This originally was a TV pilot that was just turned into a movie after the show fell through. However it still has a chance of being a show at some point in the future. I found the movie on Netflix but I’ve also seen it on Hulu so it’s available for your viewing pleasure. This Sci-Fi drama features fast pace scenes, humor, and well-rounded characters.
Two estranged siblings receive a call from their father to come home. In the house, they find a message to go to a building which appears long abandoned and marred with graffiti. The building acts as a ship that moves between the worlds and every 36 hours it jumps to a new earth with anyone that’s inside going along for the ride. The siblings are searching the building for their father when they are transported to a parallel earth along with a family friend. As they try to figure out what happened to them, they find another person in the building as well.
The first alternate earth we see was destroyed by a nuclear weapon. The group leaves the building not believing what has just happened to them despite the stranger explaining it. They meet a roaming band of people who are bent on keeping them hostage. The group barely manage to return to the “ship” before the building leaves for the next earth. At this point, they also have unknown hitchhiker onboard who is determined to destroy the building.
The next earth they stop on is a more high tech version of our earth. The group finds the possible lives they could have lead if things on earth had been different. They also find out that their father wasn’t just a crazy guy that traveled a lot and that he too was from another version of earth; one that was similar to theirs and that he is alive somewhere on a parallel earth, possibly earth one.
The legend of earth one is so well known among the travelers of the building that graffiti even shows the questions people had concerning the existence of earth one. We also learn that there is no way back to your earth. The building is on a one direction trip; only moving forward to the various earths. This movie features betrayal, deception, and action; everything that I want from a Sci-Fi movie plus a ticking clock each time you leave the building.
What is the building? What happened with the hitchhiker? Who will betray them? What happens to the sibling? How did the father come back to them each time? And where is he now? I guess you’ll have to watch parallels to get answers to some of these question and hope they make a series to get answers to the others.
The Review:
Great pilot but just a decent movie. As a stand-alone movie, “Parallels” leaves many questions unanswered but I’m down to watch more of it if it becomes a series. Hopefully it does because in a world of reboots and remakes this show is a gem waiting to be polished. From the writing to the characters, I need more shows like this in my life.
Final Score: 7/10 Power Ups
