SHERDOG MOVIE CLUB: WEEK 114: Coherence

You are thinking like I did for the first couple viewings. This was my 3rd viewing. At first it appears to follow the "many worlds" doctrine which is basically what you are saying about parallel universes. Basically there is an infinite number of worlds, so there is an infinite number of you's doing stuff on those worlds. With my 3rd viewing though I'm not sure this is exactly the case. The movie centers around the idea of quantum physics.

Coherence, Decoherence, Schrodinger's Cat, these things have to do with quantum physics and specifically Superposition, the state of being both spinning or still simultaneously, or alive and dead at the same time in the case of the cat. Atoms behave in this way. It may surprise you to find out that nobody has ever seen an atom, or an electron for that matter. We have Electron microscopes but we don't really see the atom as it really is.

We know there are electrons orbiting the nucleus but we cannot know where they are. Rather than the standard model that was believed for so long, which shows an atom with a nucleus and with electrons orbiting it, like planets orbiting a star, we now know, through quantum mechanics, that the atom and its electrons is more like a cloud. Its just a cloud of infinite possibilities. It is only when we try to measur eit, or to see it, that the cloud of possibilities collapses into more of a standard model of a particle with electrons orbiting.

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Cloud of possibility. The electrons could be anywhere in that cloud, all possibilities are.....possible.

So once again, this is like the cat being both alive and dead at the same time, and its only when you open the box that reality collapses into either alive, or dead. Atoms behave in that way. The electrons in the atom are everywhere, simultaneously, in a cloud of possibility, and its only when we observe this cloud that it collapses into reality and appears as a particle instead of a cloud. In the movie, all the varies infinite realities you speak of, are the cloud of possibilities. ALL possibilities are possible but once observed they collapse into single timelines.

So what is it I'm saying? You may be thinking, ok here is a universe, and here is a universe, and there are infinite universes, which is the many worlds theory, but the movie points more toward a cloud of possible universes that all exist simultaneously, like Superposition, both alive and dead, but not all of those possibilities actually happen, they are just possibilities, like an atom cloud where the electrons could be anywhere and we just see a cloud of possible positions.....until we measure it.

Oh no, if we're going to start getting into science, this is where you're going to lose me. It was my worst subject in school. I'll try to keep up here.

So, you're saying that all the realities that we see in this film are just all possibilities of what may be between two realities? In this case, we were first presented with Group Blue Lights and Group Red Lights, the original two we see. By film's end, Em from Group Blue Lights abandons her reality along with Group Red Lights' reality by going into a completely separate reality from these original two. So the possibility of her abandoning both of these realities becomes the reality since that is what we as the viewer observe?
 
Good finds. I'm seeing I would probably have to watch this again to pick up on more things. Maybe another version of me in another reality might get to it someday.

As for the different clothes on the Ems, what if, hear me out now, more than one version of the Invading Em (trademarked) decided to crash that reality. As in, the Em that our Em ketamines, was an original Invading Em that tried swapping out the Em we see in the bathroom. Now our Em bashes that Em in the head with the toiler cover. I mean, there had to be many other realities of an Em that had the thought of deleting another Em, so perhaps a couple Invading Ems tried going for the same reality.
I think @MusterX nailed it with entanglement. She drugged the girl, took her sweater, and then when the girl crawled to the bathroom the sweater was gone and they were dressed exactly the same.
 
First of all, I'm going to give my review of the film, without touching on the whole multiple-dimensions, Schrödinger's Cat flim-flam, which I'll get into at a later date. And by a later date, I of course mean that I'll wait until other posters have broken everything down and then jumpy in saying "I was just going to say that, I'm very smart you see.":cool:

I taught it was a pretty mediocre film

I've always disliked the whole hand-held camera aesthetic, but it wasn't too bad here. The dim lighting was rather atmospheric, it brought mood to a very low-budget film with a modicum of success.

One of the big problems I thought was that the whole venture started feeling preposterous and silly at times. Like when they retrieve the book and start talking about Schrödinger's Cat and Decoherence (bad exposition, basically). So here we have about ten or so people talking about multi-dimensional theory while dressed for an evening party. Then they are charged by duplicates of themselves with menacingly crimson nightlights. Then there is even a mini-brawl when one guy explains that he's banged the others dude wife through multiple-dimensions. It all starts feeling a tad incongruous and preposterous at one point, undermining the seriousness that the film is striving for. Instead of being invested in the flow-of-events you just cock one eyebrow and say "yeah that's alternative-dimensions for you, all right!"

Best moment in the film was probably when Emily meets her "boyfriend" by the car and its not him, eery.

Triangle told a story fairly similar to this in a much more interesting, driven, and evocative manner.

Yea but Triangle was about a time loop, this is something all together different and more based in reality than Triangle was. You are just wrong about the value of this film being mediocre and I hope to make you see that. Admittedly you haven't given me much in way of your objections. The Schrodinger's Cat and Decoherence was the only way to let the audience know how big these ideas were in the film. Quantum Mechanics is so strange that even the top guys in the field chuckle and scratch their heads.

Einstein referred to quantum entanglement as "spooky action" because he didn't believe it could possibly be real but after his death we found out it was real. At the atomic level, the cat in Schrodinger's box is both alive and dead simultaneously. That cloud of possibility which I have struggled explaining in this thread multiple times, only collapses into what we know as reality on the material plane, when we open and observe or measure the contents of the box.

It is not that there are infinite dimensions or time lines, or worlds, its more accurate to say that there is a cloud and inside this cloud there are infinite number of possible outcomes, involving an infinite number of you's. This is the way the quantum world works which is not at all the way we perceive reality. Electrons do not proceed around their nucleus in an ordered elliptical pattern. The electrons are everywhere and nowhere. We cannot pinpoint them, they are in superposition, here and there simultaneously. They are somewhere within a cloud of possible locations and we can only seem to locate them IF we use a device to measure them and when we measure them they all of a sudden change from a cloud, to a position. From a wave......to a particle.

But as long as there is no interference with the cloud, like trying to study it or interact with it, then the electrons are nowhere, and everywhere, at the same time. They simply represent possibilities. Remember in school they showed you stuff like this.

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That shit doesn't exist. Its only a simplified way to introduce a VERY gdamned complex explanation for how reality works to people who generally cannot grasp it due to age or whatever other factors. This is closer to what it actually looks like.

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The electrons are within that cloud, somewhere, at a point, but also at all points, simultaneously. Only when we interfere with that cloud do the electrons straighten up and "fly right."
 
Ok, but how does physics know where one person's yard ends and another's begins? I mean, what if somebody tried to go to their neighbor's house for a flashlight or some candles.

Reminds me. A clue that things had shifted was when lady K (I think) suggested turning on the generator after there being no mention of one previously when the lights initially went out.

3 viewings and I never noticed that. I mean I remember it happening but the ole light bulb never went on. There was also other clues like the green broken glass. They went outside and when they came back in they noticed a broken glass on the table and they were like, "how did that get broken? Did anyone notice that?" Later in the film we see Lee standing at the sink washing that same green glass but its not broken.
 
Gotta step away for a bit, and I still need to read everyone's thoughts (which are already making me think of new angles) but I'm coming back to talk about this!

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3 viewings and I never noticed that. I mean I remember it happening but the ole light bulb never went on. There was also other clues like the green broken glass. They went outside and when they came back in they noticed a broken glass on the table and they were like, "how did that get broken? Did anyone notice that?" Later in the film we see Lee standing at the sink washing that same green glass but its not broken.

Yeah, the glass was a good one. And when Lady K offered up her concoction nobody took it (to the best of my recollection). Then later the one chick was passed out from it.

What do you make of the various timelines? Hugh showed up with the other group's box before writing/receiving the note. Then the note showed up on the door as he was writing. Then later they created their own box. To me that's a clue there are more than two groups and that the one we were originally introduced to is not the "real" group.
 
Well one was on the phone and the other wasn't. :eek::D

With quantum superposition a particle can be both moving and still at the same time. This is the bizarre nature of the building blocks of our reality. In other words, she could be both on the phone and not on the phone simultaneously. It does not violate the rules of quantum mechanics or the film. I know this stuff sounds like a magic wand but forget the film, this is the way our reality works.

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Yea but Triangle was about a time loop, this is something all together different

Yes.Which is why I said fairly similar.

The Schrodinger's Cat and Decoherence was the only way to let the audience know how big these ideas were in the film.

I'm not saying that having them in there was a bad thing.

I'm just saying their expesition was poorly presentee from a storytelling standpoint. As muntjac said, it feels very much to serve the plot.

Quantum Mechanics is so strange that even the top guys in the field chuckle and scratch their heads.

If that is true, then why should we expect that a simple filmmaker can do the subject justice? With not even the extremely intelligent proffessional scientist being able to grasp it.

It is not that there are infinite dimensions or time lines, or worlds, its more accurate to say that there is a cloud and inside this cloud there are infinite number of possible outcomes,

Does that have any qualitative difference to the dimensions/possibilities we're seeing in the film though? From our vantage point, neither angle changes anything we've talked about regarding the diversity (or lack of diversity) of copies presented. Saying multi-verse is just easier (and enables me to do a sick Michael Moorcook reference while I'm at it:cool:) Excluding Emy's hope of reaching a Coherence by being the only Emy left standing in that ending dimension, of course. Which turns out isn't the case anyways.
 
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Mother of God...

...you're talking about...

...a deletion!

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So...she was wrong since both her and the other Em still existed in the same reality? I took the whole Schrodinger's Cat angle in the film as a way for the characters to understand why they were seeing and coming into contact with another reality of theirs. At first they feared, or at least some of them did, mainly Mike, that the other versions of themselves were going to dole them out of existence where they would be the dead reality, and the other reality would be the alive one. But later we see that it's actually bigger than just the Schrodinger's Cat theory because there are multiple realities happening, and they're all affecting each other since the comet opened a portal for all of the realities to step through. Basically, the comet grabbed the earth (or just their particular realities) like a snow globe and shook it up. Em realizes this when she says to Mike, "Stepping into the dark zone is like entering a roulette machine." Meaning you could end up in any random reality. She decides to bail on her messed up reality and tries to sneak into another one by offing the Em in that reality. The way I interpreted her stuffing the other Em in her car was a way for her to deal with dumping the body a later time. She was just hiding it for now.



Oh, I've burnt a couple Rossenberg Bridges in my day, don't get me started.

I guess this is the one thing the film is murky about is if it only affected the realities of the dinner party, or if all realities were affected on Earth. I guess for the multiverse way that I'm looking at it, it makes more sense to me that all realities have been effected, but they're only splintering off and intermixing with their own realities that are parallel to theirs. For example, I'm at my computer right now writing to a dude I know as MusterX, so at this moment of time, this is my reality. This reality of mine has no effect on say somebody surfing in Australia right now, hence why these two separate realities wouldn't connect in the roulette machine and intermix with each other. I would only be intermixing with realities of me writing to MusterX about this movie...

...or to MusterZ!

Who are you really, man?!

Yes, that was my point, Emily was trying to delete her other self, not so much murder her. What she was doing could be far darker than a simple murder. A total deletion. She probably didn't feel as morally bad about it because it was not another human being, it was essentially herself. If anything it was closer to suicide than homicide.

As far as the Schrodinger's Cat and "other realities", it always goes back to the cloud of possibilities in quantum mechanics. Within the cloud, all things exist and are happening at the same time. The problem is we are not supposed to interact or interfere with the cloud because once we interfere with the cloud, one of those infinite possibilities comes into focus on our material plane of existence. Then there isn't infinite possibilities because you aren't in the cloud anymore, now there is only your reality.

This is where Schrodinger's Cat comes into play. While in the sealed box the cat is in the cloud and it is fine and alive and also dead, its all things, at the same time, only when you open the box and interfere with that cloud does reality collapse and pull that one outcome out of the cloud, alive or dead, and place it in our plane of existence, the material plane. This is what they were dealing with in the film and why Hugh told them NOT to go near there other selves or interfere. If they don't interact then everyone makes it out fine, but they just wouldn't listen, and Emily especially so.

More strangely than the film, is that our reality appears to work in this way.
 
Coherence in systems requires that the environment has no interference or what you could call background noise. This is one problem with quantum computers such as the D-Wave. They can only do calculations if there is no interference from other systems, or quantum particles. They have to be in a very "quiet environment" to function. By quiet I mean if you take 2 atoms and entangle them, then because of superposition + entanglement, one atom can be both spinning and still at the same time, think of it as the 1 and 0's of binary code. It can only do this if there is no interference from other subatomic particles. Thus, a "quiet environment."

In the film House A and House B become entangled, or if you like, House Guests A and House Guests B......BUT......its in a "quiet environment", the rest of the world fades out as background noise so they are free of interference. It very well could have affected the entire world but we were inside of one of those quiet environments with possible entanglement, like a bubble.

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Okay, so you're saying that this story of the multiple reality Dinner Guests is only occurring in its own cloud, or bubble, and the rest of the world isn't being affected by it. Once this cloud passes or dissolves or whatever, eventually they come back into the rest of the world's reality because we see there's light out and we can see down the street with the other houses. So it's the rest of the world that now either sees the reality of who from the Dinner Guest "quiet environment" is now part of the world's reality? But there were more than one Ems in this world's reality. They can both be seen/heard. They are both existing simultaneously in this same reality, neither is the dead or alive cat. This is what makes me think we were witnessing multiverses.
 
As for the different clothes on the Ems, what if, hear me out now, more than one version of the Invading Em (trademarked) decided to crash that reality. As in, the Em that our Em ketamines, was an original Invading Em that tried swapping out the Em we see in the bathroom. Now our Em bashes that Em in the head with the toiler cover. I mean, there had to be many other realities of an Em that had the thought of deleting another Em, so perhaps a couple Invading Ems tried going for the same reality.

I think it was the same Emily crawling to the bathroom. She came to in the trunk, was disoriented, and was trying to make it to the bathroom to compose herself. The key may be with the rings. When Bad Emily hits Good Emily in the head with the toilet cover she loses her ring. So she takes the other Emily's ring, leaving hers behind on the bathroom floor. This act may but what caused them to become "entangled", more quantum mechanics, and then she goes and passes out.

Why did she pass out? Because she became entangled with the other Emily when she put her ring on. The other Emily was drugged and unconscious, so when she put on the ring she walked out of the bathroom she also passed out. When she wakes up the next day she is entangled with Good Emily and so when Bad Emily wakes up, so does Good Emily. Its a melding of their persons kinda like Seth Brundlefly but on a different level.
 
The key may be with the rings. When Bad Emily hits Good Emily in the head with the toilet cover she loses her ring. So she takes the other Emily's ring, leaving hers behind on the bathroom floor. This act may but what caused them to become "entangled", more quantum mechanics, and then she goes and passes out.

Why would quantom physics react like that to a ring though? It seems incongruent to the theory at play. Its their observable possibilities that are the variables. Emy has to have been Entangled when something else "observed" her, did she not?

Also, why would there be the possibility of two Emy's existing in the ending, one on the phone and one right in front of him. Wouldn't they have become "Entangled" when they boyfriend observed her?
 
Just swapped some texts with my NASA-employed, physics guru, and film-fan brother in law. Told him to watch this then get back to me. He said he'd check it out.

You're welcome. :cool:
 
One thing I was thinking off...

So the multi-verse is separated based on options and events. In one Dimension the mobile is cracked, the other it isn't. All options spawn their own forks in the space-time continium.

If that is the case... shouldn't we see more extreme shifts in character between different copies?

In reality, people behave fairly consistantly due to the personalities they have cultivated. With multi-dimensions spawned by different options availible, all that goes out the window. *Every* option becomes an eventuality that gets its own dimension. So therefore, shouldn't we see more radical changes in personality? A character becomes a misogonist or one becomes suicidal or desponent or crazy or what have you. Instead, the alternative-reality copies they encounter have very minor and trivial differences. A cracked phone. A diffrent color on the night-bulbs. Unlikely and non-consequential stuff when considering all the crazy things that *could* happen. I could suddenly start liking the Transformers movies, its a possibility, and therefor there is a dimension for it. If every possible option spawns an reality, it would be absolute chaos as to what kind of person you're set to encounter, since character-consistency would go straight-out the window between the different dimensions.

They showed some of that at the end of the film right? When Emily was going from window to window and looking in she saw chaos in many of the scenes. In one window that actually had TWO Mike's tied up in chairs next to each other. Mike was an alcoholic wild man in one and a recovering addict in the other. In one of the groups Laurie was trying to seduce Kevin away from Emily. They various possibilities of themselves were still basically them just with decision differences in their timelines if you want to call it that.

The Glow Sticks
The "authenticator" items such as ping pong paddles, staples, oven mitts, etc.
The photographs and numbers

Those were examples of them trying to differentiate themselves from the "others", not examples of how they were fundamentally different.

Also, I figured you would at the very least give a nod to how they made fun of the "Finnish" at the dinner portion of the film.
 
I think it was the same Emily crawling to the bathroom. She came to in the trunk, was disoriented, and was trying to make it to the bathroom to compose herself. The key may be with the rings. When Bad Emily hits Good Emily in the head with the toilet cover she loses her ring. So she takes the other Emily's ring, leaving hers behind on the bathroom floor. This act may but what caused them to become "entangled", more quantum mechanics, and then she goes and passes out.

Why did she pass out? Because she became entangled with the other Emily when she put her ring on. The other Emily was drugged and unconscious, so when she put on the ring she walked out of the bathroom she also passed out. When she wakes up the next day she is entangled with Good Emily and so when Bad Emily wakes up, so does Good Emily. Its a melding of their persons kinda like Seth Brundlefly but on a different level.

Yeah, my perception was seeing the struggling Em in the bathroom as the same one who was stuffed in the trunk. I was putting out the scenario of more than one Invading Em as a "what if."

Wait, her wearing the other one's jewelry is what melded them together? Not the fact that they were already existing in the same plane?
 
Oh no, if we're going to start getting into science, this is where you're going to lose me. It was my worst subject in school. I'll try to keep up here.

So, you're saying that all the realities that we see in this film are just all possibilities of what may be between two realities? In this case, we were first presented with Group Blue Lights and Group Red Lights, the original two we see. By film's end, Em from Group Blue Lights abandons her reality along with Group Red Lights' reality by going into a completely separate reality from these original two. So the possibility of her abandoning both of these realities becomes the reality since that is what we as the viewer observe?

Pretty much yes.

Electrons, lets say a particle with an electron shell of 12, meaning it has 12 electrons orbiting the nucleus, don't look like this.

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They look like this.

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Obviously, 12 electrons is not the million dots you see above that make up the cloud. This is the strangeness of our reality. Those 12 electrons are in superposition, meaning they are at all points within that cloud simultaneously. Its also referred to as a possibility cloud. Now here is the next weird part. It is only when we try to locate those 12 items within that cloud, that they appear. The cloud is a wave function, the electron when we see it is a particle function.

Now apply that to all the infinite possibilities in the Coherence film. All those dots in the cloud are the possibilities for the characters but once they interfere with that cloud, a particle comes into focus and its no longer a cloud (wave), its a particle (electron). They were experiencing all the possibilities within the cloud. Emily, however, really interfered with that cloud trying to locate the possibility she wanted and it cost her.

Mike also had bad outcomes I'm sure because one of the windows showed the group with two Mike's tied to chairs.
 
They showed some of that at the end of the film right? When Emily was going from window to window and looking in she saw chaos in many of the scenes. In one window that actually had TWO Mike's tied up in chairs next to each other. Mike was an alcoholic wild man in one and a recovering addict in the other. In one of the groups Laurie was trying to seduce Kevin away from Emily. They various possibilities of themselves were still basically them just with decision differences in their timelines if you want to call it that.

Yeah but thats still pretty tame in contrast to what the possibilities are. Its just their basic quirks twisted a little.

Those were examples of them trying to differentiate themselves from the "others", not examples of how they were fundamentally different.

But in a scenario with boundless possibilities the sheer likelihood of them encountering such possibilities have to be pretty low.

Also, I figured you would at the very least give a nod to how they made fun of the "Finnish" at the dinner portion of the film.

My mother is Finnish you inconsiderate lout!:p

(Personally I don't speak the language though)
 
I think @MusterX nailed it with entanglement. She drugged the girl, took her sweater, and then when the girl crawled to the bathroom the sweater was gone and they were dressed exactly the same.

And the rings. When she was in the bathroom she lost her ring and took the other Emily's ring and that somehow connected them together, or entangled them, and when the comet went away, and reality collapsed back into coherent timelines, those two Emily's were trapped together, entangled.
 
Yeah, the glass was a good one. And when Lady K offered up her concoction nobody took it (to the best of my recollection). Then later the one chick was passed out from it.

What do you make of the various timelines? Hugh showed up with the other group's box before writing/receiving the note. Then the note showed up on the door as he was writing. Then later they created their own box. To me that's a clue there are more than two groups and that the one we were originally introduced to is not the "real" group.

I made my own timeline for the film and its similar to the one I'm going to post for you. I don't usually post things like this in full but in this case I think its important and I think its the most accurate one I have ever seen. I would highly recommend if you want to understand the timeline you read it, it gets very interesting.

Starting here.

We have eight characters, who are four couples: Emily-Kevin, Amir-Laurie, Mike-Lee, Hugh-Beth. Let's suffix 1 to all of the original people in the first house, which we will call House 1. Kevin and Laurie had dated previously.

So we know what happens in the dark zone: every time people pass through it, they end up in an alternate reality house that isn't the house they originally left. There are also two boxes: one that comes into the house and one that they make in the house. The boxes have random objects, which are primary identifiers.

Emily1 is the primary character from the first scene of the movie, so we'll keep her as constant and explore the movie.

Emily1's phone screen cracks. She then heads to dinner in Mike and Lee's house, House1. Soon after, Hugh's phone screen cracks too.
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They recount life stories at dinner and Kevin tells one about his time with Laurie, causing Emily to be upset with him. Emily then talks about previous comets in Finland and Siberia that caused inexplicable phenomena, such as flattening of trees and a crazy lady who claimed the man in her house wasn't her husband because she had killed her husband the previous night.

Suddenly, the power goes out. Mike1 comes out with three sealed boxes of glowsticks -- red, blue, green. House1 breaks open blue glowsticks.
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House1-Blue-Amir1, Emily1, Kevin1, Laurie1, Beth1, Lee1, Hugh1, Mike1.

Amir1 and Hugh1 go out exploring. Some other Hugh (as we now know) knocks violently on the side door but disappears. None of the group is aware of this, but Amir1 and Hugh1 come back soon with the first box. Box1 contains a ping pong paddle as the random object. (We don't really need to remember the die numbers for each individual).
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Each of their photos has a number on the back that Emily notes down on a notepad in red ink. There is no number 3.
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So House1-Blue glowsticks-PingPongPaddle received.

Lee1 gives Hugh1 a cloth band-aid for his forehead. They discover the duplicate note on the door and Hugh1 reveals that he saw the same group in the other house.

Now, Emily1, Kevin1, Mike1, Laurie1 go out exploring with the blue glowsticks...
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and run into their alternate selves with the red glowsticks.
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They pass through the dark zone and come back into what they think is House1 but is actually, let's say, House2.

Lee and Beth have never left the house, so House2 contains Lee2, Beth2, Emily1, Kevin1, Laurie1, and Mike1. We think it's still Amir1 and Hugh1, but when the second group talks about how they had the blue glowsticks and the other people had the red one, Hugh and Amir realize they're in the wrong house.
They see the boxes:
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.. have a discussion,
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.. and [upon second viewing], we now know that these are Hugh and Amir who do not have blue glowsticks. But House2 still has blue glowsticks, so these are Amir3 and Hugh3. Everyone confirms as having passed through a "dark zone that was darker than the rest of the area".

So, we have, House2-Blue glowsticks-Received object unknown-Lee2, Beth2, Amir3, Hugh3, Emily1, Kevin1, Mike1, Laurie1.

Beth2 now tells Hugh about the book in his car that he and Kevin retrieve. They don't leave the premises, so we can assume they're the same selves that went out of the house. Lee2 is napping. The group find out about the Multiverse theory, Schrodinger's cat, yada yada. An argument breaks out about whether the group has reacted with the other group (remember, they still think there are only two groups), and Mike1 thinks killing the other group is a good idea because if the other Mike is drinking, he could come kill this group.

Mike1 then recounts that in the other house, he saw Amir, Hugh, and Lee, but not Beth. But in this house, Lee is taking a nap. So they figure that in the house from the other reality, Beth is taking a nap, and not Lee. Since Beth was the one who put the book in the car and remembered it, they think the other house doesn't have the book. Mike thinks it would be a good idea to prevent the house from the other reality from getting the book and preventing them from having the conversation, but everyone disagrees with his idea of going and getting the other book from the other car. Mike1 then tells Kevin1 that he's going to leave and put the note about Beth to blackmail his own self to prevent the other Mike from getting the book. Mike1 now leaves the house.

The group now finds out that Beth had given Lee the drops. Emily1 and the group wonder about the drug in the food. After the discussion in the kitchen with the drops, Lee asks Beth about her vase.
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... a conversation that Emily realizes the two characters already had much before the dinner party started (in House1):
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Hugh and Amir sneak off with their red glowsticks:
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and make plans to take the book and the box and leave, while Mike returns (after leaving the self-blackmail note in the other house)

When asked where he went, Mike goes and gets a drink. We now know that despite his blue glowstick, he isn't Mike1. Let's call him Mike4 because we do not know where he came from. (He can't be Mike3 because Hugh3 and Amir3 have red sticks. He could be Mike2, though.)Mike4 tells Kevin1 how he dropped the letter off, was going to smash the car window and take the book out, but didn't. (Note that at every point any character runs into a choice, there is a difference created in the alternate reality). Mike says he's been out 45 mins while Kevin tells him he was barely out for five mins.

Meanwhile, Hugh3 and Amir3 wrap up the box they brought and put back their oven mitt random object in and leave.
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So we have House2-Blue glowsticks-OvenMitt Received- Lee2, Beth2, Mike4, Emily1, Kevin1, Laurie1.

Mike starts drinking and the others realize that Hugh and Amir are missing, along with the box and the book. The group realizes that Hugh and Amir have been acting strange and could have been alternate Hugh and Amir. Beth then points out that everyone except herself and Lee have left the house at some point. Laurie kisses her ex, Kevin, and Beth tries to tell Emily after seeing it. Lee2 confronts a semi-drunk Mike4, and Emily1 confronts Kevin1. The lights go out again and they hear a crash.

Everyone goes out to investigate with their blue glowsticks and see that the car's glass has been broken. They don't realize that this was probably another Mike making a different choice. Everyone goes to make sure their respective cars are alright, and Emily1 retrieves her ring that Kevin gave her from her car and hugs Kevin. When she asks the caring Kevin if everything is okay with Hugh's car and Kevin is confused, they realize that they are both from different realities. Emily1 goes back into House2 and finds Kevin1 there, indifferent. The group try to figure out why they would break into Hugh's car, when Hugh and Amir return with the book.

The new Hugh and Amir recount their story, starting from when they first left the house to make a phone call the very first time. Hugh talks about how he saw the same dinner table and hit his head when everyone interrupts them to tell them they already came back and left. Lee then realizes that she had given Hugh a cloth bandaid instead of the one he was wearing. They say that they were in a house where everyone had red glowsticks that they produce, and they confirm that the red glowsticks here are still unopened. The group then realizes that these two are the original ones who left. They also have the blue glowsticks.

But they passed through the dark zone. So let's call them Hugh5 and Amir5 (to differentiate from Mike4). When they talk about the notes, Hugh5 says the other house ended up with two notes, while this house has two notes as well, which would mean the notes were written at least 4 times. They now realize there are more than just two realities.

To keep themselves sane and mark their own house, they realize they need a unique identity that's random and can't be repeated. Since it's an alternate reality, they realize the pictures are from this house. They get a die and decide to allot a number to each person, and then realizes they are doing the same thing the other house did ahead of them -- they were creating their outgoing box.
Emily writes down the numbers with a blue pen since it's a "blue house". They include a coaster as the random object in the outgoing box.
As they roll the die each and Emily notes the numbers down behind every individual's picture. When she checks the earlier notepad where she noted down the numbers from the received box, she realizes that the numbers as well as the color of the pen are different. There are occurrences of '3' which were absent in the box House1 got.
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Emily1 now realizes that she's in a different house. She then notices that Hugh uses his phone and the screen isn't cracked.

Emily1 now tries to make everyone remember their previous incoming numbers and compares them with the numbers she remembers from the box House1 received.
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Beth confirms she got a 3, Lee confirms she got a 5 (since they both never left the house). Kevin says 6, Emily remembers herself as having a 4, and Hugh says his number was 3. (In the House2 list, Emily and Beth are 3). Emily now realizes that Hugh is from a different reality as well. Emily shows the numbers to Mike and explains to him that they are visitors and that this Lee isn't his wife.

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She also tells him that since Hugh's phone wasn't cracked, he's from a different house. She explains her hypothesis that the dark zone is like a roulette wheel that takes everyone to a different destination. She states that they should go back to the dark zone to find their reality before the comet passes or else they would be stuck in this one.

Suddenly, Mike's self-blackmailing letter saying "Beth + book = Trinidad club don't let it happen buddy" slides under the door. The note is read by Hugh, who then discovers that everyone knew about Mike and Beth getting together 12 years ago, except for him, despite the fact that everyone thinks he already knew. They start to argue when Mike and Emily ask Hugh to produce his phone. When the rest of the group sees that the screen isn't cracked, they get a shock. They then try to recall the first box's random item. Hugh's and Amir's was a stapler, Lee and Beth's was an oven mitt, Emily, Kevin, and Laurie had a ping pong paddle, while Mike's was a napkin (so he isn't Mike2).

House2 - blue glowstick - oven mitt received - Lee2, Beth2, Mike4, Hugh5, Amir5, Kevin1, Emily1, Laurie1.

Hugh and Mike have a fight after a drunken Mike provokes an enraged Hugh even further. While everyone drags Hugh away, Mike wonders aloud to Emily if they are the darker versions of themselves. Suddenly, yet another Mike with a green glowstick bursts in, beats up this Mike, and leaves.
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The group realize that Mike4 is probably dead (just like Mike1 wanted to kill). Beth's nose starts bleeding and Laurie acts possessed. Kevin goes to calm her down. Emily opens the door and finds yet another note on the door. She then leaves, disillusioned with the group.

She passes by houses that have a stuffed monkey as a random object, inside which she sees a sad version of herself, another where she sees Hugh and Mike in a shouting match, and one where she sees Kevin and Laurie happy together. She sees the comet passing and then chances upon a house that is still well lit, where the entire group is happy and chatting, where her alternate appears happy with Kevin. She enters the house stealthily, grabs a baseball bat, and removes the hallucinatory drug from the kitchen.

Let's call this House9. House9 suddenly hears a crash outside. They decide to go investigate and jokingly talk about getting glow sticks. (We realize they never took the glow sticks out at all and have just been sitting inside their house and chatting the entire time.) They notice outside that Hugh9's car's windshield is cracked. Everyone decides to check if their own cars are alright, and Emily9 goes to grab her ring from her car.

As she is wearing the ring, Emily1 punches her and puts her in the car's trunk. Emily1 then comes back into House9, where everyone is happy and affectionate. It appears that Emily1's career mistakes have not been made by Emily9, who has the seemingly perfect life made out of good choices. While they go out to see the comet pass, the lights go out and come back. Emily1 suddenly sees Emily9 crawl back into the house. She then proceeds to hit her on the head with the toilet tank's lid and hides her in the tub.
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Before she's about to leave the bathroom, Emily1 suddenly realizes her ring's missing, and takes Emily9's ring off and wears it on her finger. As she leaves the bathroom, we see that her ring is lying on the floor. She goes out and collapses.

Emily wakes up on a bright and sunny day, still in Mike and Lee's house. She goes towards the bathroom to investigate when Beth comes out of the shower. Outside the house, she sees that Hugh's car's windshield is still broken and upon looking in, she finds the book still in the car. Kevin comes by and tells her she passed out and hands her her ring, saying he found it in the bathroom. Emily notices she's already wearing her ring, and now has two.
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Kevin suddenly gets a phone call from Emily's number and answers it, and slowly turns towards Emily.
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Emily then realizes that the previous night was no dream.
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The movie ends with Emily1 realizing that she's in the same reality as Emily9.
https://www.quora.com/Can-someone-make-a-coherent-and-chronological-timeline-of-the-film-Coherence

So yea, that is a lot to digest but appears to match closely with the film if not exactly.
 
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