One of the reasons that I enjoy speculative fiction is they tend to be very imaginative, and Upside Down is a film with one of the most imaginative premises that I have ever seen. If you have never heard of it, I can’t say that I blame you. It only grossed about 100,000 dollars in America, and I really hope that it did more than its 60 million budget overseas.

Upside Down is one of those films that is like an Asimov robot story: you have to know three rules. I won’t get specific about it, but the world (or worlds) of Upside Down has an incredibly complex premise that is probably not based on science, but it is utterly cool. The film is about two planets that spin very close together, and they are only a few yards apart in some places. For this reason, it is possible for matter and even people from one world to be in another world, but their gravity is opposite. For example, you can use a rope to climb to the next world, but you will be unable to stand on the surface as you will float until you go back to your own world. Any matter pulled from one world will do the same and float.

It actually took me a while to understand what the rules of physics were in this film, but once I got used to it, the film is a blast. Just to let you know, this film is essentially a love story just like Romeo and Juliet, and pretty much any “starcrossed” lovers story after that.

In the case of Upside Down, the main characters cannot occupy the same ground as one of them will want to float back to their world. The story begins with Adam (Jim Sturgess) and Eden (Kirsten Dunst) who meet as children on a high mountain range on their respective worlds. After a while, they fall in love and go between their worlds with the help of a rope. There’s an interesting scene where Kirsten Dunst kisses someone upside down, and reminds me of the 2002 Spider-man movie.

Sadly, the relationship between Adam and Eden can’t work because there is this rule that any matter from one world cannot stay within contact or it will just burn up. Seriously, that is what is up with Upside Down. Not only can Adam and Eden not get together for that rule, but a tragedy happens in their youth that involves Eden getting amnesia. Yeah, they went there.

Just to let you know, there is this class division thing going on in this film. Apparently, the people from one world are like the Elite in this film, while the people from “Down Below” are poor. So Adam, from Down Below, has to overcome the class barrier too. How does he do that? He creates a vest with some “inverse matter” from the other world so he can walk on the Upper world. Wow, now that I have written that, it hardly makes sense. I can’t believe that I watched those scenes without cracking up. I know it sounds as bad as Birdemic: Shock and Terror, but I can’t deny that I really, really liked.

So hey, just see this film, okay? It is on Netflix now, which means its practically free if you have a subscription. The effects are quite cool, and when are you ever going to see a guy jump to another planet? Seriously, just check it out.