Diksha Sundriyal
Apple TV+’s ‘All of You’ is a romance drama that follows the story of two friends, Laura and Simon, over the years. They have known each other for years, and there is clearly something between them. However, these feelings have not been acknowledged, and this leads their paths to diverge and later converge in such a way that it makes things even more complicated. By the end of the film, they reach a point of no return, where their choices will define the fate of their friendship and relationship, either ending it for good or bringing them closer together such that they can never be ripped apart again. SPOILERS AHEAD.
All of You Plot Synopsis
The film begins with Laura and Simon, who have been best friends for years, meeting up so that Laura can get a test taken. This test is conducted by a company called Soul Connex, and its job is to connect people to their soulmates. The process is entirely scientific, and this breakthrough has allowed people all over the world to find their better halves. After years of dating and not finding her forever love, Laura decides to give it a try. Simon, on the other hand, refuses to let anything but the natural order of things make this decision for him. He compares it to giving someone a gift without wrapping it up. He also mentions that all of their friends who have taken this test have now become disconnected and are lost in their own world.
He doesn’t want the same thing to happen with Laura, and she assures him that even when she finds her soulmate, she will not forget him. Laura stays true to her word and continues to hang out with Simon while her relationship with her soulmate, Lukas, progresses rapidly. She also tries to match Simon with her friend, Andrea. Despite his initial hesitation about it, Simon ends up liking Andrea, and they start dating. As the years roll on, Lukas and Laura get married, and they have a daughter. Simon and Andrea date, but eventually, Andrea realises that Simon is still in love with Laura, so she breaks up with him. Further, Laura continues her life with Lukas, while Simon tries to move on but is unable to.
The tipping point in their relationship comes when Laura’s father dies. At his funeral, she tells Simon about the letters that his father wrote to and received from a woman he was clearly in love with but did not end up with. She wonders why he didn’t just go to the woman, and Simon points out that it was because, despite his feelings, her father couldn’t leave his wife and daughter behind. Later that night, she shows up at Simon’s house and they have sex. The guilt of cheating on her husband leads Laura to try to push away Simon, but eventually, they engage in an affair that goes on for years, until another turning point arrives.
Laura and Simon’s Relationship Takes Many Turns Over the Years
Simon had always loved Laura. Even before she took the Soul Connex test to find her soulmate, he knew that she was the one for him. A part of him believed that he was her soulmate, too, and he thought that the test would confirm that. Instead, it leads her to Lukas, and this is why perhaps Simon refused to believe in the credibility of the test and never took it himself. Year after year, he tried to move on while Laura built a life and family with Lukas, but none of his relationships matched up to what he felt for Laura. So, he remained single. And then, Laura came to him, and so began their secret love affair.
Initially, Simon has no problem with Laura not leaving her husband. He says he could never ask her to get a divorce, but then, when the time comes to move forward in his life, he holds himself back for her. He gives up a massive career opportunity of going to Hong Kong just so he can be near her. And slowly, he realises that perhaps he is the only one making all these adjustments in his life. He also laments going back home after having a short trip with Laura, because at the end of the day, she must return to her family. Eventually, this leads to an argument where Simon confesses that he needs more than these secret rendezvous, while she stands firm on her stance of not leaving her husband, no matter what.
Realising that Laura will never be entirely his, nor he hers, Simon decides to walk away. Even when he second-guesses things and tries to reconnect with her, she rebuffs his advances and refuses to talk with him. This leads him to seriously pursue relationships with other women, but when he and Laura come face to face again, all the bad blood between them simply vanishes. He tells her that she is the only one for him, comparing her to his heroine, and reveals that this is the reason why he has never been able to love someone else. Laura, despite her refusal to divorce Lukas, also loves Simon and is heartbroken about not being with him anymore. Still, it doesn’t change anything between them, which means there is no point continuing their affair.
Do Laura and Simon Break Up? Does Simon Go to California?
After years of denial, Simon finally accepts that Laura will never love him completely, or rather, she will never love him enough to leave her husband for him. He also knows that he cannot move on from her as long as he is around her, as long as he has even a sliver of hope that he can be with her. So, when the time comes and he gets another opportunity to leave the country, he decides to take it. This time, the offer is to go to California, and he knows that if he doesn’t take it, he will end up falling back into the same cycle where his life will continue to revolve around Laura. He takes the offer, but because he and Laura aren’t talking anymore, he is not able to tell her about it until they eventually come face to face at a book reading event.
By this time, there is only one month left for his departure, and Laura knows that once he leaves, there is a good chance that he will not come back. Or even if he does, things will not be the same. The last time he had the opportunity to leave, he stayed because of her. This time, he has decided to go, which means that he is making one last desperate attempt to take his life in a different direction. She didn’t ask him to stay the last time, and she doesn’t intend to do it this time either. However, that doesn’t change the fact that she is heartbroken about losing him, this time, perhaps for good.
So, as one last hurrah, they go on a trip together. Simon opens up to her about his effort to reach out to his father and finds out that the man died a couple of years back. This makes her realise that he has tried to resolve things in his life at home so that he can leave for America with a clean slate. The next few days are spent in a bliss that they have always felt with each other. However, as the trip comes to an end, they both struggle to contain their emotions. She wonders if she should join him in this new journey, but this conversation remains a fantasy, a callback to a similar conversation they had on their first affair trip together. By now, only one week is left before Simon leaves for California, which means that this is their final trip together.
They say their goodbyes, and when he offers to walk her to her cab, she tells him not to because she knows that it will make leaving him even more difficult for her. Before she leaves, Simon tells her that he’d miss her every single day, which is exactly what he said to her before she took the Soul Connex test. This callback makes her realise that he was right, in a way, when he said that the aftermath of the test would diverge their ways significantly. It took some time, and there was a lot of push and pull in between, but his words did end up coming true. Now, they are splitting up for good, with both having accepted the possibility that this could be the last time they see each other. Thus, the fate of their relationship was, in a way, foreshadowed at the beginning of the movie, and now, they both must accept the end and move on from one another.
Read More: Where Was All of You Filmed?
