing names. I know just enough about quantum entanglement to think that without any separate collapsing of worldviews, there should be no cross-talk. Any ideas?
*I didn’t see the need for the “Big Crunch” and “time? bahaha” shenanigans. Entanglement seemed sufficient, but maybe that means I didn’t fully understand the movie.
As you can tell, the film still has me thinking. Thanks again for pointing it out!

Torrenting it right now :)
Though I’m a little put off by it not looking sci-fi enough :)