History Film / AcrossTheUniverse

[[quoteright:235:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/acubeatlesposter.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:235: Lucy and Jude. The strawberry heart is his idea.]]

->''"All you need is love, love\\
Love is all you need"''

''Across the Universe'' is a 2007 JukeboxMusical film featuring songs written by Music/TheBeatles. It was directed by Julie Taymor.

It stars Creator/JimSturgess as (Hey) Jude and Creator/EvanRachelWood as Lucy (In The Sky With Diamonds), whose romance unfolds over the backdrop of TheSixties.

Jude Feeney is an [[NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed aimless young man from Liverpool]] who heads to America in hopes of finding his absent father, who knew his mother in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII but had never been told that Jude was born. When the man proves to be something of a disappointment, he falls in with UsefulNotes/IvyLeague frat boy Max (well's Silver Hammer[[note]]not sung in the film[[/note]]) Carrigan. (Max helped him find his dad; Jude helped Max escape campus authorities; it went on from there.) The two move to New York with Max's sister Lucy (in the Sky with Diamonds). Jude finds himself falling for Lucy, who willingly reciprocates.

Also along for the ride are (Sexy) Sadie, their landlady who is also an aspiring singer, Jojo ("was a man who thought he was a loner"[[note]]from "Get Back"[[/note]]), a talented guitarist who makes his way to New York after the events of the 1967 UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}} riot, and (Dear) Prudence, a closeted lesbian who crashes into their shared apartment after running away from an abusive boyfriend. Everyone falls in love and for the hippie scene present there. But the real world intrudes as UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar wages on, and the political involvement (willing and otherwise) of various members of Jude's TrueCompanions becomes more and more perilous. It threatens to pull Jude and Lucy apart -- she's involved, and he doesn't approve of that part of the movement she's in...

Compare ''Film/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'', another film which wraps a plotline around Beatles songs.

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!!''Across The Universe'' contains examples of:
* TheSixties: Set in the 1960s, with the Detroit riots and the anti-Vietnam War rallies being plot points.
* AliceAllusion: After the gang gets ditched by Doctor Robert, en route to Mr. Kite's circus.
-->'''Jude:''' Where are you taking me?\\
'''Lucy:''' Down the rabbit-hole!
%%* ArtisticStimulation
* BigApplesauce: The bulk of the film is set in and around the hustle and bustle of New York.
* BlackComedyRape: When the gang is trying to help Max find a way to get out of his conscription, Prudence suggests "Tell them you're a pedophile, and you can't wait to rape and pillage all the little girls who look like me!"
* BSODSong: "Happiness is a Warm Gun" and "A Day in the Life" both qualify, as well as "Girl" which, despite being the opening number, chronologically comes ''after'' the latter song.
* BuffySpeak: [[Creator/EddieIzzard Mr. Kite]] in his musical number.
-->'''Mr. Kite''': The Hendersons will all be there/Late of Pablo Fanque's fair/ Have you seen it? It's great: they've got ''stuff''!
* TheCameo: In order: Music/JoeCocker as a hobo, a pimp, and an aging hippy singing "Come Together", [[Music/{{U2}} Bono]] as a wacky Creator/KenKesey {{Expy}} singing "I Am the Walrus" (and [[LargeHam ACTING]]), Creator/EddieIzzard as Mr. Kite, and Creator/SalmaHayek times 6 as a [[HospitalHottie sexy nurse.]]
* ClosedDoorRapport: Prudence, who had a crush on Sadie, ends up locking herself in a closet after she realizes that Sadie and Jojo are now a couple. So the gang (minus Sadie and Jojo, incidentally, who have a thing they have to get to) sing "Dear Prudence" to try and convince her to [[StealthPun come out of the closet]], get out of her funk, and see the world for how wonderful it is.
* ComingOutStory: This is Prudence's arc. She struggles with her sexuality over the course of the film, first pining for another girl on her cheerleading team and then runs off to New York City, moving in with the main cast. She then pines for Sadie too, who's with Jo Jo, locking herself in the closet literally before the others get her to come out. Though she never explicitly says anything, Prudence is later with a girl named Rita.
* {{Conscription}}: Max faces being drafted, and discusses what to do with the others. He doesn't want to be imprisoned for refusing it, or flee for Canada. In the end he tries to fake an illness for a medical exemption, which doesn't work. He goes off to Vietnam, gets wounded, and then returns home.
* TheCoverChangesTheMeaning:
** The Beatles wrote "I Want To Hold Your Hand" as a straightforward love song. Here, it's a closet lesbian pining for her unrequited crush. "Oh please, say to me... You'll let me be your man."
** One particularly JustForFun/{{egregious}} example of this is "Girl"; though it only uses one verse, the orchestration and out-of-context lyrics changes the song from a lament about a man whose girlfriend's presence is putting serious strain on his social life with his buddies, to a simple ballad about a lost love.
** Another great example is "I Want You" A song about lust and how sexy (heavy) the subject is. In the film the song is set to Uncle Sam's pointing finger on the Army recruiting poster, "I Want You!" during Max's draft board examination. And when the "She's so heavy!" chorus begins, it cuts to a shot of the Army recruits being forced to carry the Statue of Liberty on their shoulders while marching over a miniature landscape of war-torn Vietnam.
%%* CoolCar: Cool Bus. Especially if you're on hallucinogens.
* CreatorProvincialism: Despite the entire film being about a ''British'' band from Liverpool a huge chunk of the script takes place in the USA and the characters are largely American.
* CrowdSong: The latter half of "Hey Jude" is sung by a chorus of Brits.
* DeathNotification: For the mother of Lucy's boyfriend is notified that her son has died right after Lucy [[TemptingFate sings about how they'll be together soon]].
* DeathOfAChild: Jo-Jo's little brother was killed in the Detroit riot, with him introduced attending his funeral along with their family.
%%* DesignStudentsOrgasm: It's Julie Taymor in top form. What else would you expect?
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Max being shot up with morphine at the end of the Happiness is a Warm Gun sequence manages to be this for both drugs ''and'' sex at the same time.
* DomesticAbuse: The guy Prudence was living with when she first got to the village was physically abusing her.
%%* EarnYourHappyEnding
%%* ElevenOClockNumber: "Hey Jude".
* FictionalCounterpart: The Students for a Democratic Republic (or SDR) is an obvious stand-in for the real Students for a Democratic Society, including some factions turning violent by the late 60's. They broke apart during their 1969 Convention, as one group explicitly became urban guerrillas/terrorists the Weathermen or Weather Underground, with Paco and his friends blowing themselves up accidentally being what one cell did.
* FiveSecondForeshadowing: In "A Little Help from My Friends" Jude says this and ''then'' sees Lucy later on.
-->'''College buddies:''' Would you believe in a love at first sight?\\
'''Jude:''' ''[sarcastically]'' Yes I'm certain that it happens all the time.
* FlexibilityEqualsSexAbility: After the gang is reunited with Prudence at Mr. Kite's circus, she cheerfully introduces her new girlfriend Rita, then suggestively notes that she's a contortionist.
* {{Gaydar}}: Lucy quickly observes Prudence's {{longing look}}s for Sadie and realizes she's a lesbian (Jude, on the other hand, is oblivious to it).
* {{Gayngst}}: Prudence spends a lot of time angsting about not being able to be with her crush of the moment. It doesn't help that she has a habit of falling for straight women who are already in relationships.
* GlamorousWartimeSinger: Sadie, particularly during "Helter Skelter," with the scene switching from the performance to Max fighting in Vietnam. It's easy to get chills when her fiery red hair fades into explosions from the battle.
* GospelRevivalNumber: The Gospel cover of "Let It Be" is one of the best covers in the film.
* GriefSong: "Girl" is retooled into a song about a lost love. See TheCoverChangesTheMeaning above.
%%* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Lucy.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Max and Jude are as close as brothers.
* {{Hikikomori}}: Prudence, who runs away from home after leaving an abusive boyfriend, withdraws to the closet after she sees that her would-be crush Sadie is involved in a relationship with Jo-Jo. She later joins a peace rally and performs in Mr. Kite's circus as Henry the Horse, eventually joining the band in the rooftop concert finale.
* HoistByTheirOwnPetard: The anti-war activists Lucy joined turn to violence out of anger over the continuing war and peaceful protests being quashed, building pipe bombs (though she doesn't join in). Later, it's revealed that they blew themselves up accidentally (probably based on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_Village_townhouse_explosion some Weathermen doing this]]).
* HospitalHottie: The Bang, Bang, Shoot, Shoot Nurse played by Salma Hayek is suitably sultry.
* IncomingHam: Bono gets an entire monologue that seems to be made up of this, including the beginning of ''[[MushroomSamba I Am The Walrus]]''.
* IncompatibleOrientation: Prudence falls for both the cheerleader chick and Sadie during the course of the film. Both are straight, ''and'' seeing someone else. The unrequited nature of her love for Sadie causes her to suffer a HeroicBSOD until her friends sing to her about how beautiful she is and help (literally) coax her out of the closet.
* IntersceneDiegetic: Par for the course, being a musical. "All My Loving", "It Won't Be Long", "A Day in the Life", the list goes on.
* IvyLeagueForEveryone: Max is introduced as a Princeton student.
* JukeboxMusical: The plot is conveyed through Beatles songs.
* JumpScare: When Lucy is nearly shot. The gunshot is heard, then the bullet hitting the glass of the booth she's in.
* LaResistance: Lucy joins a group of anti-war activists following Max's conscription. TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized.
* LargeHam:
** ''Bono'' as Doctor Robert.
--->"TIME...is not on our hands, people. Time is slippin' through 'em. We got to transcend the bullshit...and FAST!"
** Creator/EddieIzzard as Mr. Kite too, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxgFfCSGX7Y with the outtakes being a great example]].
* LongingLook: Prudence is introduced when gazing at another girl with longing while she sings "I Want To Hold Your Hand". Later she's doing the same thing with Sadie and singing "I Want You".
* MatchCut:
** During "Strawberry Fields Forever," between the strawberries Jude is painting and throwing, and the bombs the US Army is dropping.
** Also during "Helter Skelter", which matches Sadie's wild red hair with explosions from a Vietnam battle.
* MindScrew: The last scene of the climactic "Across the Universe"/"Helter Skelter" sequence, where we suddenly cut to a group of nude, masked women who have never been seen before, who then fall into a pool of water as if they've been killed. Its exact meaning has been debated since the film premiered. It's also decidedly unclear how much of the Mr. Kite sequence is actually happening, and how much is the characters hallucinating while high.
* MsFanservice: Sexy Sadie, naturally, who's fond of strutting around the apartments she owns, in front of her tenants, in nothing but her bathrobe. Max and Jude mutually agree that living in her run-down building is WorthIt if they get to be around her.
* MushroomSamba: "I Want You (She's So Heavy)," "Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite," and "I Am The Walrus" are perfect examples of why you should never watch this movie on acid.
* NippleAndDimed: Naked symbolic... art people?
* NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed:
** Jude is an analog of the Beatles, being a young man from Liverpool.
** Sadie and [=JoJo=] are very obviously [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed fictitious counterparts]] to Music/JanisJoplin and Music/JimiHendrix. The former's performance of "Helter Skelter" is reminiscent of Joplin's singing style and voice.
* MeaningfulFuneral: Jojo's brother is killed in the Detroit Riots (set to "Let it Be").
* ObfuscatingDisability: Max tries to fake an illness that would exempt him from the draft. It doesn't work.
* PoliceBrutality: The National Guardsmen during the Detroit Riots shoot unarmed Black people simply for looting. NYPD officers later beat up peaceful protesters, and Jude when he's trying to help Lucy.
* RandomEventsPlot: After Max is drafted, the plot slowly disappears.
* RecycledSoundtrack: The version of "A Day in the Life" used in the film was recorded by Music/JeffBeck in 1999, being the only cover not original to the film.
* TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized: The anti-war group Lucy is in turns violent after the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_University_protests_of_1968 university occupation]] gets shut down. She walks in on them building pipe bombs, and says sorrowfully that she thought it was the government who used them. Later they [[HoistByHisOwnPetard accidentally blow themselves up]].
* RichKidTurnedSocialActivist: Lucy is a young woman from a wealthy [[WhiteAngloSaxonProtestant WASP]] family who becomes more and more entrenched in the anti-war movement.
* RooftopConcert: The film ends with one of these after all of the characters [[spoiler: (minus Lucy)]] reunite. [[spoiler: She shows up for a meaningful eyelock with Jude at the very end though.]]
%%* SayMyName
* ShoutOut: All over the place, down to the title, in reference to the Beatles song "Across the Universe" from ''Film/LetItBe''.
** Every single one of the main character's names are from a Beatles song.
** Jude, naturally, is a Liverpudlian with a thick Scouse accent.
** Prudence coming in through the bathroom window.
** When Jude first sees Prudence: "Hello, Hello"
** Maxwell could have killed his granny with a hammer.
** Mr. Kite is accompanied by the [[WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine "Blue People"]].
** The apple Jude tries to draw is basically the Apple Records logo.
** [[Music/GreenDay The hand in the Strawberry Fields Forever sequence holding the strawberry grenade]]
** The tour bus, the one that looks kinda [[Film/MagicalMysteryTour magical and mysterious]].
** The impromptu concert on the roof at the end of the film.
*** The number on the door of the building is "number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9..."
** An old man at the shipyard tells Jude he thought he'd never be working there "when I'm 64."
** Mr. Kite telling the group to "Just tune in, turn off, drop out, drop in, switch off, switch on and explode" is a joking reference to Timothy Leary's famous "Turn on, tune in, drop out" phrase popular in the hippie movement.
%%* SpiritualSequel: To the movie version of ''Theatre/{{Hair}}''.
* SpiritualSuccessor: A few critics referred to this film as "''Film/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'' done right." -- the two films are both {{Jukebox Musical}}s that prominently feature the music of The Beatles despite the Fab Four themselves not making an appearance (more understandably in this film's case, considering it was released after the deaths of Music/JohnLennon and Music/GeorgeHarrison) and feature an emphasis on surreal visuals, albeit this film has a more serious and artistic mood, with ''Lonely Hearts Club Band'' being much DenserAndWackier by comparison.
* SpringtimeForHitler: Max's attempt to get rejected by the army proves to be unsuccessful.
-->'''Recruiter''': ''"Any reason why you shouldn't be in this man's army, son?"''\\
'''Max''': "''I'm a cross-dressing homosexual pacifist with a spot on my lung?"\\
'''Recruiter''': ''"As long as you don't have flat-feet."''
%%* StrollingThroughTheChaos: Prudence's first song.
%%* SurvivalMantra: The reprise of ''Revolution''.
* TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat: Twice. The second time, it's a fairly typical use: Jude asks "Is that Sadie?" (on the radio) and the radio announcer says "You got that right." The ''first'' time, it's played [[BreakingTheFourthWall on the audience]]: Eddie Izzard {{Malaproper}}s "somersaults" as "Somersets", pauses for the audience to react, and comments "Whatever they are."
%%* ThatRemindsMeOfASong: It's a JukeboxMusical, after all.
* ThemeNaming: Every character with a name had it derived from a Beatles song. There's the obvious, like (Hey) Jude and Lucy (in the Sky with Diamonds), but the minor characters get in on this as well -- Lucy and Max have an uncle named Teddy (Boy), and Prudence's new girlfriend is named (Lovely) Rita.
* TitleDrop: Done twice, once in the song the movie gets its title from, and once by Mr. Kite.
-->"And tonight Mr. Kite is TOPPING THE BILL BABY! ACROSS THE UNIVERSE!"
* TwoferTokenMinority: Prudence is a lesbian and played by an actress of East Asian descent.
%%* UncannyValley: Deliberately invoked by the soldiers in the "I Want You" sequence.
* WarIsHell: Part of the plot is about the horrors of the Vietnam War.
%%* WaxingLyrical: There are multiple examples, all with Beatles songs, of course.
* WelcomeToTheBigCity: "Come Together" for Jojo, which plays as he arrives in New York. Downplayed, since Jojo was from Detroit, so he reacts to his new surroundings with mild interest rather than wide-eyed wonder or nervousness.
* WhamShot: After Lucy chooses staying with the activist group over her relationship with Jude, she returns to their headquarters one night to find [[spoiler:the place completely deserted, with even the posters torn from the walls]]. She hears a mysterious sound from upstairs and follows it to find an even bigger wham - [[spoiler:the members of the group, secretly ''[[HeWhoFightsMonsters building pipe bombs]]'']].
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