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Parallels

 Parallels
type
TVTItem
 Parallels
label
Parallels
 Parallels
page
Parallels
 Parallels
comment
Bad-boy runaway Ronan Carver gets a cryptic phone call from his father, telling him to come home. There he finds his sister Beatrix, his father's go-bag, and a strange device wrapped in a newspaper declaring President Clinton has been assassinated. He and Beatrix (plus their tagalong neighbor, Harold) follow the message to an abandoned building. Inside the graffitied walls are covered in deranged messages ranging from warnings that "contagion has spread to Earth 33" or that the "natives are friendly, no weapons on Earth 168."They soon discover that the derelict building is actually a parallel-worlds machine that transports them into a random alternate Earth. The enigmatic Polly finds them and gives them some exposition into how travellers like themselves comport themselves in strange worlds that range from the postapocalyptic to the eerily advanced. Along the way they're kidnapped by wasteland scavengers, dodge nuclear blasts by fleeing to parallel worlds, and commit identity theft against alternate versions of themselves to survive. All the while Ronan and Beatrix continue to seek their father.Parallels was released on Netflix in March of 2015.
 Parallels
fetched
2023-11-18T15:15:44Z
 Parallels
parsed
2023-11-18T15:15:44Z
 Parallels
isPartOf
DBTropes
 Parallels / int_11d38820
type
Big Dumb Object
 Parallels / int_11d38820
comment
Big Dumb Object: The building looks innocuous, but shifts from world to world.
 Parallels / int_11d38820
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1.0
 Parallels / int_11d38820
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1.0
 Parallels
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Parallels / int_11d38820
 Parallels / int_176a6683
type
The Social Expert
 Parallels / int_176a6683
comment
The Social Expert: Polly naturally takes the lead when the others screw up some part of the deft dance of impersonating themselves in an alternate universe, going so far as to insist that Ronan's a mute because of some childhood disease. This is unsurprising, since she apparently travels with The Building for a living.
 Parallels / int_176a6683
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1.0
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1.0
 Parallels
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Parallels / int_176a6683
 Parallels / int_496569e8
type
Race Against the Clock
 Parallels / int_496569e8
comment
Race Against the Clock: The Building jumps every 36 hours, and Polly insists quite seriously that one doesn't want to get left behind. Especially if someone is attempting to nuke The Building as you're leaving. However, some hilarity ensues when Polly reveals that it's sort of "approximately" 36 hours.
 Parallels / int_496569e8
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 Parallels
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Parallels / int_496569e8
 Parallels / int_4acee1ed
type
Fish out of Temporal Water
 Parallels / int_4acee1ed
comment
Fish out of Temporal Water: On the tech world they visit.
 Parallels / int_4acee1ed
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1.0
 Parallels / int_4acee1ed
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 Parallels
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Parallels / int_4acee1ed
 Parallels / int_59907e4f
type
Police Are Useless
 Parallels / int_59907e4f
comment
Police Are Useless: When Ronan and Beatrix try to report their father missing, they are given the old "has to be missing for 24 hours" line, which isn't true in Real Life. However, it is pointed out there's no evidence of foul play, plus he gets reported for patrols to look out for, so it's somewhat subverted.
 Parallels / int_59907e4f
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Parallels / int_59907e4f
 Parallels / int_613ecc2d
type
Riding into the Sunset
 Parallels / int_613ecc2d
comment
Riding into the Sunset: The group sees a bright light outside at the end and go out the door to see what it is at the end of the movie.
 Parallels / int_613ecc2d
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1.0
 Parallels / int_613ecc2d
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Parallels / int_613ecc2d
 Parallels / int_614127a5
type
That Liar Lies
 Parallels / int_614127a5
comment
That Liar Lies: Stated by Tinker when he returns from upstairs and gets shot.
 Parallels / int_614127a5
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1.0
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Parallels / int_614127a5
 Parallels / int_6bda9a30
type
Meaningful Name
 Parallels / int_6bda9a30
comment
Meaningful Name: Polly. There's more than one of her.
 Parallels / int_6bda9a30
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1.0
 Parallels / int_6bda9a30
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Parallels / int_6bda9a30
 Parallels / int_8504b817
type
Where the Hell Is Springfield?
 Parallels / int_8504b817
comment
Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Ronan starts the film off in Akron, Ohio. He's told to come "home", and the film was shot in Terrytown, Louisiana. The specific city the building is located in is never named.
 Parallels / int_8504b817
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1.0
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Parallels / int_8504b817
 Parallels / int_99e87707
type
When You Coming Home, Dad?
 Parallels / int_99e87707
comment
When You Coming Home, Dad?: Alex wasn't around for most of his children's childhoods.
 Parallels / int_99e87707
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1.0
 Parallels / int_99e87707
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Parallels / int_99e87707
 Parallels / int_9d12bbc1
type
Foreshadowing
 Parallels / int_9d12bbc1
comment
Foreshadowing: Polly walks into the room after the nuclear blast, instead of being on the floor with the rest of them. Then she doesn't recognize the TV show Ronan mentions that she should.
 Parallels / int_9d12bbc1
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1.0
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 Parallels
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Parallels / int_9d12bbc1
 Parallels / int_a08b0736
type
Nuclear Option
 Parallels / int_a08b0736
comment
Nuclear Option: Apparently this is how alternate versions of Earth take out each other's trash. Not surprising, since you have to haul things across alternate Earths yourself, and nukes give you the biggest bang you can drag out of The Building.
 Parallels / int_a08b0736
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1.0
 Parallels / int_a08b0736
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 Parallels
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Parallels / int_a08b0736
 Parallels / int_a86069f
type
Alternate History
 Parallels / int_a86069f
comment
Alternate History: Polly points out that when the world is nuked, it tends to be from a 1970s or 1980s nuclear exchange. However one time Egypt set it off.
 Parallels / int_a86069f
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1.0
 Parallels / int_a86069f
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 Parallels
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Parallels / int_a86069f
 Parallels / int_a9f392fd
type
Pilot Movie
 Parallels / int_a9f392fd
comment
Pilot Movie: Originally set up as a TV movie pilot, it was released as a stand-alone movie with the possibility of being a series.
 Parallels / int_a9f392fd
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1.0
 Parallels / int_a9f392fd
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 Parallels
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Parallels / int_a9f392fd
 Parallels / int_b9e8ad28
type
The Multiverse
 Parallels / int_b9e8ad28
comment
The Multiverse: The setting of the film is revealed to be a small set of hundreds (or thousands) of alternative histories of Earth. Most of which didn't turn out too well, since Alex and his wife decided that "our" Earth was a safe place to raise their kids.
 Parallels / int_b9e8ad28
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1.0
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 Parallels
hasFeature
Parallels / int_b9e8ad28
 Parallels / int_ce1d78bc
type
Foreign Queasine
 Parallels / int_ce1d78bc
comment
Foreign Queasine: A "crombie" — some sort of food with crab claws sticking out of it.
 Parallels / int_ce1d78bc
featureApplicability
1.0
 Parallels / int_ce1d78bc
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 Parallels
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Parallels / int_ce1d78bc
 Parallels / int_d10d5eb5
type
Made of Indestructium
 Parallels / int_d10d5eb5
comment
Made of Indestructium: If Tinker's story is to be believed, the nuclear bomb was set off right across the street from the building, yet the building was unhurt.
 Parallels / int_d10d5eb5
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 Parallels
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Parallels / int_d10d5eb5
 Parallels / int_d39e327f
type
What the Hell, Hero?
 Parallels / int_d39e327f
comment
What the Hell, Hero?: Beatrix's sudden willingness to point a loaded gun at the Tinker obviously alarms even Ronan, but it apparently runs in the family: Alex not only nuked the Tinker's version the city, but coolly borrowed the aforementioned gun to shoot the Tinker dead without so much as a by-your-leave.
 Parallels / int_d39e327f
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 Parallels
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Parallels / int_d39e327f
 Parallels / int_d8e0e9f7
type
Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You
 Parallels / int_d8e0e9f7
comment
Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Alex insists his prolonged absences and cryptic instructions were for the good of his children, in an attempt to Give Them A Normal Life. Subverted in part by the fact that alternate versions of them have clearly fared better — not that they could have known it at the time, of course.
 Parallels / int_d8e0e9f7
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Parallels / int_d8e0e9f7
 Parallels / int_dc579c91
type
Contrived Coincidence
 Parallels / int_dc579c91
comment
Contrived Coincidence: On the first jump, the characters run into some Red Shirts who are gunned down fairly quickly.
 Parallels / int_dc579c91
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 Parallels / int_dc579c91
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 Parallels
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Parallels / int_dc579c91
 Parallels / int_edeafb2e
type
Malicious Misnaming
 Parallels / int_edeafb2e
comment
Malicious Misnaming: Inverted, as Harold would desperately prefer to be called Harry, which Ronan has no interest in respecting.
 Parallels / int_edeafb2e
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Parallels / int_edeafb2e
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 Parallels / int_name
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Parallels / int_name
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Parallels

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Parallels
hasFeature
Films of 2015–2019 / int_d5d10112
 Parallels
hasFeature
Interdimensional Travel Device / int_d5d10112
 Parallels
hasFeature
Nuclear Option / int_d5d10112
 Parallels
hasFeature
Ragnarök Proofing / int_d5d10112
 Parallels
hasFeature
The Multiverse / int_d5d10112