Andy and Lana Wachowski (the Matrix trilogy) and Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) co-wrote and co-directed this adaptation of David Mitchell’s 2004 novel Cloud Atlas (out in theaters Oct. 26). As if that weren’t complicated enough, each cast member plays multiple roles in the film’s kaleidoscopic tale, which includes a sci-fi story of a man (Tom Hanks) who meets an emissary from an advanced civilization (Halle Berry), and a darkly comic yarn about a composer (Jim Broadbent) and his apprentice (Ben Whishaw). “We thought about these individual characters as aspects of larger characters,” Lana Wachowski says. “Their lives are interwoven over one big story that takes place over a thousand years.”