Across the Universe (film)

Lucy and Jude. The strawberry heart is his idea.

"All you need is love, love
Love is all you need"

2007 Jukebox Musical film featuring songs written by The Beatles. It was directed by Julie Taymor.

It stars Jim Sturgess as (Hey) Jude and Evan Rachel Wood as Lucy (In The Sky With Diamonds), whose romance is the central plot that unfolds over the backdrop of The Sixties.

Jude Feeney is an aimless young man from Liverpool who heads to America in hopes of finding his absent father, who knew his mother in WWII but had never been told that Jude was born. When the man proves to be something of a disappointment, he falls in with Ivy League frat boy Max (...well's Silver Hammer, not sung in the film) 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. Jude finds himself falling for Lucy, and everyone falls for the hippie scene present there. But the real world intrudes as The Vietnam War wages on, and the political involvement (willing and otherwise) of various members of Jude's True Companions 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...

Tropes used in Across the Universe (film) include:
  • Alice Allusion: 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!

College buddies: Would you believe in a love at first sight?
Jude: [sarcastically] Yes I'm certain that it happens all the time.

    • ...and then he sees Lucy.
  • Gayngst: Prudence spends a while 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.
  • Glamorous Wartime Singer: 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.
  • Gospel Revival Number: The Gospel cover of "Let It Be" is one of the best covers in the film.
  • Heterosexual Life Partners: Max and Jude.
  • Hospital Hottie: The Bang, Bang, Shoot, Shoot Nurse played by Salma Hayek.
  • Ho Yay: "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" might just be the most homoerotic scene in any movie ever. The army recruiters get awfully handsy while singing a song originally about sexual obsession and lust to a bunch of half-naked young men, as Prudence gayngstfully sings about her own obsession with Sadie.
  • Incoming Ham: Bono gets an entire monologue that seems to be made up of this, including the beginning of "I Am The Walrus".
  • Ivy League for Everyone
  • Jukebox Musical
  • Jump Scare: When Lucy is nearly shot.
  • La Résistance: Lucy joins a group of anti-war activists following Max's conscription. The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized.
  • Large Ham: Bono as Doctor Robert.

"TIME...is not on our hands, people. Time is slippin' through 'em. We got to transcend the bullshit...and FAST!"

    • Never knock the way another cat swings.
  • Match Cut: 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.
  • Meaningful Funeral
  • Meaningful Name: Every character with a name had it derived from a Beatles song.
  • Mushroom Samba: "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.
  • Nipple-and-Dimed: Naked symbolic... art people?
  • One-Scene Wonder: Bono as Dr. Robert, a Ken Kesey Expy.
  • Recycled Soundtrack: The version of "A Day in the Life" used in the film was recorded by Jeff Beck in 1999, being the only cover not original to the film.
  • Rooftop Concert: The film ends with one of these after all of the characters (minus Lucy) reunite. She shows up for a meaningful eyelock with Jude at the very end though.
  • Say My Name
  • Shout-Out: All over the place.
    • Every single one of the main character's names are from a Beatles song.
    • Jude, naturally, is a Liverpudlian with a thick Scouse accent.
    • Sadie and JoJo are very obviously fictitious counterparts to Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix.
    • 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 "Blue People".
    • The apple Jude tries to draw is basically the Apple Records logo.
    • The hand in the Strawberry Fields Forever sequence holding the strawberry grenade.
    • The tour bus, the one that looks kinda magical and mysterious.
    • The impromptu concert on the roof at the end of the film.
    • An old man at the shipyard tells Jude he thought he'd never be working there "when I'm 64."
  • The Sixties
  • Spiritual Sequel: To the movie version of Hair (theatre).
  • Strolling Through the Chaos: Prudence's first song.
  • Survival Mantra: The reprise of Revolution.
  • That Reminds Me of a Song: It's a Jukebox Musical, after all.
  • Title Drop: Done twice, once in the song the movie gets it's title from, and once by Mr. Kite.

"And tonight Mr. Kite is TOPPING THE BILL BABY! ACROSS THE UNIVERSE!"

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