Before I begin, I want to state that there will be spoilers to the Yesterday movie, so if you don’t want to get spoiled, don’t read this.
The universe that is presented in Universal’s Yesterday might possibly be the greatest universe imagined. Sure, The Beatles didn’t exist, but their music ended up existing thanks to Himesh Patel’s character, Jack Malik.
There were also a number of things that did not exist in this new universe for whatever reason, and while it was only used for comedic purposes in the film, the overall cultural and historical impact could be really significant if one were to look into it.
Cigarettes
This one is probably the most positive known change, and that is why it is listed out first. It’s clearly shown in the film that cigarettes don’t exist in this new universe when Jack googles it and finds no relevant results.
Imagine: a world with slightly healthier people not dying of lung cancer. Sure, cigars might have existed before cigarettes, but who smokes a cigar anymore?
Coca-Cola
I’m not quite sure why this soft drink doesn’t exist in this world, but it doesn’t. When Jack’s mom gave him a Pepsi he was so confused when Coke doesn’t exist, and when he asked others for it, they all thought he meant cocaine.
It’s an interesting thing to step into, and movie-wise it was probably done that way because they couldn’t get sponsorship for both, but it caused a few comedic moments, and Pepsi had to be okay, because it’s the only thing that exists.
Oasis
The band is heavily inspired by The Beatles, and since they don’t exist in this universe, Oasis doesn’t either. “Wonderwall” is a non-existent song, so all the jokes using the song are also erased from the world.
Harry Potter
I’m not quite sure why Harry Potter doesn’t exist in this universe, but it seems like many influences from Britain are erased.
This mostly means people my age would have had to grow up on something else. There’s no books, no movies, no spin-offs of Fantastic Beasts, nothing.
Harry Potter World also wouldn’t exist in Universal Studios, so Despicable Me World would probably take over and become larger than Harry Potter.
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live doesn’t exist anymore, but instead it’s on Thursdays and titled “Thursday Night Live.” Why? I have no clue, but it’ll probably be much harder to watch, especially if you had to work Friday mornings.
The ones listed above are all of the things that were different and directly stated in the film. The following are all educated guesses about what also changed, and a short reason why.
James Bond
This one isn’t directly stated in the film, but if The Beatles never existed, then the following groups created after they broke up probably also weren’t made.
It’s quite possible that the individual members made separate bands, but towards the end of the film Jack meets a living, 78 year old John Lennon. He never made music, but seemed to live a pretty happy life.
Wings. Paul McCartney’s group made a few notable songs, and one of them was “Live and Let Die,” a song used as the theme, and title to one of James Bond’s films. There probably would be something else replacing it, and it would end up being called something else, but who knows what that could be.
Forest Gump
At some point in the film, Forest is “seen” sitting next to John Lennon during an interview. This scene in the movie probably was just changed to view some other historical event, but with a movie that’s just about historical events, I think it’s pretty significant.
Rock Music
This one is pretty broad, and I won’t be able to explain much about it because I don’t know music history, but The Beatles helped transform and start a few genres of rock music, and without them, who knows what type of music people listen to, besides Ed Sheeran, of course.
The Simpsons
One of the longest running shows on television had a major influence from The Beatles. Lisa Simpson is a vegetarian because of Paul McCartney, and he guest-starred in some of their episodes, so without The Beatles, would she end up eating meat and ultimately being a whole different character?
Boss Baby
This is probably the one I’m most excited about. This awful movie probably doesn’t exist at all in this universe, and I can’t be more happy. “Blackbird” is the only song that’s really used in this movie, and without it being written by The Beatles, the movie doesn’t have any songs in it.
Sure, they could end up using some other song in the movie, but I’m trying to see the positives on this one.
Kristopher K. Online 