Alternate Histories story
Multiversity, an alternative history research simulation app, shows a user six different timelines involving the death of Adolf Hitler in 1908 instead of 1945. Potential consequences of each death include different outcomes from WWI and WWII; various individuals reaching the Moon first; time travel paradoxes; and post-apocalyptic scenarios. Exiting the demo, the user selects a possible alternate timeline where "Lincoln shoots first". Cast: Rebecca Riedy, Dieter Jansen, Scott Whyte, Chris Cox Directed by: Victor Maldonado & Alfredo Torres. Story by: John Scalzi.
14 total · 1 choice · 2 major · 11 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| alternate history | choice | The story explores six (increasingly outlandish) possible futures had Hitler died in 1908 instead of 1945. |
| space travel | major | In each alternate history, one of the key points was to highlight which human first made it to the moon. |
| World War II | major | The story explores how the Second World War might have unfolded differently, or not at all, had Hitler died in 1908 instead of 1945. |
| asteroid impact | minor | In one of the alternate histories, the Earth was impacted by a giant asteroid, spelling doom for humanity. |
| dangerous driving | minor | In one of the alternate histories, Hitler was killed by a horse-drawn carriage. In a subsequent scene, a horse was mowed down by a car. |
| displacement by a rising new species | minor | In one of the alternate histories, rats supplanted humans as the masters of the Earth. The rats were in turn supplanted by squids. |
| grandfather paradox | minor | In the last of the alternate histories, Hitler time traveled and touched his own alternate self which caused him to die in a "space-time paradox". |
| nuclear weapons | minor | In one of the alternate histories, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Berlin. |
| prostitution | minor | In one of the alternate histories, Hitler died from fornicating too much with four Viennese prostitutes, who were actually aliens. |
| speculative weapon | minor | In one of the alternate histories, the Russian Tsar had developed a giant gun that fired gelatinous blobs to kill people from, apparently, a whole continent away. |