History Film / Parallels

* CoolGuns: One with an iris that adapts to any bullet you put in it.

They soon discover that the derelict building is actually a parallel-worlds machine that transports them into a random alternate Earth. The enigmatic [[FemmeFatale Polly]] finds them and gives them some exposition into how travellers like themselves comport themselves in strange worlds that range from the [[ApocalypseHow postapocalyptic]] to the [[CrystalSpiresAndTogas eerily advanced]]. Along the way they're kidnapped by wasteland scavengers, [[spoiler: dodge nuclear blasts by fleeing to parallel worlds]], and commit identity theft against [[TookALevelInJerkass alternate versions]] of themselves to survive. All the while Ronan and Beatrix continue to seek their father.

Parallels was released on Creator/{{Netflix}} in March of 2015, and its success has led to the greenlighting of a series based on the premise entitled "The Building"; Creator/NeilGaiman is involved in a creative capacity. However, it appears to be stuck in DevelopmentHell or cancelled as nothing more has been heard about this since 2016.

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* MaliciousMisnaming: inverted, as Harold would desperately prefer to be called Harry, which Ronan has no interest in respecting.
* TheMultiverse: 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 [[spoiler: Alex and his wife decided that "our" Earth was a safe place to raise their kids]].

* PoliceAreUseless: 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 RealLife.

* WhatTheHellHero: 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 cooly borrowed the aforementioned gun to shoot the Tinker dead without so much as a by-your-leave.

Bad-boy runaway [[TragicHero Ronan Carver]] gets a cryptic phone call from his father, telling him to come home. There he finds his sister, his father's go-bag, and a [[MacGuffin strange device]] wrapped in a newspaper declaring President Clinton has been assassinated. He and Beatrix (plus their tagalong neighbor, [[TheWoobie 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."

Parallels was released on Creator/{{Netflix}} in March of 2015, and its success has led to the greenlighting of a series based on the premise entitled "The Building"; Creator/NeilGaiman is involved in a creative capacity.