Just a disclaimer, I am no professional writer, not to mention if it's gonna be a movie review. This article was written solely due to the fact that I seldom watch movies, but I am getting to like movies a little more than before, and because of that, I would like to document my thoughts on the movie so it's not only an experience but a memory.
Movie Title: Don't Worry Darling
Director: Olivia Wilde
Year: 2022
I watched this movie on a Saturday night with two of my roommates that loves horror movies. Despite not being brave and not liking to get scared, watching it with them reduced the tension of the movie, so I was excited to enjoy the movie night with them.
Initially, my roommates suggested watching Unfriended, which is, according to her, a movie about a Zoom call and supernatural events, but she thinks it would be too dark and scary for a novice horror movie watcher like me.
Plot Summary (HUGE SPOILER DISCLAIMER)
Starting with a simple plot summary, the story takes place in a living community called Victory Project, where multiple families live together in a neighborhood. All families consist of a wife and a husband, and some have children. The husbands go to work every morning at the same time and come back at night. While their jobs are confidential, they only describes it as the development of progressive materials. The wives are responsible for keeping the house clean, cooking, and simply enjoying their lives in the community; the only rule is to not go "outside" to the deserted area.
The main couple discussed here is Jack, the husband, and Alice, the wife. It all started with a normal life, where they enjoyed each day together inside the community, until Margaret, another woman from another family, once went out into the desert and came back saying that she saw something and that the world was lying to them, but of course, no one believed her and instead described her as psychotic.
Our main character, Alice, was once friends with Margaret but turned to ignore her when she called for help. One day, Alice went on a bus ride and witnessed a plane crash in the desert and walked towards it to help, and she touched the mirror on a building. Afterwards, she magically woke up in her bed and later on started to behave in the same way Margaret had, remembering something that she seemed to have forgotten.
After a forceful "reboot" by the community staff, Alice had her memory reset and behaved "normal" again. However, it was her husband Jack's usual humming of a song that ignited the lost memory that she once held.
She was a doctor who did 30-hour shifts of surgery every day, while his husband was unemployed, sitting in front of a computer all day and not being responsible for household chores. They used to worry about money and their circumstances. Apparently, his husband got information about this virtual reality world project, knocked her out, and joined the project just so they could live in a happily conditioned world without worrying about real-life difficulties.
After she noticed the situation and she accidently killed her husband, she drove and ran towards the deserted area and exited the virtual world into reality through the mirrored building, returning to the real world.
Remarkable Scenes
Character Bunny
Bunny is another wife in the community, and they have two kids. She was friends with Alice since the start of the movie. She was the one who told the audience that Margaret was once also a part of their friend group before she had gone crazy.
She strongly dislikes it when girls disobey the only rule of this community: not to go to the desert area. After Alice was rebooted and returned to normal, she was the one who first found out that Alice killed Jack. Surprisingly, she told her to run because Victory Project would go and kill her in real life after the husband died (the husband dies in the real world if they die in the virtual world).
She admitted that she knew everything all along, but chose to stay in the world because that's the only way to still see her child.
Character Shelley
Shelley is the wife of Frank, the guy who created this virtual reality world and made it a product. After Alice started running, the world slowly started to collapse, while Shelley stabbed and killed Frank in one of the scenes.
This was surprising to me, as Shelley, who seemed to choose the type of life and govern the whole project, might have always been pretending and waiting for the time to end this project.
Joining the Victory Project
One key idea my roommate noticed, and I found interesting, was that the user of the Victory Project gets to select whether they have pre-existing relationships or not. Meaning, if they had no partner, the project may randomly abduct a girl to become their wives in the virtual world, which is kind of crazy.
Lesson Learned
After the movie, I despise the character Jack the most, as I feel like he is just a weak guy who could not possibly develop the skills and find a job to sustain the family, while he forces the Victory Project onto his wife, who was sufficiently independent and enjoys working for their better lives.
This whole worldview on the virtual reality idea kind of reminded me of Brave New World, but more unstable. They both contain a world where people live programmed lives while believing that what they are experiencing is happiness due to stability. The difference is that Victory Project failed due to maybe some constraints on modern technology, while also due to the fact that it's used on people who actually had a life and memories. Brave New World designed the world from when people were decanted, eliminating the fact that people would remember something that they shouldn't.
I feel bad for the wives who did not know anything prior to the project, since they would all be forcefully dragged into the project while having to abandon their previous jobs and freedom, even if their lives may have been difficult. If the project was done under mutual consent, it may be morally more acceptable, in some way?
It was quite interesting to slowly discover the secret behind the victory project. I was also quite shocked that no one prior to Alice had successfully escaped from the world, since it's a small community, and I thought it would be quite obvious that humans would search for truth when there are so many restrictions while having to live the same day every day.
