If you read the synopsis these may be redundant, but I will be using this page to flesh out my theories and investigate my questions about the movie.
Once the group realizes they are changing realities, they blame it on an especially dark area outside of the house. Emily compares it to a roulette wheel in that it will spit a person out in any reality by random chance. I believe that reality changes the moment the characters merely step foot outside of the house. This is made evident by the fact that after the group steps outside to observe the comet, there are changes to the scene (notable, the broken wine glass.) This also helps explain the rest of the theories.
In the beginning we are alone in the car with Emily. We follow this Emily throughout the entire movie, but she never makes it to the dinner party she intends to. While she uses her phone, the screen cracks in her hand. This is a physical representation of the comet’s power and proof that reality is changing from the first moment. Multiple groups of the characters show up together, and each of these smaller groups come from a slightly different reality than Emily. This is a representation of the many-worlds interpretation; each reality these characters come from is different based on seemingly insignificant decisions. We can imagine for every decision a person makes, each choice becomes its own decoherent reality. This theory explains why Mike and Laurie, long time friends, misremember each other’s past. In the reality Laurie is from, Mike never acted on Roswell and she has never done yoga. In Mike’s reality, he was a main character on the show and Laurie is a “spanish yoga instructor”, which she denies at dinner. Interestingly, Laurie changes to a yoga instructor without ever leaving Emily’s side. This is explained by the Black Cuts theory.
Upon watching Coherence for the first time, a viewer may not even notice the ten cuts. They may assume it’s just the way the movie was edited. However, these cuts are strategically placed and are more than they appear. The director has stated in an interview that there are two ways to watch the movie. “That said, there are two ways to watch the film. Two ways we intended, anyway. And debated and planned for a year. One way is to simply follow Em from the first shot to the last shot… The other way to watch it is to use the cuts to black as a signal of something much more complicated unfolding.” If we take the director’s comments into consideration, we realize these black cuts are glimpses into separate, indistinguishable realities. This fact changes everything, but at the same time it doesn’t really matter. If we change realities each black cut, then we don’t follow a hero. (Also, the character’s indicating numbers in the timeline would be much higher. Coherence simply becomes a narrative about the nature of destiny.
© Arrien Gadue, 2019