DON’T WORRY DARLING

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy

The film starts at a party with many couples in attendance at the home of Dean (Nick Kroll) and Bunny (Olivia Wilde). The wives are playing a game where they balance a tray with a glass of liquor on their heads, and Bunny ends up the winner. Another couple, Alice (Florence Pugh) and Jack (Harry Styles) sneak out and go for a drive where they do donuts in Jack’s car.

The next day, Alice prepares breakfast for Jack, and the two seem to have a picture-perfect relationship. The couple and their friends live in a 1950’s style community called Victory Town, where the wives all see their husbands off as they leave for work at the same time to go to Victory Headquarters in the desert. Their jobs are supposedly to work in technology. Alice stays home while spending time with Bunny and other wives.

Alice goes to a dance class taught by Shelley (Gemma Chan), wife of Frank (Chris Pine), founder of the Victory Project. They welcome a woman named Violet (Sydney Chandler), whose husband Bill (Douglas Smith) has joined the other men to work at HQ.

Everyone in the community goes to Frank and Shelley’s home as they host a party and discuss the next step in their Victory Project. One woman, Margaret (Kiki Layne), speaks up and says that they (the women) are not supposed to be there. Her husband Ted (Ari’el Stachel) pulls her away before she begins to make a scene. Other women talk about Margaret being disturbed as she walked her son out into the desert, and he disappeared, with Margaret claiming that he was taken from her before she was recovered. Alice goes back into the house during the party, where Jack finds her and starts kissing her. Frank quietly walks into the room and watches, with Alice seeing him, but Jack never notices before Frank slips out again.

Alice later takes a trolley out of town and into the desert. She looks up at the sky and notices a plane appearing to go down and crash into the side of the mountain where Victory HQ is. Alice tells the trolley driver to go there, but he says it is not part of his route. Alice proceeds on foot and goes up the mountain, where she doesn’t find a plane but instead appears to find a mirror. When she touches it, she sees haunting visuals of drops of blood and women dancing in synchronization, along with hearing Frank’s voice. Alice wakes up back in her bedroom, with Jack saying she was home when he returned and was there for hours, though Alice has no memory of making it back home.

Alice receives a phone call from Margaret, who asks her about the plane that she saw. After Alice denies it, she tells Margaret not to call her despite the latter’s pleas. Alice later comes across Margaret standing on the roof of her house. She runs to try and help, but Margaret looks at her and slits her own throat before falling off the roof. Men in red suits show up to pull Alice away while handing Margaret’s body.

Jack calls Dr. Collins (Timothy Simons) to show up at the house to check on Alice. Collins states that Margaret needed stitches after everyone says that she fell out of her window while cleaning it. After he determines that Alice must be exhausted, Alice waits for Jack and Collins not to be looking so she can go through his bag and pull out a file on Margaret, which is labeled “security risk.” Alice goes through the file and finds most of it blacked out with little helpful information, so she burns the file.

Alice starts to become haunted by strange visions and occurrences. During her dance class, she sees an image of Margaret smashing her head against the mirror, causing her to freak out in front of everyone. At home, she tries to cook eggs but finds the shells are hollow and empty. While taking a bath, Alice slips into the water, and her reflection appears to look back at her.

Alice and Jack go to a major event hosted by Frank, with all the other couples in attendance. Frank invites Jack onto the stage, where he announces to the crowd that he is promoting Jack to work with the senior advisory board. Everyone cheers while Frank starts a chant of “Whose world is this? OURS!” Alice steps out and is found by Bunny. Alice tries to explain that something is not right, but Bunny tells her to stop making assumptions.

Alice and Jack later host a dinner, inviting Frank and Shelley, Bill and Violet, and another couple, Peg (Kate Berlant) and Peter (Asif Ali). During the dinner, Alice brings up several things she’s noticed, such as the women all having the same story about how they met their husbands (the women dropped their train tickets and the men picked it up for them), and that most of the women come from Philadelphia, Chicago, or Baltimore. Alice then openly accuses Frank of being behind something sinister, which Shelley chastises her for, but Frank tells Alice privately that he was hoping for someone like her to challenge him.

Alice confronts Jack over the situation and begs him to leave. He seems to agree, and they make it to the car until the men in red suits show up and pull Alice out of the car, with her screaming and pleading with Jack to help, but he can only sit in his car yelling in remorse. She is taken to a hospital where a procedure is performed on her.

A flashback then begins, showing Alice working as a nurse at a hospital. She is seen living with Jack (looking more unkempt) in a crummy apartment, and he is disappointed that she doesn’t want to do anything with him because she works so long and is incredibly tired. Jack listens to Frank’s motivational speeches and is first inspired to join the Victory Project, which it turns out is a virtual simulation that the husbands use to keep their wives trapped to serve their needs and desires. When Alice touched the mirror, she was waking herself up until Jack made it so that she could remain there. He lays next to her while his own mind is linked to Victory.

Back inside Victory, Alice returns after seemingly being healed by the doctors. However, Alice argues with Jack again, who says he did all of this for her, even though she was content living her own life of her own agency in the real world. He holds onto her, and in a struggle to break free, Alice smashes a liquor glass over Jack’s head, killing him in Victory and in the real world. The higher-ups are alerted to this, and things in the community begin to go haywire, such as the street bulbs bursting suddenly. Bunny tells Alice that she knew the truth all along and that even her own kids aren’t real, so she encourages her to take Dean’s car and drive to HQ to put an end to things.

Alice drives out into the desert, with the red suits chasing after her. Collins pursues as well, but Alice hits the brakes and causes Collins to collide with some of the red suits, killing them all. More cars begin to give chase until Alice makes it to the mountain. Meanwhile, Frank learns of Alice’s deeds, prompting Shelley to stab him in the gut. She says he messed everything up for failing to keep this contained, and she declares, “It’s my turn now.”

Alice gets the car stuck on the side of the mountain, blocking the path upwards. The red suits begin to climb the mountain to chase her. Alice makes it to the mirror and briefly feels as though Jack is behind her, asking her to stay for him. She runs to the mirror just before the red suits reach her. Cut to black, and the last thing we hear is Alice gasping as she wakes up in the real world.

Victory Town is a seemingly idyllic 1950's community where the husbands go to work while the wives stay home and tend to their needs. Young couple Alice and Jack appear in love until Alice begins to notice several strange occurrences. One other woman, Margaret, had begun to see through the cracks in Victory, but she kills herself because nobody believes her.

The Victory Project was started by Frank and is actually a virtual reality simulation where the men who sign up trap their wives in this reality to keep them for fulfilling their wants and needs. Jack keeps Alice in there because he felt their real married life, where she was an overworked nurse, wasn't making them happy. Alice finds that Victory Headquarters has a mirror that would allow her to wake up back in the real world, but Frank's henchmen prevent her from escaping.

After Alice kills Jack, she escapes using a neighbor's car and races to HQ while being chased by the henchmen. Frank's wife Shelley kills him for failing to stop Alice from finding out the truth, and indicates she will now take over Victory. Alice makes it to the mountain and finds the mirror, allowing her to escape and wake up in the real world.