Many of us have tumbled down that old internet rabbit hole, questioning reality over misremembered logos and movie lines. David Guy Levy’s 2019 indie film The Mandela Effect tries to turn that into a movie, but does it succeed? Well, I really don’t know.
The first several minutes are pretty fun, where through movie magic those false memories that made the Mandela Effect so popular are real. Curious George has a tail. The Monopoly Man has a monocle. Vader says “Luke, I am your father.” And the Berenstein Bears ARE the Berenstein Bears, thank you very much.
After losing his daughter in a tragic accident, game designer Brendan starts noticing these strange inconsistencies himself. He sits alone in the dark, scrolling through forum threads about Froot Loops that used to be Fruit Loops and peanut butter that was almost certainly Jiffy.
That online spiral is the highlight. I mean, I’ve been there! The first half of the movie really reminds me of Stranger Dimensions circa 2015: time travel theories, weird stuff about parallel universes, the Berenst#in Bears Problem. Even a clip of Art Bell pops up!
Things feel a little uneven, though, and the revelations about the Mandela Effect and all the wrong memories kind of feel like the movie’s going “hey, isn’t this weird?” and hoping that does most of the heavy lifting. But about halfway, after we get through all that stuff, we start to go a little off the rails. Can a university’s quantum computer be used to reboot the entire universe? Huh?
“I’ve been coding since I was six years old. If this is a simulation, I mean, if this is code, then I can do something!”
Brendan enlists the help of disgraced physicist Roland Fuchs, who seems to be kind of a fictional version of Jim Gates. Together, they devise a plan to gain access to a nearby university’s quantum computer and I guess hack the universe. And somehow that works, with a few hiccups along the way.
A chunk of The Mandela Effect is a halfway compelling dive into the idea of trauma and false memories, and how that weird phenomenon might tie into things. I kind of wish it would have stayed there.
This might have worked better as a shorter Twilight Zone-style piece, without the quantum computer ending. Just take us on a ride through the Mandela Effect, false memories, and leave us wondering if it’s grief or if the universe really is fraying at the edges. Where we actually end up feels a little silly.
A possibly better quick dive into the Mandela Effect would be The Lost Art Of Forehead Sweat from Season 11 of The X-Files. But give this one a watch if you’re into late night rabbit holes and the simulation hypothesis. You can check it out for free over at Xumo Play, and it’s also available on Amazon Prime Video.
And after that, hop over to my list of other weird time travel and parallel universe movies! It’s right over there…
