In at least one universe this Sunday evening — perhaps our own — the imaginative, absurdist, sci-fi comedy-drama “Everything Everywhere All at Once” will sweep the Oscars, shining Hollywood’s brightest spotlight on the mind-bending notion that our universe is just one in a kaleidoscopic array of others.

In the movie, a laundromat owner played by Michelle Yeoh jumps around the multiverse, flitting in and out of different parallel universes, each containing variations of her life. In one, she’s a glamorous movie star and kung fu master. In another, she has comically floppy hot-dog fingers. In yet another, she’s a sentient rock with googly eyes. It’s a fantastical plot device, but also an extended riff on a real idea in physics.