Photo Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/Warner Bros. and Netflix
The discourse surrounding the psychological thriller Don’t Worry Darling has been more inescapable than Julia Fox in a revealing outfit. You’ve surely read the flurry of negative reviews highlighting Harry Styles’ acting ability (or lack thereof), or the tabloid gossip about rumored on-set drama between director Olivia Wilde and star Florence “Miss Flo” Pugh, or seen the leaked video by “fired” actor Shia LaBeouf, or parsed the “SpitGate” video like the Zapruder film. But now that the film is out, we must discuss its absurd, logic-defying twist ending, which bears striking similarities to “USS Callister,” one of the finest episodes of Netflix’s sci-fi anthology series Black Mirror.
Alice (Pugh) and Jack Chambers (Styles) look like a picture-perfect couple. It’s the 1950s in Victory, California, a sunny, pastel-hued oasis with palm tree-lined streets that resembles Palm Springs. While Jack is off in the desert working on the top-secret “Victory Project” that employs all the townsmen, Alice spends her days shopping and gabbing with the fellow housewives, drinking cocktails by the pool, tidying up the house, and marinating meats so they’re nice and ready for when hubby comes home. Lording over paradise is Frank (Chris Pine), the sexy, charismatic founder of the Victory Project whose employees worship the ground he walks on.
When Alice—who is haunted by visions of spooky ballerinas—witnesses Margaret (KiKi Layne), one of the housewives, become detached and then later slit her own throat, and then sees an airplane mysteriously crash over the desert mountains, she starts to question her existence and embarks on a mission to find out what exactly the Victory Project is.