Have you ever wondered what it felt like to live in a simulation? On September 23, “Don’t Worry Darling” presents an answer to that question.

In its opening week, the movie debuted with a total of $19.2 million in ticket sales. Since then, it has earned more than $78 million at the global box office.

The film’s director, Olivia Wilde, was surrounded by controversy post-premiere, which served to stir up interest and boost ticket sales for the first week.

The movie begins in the “perfect” town of Victory in the 1950s. One of the main characters is Jack Chambers, who is played by Harry Styles, and all the other men in the community go to work at ‘The Victory Project’ during the day.

Alice, who is played by Florence Pugh, and the other wives stay home while their husbands are at work doing the traditional work of a 1950s housewife. The wives are not allowed to know what the men do at their job, nor are they allowed to go there; these are the only rules the women have to follow. Where the men work is known as “Headquarters” which is in the middle of the desert away from the town and public.

Frank, who is played by Chris Pine, is the creator of The Victory Project.

One of the characters, Margaret, has been acting out in front of the wives. She expresses that Frank is lying to everyone about the life they are living. Alice is concerned for her but everyone is telling her not to worry.

One day, Alice goes on a bus ride and sees an airplane crash near headquarters. She decides at that moment to go help the crash victims. The bus driver tried to urge her to stay back, but since she was determined, she left the bus and started walking.

She reaches headquarters, realizing that there was never a plane crash and that it was all an illusion.

While at headquarters, Alice is confused and curious. She tries to interact with the structure. When she does, a scary black-and-white illusion of women laying on the floor in a circle with their legs in the air enters her mind.

Once she sees these visions, she wakes up in her bed like nothing ever happened and everything seems normal. Alice then starts to realize that there is something other than simple men’s work going on at The Victory Project.

Alice’s husband, Jack, tries to convince her that everything she experienced was a nightmare, but she knows that there is something deeper going on.

Frank soon realizes that Alice knows more than she should. In an attempt to silence her, he calls her crazy and informs Jack that she needs to be taken away.

In a later scene, she comes back perfectly fine like nothing was ever wrong.

Throughout the movie, the song “With You All The Time” is sung by actors Pugh and Styles, demonstrating a part of Alice’s past stuck in her mind.

A while after Alice is brought back, she begins to realize things again after she is getting flashbacks of her past while singing “With You All The Time.” This song was something that Jack and Alice shared before The Victory Project.

By the end of the movie, it is shown that before they joined The Victory Project, Jack and Alice were a poor couple that couldn’t afford much and were falling out of love. Jack then found The Victory Project and expressed his interest to Frank. Alice was then brainwashed for a long time to forget her past life and only live within the simulation of their perfect and happy life.

Finally, Alice gets away and is chased by the workers until they reach Headquarters.

Many critics were unhappy with the little information provided at the end of the film. Did Alice make it back to the real world? Is she stuck in the simulation? What happened?

“After this promising start, the film seems not to know quite where to go next. The ending is certainly a let-down, and perhaps the screenplay should have had another rewrite,”said David Stratton, a top critic.

Oftentimes, critics have very different opinions from viewers. Viewers seem to be more happy or intrigued by a film, rather than critics picking the movie apart.

“I really enjoyed the movie [but] felt sort of uneasy due to the unexpectedness of the entire film,” said sophomore Rachel Ham.

While most viewers enjoyed the film overall, there were some that felt they did not know what they just watched. The plot twists were too confusing, and the cliffhangers did not make sense.

“I was confused. There was not enough information to go off on in the end, but I also felt thrilled. The movie had a lot of twists that kept me on my toes,” said sophomore Ellie Engel.

Personally, I thought the movie was really good. I was on the edge of my seat trying to figure out what would happen next, and I was super bummed when the movie ended.

I recommend it, 4 out of 5 stars.