9 questions we have after watching ‘Don’t Worry Darling’

Florence Pugh in “Don’t Worry Darling. “Merrick Morton/Warner Bros. Warning: Major spoilers if you haven’t seen Olivia Wilde’s “Don’t Worry Darling,” now in theaters.

The film, which stars Florence Pugh and Harry Styles, ends with a cliffhanger and loose ends.   We rounded up every lingering question we had after watching the movie.   What is the Victory Project?Where are they going?Warner Bros.

Singh: The movie’s plot could have been strengthened by some kind of explanation to the audience about what the Victory Project actually is. We know it’s a program created by Frank (Chris Pine) but for what reason? To create a simulation in which men rule and women are submissive? Like most of the other characters in the film, we don’t know anything about real-world Frank and why he created the Victory Project. Guerrasio: Every morning, the men kiss their wives and drive off to the Victory Project.

The husbands are sworn never to speak about what they do there. But we the audience are never filled in either. Towards the end, there’s a shot of all the cars driving there and you can hear a countdown.

I felt, “Finally, we are going to see what this place is. ” But, like the movie itself, there’s no payoff. I can only guess that it’s nothing.

Just another trick pulled on the wives to think what they are doing is real.   What do the men actually do all day?The men are off to work. But doing what?Warner Bros.

Singh: During a fight with Alice (Florence Pugh) near the end of the movie, Jack (Harry Styles) tells her that he hates every minute of his job, but he does it so she can be happy and carefree at home.  Every day the town experiences earthquake-like rumblings from the Victory headquarters, but the women aren’t privy to what’s going on. Jack is a “technical engineer” and the men are working on the “development of progressive materials” — whatever that means.

 Some speculate that the men are making weapons underground, but for what purpose? None of this is ever explained.  Guerrasio: Now we know that in reality, the wives are in their beds with devices that keep their eyes open which makes them believe they are in the 1950s. So what are the guys doing all day? Does Frank make them all work on the IT side of the simulated reality? Are they all just doing regular jobs to pay their subscription to the simulation? A little of both? Maybe when Jack says he hates his job, he means the real-world job he has.

I’m with you on the rumblings. I’m trying to remember if Alice and Jack in reality live near a subway. But then why would all of the wives feel the rumbling? It’s a device that’s never explained.

How do pregnancies work in Victory and does it affect their real-world counterparts?Was Jack just trying to prove his commitment to Alice by saying they should try for a baby?Warner Bros. PicturesSingh: Early in the movie, Alice explains that she and Jack don’t want kids at the moment because they’re having “fun” in their honeymoon phase. During another scene later, Jack asks Pugh to consider having children with him.

But how does that translate to their real-world bodies which are basically comatose? What about the one housewife, Peg (Kate Berlant), who is apparently always pregnant? I’m definitely starting to overthink this film. Guerrasio: Is there a pregnant Peg in bed in the real world somewhere hooked up to the machine? That can’t be good for the baby. And I have a feeling Jack doesn’t really want kids.

My guess is it’s not possible in the simulated world. It’s just another way for her to go back to being a submissive housewife. How can the real Alice live on just a few drops of water from a rag while in the simulation?No one can survive on just a few drops of water from a rag.

Courtesy of Warner Bros. PicturesSingh: Does time work the same way in the real world and in the simulation? If so, it seems physically impossible for Alice and Jack to still be alive after years of being in the simulation without proper nourishment.  Guerrasio: This one has got me completely shook.

I agree, it seems Alice is in the simulation 24/7, so what is keeping her alive other than some droplets of water? But it seems Jack, at least, can log off and go get a burger. He’s not always hooked up to it. And — sorry, but needs to be addressed — how is Alice using the bathroom in all that time?Does anyone at Alice’s real job wonder where she is?You haven’t been at work in a while, Alice.

Warner Bros. /New Line CinemaSingh: In the real world, Alice is a surgeon who spends long shifts working in the operating room at a hospital. The movie never addresses the real-world implications of people joining Victory.

 Are her colleagues wondering what happened to her? Did Victory create a cover story to explain her disappearance?Guerrasio: The original script does a good job at filling this hole, but in the movie, there’s zero explanation about how Jack is pulling this all off. Alice looks like she’s very needed at her job. No one finds it weird she just never came back to work? No one has come to the apartment to ask about her? I need these things explained, Olivia Wilde!Why is Frank just sitting by the phone at the end?Frank was way too chill considering that his simulation was falling apart.

Warner Bros. PicturesSingh: Frank was weirdly relaxed while following the high-speed chase via a walkie-talkie. Why didn’t he seem more stressed about Alice nearing the exit?Earlier in the movie, he told Alice that he enjoyed being challenged by her.

But yet, when she presented the biggest threat yet to his utopia, he did nothing besides tell his men that Alice couldn’t leave. Guerrasio: For the mastermind of an illegal alternate reality that I’m sure took quite some time to get off the ground, Frank isn’t that involved in stopping Alice from escaping. He’s just chilling poolside, waiting for updates.

Shouldn’t you get in your car and help? Wouldn’t you have built a firewall to protect any wife from going rogue? I thought this guy was a mastermind starving for a mental sparring partner!Shelley says it’s “her turn now” after killing Frank. To do what?Shelley, what were you thinking?Warner Bros. Singh: I feel like this was — excuse my language — intended to be a “fuck the patriarchy” moment.

If Alice was the one to murder Frank, then that would have come across and made sense within the story.  But with Gemma Chan’s Shelley, it felt like an out-of-character move. Throughout the movie, she acted as Frank’s loyal, supportive, and devoted wife.

She even piled on to the gaslighting of Alice during the film’s dinner scene, calling Alice a “brat. ” Shelley stabbing and twisting the knife into Frank’s chest wasn’t as impactful as it should have been because her reasoning and motives were never addressed before or after that moment.  Guerrasio: When everything is going off the rails at the end of the movie, it’s definitely a puzzling moment when Shelley stabs Frank.

She calls him stupid and that it’s “her turn now. ” Then we never see her for the rest of the film. I was really hoping for some kind of showdown with Alice at the exit.

Maybe that’s an ending that didn’t make the cut? I have a feeling a lot of things didn’t make the final cut. Did Alice make it out of Victory?We spent the whole movie rooting for Alice. Courtesy of Warner Bros.

PicturesSingh: Cliffhanger endings for one-off movies (assuming there’s no planned sequel in the case of “DWD”) can be extremely polarizing, and I feel like this conclusion will divide audiences. When done correctly, an ambiguous ending feels earned and justified.  But here, given the rushed ending of the movie, it felt more frustrating than anything.

I’m inclined to think that given the movie’s message of a woman being brave enough to question the society that’s oppressing her, she had to have made it out of there alive. But anyone’s guess is as good as mine.  Guerrasio: Once Alice gets to the exit things get weird again with lots of cuts to the black-and-white dancers and past shots in the movie, then all we hear is Alice breathing as the end credits hit.

It’s clear Wilde was not holding anyone’s hand with this movie. It certainly has made us think about it afterward, but not in a good way. Both of us wish she should have given us some kind of finality on Alice.

What happened to everyone else who was in Victory?This film left us with too many questions. Courtesy of Warner Bros. PicturesSingh: With Frank and the doctor who helped create Victory being killed off, who’s calling the shots now? What implications does that have on the real world? Guerrasio: Does Victory continue on? With Frank dead, maybe Shelley now picks up the pieces.

But there are multiple people who are dead in the real world. I don’t think this is going to be a hard case to solve when authorities discover dead men and women comatose next to them with gadgets attached to their eyes. For what it’s worth, the ending of the original script makes this all much clearer.

Read the original article on Insider.