Is the ending of Don’t Worry Darling even real?!

Good press and bad press alike, Don’t Worry Darling was the talk of the town. Although the trailer echoed Jordan Peele-esque mystery, drama, and horror, the movie aimed to carve an identity of its own with a feminist approach.

Most people were curious about what turns the story will take and how it will end. So what happens in the final act of Don’t Worry Darling?

Alice realizes that Victory is a simulation wherein men trap their significant others/partners to be subservient to them. At the end of Don’t Worry Darling, she kills Jack and tries to break free of the simulation but her fate remains unknown.

Irrespective of whether or not Don’t Worry Darling nailed its ending, it certainly toyed with an interesting concept. If it’s still fuzzy to you, let me explain it in detail.

Victory Is a Simulation

Alice has been experiencing odd events in Victory, shattering the illusion of her perfect life. She is further provoked by Frank, who confirms that her suspicions of things being amiss are true, but then gaslights her in front of everyone.

With every horrific incident, Alice’s memory starts returning to her and she realizes that Victory is nothing but a simulation. In her real life, she is a surgeon named Alice Warren and her husband Jack is unemployed.

While she’s quite skilled, she often has to work extra shifts just because Jack won’t get his affairs in order. It leaves her short-ended and frustrated.

Jack sets them up in the simulated world, created by the sexist Frank who propagates that women are supposed to be subservient.

When Alice confronts him about this truth, he pretends to apologize to her and implies that all his actions were so that he could give her a “happily ever after.” But then, he attempts to strangle her, reflecting the fact that in the real world too, he knocked her unconscious and has kept her trapped in Victory without her consent.

In their ensuing scuffle, Alice ends up killing him.

Does Alice survive?

Bunny further confirms that Alice was right in her deductions and informs her that there’s an exit available in the Headquarters. Alice makes a break for it and is chased by Frank’s men as well as Dr. Collins.

When she finally makes it to the Headquarters, she is confronted by a vision of Jack who begs her to stay and not throw away her perfect life. She touches the mirror glass again (the same ones that first gave her the vision) and the screen goes black. All we hear is the sound of gasping.

The end is purposely left to be interpreted as one wishes. While the gasping can mean that she’s being attacked or killed, most people read it as her finally waking up from the simulation.

Still, since the movie hasn’t explained if the person dying in the simulation also means they die in real, we’re left to question how Alice will face the threats in the real world. She will presumably wake up in a room in Frank’s real-life headquarters, where she’s being restrained against her will. Let’s not forget the countless men who are also supportive of this endeavor and will definitely give her grief.

Don’t Worry Darling’s ending is highly debated, especially about whether it’s a good payoff to the concept or not. Ultimately, viewers are left wondering if Alice’s escape was real, simply yet another simulation, or something worse.

About Don’t Worry Darling

Don’t Worry Darling is a 2022 American psychological thriller film directed by Olivia Wilde from a screenplay by Katie Silberman, based on a story by Carey Van Dyke, Shane Van Dyke, and Silberman. It features an ensemble cast that includes Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Wilde, Gemma Chan, KiKi Layne, Nick Kroll, and Chris Pine. In the film, a young wife living in a 1950s company town begins to believe there is a sinister secret being kept from her by the man who runs it.