How Does Dark Matter's Interdimensional Travel Work? The Science Behind The Box Explained

Summary Jason2's use of interdimensional travel in Dark Matter is explained in episode 3, and it's based on a real scientific thought experiment.

Ryan's drug plays a crucial role in allowing individuals to access multiple realities by preventing consciousness from causing decoherence.

The Box in Dark Matter ensures that a person inside can't be perceived by external observers while using Ryan's serum to travel to chosen realities.

The premise of Apple TV+'s Dark Matter hinges on the multiverse and interdimensional travel, and episode 3 explains how these concepts work — and how they're connected to Jason2's (Joel Edgerton) mysterious Box. Dark Matter premiered with two episodes on Apple TV+ on May 8, bringing the story from Blake Crouch's best-selling sci-fi novel to life on the screen. The series opens with Jason Dessen being kidnapped after an evening celebrating his friend's accomplishments. The kidnapper turns out to be himself from another universe, and the original Jason soon finds himself forced into that alternate reality.

The entire reason the impostor Jason is able to pull off this universe swap is because Dark Matter's main character is a physicist. The original Jason lives a relatively ordinary life with his science background, tending to a family and teaching as a professor. However, Jason2 takes his knowledge and degree to the next level, creating a company that's capable of all sorts of extraordinary feats. This includes interdimensional travel, which Jason2 pieces together himself in order to take hold of the life he missed out on — the one where he's married to Jennifer Connelly's Daniela despite lacking professional accolades.

Related 17 Biggest Changes Dark Matter Makes To Blake Crouch's Book Blake Crouch is both the author of the 2016 novel, as well as the showrunner for Apple TV+'s Dark Matter adaptation, but Crouch has made some changes.

Dark Matter Episode 3 Explains How Jason2 Uses Interdimensional Travel

Jason & Ryan Piece Together How The Box Works

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Jason's science background allows Dark Matter to rationalize its multiverse rather than using the extraordinary to explain its existence. And Dark Matter episode 3 digs into how interdimensional travel works in the Apple TV+ show, revealing the steps Jason2 takes to accomplish such a feat. The explanation is identical to the one in Crouch's book, and it enables the original Jason to escape the new reality he's been thrust into. Of course, getting back to his own universe won't be an easy task, even with his newfound understanding of dimension-hopping.

Combined with a mind-altering drug created by Ryan, Velocity's hangar enables people to be put in superposition, where they can exist in multiple states at once.

In "The Box," Jason realizes that his work at Velocity allowed Jason2 to secretly build a pathway to alternate realities, and he manages this with the large hangar — or the titular "Box" — he emerges from in the premiere. While the Box itself doesn't make interdimensional travel happen, the environment it provides facilitates it. Combined with a mind-altering drug created by Ryan, Velocity's hangar enables people to be put in superposition, where they can exist in multiple states at once and choose from multiple outcomes (or in this case, realities).

Why Ryan's Drug Is Necessary To Travel To Other Dimensions

It Prevents A Person's Consciousness From Causing Decoherence

Image via Apple TV+

In Dark Matter episode 3, Jason tells Ryan that placing a human into superposition is theoretically impossible, as that person's consciousness would prevent it from working. The human consciousness would take in the environment around them and make observations that prevent it from going into that state. As Jason explains, "it would cause everything to decohere." The only way around this would be to turn off the "observer effect," preventing the brain from realizing it's current state and opening it up to other possibilities.

This is where Ryan's drug comes in, as it temporarily turns off the areas of the brain that cause this. According to Ryan, his drug changes "the brain chemistry of the prefrontal cortex," putting the mechanisms that cause decoherence to sleep for a period of time. This allows humans attempting to access multiple realities to do so without observing their current state of being. Of course, this is just the first element of Dark Matter's interdimensional travel. It's also important that outsiders aren't capable of perceiving the individual in question.

The Purpose Of The Box In Apple TV+'s Dark Matter Explained

Humans Can't Reach A State Of Superposition With External Observers Either

Image via AppleTv+

For a person to exist in multiple states at once, no one can observe them in their present reality — not the individuals around them or themselves. Ryan's drug takes care of the latter issue in Apple TV+'s Dark Matter, but the Box is how Jason2 overcomes the former obstacle. The Box ensures that the person inside it can't be observed by anyone else while they inject themselves with Ryan's serum. From there, they can simply envision the realities and outcomes they want to exist. Then they'll be able to travel to the reality they choose, just as Jason2 does.

The science behind the Box is teased early in Dark Matter, as the original Jason teaches a course on Schrödinger's cat. This thought experiment posits that a cat placed inside a box with a deadly substance can exist in two states of reality until the box is opened. Because no one can observe the cat, it could theoretically be thought of as both alive and dead. These two possible outcomes put the cat in the same state of superposition that Jason2 strives to — and eventually does — achieve in Dark Matter.

Using Ryan's brain-altering drug and Velocity's hangar, Jason2 can envision any number of outcomes for his life.

Of course, the book and TV show take things further, as Jason2 can exist in seemingly countless states. Using Ryan's brain-altering drug and Velocity's hangar, Jason2 can envision any number of outcomes for his life. This is how he finds the reality where he and Daniela wind up married with a child. In this way, Crouch's book and its Apple TV+ adaptation utilize real scientific theories to bring a gripping multiverse story to life.

Dark Matter Uses Real Science To Explain Its Multiverse Story

This Makes The Sci-Fi Series More Believable

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While the scientific feats shown in Apple TV+'s Dark Matter have never been accomplished in real life, the fact that the show pulls from actual theories and thought experiments makes its premise that much more believable. Most multiverse stories use the extraordinary to explain the characters' ability to access more than one universe. Viewers see this with superhero stories like the MCU and Invincible. As Dark Matter can't lean on magic or superpowers to open the portal to other realities, it asks how interdimensional travel could theoretically be accomplished using science and the human mind.

Dark Matter's main character having a physics degree and profession gives the Apple TV+ show another layer of believability, even if its story seems somewhat outlandish. If anyone could crack the code to access alternate universes, it's a man with a ton of scientific knowledge and an entire company's worth of resources at his disposal. Future episodes of Dark Matter could go into Jason2's discovery further, though the revelations leading up to it are fairly straightforward after episode 3. Now, it'll be interesting to see how the original Jason and Amanda handle their journey through new realities.

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