Coherence is a 2013 American surreal science fiction psychological thriller film directed by James Ward Byrkit in his directorial debut. The film had its world debut on September 19, 2013, at Fantastic Fest and stars Emily Foxler as a woman who must deal with strange occurrences following the close passing of a comet.
Plot
On the night of Miller's Comet's passing, eight friends gather for a dinner party at the home of couple Mike and Lee. Emily is hesitant to accompany her boyfriend Kevin on an extended business trip abroad. Amir has brought Kevin's ex-girlfriend Laurie, who flirts inappropriately with Kevin.
A power outage occurs. Mike and Lee bring candles and different colored glow sticks. The friends each take a blue glow stick and venture outside where the neighborhood is dark but for one house that has lights. Back inside, they notice a broken glass no-one remembers damaging. Amir and Hugh decide to ask to use the phone at the lit-up house, as Hugh's physicist brother insisted Hugh call him if "anything strange" were to happen during the comet's passing, and no one's mobile phone has signal.
Hugh and Amir return. Hugh has a cut forehead and Amir has brought back a box containing a ping-pong paddle and photographs of everyone with numbers written on the backs. Hugh says he saw through the window of the other house a table set with eight places. They realize the other house is an alternate version of theirs.
Hugh writes a note to leave at the other house, only to find an exact copy of the note pinned to their own door. Emily, Kevin, Mike, and Laurie decide to go to the other house. On the way, they encounter another group of four, carrying red glow sticks rather than blue. Each group flees back to their houses.
Hugh retrieves his brother's book from his car, which deals with quantum decoherence. They speculate that the comet has created two split realities, one of which will collapse once the comet has passed. They surmise that anyone passing through the area of particularly dense darkness outside will emerge into a different reality. Mike drinks heavily and considers killing their doubles before the doubles can kill them. He decides to write a blackmail note to the other Mike to keep him from the book.
The group realizes Hugh and Amir, in their midst, came from the other house. The two take the box and leave, then return carrying blue glow sticks. They had found two notes at the other house, showing that the split created more than just two alternate realities. Beth sees Laurie kissing Kevin in the hallway. Someone outside smashes Hugh's car window. Emily retrieves the ring Kevin gave her from her car. Talking to Kevin, Emily realizes he is from a different reality.
The group creates their own box to validate they are all from the same reality. As well numbering the photographs by rolling dice, they include a randomly chosen object. Emily deduces that only Lee and Beth, who never left the house, originate from that house; that herself, Kevin and Laurie are from a different house; Hugh and Amir are from a third house; and Mike is from a fourth. The blackmail note arrives under the door, revealing an adulterous liaison between him and Beth. Another Mike breaks in and attacks his double then leaves.
Emily goes out and looks into several alternate houses, finding different situations including one in which no one seems aware of the split. She lures everyone out of the house by smashing Hugh's car window, then ambushes the alternate Emily and injects her with ketamine when she gets her ring out of her car. She takes her other self's place while Miller's Comet breaks apart overhead, but must subdue the other Emily again when she crawls into the bathroom. She takes the ring from her defeated self after losing her own in the altercation, then when returns to the living room and faints.
Emily wakes in daylight on the sofa with the rest of the party apparently none the wiser. Kevin returns her ring which he found in the bathroom. His cell phone rings and he notes that, weirdly, it is Emily calling. Emily looks at the two rings as Kevin answers the phone, then he turns to look at her with the phone to his ear.
Cast
Emily Foxler as Em
Maury Sterling as Kevin
Nicholas Brendon as Mike
Lorene Scafaria as Lee
Hugo Armstrong as Hugh
Elizabeth Gracen as Beth
Alex Manugian as Amir
Lauren Maher as Laurie
Aqueela Zoll played one copy of Emily when there were two of them in one scene
Kelly Donovan, the real-life identical twin brother of Nicholas Brendon, played one copy of Mike when there were two of them in one scene