Dr. Strange – Lost in the multiverse

Watching Dr. Strange is a RedBugHomie family-event we just couldn’t miss. So on Monday we got together to witness Benedict Cumberbatch’s first steps into the Marvel Universe.

The fascinating concept of altering time and matter, to visit parallel dimensions and to jump from one universes to another has left us intrigued. To really go beyond the physical challenges of the everyday superhero Dr. Strange seems to have the ultimate power. But that also has it’s downsides. Manly story-wise. Everything is shifted into perspective. And if you have a superhero that can alter the reality at will, everyday struggles get pretty insignificant. Some of us really got a kick out of that, since you could completely focus on the action, for others the story fell kind of flat because of it.

But despite our different opinions the movie left me thinking.

Due to my job as an actor and creative creator my whole life is so flexible and free that I have a lot of control over what to do next. Every morning I get out of bed and see myself confronted with thousands of possibilities. Of course it doesn’t stop at my daily routine. My whole life is as adaptable as the new MacBook Pro… The only one deciding is me. And that is something I am extremely grateful for.

And yes, in a world where most things are pretty much fixed, that actually feels like a superpower.

Although like every good superpower there is also a catch. Because as long as I don’t decide what to do, every possibility is just hypothetical. I get overloaded with options and get paralyzed. I feel like I can do everything, yet I do nothing. It’s easy to get lost in the multiverse, because that hypothetical space is extremely comfortable.

It’s nice to daydream about all the millions of options. To stay with one of them for a few minutes only to cast it aside and go to the next. So I’m floating around in the multiverse of endless possibilities, not partaking in reality.

And if I have to make a decision, I suddenly get scared. Because I don’t only see the option I choose, I also see the thousands of options that get canceled. And that is fucking scary.

I think everybody knows that feeling, because everybody had to make a major decision at some point in their life. Deal or no deal. Something that changes the life forever.
So in a way we are all like Dr. Strange. Having access to millions of altering universes. All we have to do is to choose the one we want to live in.

Because in the end, one actual reality is worth more than a thousand hypothetical ones.

So Dr. Strange might come across as the weirdest, most extreme superhero of them all. But in fact his superpowers might be closer to our everyday life then anything else.