Laden with clues, Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling actually gave viewers plenty of hints about the Alice and Jack twist. While the Don’t Worry Darling‘s cast controversies are troubling in their own right, it’s the third-act revelation that’s sparked true frustration among viewers. In a very Stepford Wives setup, Alice (Florence Pugh) and Jack (Harry Styles) live in the ’50s-inspired desert utopia of Victory, which is lorded over by Frank (Chris Pine), an appropriately charismatic enigma. Eventually, the film reveals that Victory is a simulation, and that Jack is holding Alice there without her consent.
In fact, Alice hasn’t a clue about the Victory Project’s existence or intentions. While in the simulation, she can’t remember anything except the backstory Frank fabricated for the couple. In real life, Jack is an unemployed, controlling incel who discovers Frank’s misogynistic YouTube videos and joins Don’t Worry Darling‘s Victory Project cult, which allows insecure men to live out their 1950s dreams while their partners play homemaker. Although it sounds jarring, the twist in Don’t Worry Darling is actually very clearly telegraphed – even if the movie’s clues tend to be sloppily handled.
13 Bunny Says Peg Is “Always Pregnant”
Don’t Worry Darling director Olivia Wilde also joins the cast as Bunny, a seemingly happy-go-lucky wife who loves life in Victory. In fact, Bunny knows the truth about Victory and chooses to participate: the simulation is the only means she has of seeing her children, who tragically died in the real world. This makes Bunny’s loyalties a bit complicated, though she certainly slips up throughout the film and provides Pugh’s Alice with some clues.
Chief among those clues is Bunny’s off-hand remark that her friend Peg (Kate Berlant) is “always pregnant.” Taken at face value, it’s a kind of humorous exaggeration. However, Peg also drinks heavily throughout the film, further implying she isn’t really pregnant. While Don’t Worry Darling doesn’t delve into Peg’s story, it’s possible she experienced a miscarriage or other devastating loss in reality, and, like Bunny, gets to live out a different version of events in Victory.
12 Don’t Worry Darling’s Red Plane Briefly Glitches
Early on in the film, Alice is confronted with several strange goings-on, and while some get explained, others remain bizarre, red-herring mysteries. One of the latter is Don’t Worry Darling‘s plane – literally red – that Alice sees flying over Victory. It’s strange that the simulation makers would even program a plane to fly over the town. Not only does it encourage the trapped wives to wonder what’s beyond Victory’s borders, but it also glitches as it plummets through the sky, making the red plane a huge indicator of the simulation twist.
11 Unexplained Earthquakes Tease Real-World Happenings
Another of Don’t Worry Darling‘s biggest unanswered mysteries is the strange earthquakes that Alice and the other women experience on a daily basis. The shuddering quakes disrupt the otherwise peaceful town, leading the women to hypothesize that it relates to the secret weaponry the men are working on with Frank. Of course, when the men of Victory go to work, they’re actually leaving the simulation for the real world. While the earthquakes aren’t overtly explained, they may hint at the men leaving and reentering the simulated world.
10 Don’t Worry Darling’s Empty Eggs Point To A False Reality
Preparing meals for Jack, arguably one of worst horror movie husbands in movie history, is just one of Alice’s homemaker duties within the confines of Victory’s digital walls. However, the picture-perfect suppers soon run out when Alice’s reality begins to crumble. It’s not clear what purpose food serves in the simulation — other than to play at normalcy — but, one morning, Alice is shocked to discover that the eggs she cracks are empty. The shells with no real substance aren’t just a strange, unsettling image, but a hint at Don’t Worry Darling‘s deeper themes and twist ending.
9 Don’t Worry Darling Hides Flashes Of “Real” Alice Outside The Simulation
Early on in the film, Margaret (KiKi Layne), one of the wives trapped in Victory, realizes the nature of her circumstances. In addition to trying to escape, Margaret tries to tell Alice what she’s witnessed. All of this leads to the men of Victory deeming Margaret unstable until, one day, she vanishes. Before that, however, there’s a scene in which Margaret’s husband draws the curtains at Frank’s house party so that he and Margaret can’t be seen by a prying Alice.
Although it’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, the real-world Alice flashes across the screen. More than just a clue, the fleeting still shows her laying in bed and hooked up to the Victory Project simulation. This isn’t the only instance of a “glitch,” which begin to happen more frequently as Alice questions her strange reality. Needless to say, all of these moments illustrate Alice’s fractured reality, if only briefly.
8 Frank’s Miniature Model Of Victory Hints Its Facade
While at one of Frank’s lavish parties, Alice stumbles upon a miniature model of Victory – a town built like a circular labyrinth. Establishing shots of Victory clue viewers into the eerily cookie-cutter nature of the town, but, for Pugh’s Alice, seeing the model really puts things into perspective. It not only drives home the unending monotony of Victory – every day is the same – but it hints at the fabricated nature of Frank’s utopia.
7 Alice Rubs Her Eyes Before Hallucinations
Alice has several disturbing hallucinations. Often, she’s depicted as suffocating – walls are closing in on her, or she’s pulling plastic wrap taut over her mouth. The images aren’t just meant to unsettle viewers, however, they indicate that she’s trapped in the simulation – not just in her homemaker role. More often than not, Alice rubs or scratches her eyes before having a hallucination, or immediately after, which foreshadows the very Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange contraption real-world Alice is trapped within.
6 Don’t Worry Darling’s Cyclical Imagery Hints At Victory’s Static Nature
Throughout Don’t Worry Darling there’s a clear focus on the cyclical. Circular imagery abounds, from the layout of Victory’s pristine suburbs to Jack and Alice driving in figure-eights in the desert to the wives’ mandated dance classes, which seem them forming close-knit circles. The images are meant to get viewers (and Alice) thinking about the monotony of Victory, and the sense of being trapped in an unending loop.
5 Dr. Collins Subtly Reveals Jack Isn’t Really British
While it’s not clear what Harry Styles’ Jack actually does for work in the real world, the character’s lies become painfully obvious early on in Don’t Worry Darling. When Alice is sent to chat with Dr. Collins (Timothy Simmons), Jack gets put on the spot. Collins asks Jack, “What is it you Brits say?” and Jack goes quiet. Although “keep calm and carry on” isn’t an everyday British phrase, Jack’s lack of knowing is a clear indicator that he’s lying about his Victory Project identity. The subtle moment not only clues viewers in but piques Alice’s interest.
4 Alice’s Bath Scene Reflection Mirrors Her Subconscious
Alice encounters plenty of oddities as her Victory Project reality starts to crack. These unsettling moments are deemed “hallucinations,” though they aren’t really explained in Don’t Worry Darling‘s ending, and don’t seem to stem from any source in particular. Even so, these memorable images do a lot of work where the film’s symbolism and themes are concerned. At one point, Pugh’s Alice takes a bath and her reflection doesn’t mirror her movements. Perhaps it’s a glitch in the Victory Project – but it’s certainly a manifestation of her subconscious, which is slowly coming to terms with the fact that the utopia’s supposed reality isn’t as it seems.
3 Frank’s Party Features Don’t Worry Darling’s Dollhouse Brass Band
During a company party thrown by Frank, Jack gets a coveted promotion, while Alice has a breakdown in the bathroom. To prove his loyalty and gratitude, Jack dances on stage at Frank’s request. Whether the awkward scene convinces you that Harry Styles’ acting isn’t really that bad or not, there is an interesting Easter egg folded into the scene. The musical act that’s featured at the party is called the Dollhouse Brass Band – an apt moniker considering Victory is a plaything, filled with living dolls.
2 Alice Has A Copy Of Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar
While much of Alice’s awakening stems from the simulation’s glitches or other oddities, this internal tumult pushes her to seek answers and question her surroundings. More than a little on the nose, Alice has a copy of Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar – something Wilde makes sure to zoom in on. The book famously interrogates women’s roles and what’s considered socially acceptable (and why), though it takes its name from the main character’s feeling that she’s suffocating in a bell jar – an apt metaphor for her mental state. Unsurprisingly, all of these themes resonate with Alice’s character and story.
1 Don’t Worry Darling’s Yellow Focus Hints At Feminist Story Inspiration
While it’s not clear if Alice’s family knows what’s happening in Don’t Worry Darling‘s simulation, her husband is certainly the one pulling the strings. The premise echoes that of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 1892 short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” a celebrated work of early feminist fiction. In the story, a woman is forcibly brought to a remote mansion by her husband who, along with the family physician, believes his wife needs bed rest. Allegedly, the treatment will cure the “temporary nervous depression” and “hysteria” she’s developed since their child’s birth.
Imprisoned in a bedroom with yellow wallpaper, the woman finds her mind wandering. Eventually, she thinks there’s another woman trapped in the wallpaper, crawling around on her hands and knees, and aims to free her. Don’t Worry Darling certainly echoes “The Yellow Wallpaper,” trading the eerie walls of a mansion for the simulated suburb of Victory. To capitalize on this thematic connection, the color yellow is used to great effect throughout the film and is even the color Margaret wears when she becomes the first woman to challenge Don’t Worry Darling‘s Victory.
