Comments on: Movie Coherence Explained and Interview With Director James Ward Byrkit

By: JumpsterDufus

JumpsterDufus — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 18:45:20 +0000

I got directed here by Taylor from the Signal. Yeah, baby! I love it! Taylor, I’ll have to look at your other movie reviews. I certainly do enjoy a movie that you want to think about after. Have to admit, I found this thread the day after I watched it, and I trucked all the way through the comments too:

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/9ir6x1/coherence_movie_ending_that_everyone_got_wrong/

I’ll have to do that here too! I’m curious if the thinking is the same or not … :-D

Man, I just watched both of these over last weekend. Awesome … and I just got the two-fer Primer and Upstream Color on blu-ray, because I’ve seen those in the past, but I was up for a re-watch there too …

By: Puffer

Puffer — Fri, 09 Jun 2023 03:02:18 +0000

So here we are closing in on 10 years after you wrote this and here I am, having watched it for the first time. Some interesting theories and observations here. Lots to consider. Here’s my thought (apologies if it’s already been expressed). Taking into account what the director said, what if each cut to black we are changing to a different reality? So here is no House1 per se. We start by cutting between the different groups. Now how and when they start bleeding into and crossing over is obviously something to be mulled over. But I think there’s something to this.

By: Aida van der Linden

Aida van der Linden — Mon, 25 Apr 2022 18:07:43 +0000

Following

By: Dan G

Dan G — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 23:06:01 +0000

There are a couple typos that make this much harder to follow:
*Hugh2 and Kevin1 go to car to get book…

In this house Lee is asleep, “Should we wake Lee? How could she sleep through the middle of all this?”

When Kevin2 and Hugh2 come back Kevin2 is still blue glow sticked even though they’ve just swapped

Should this not be Hugh2 and Kevin1 coming back? Or are you suggesting Kevin1 was swapped out?

Hugh3 and Amir3 are holding red glow sticks
*Hugh4 and Amir3 steal the book and the photos and leave

Hugh3 and Amir3 steal the book right? Unless you are suggesting there is randomly a Hugh swap during this period.

By: jarinjove

jarinjove — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 07:03:13 +0000

The Coherence only comes through observation of the phenomena. Meaning, anytime someone was in a black box situation (the items in a box, or Em in the bathroom, or the blackouts) then they switched places. They never returned to the original House they came from in any timeline and Mike3 was not Mike1. Em1 traveled through different parallel worlds, not to one where she said yes, but to one where she had the best, wealthiest life for herself and made all the right decisions such as the Ballet Understudy choice. Also, she did lock-up Em-Prime in the car perfectly. Pre-Final Blackout, she has the jacket on and post-final blackout, the Em that we see is no longer Em1, but Em3 because she didn’t have the jacket. The Em who comes into the house is from another reality, let’s call her Em4 and she dies in the Bathroom that is said to be unusable. When Em3 wakes-up the next morning after killing Em4, the old lady walks out of the bathroom all wet and with a towel on meaning Em3 is in a reality where it is working. The Em4 vanished into another reality, but there’s still an Em2 in the Trunk because both Em3 and Em4 jumped to different realities in the bathroom by being unobserved by others which is why she pulled the curtain over Em4. Remember, if Em4 is unobservable and switches realities, then so does Em3 because she was also unobserved but had the ring on her. So what we have here is:

Em1: Finds her perfect reality and during the blackout we no longer see her so Em1 SUCCEEDED in getting rid of the other Em and taking her place.

Em4: A version that got out of the trunk and comes crawling in, who is then killed in the bathroom by Em3.

Em3: The one switched for Em1 near the end who no longer had the jacket that Em1 was putting on.

Em2: Who was stuck in the car and called Kevin at the end of the film.

Once the commit passed, this meant:

1. There’s a universe where Emily vanished without a trace.

2. A universe where Emily appeared dead in the bathroom for no explicable reason.

3. A universe where there’s two Emilys’ which is the final scene (which is why #1 exists).

4. The universe of Em1 that successfully exploited the parallel worlds and caused a massive paradox for those three other Emily universes.

By: Ryan Turner

Ryan Turner — Sat, 13 Mar 2021 03:59:26 +0000

So I’ve seen a lot of argument against the theory that the people started switching places before they even got to the house. And at first I didn’t think it added up either. But after watching the film a second time I caught something that makes me support that theory now.
After the entire group gets in the house and are eating dinner, Mark asks Laurie if she’s still teaching yoga and she says I’ve never done yoga, you’re thinking of someone else. No biggie there. But in the scene where she corners Kevin and tries to spark something up with him again she says remember that one weekend yada yada, I had to do so much yoga afterward. So she’s obviously not the same person as the Laurie we saw at the beginning of the film. Which means either her or Mark were already swapped in that first dinner scene (if she was Laurie1 then that Mark was from the reality of this Laurie where he knew she did yoga).
Also, the director is on record as saying the cuts to black are pivotal. What do they mean?? Because the scene continues immediately afterward. Is that every time someone gets swapped? Is it actually cutting to another reality where that same conversation is happening? Aghh!!

By: Ar Kin

Ar Kin — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 08:27:20 +0000

Covid19… no more explanations!
My head is about to explode after reading all the comments.
Everybody did a good job analyzing the movie.
I read in a book about quantum mechanics that scientist discovered something strange: The particles they observed suddenly disappeared.
This is happening all the time all over the world – maybe everywhere in this universe!?
There are different theories why?
Some geeks, I am one of them, think the particles jump or slide from one dimensions into another.
This way one could explain a paradox like the “Mandela Effect” or dejavus.
I watched this movie again and again over the years and found out that you don’t have to do anything to jump between the dimensions.
It is not like in “Sliders” (1995-2000) or in the movie “Source Code” (2011). The dimensions are not seperate from eachother, they are connected by an invisible membrane and the particles are exchanged through “osmosis”. Like an infinite circle, a snake swallowing itself.
The comet either disturbs or speeds up the process. The story about the woman from Finland shows 2 identical versions of a person could exist in the same dimension(?). One being dead makes it difficult to prove otherwise but the Fringe series (2008-2013) is suggesting a catastrophe to result should this ever happen.
The comet falling apart whould also mean there will be no more “do-overs” for those who are trapped even with them being able to control the effect.
“Happy death day 2U” is another source for the “multi-verse” theory. Also a good example for “stolen identity” a la “The Stand-In” (2020). Em following up on Mike’s plan and killing someone else for her own well-being is inexcusable and tainted the movie for me. I felt the same way after watching “Circle” (2015).
I guess the creators of this particular movie had to explain the physics on a smaller and “cheaper” scale. Things are changing all the time even when the characters don’t leave the house. One reality might be slipping into another all the time. The “vortex” might be a prop. to make it obvious. Mike is the most interesting and helpful character. We are following around all the Ems which distract us from all the clues every version of Mike is revealing. In the kitchen Beth and Lee are describing Laurie to Mike and the look on his face is truly puzzled. A few minutes later they all are having dinner and Mike is clearly teasing Laurie. Suddenly he is absolutly sure who Laurie is, her being Kevin’s ex and now dating Amir. Later when Hugh attacks Mike, Beth and Kevin both insist “He told you!”.

By: Ali

Ali — Fri, 26 Feb 2021 10:59:58 +0000

Just watched this movie for the first time and mind blown so came online for answers and stumbled into this great discussion!
Mulling over when Em tells her story about losing her dance spot and Lori mentions that the other dancer is living her life. This happens to all the Em’s because she didn’t say yes to first Kevin and then she loses that Kevin along the way and the second to last Kevin clearly has a thing for Lori.
Its sad that Em perpetuates the cycle by not choosing well or acting quick enough and does herself and the other Ems no favours. She should have been happy for her other version selves. I think having someone steal her dance role really did her head in then she goes and does it to herself.
Going to be thinking this one over for a while.

By: Taylor Holmes

Taylor Holmes — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 03:34:12 +0000

In reply to Matt.

hahahahah… out of context of really anything… this is the greatest comment ever.

UHHM WAHHHT? so good.