The story of this film is set in his hometown in Austin, and in his film Linklater has based his scripts on the people he saw on the streets of Austin, showing us the multiple personalities and their freedom of expression and thought.
The film opens with a young man, played by Linklater, hailing a ride and spends most of the journey explaining to the driver the idea of how when a choice is made, all those other possible alternatives become separate realities, different destinies. This is the basic concept of this film, as the focus shifts from one subject to the next, enabling the audience to catch just a glimpse into each individual's life, as if we were eavesdropping halfway into a conversation, intruding into someone's home or walking into an unexpected scenario. It focuses on a specific character, shows us just enough for us to question who they are and what is happening, then the focus shifts to another character, who may merely be a passerby from the previous scene. The entire film consists of hundreds of different stories strung together, floating freely between realities. In total, the film focuses on 97 individuals, none of which appears in more than one scene. The selection of these scenes are almost arbitrary, random and confusing, and doesn't provide the audience with the full narrative, which forces us to create our own to try and make sense of it - we are the ones who fill in the gap and decide what happens before and after the specific scenes that have been presented to us.
The structure of this film is somewhat dream-like because of its arbitrary selection. The beginning of the film depicts the same young man, who is played by Linklater, asleep leaning against the bus window. The story then sets into motion once he awakens and gets into the car, almost as if the whole story is just a creation of his subconscious mind. There is no specific story-line, plot or climax in this film. The closest the film gets to a dramatic incident is the scene where we witness a hit and run, which then shifts the focus onto the driver and allows us to follow him into his home, waiting for the police to come and arrest him.
The entire film focuses on moments in life that we encounter every day, of which we never really notice in great detail as different unknown individuals pass us by on the streets. Every stranger that we encounter has their own narrative, their own unique life story. It is a joy to watch the different personalities, lifestyles and choices made by each person that lead to the next reality.
