Maddy and Olly quickly connect, in spite of the space (and glass) between them, helped out by the fact that their bedroom windows face each other. A young man named Olly (Nick Robinson) and his family move in next door. Then, something else of great interest shows up on the other side of Maddy's windows. Maddy spends her days reading, learning about life from the internet and looking through her window dreaming about the outside world, especially the ocean. And Pauline is the only family Maddy has left, since her father and brother were killed in a car crash long ago. It's a good thing for Maddy that Pauline is a doctor, so she can monitor her daughter's health – and make enough money to pay for their specially-designed house. Due to her SCID diagnosis, Maddy's mother, Pauline (Anika Noni Rose), keeps her in a germ-free environment in which her windows don't open, her clothes are sterilized before she wears them and the only outsiders with whom she interacts (after they pass through a special antechamber) are her nurse, Carla (Ana de la Reguera), and Carla's teenage daughter, Rosa (Danube Hermosillo). Maddy Whittier (Amandla Stenberg) is about to turn 18, but hasn't been outdoors since she was an infant. But "Everything Everything" treats SCID with deadly seriousness. However, most cultural references to the disease have been in small screen comedies, including "The Bubble Boy" episode of "Seinfeld", an episode of "That 70s Show" and an installment of RiffTrax in which veterans of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" mockingly comment on the 1976 film. The film, in turn, inspired a song on Paul Simon's 1986 "Graceland" album, a musical and even a popular political analogy (referring to the isolation of living in the White House).
The 1976 made-for-TV movie "The Boy in the Plastic Bubble" (starring a young John Travolta) was inspired by the childhood of SCID sufferer David Vetter (and Ted DeVita, who had a similar disease). SCID is the disease at the center of the plot in the YA romantic drama "Everything Everything" (PG-13, 1:36) and has appeared in various forms of popular culture for decades. SCID, severe combined immunodeficiency, is a rare genetic disorder in which the sufferer's immune system is so weak that any bacteria or virus could prove fatal, requiring the patient to live in a sterile environment.