Don’t Worry Darling

In the 1950s near the Californian desert, there's  a company town called Victory where happy families   live perfect lives. Every morning the husbands  go to work at Victory Headquarters outside town,   and the housewife stays behind taking care of  the house and practicing ballet under their   teacher Shelley. The wives aren't allowed to ask  any questions about their husbands' work, and   visiting the Headquarters is forbidden to them.  One of these many happy couples is Alice and Jack,   who have a very active intimate life and love  throwing parties for their neighbors, especially   Alice's best friend Bunny and her husband. The  couple also has a favorite song that Alice likes   to hum whenever she's doing her chores. Sometimes  the whole town shakes for a few seconds and Alice   tries to ask Jack if it has anything to do with  Victory's projects, but he refuses to answer and   Alice is fine with dropping the subject quickly.  One afternoon after ballet, Bunny and Alice watch   a group of men in red jumpsuits help the new  neighbor move while gossiping about the fact   their friend Margaret didn't go to class, which  isn't surprising because Margaret has become the   town's outcast after a mysterious incident. Later,  Alice is in her garden when she suddenly notices   Margaret standing in her backyard with a toy  plane in her hands and her eyes closed because   apparently she's having a weird vision of a pair  of eyes opened in the dark. Alice doesn't know   what to make of her and ignores it. While getting  dinner ready, Alice discovers all the eggs in her   carton are strangely empty, but she forgets about  them when her dinner begins to burn in the oven.   Some days later, Alice is attending a pool party  at Shelley's house and humming her song when Bunny   asks her to stop because she's tired of hearing  it. Alice realizes then that she doesn't know   what song it is, but it's always been stuck in  her head. As the melody plays in her head, weird   images appear in front of Alice's eyes, but once  again she forgets about them when Bunny distracts   her. The party is paused for a moment by Shelley  and her husband Frank, the Victory CEO, to offer   a speech to welcome the new neighbors into town.  The speech's suddenly interrupted by Margaret,   who wonders why they're here when they shouldn't  be. Her husband takes her away but now the mood   has become awkward, so Frank takes over the  conversation to remind everyone that they're here   because they're changing the world by building a  little town based on safety and order. Afterward,   Alice's still worried about Margaret and goes  looking for her, only to find her in her house   being given some sort of medicine by her husband.  Margaret tries to tell Alice that she isn't fine,   that she's had bad dreams, and that they're hiding  her there, but her husband closes the door to keep   Alice out of it. Alice returns to the party and  finds Jack in Frank's room fixing his tie. To her   shock, Jack starts getting frisky with her right  there. Things suddenly get weird again when Frank   shows up and begins watching them in a very weird  way, but soon he leaves without saying a word,   and Alice never tells Jack about it. The next day,  Alice and her friends are doing some shopping when   the subject of Margaret comes up. They comment  on how she's behaving weirdly since the accident,   but Bunny cuts in and reminds them it wasn't an  accident. Margaret broke the only rule they had   and took her child deep into the desert because  she saw something, probably a hallucination. When   they found her, she was alone with her son's  toy plane, and they never found the child,   although Margaret swears they took him away from  her as punishment. The conversation's suddenly   interrupted when the ground shakes again, but  the women don't react because they're used to   it. One of them wonders if the rumors of the  men developing weapons are true, but an angry   Bunny cuts her off, reminding her the wives'  only mission is to support their husbands and   not to ask questions. Later at night, Alice begins  having extremely weird dreams, and she can't stop   thinking about them the next day. She decides  she needs some fresh air and takes the trolley,   but instead of getting off at the mall, she stays  so she can enjoy the view of the desert, which the   driver finds pretty weird. Suddenly, a plane  that looks like Margaret's toy appears in the   sky falling down until it crashes in the middle  of the desert. There never was a plane flying   above this area before and Alice wants to check  it out, especially since they may need help, but   the bus driver refuses to take her there because  it goes against the rules. Alice breaks the rules   anyway and walks deep into the desert until she  eventually comes across a hill with a spiral road   surrounding it. She makes the extra effort to go  all the way up until she finds a mysterious dome   and begins calling for help, but nobody answers.  Alice's scared but she still wants answers, so she   slowly approaches the dome until she finally dares  to put her hands on the glass walls. This movement   suddenly shakes her body and makes her throw  her head back as a series of weird disturbing   images appear in her eyes and Frank's voice  continues to talk about leaving chaos behind.   When Alice finally gets to blink again, she finds  herself on her bed at home. Confused and scared,   Alice goes to the kitchen, where she discovers  Jack trying to cook because he didn't want to wake   her up. It turns out Alice had already returned  when Jack came home, but she can't remember how.   She mentions the plane crash only to hear Jack say  there hasn't been any crash, otherwise everyone   in town would be talking about it. Alice  gets upset and blames it all on bad dreams,   and Jack distracts her with some comforting  touches and jokes about cooking. The next day,   Alice is cleaning the windows as usual when  suddenly, the wall behind her begins moving and   presses her against the glass. Alice is terrified  as she tries to push back, and just with a blink,   the wall is back in its place because it was only  a hallucination. At that moment, the phone rings,   and Alice picks it up to hear Margaret ask her if  she saw it. She points out they're lying to them   and that they should leave, but Alice can't take  it and reminds her friend she isn't crazy before   hanging up. The conversation won't leave Alice's  mind though, and during her next ballet class,   she's shocked to see her reflection has become  Margaret. At first Margaret copies Alice's every   move, but suddenly she puts her hands on the glass  and starts hitting her head, making Alice yell in   panic. Nobody else in the room knows what she's  reacting to, and when Alice turns around, Margaret   is gone. Worried about the meaning behind this,  Alice rushes back home and finds Margaret standing   on top of her house. Alice yells at her in tears,  trying to make her stop, but Margaret ignores her   and ends things. Alice panics again and tries to  reach Margaret, but she can barely take two steps   before the men in red appear to drag her away.  In the evening, Alice tries to tell Jack what   happened, but Jack doesn't believe her because  Margaret's husband is with her at the hospital   and has told everyone she's fine, it was just  an accident while she was cleaning the windows.   Alice hates that she's being treated as if she's  crazy and demands to know the truth, asking Jack   about his job and what the company is hiding from  everyone until he finally snaps. He yells at her   to remind her answering those questions could mean  losing their wonderful life together and asks her   to drop the subject before leaving her alone for  the night. Alice is disturbed to go back to sleep   thus she tries to distract herself by watching  some tv, this triggers a new hallucination where   she finds herself drowning in a pool. It feels  very similar to the way the wall trapped her,   but before she can grasp the meaning, she blinks  and finds herself standing against the window   as if she had tried to leave. The next morning,  Alice's wrapping the dinner leftovers and doesn't   really have a good hold of herself when her hands  move on their own and wrap part of her body. Alice   snaps out of it after a few seconds and removes  the wrap, taking a deep breath as she finally   accepts she's losing it. Moments later, Jack  brings Dr. Collins to do a check-up. The doctor   decides this must be stress caused by the shock  of seeing Margaret fall, and when Alice tries   to explain what really happened, Collins says  the mind can sometimes change reality because   it's overwhelmed with grief. He also tries to  prescribe some medicine, but both Jack and Alice   refuse to take it, promising she doesn't need  it. At that moment, Alice notices Collins has   classified files about Margaret in his briefcase,  prompting her to ask what happened to her. Collins   explains Margaret suffered from outbursts and  paranoia, which didn't allow her husband to do   his job in peace, so he was fired from Victory and  Margaret was sent somewhere else to get the help   she needs. Afterward, Collins leaves the house and  accidentally forgets his briefcase. As soon as he   and Jack are out, Alice jumps on the briefcase to  look for clues, but she's interrupted by Collins   coming back when he realizes what he forgot.  Alice pretends she had picked the briefcase   up to hand it to him and luckily her act is  believed. Once the Collins has left for good,   it's revealed Alice did get to steal Margaret's  files but all the pages have been blacked out.   Since the files are useless, Margaret burns them  in the fireplace while thinking about Margaret and   drinking whiskey to silence the guilt. She's still  drinking moments later when she's taking a bath   and her mind begins starts to drift, making her  see all those disturbing images again; although   this time she can also see the sweet moments of a  couple holding each other. She suddenly snaps out   of it when Jack comes home and plays some music,  and while Alice's still in shock, Jack comes to   see her to ask out of nowhere if they should have  a baby. Alice promises to think about it. Later in   the evening, the two of them attend a fancy party  organized at a restaurant by Frank, who won't   stop watching her while discussing things with  Collins in a corner. This puts Alice on the edge,   and she begins to fall into a breakdown when a  dancer appears in the room to offer a show that   reminds Alice of her visions. As tears begin to  fall, Alice asks Jack to take her home, but Jack   ignores her because Frank's going on the stage to  make a big announcement. To everyone's surprise,   Frank calls Jack to join him and announces he's  getting a promotion. Everyone begins celebrating,   but this is the last straw that pushes Alice into  a full breakdown and she runs to the bathroom,   where she sees the vision of the couple again.  Bunny suddenly shows up to check on her and Alice   tries to explain everything, but Bunny cuts her  short, scolding her for breaking the rules. She   thinks Alice's behaving like a child and trying  to ruin her husband's big night, so she needs to   get herself together and be a good wife. Alice has  no choice but to go back to their routine and try   to forget about everything. A few days later,  Jack organizes a dinner party at his house,   which Frank and Shelley also attend. While Alice  is busy cooking, Frank approaches to tell her she   fascinates him. He's always wanted someone  to challenge him because great men can only   change history if they're pushed, so he hopes  that Alice will continue to push in the future.   During dinner, Alice decides to sit at the head  of the table instead of letting Jack have the   spot because she wants to look directly at Frank  while they eat. When the usual chitchat begins,   Alice interrupts it to ask the guests about their  lives before coming to this town and points out   how the same few backstories repeat among all the  neighbors. They're told to remember these stories   because they want them to forget the real ones,  like what happened to Margaret. Jack tries to   make Alice stop, but Frank asks her to keep going,  prompting Alice to go on a rant about everything   she saw and how Frank is lying to everyone to  create his perfect little world. Frank keeps his   face neutral and tells everyone Alice is suffering  from the same psychosis that Margaret did,   even accusing her of having been in his bedroom.  Everyone is feeling extremely uncomfortable,   and Shelley snaps, calling Alice out for making a  scene and insulting her husband before she stands   up and leaves. All the other guests follow her  out, and while Jack goes to open the door, Frank   stays to tell Alice he expected more from her  before he leaves as well. Alice is left furious,   and she snaps again when Jack comes back and  accuses her of trying to sabotage his big night.   She immediately comes to him to swear that wasn't  the case, Jack is more important to her than this   life in Victory and they need to leave this  place before it destroys their relationship.   After hearing lots of begging, Jack finally  gives in and accepts to run away together. Alice   wastes no time and rushes to pack the minimal  necessities before joining Jack in the car,   who shocks her when he suddenly apologizes.  Alice doesn't understand what's going on until   the men in red show up to drag her away, and Jack  begins crying while he hears his wife's cries for   help. Alice is taken to the hospital to receive  electroshock therapy. While her whole body hurts,   she starts seeing those visions of the couple  again and discovers it's her and Jack living   in modern times and humming that annoying song.  This Jack has lost his job, but Alice says it's   ok because she can take another shift at the  hospital, where she works as a doctor. Taking   double shifts begins taking a toll on this Alice,  and when she arrives home late, Jack doesn't help   her mood by failing to make dinner and having the  nerve to get offended when Alice is too tired to   get busy with him. In the end, Jack spends his  night listening to Frank's podcast promoting a   way for men to find their true selves away from  the society that smothers them. Sometime later,   Alice wakes up again in the hospital in  Victory. Collins announces she's been fixed,   so Alice's sent back to town, where she begins  living her old routine again as if nothing had   happened. Days pass calmly until one evening,  Jack comes from work singing that annoying song   again. v It's then revealed that the Jack from her  visions is real and he's applied to be part of the   Victory project, where he can choose to have  the perfect life. This has granted him access   to a special machine that he keeps at home, and  Alice is connected to it 24/7, because her life   in Victory is all a simulation. This is the same  for all the wives there, and like the other men,   Jack connects himself to it every day for only a  few hours, and he disconnects when he enters the   headquarters in the desert. The rest of the time,  he is in charge of keeping Alice's real body well   and has to work at some low job to pay for the  machine. Back in Victory, Alice falls to the floor   in pain, overwhelmed by the images that just hit  her mind. She demands an explanation from Jack,   who immediately gets defensive and yells that he  did it so they could have a perfect life because   they had been miserable. Alice still believes  he's behaved like a twat for taking her autonomy   and trying to convince her she's crazy. She's  also worried about the other wives and the kids,   but Jack immediately clarifies the kids aren't  real, they're part of the simulation as well. Then   Jack falls to his knees to beg for forgiveness  as he clings to Alice, making it hard for her to   breathe. Tired of her husband's lies, Alice grabs  a glass and uses it to hit Jack to knock him out.   What she doesn't know is that dying in  Victory also kills you in real life,   and as the real Jack closes his eyes, Frank gets  a call telling him what happened. At that moment,   Bunny enters the house because she's heard some  noises and immediately covers Jack's body before   trying to calm Alice down. Alice tries to explain  it all and Bunny confesses she already knows,   she chose the simulation because it's the only  way she can have her kids back after they died   in real life. She also explains Alice needs to go  to the Headquarters and disconnect herself because   Jack can't do it for her in the actual machine  anymore. Alice's afraid but does as Bunny asks,   finding all the neighbors are coming out as  well. As all the street lights begin exploding,   the women are started to notice something is off,  but the men are concentrating on asking about Jack   and trying to stop Alice. Bunny comes out to push  the men off, giving Alice the chance to get in a   car and drive away just in time before the men  in red arrive, stealing cars to go after her. A   chase begins through the streets, and while Alice  manages to leave town with no trouble, things get   more complicated in the desert when the men in red  begin to hit her car with theirs. Dr. Collins is   also coming in his own car and accelerates to  help catching her, but when Alice finds herself   surrounded, she quickly moves the car out of the  way and causes Collins and the others to crash   against each other. Frank receives the news of  Collins' death at home with the call on speaker,   so Shelley hears what's going on too. While  Frank's busy giving orders, Shelly approaches   him and stabs him, claiming it's her turn now.  In the desert, Alice continues driving until   she finds the hill and takes the road with the  car, but the vehicle gets stuck on a bad turn.   Still not ready to give up, Alice jumps out  of the car and begins running, thinking the   car blocking the way's enough to stop the others.  Unfortunately the men in red leave their cars too   and start climbing the hill to try to catch up  with her, so Alice has to push her body to the   extreme in order to run all the way up. When she  reaches the dome, Alice hallucinates Jack hugging   her and asking her to stay, she also remembers  their time together in real life. At that moment,   the men in red appear behind her, which reminds  her of what she has to do: Alice runs to the wall   and puts her hands on the glass, throwing her  head back as the disturbing images come back   to her mixed with some memories of the real her.  Suddenly everything goes black, and Alice gasps.