Mr. Nobody 2009

In 2092, humanity has conquered mortality, and the world watches as 118-year-old Nemo Nobody, the last mortal, edges toward death. A weary psychiatrist, Dr. Feldheim, uses hypnosis to coax Nemo into recalling his life, while a diligent journalist probes his memories. Nemo’s recollections come in three distinct life periods—ages 9, 15, and 34—each offering a differently shaded version of his story. He speaks of a pre-birth belief that children know what will happen to them, only to suggest that, at conception, the Angels of Oblivion erase that knowledge. He hints that the angels somehow missed him, granting him the eerie possibility of remembering several futures.

After Nemo’s parents divorce, the boy faces a choice about where to live, a decision that fractures his sense of continuity and launches parallel strands of memory. The tale splits into two main paths: life with his mother and life with his father, each exploring how one person’s life can branch into wildly different outcomes.

Life with his mother unfolds with a move to Montreal. As a teen, Nemo becomes drawn to Anna. On a sunlit beach, Anna asks Nemo to swim with her and her friends, a moment that strains the bonds of the group when Nemo insults the others, setting the stage for a fading connection. In another timeline, a different set of choices unfolds: Nemo confesses he cannot swim, Anna’s father, [Harry], marries Nemo’s mother, and the two families become entangled through a forbidden affair between step-siblings. That path shows a broken family rerouting through divorce, with Anna moving to New York with her father. Years later, a chance encounter at a train station rekindles a spark, but the reunion is fleeting—Anna isn’t ready for a relationship, and Nemo still hopes to meet her again at a lighthouse, only to find that the number has been lost and the moment never arrives. In a further alternate arc, Nemo and Anna marry and have children, yet tragedy shadows the road home: a car wreck, or other fates, pull them apart.

The other main thread traces life with his father. As a teenager, Nemo lives in England with a disabled father and writes a science-fiction story about a journey to Mars. He falls in love with Elise, whose own life is complicated by a boyfriend named Stefano. A motorcycle accident leaves Nemo in a vegetative state or in a closely monitored pseudocoma, yet he remains aware of the world and senses his parents’ reunion at his bedside. He pictures his fingers tapping a typewriter and continues to dream his story into being.

In another timeline, Elise says she loves Stefano, but the feeling isn’t reciprocal, and Nemo persists in his affection until they marry. In a version of events, Elise dies in an explosion on their wedding day, and Nemo honors a promise to take her ashes to Mars. On the return trip, he meets Anna again, only for the ship to be destroyed by asteroids. In yet another thread, a co-worker drowns, and Anna becomes Nemo’s widow, a fate he suspects he recognized in another life. There are timelines where Nemo and Elise have three children, but Elise battles chronic depression and borderline personality disorder, and she ultimately leaves Nemo to pursue Stefano.

Another strand follows a teenage vow gone awry: after Elise rejects him, Nemo resolves to marry the first girl who dances with him, who turns out to be Jean. They marry, become wealthy, and have two sons, yet Nemo grows bored and entrusts all his assets to Jean. Decisions drifted by coin tosses lead him to a hotel where he is murdered, his killers questioning whether they have killed the right man.

As an adult Nemo, the world around him shifts into a surreal, argyle-dominated realm. He follows clues through this dreamlike landscape to a dilapidated house containing a DVD player and television. In an interactive video, the 118-year-old Nemo addresses the 34-year-old Nemo, revealing that this is a universe where Nemo was never born and consciousness is stuck in limbo. The elder Nemo claims to be narrating the story from its end, and he urges the younger Nemo to stay alive until 5:50 a.m. on February 12, 2092.

In the epilogue, the elder Nemo tells the journalist that neither of them truly exists—they are figments of the 9-year-old Nemo’s imagination as he labors to choose among competing parental futures. The boy’s search for resolution leads him to a third option: abandoning both parents to forge a new, unknowable path.

As death nears, Nemo recalls a final reunion with Anna at the lighthouse. The moment of death arrives, and his last word—“Anna”—is broadcast across the universe. Time begins to contract, and the old Nemo reawakens, laughing with renewed life. The other versions of Nemo awaken as well, and the parents’ relationship is restored. In a reverse echo of his earlier choices, the 9-year-old Nemo heads back toward 9-year-old Anna, and together they skip stones in a reversal of time.