'Why was he… dancing?' 12 questions I had after watching Don’t Worry Darling.

Spoiler warning: This post contains MANY spoilers for Don't Worry Darling. Read on at your own risk.

I left the theatre after watching Don't Worry Darling feeling... enthralled.

The film is beautiful, and as a sucker for bright colours and pretty costumes and cinematography, it ticked so many of my boxes. I'm a huge Florence Pugh fan. I also really like Harry Styles and his face. What can I say?

So yeah, I liked the film. It was entertaining enough, and I initially thought its brutal 39 per cent critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes was harsh. 

But then I went home and thought about the actual plot, and how little of it made sense. Oops.

With the film now in Australian cinemas - after one of the messiest, most dramatic roll-outs in years - I feel like it's time to dissect things further. Because I have not stopped worrying, darlings.

Here's your final spoiler warning. If you haven't seen the film, exit this now! 

Ok, let's go:

What was up with that tap dancing scene?

Let's start with the most important question of them all: WHY. WAS. HE. DANCING?

So, the movie is up to a CRUCIAL plot point. A major climatic moment, in which everything changes for Pugh's Alice.

Naturally, while this is happening, we must also watch Harry Styles tap dance for 15 minutes.

The film then repeatedly cut between his lil unexplained dance moves and Bunny's extreme gaslighting of Alice, and I had WHIPLASH.

The main question is obviously why????'

But also:

• Did Jack wear his tap shoes to dinner, just in case?
• Did Frank tell him he'd be required to perform like a circus monkey ahead of time?
• When did Jack learn to tap dance? 
• Is tap-dancing really a hobby these chauvinistic, abusive men enjoy?

I mean LOOK, Harry is a musician whose live shows have a reputation for being a lot of fun. It makes sense to give him a... stage moment.

I didn't hate it. I just have no idea why it... happened.

WHAT DOES THE PLANE MEAN?

SERIOUSLY.

Between Margaret's son, Margaret herself and then the crash Alice witnesses, you would EXPECT the red plane to be a BIG PART OF THE STORY.

ESPECIALLY BECAUSE IT MADE THE MOVIE POSTER.

??????????????? Image: Warner Bros. 

BUT THEN IT IS NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN.

It makes me irrationally angry and this question will haunt me till the end of time.

And what about the EARTHQUAKES?

Why does the ground shake in Victory every now and again? In the movie, the women explain it has something to do with the men's work, but the twist tells us that's not true.

Is it the men getting back onto the bed in the real world, after a long hard day of working to afford to hold their partners captive in a simulation? 

A notification for Jack to update the app?

Alice's rumbly tummy IRL?

What happened to Margaret?

Kiki Layne said on Instagram that most of her scenes were cut, which sucks because I have SO many questions about her character, Margaret.

• How did she find out Victory wasn't what it said it was?
• Why was Frank so keen to shut her up, yet he let Alice yell about everything over the dinner table?
• Does SHE know what the plane means?
• IS SHE DEAD? IS SHE ALIVE? WHERE DID SHE GO?

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by KiKi Layne (@kikilayne)

The underutilisation of this character is one of my biggest issues with this whole film. She's literally the catalyst for the entire plot, yet we know nothing about her.

Why were the wives given only one of three potential backstories?

The Victory wives' lives - after they've cleaned their houses and cooked their husbands' meals of course! - is almost entirely based around the fact that they talk gossip.

Did Chris Pine's Frank not think the women in Victory would talk to each other and realise that a third of their friends had had the exact same 'lives' as them? And that they wouldn't think that's a little suss?

What's up with all the 'glitches'?

Image: Giphy.

Too much time was dedicated to watching Alice crush a dozen empty eggs, and not enough time was spent explaining whether this was a glitch in Frank's code, Alice's subconscious telling her she's in danger or some other weird third option.

How does killing someone in the simulation kill them in the real world?

I'VE PLAYED VIDEO GAMES AND I SIMPLY DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW THIS COULD WORK.

Why did Shelley stab Frank?

Just to throw in some more chaos, in the end, Gemma Chan's Shelley turns on Frank. "You stupid, stupid man. It's my turn now," she says while stabbing him.

This was a knife twist (literally) that I didn't see coming - and I don't think it was just me who missed something. Because WHEN, in the entire movie, was it hinted that Shelley was either unhappy with Frank's ~idyllic~ environment or the true mastermind behind it? IT SIMPLY WASN'T.

What does "my turn now" mean? Does Shelley want to run Victory? Is she also just realising the truth of the situation and rebelling like Alice? It's really impossible to tell!

PLEASE EXPLAIN IT. Image: Warner Bros.

What does the ~real world~ think about this weird VR cult?

The whole 'incel YouTube channel convinces unhappy men to kidnap women to hold as personal trophies/slaves' thing doesn't really feel too far-fetched. But how is Frank getting away with it? Does he keep the less savoury things - like, ya know, KIDNAPPING, secret? 

One of my first thoughts upon seeing the simulation twist was: where do people think the women went? 

When we see Jack go through the application process, there's a question about whether he's bringing an existing partner or if he'd like to be... given one. Which begs the question: where are the other women coming from?

As sad as it is, they could perhaps get away with taking transient women without anyone asking too many questions. 

But Alice? 

Where do Alice's family/friends/former colleagues think she's gone? Is no one... concerned that she's seemingly dropped off the face of the earth, with no contact?

I think this could've been an entirely different, better film if the twist happened much earlier and they spent time fleshing all this out.

What is Jack's real world job?

It took needing to finance an inhumane simulation for Jack to get off his computer and get a job. 

Sigh.

Where do we think he's going every day? All we know is that he thinks it's "shit". 

Don't tell me he's a tap dancer...

Why did Jack ask to be British in the simulation?

I know the real answer is because Harry Styles could not maintain his (bad) American accent throughout the entire film, but in the world of the film it is RANDOM AS HELL.

Like, we don't get ANY context on Jack's life outside of the simulation, but we do get to know that he CHOSE to be BRITISH?

Why didn't they just let incel Jack be British as well. 

Florence is ALSO English, by the way. They could've made both of them a couple from England who just happened to live in the US - because newsflash! That does happen! - like they did with Gemma Chan.

IT JUST FEELS LIKE SUCH A WEIRD DECISION.

Why was the film marketed for its empowering sex scenes?

Throughout Don't Worry Darling's press tour, Wilde said in a number of interviews that the film centred female pleasure.

"Men don't come in this film," she told Variety. "Only men here!"

She's not wrong: there are only two 'sex scenes', and both are very much centred on Alice's pleasure over Jack's. So maybe Wilde's comments were in how radical that was to show on screens, despite the source material?

But I cannot ignore the source material.

When you learn the film's big twist, it completely changes the earlier sex scenes. They're not just a hot young couple who can't keep their hands off each other... it's literally sexual assault.

Alice is TIED TO A BED AGAINST HER WILL while Jack forces her to live out his housewife fantasy in a simulation.

These orgasms are not a feminist win!

In a Harper's Bazaar profile, Pugh said she was uncomfortable with this as a marketing focus too: "When it's reduced to your sex scenes, or to watch the most famous man in the world go down on someone, it's not why we do it. It's not why I'm in this industry."

Who were the scary men in red jumpsuits?

Were they also simulations like the children, or were they real? 

In the flashback, when Alice leaves the hospital, she sees a janitor in the same red jumpsuit - which I think means they are a simulation who took on that appearance based on her memory? But really, am I just making up my own movie at this point?

I've come to realise that Don't Worry Darling is a stunning, entertaining film. It also happens to make very little sense. And I am going to be haunted by that damn plane for the rest of my life.

Chelsea McLaughlin is Mamamia's Senior Entertainment Writer and co-host of The Spill. For more pop culture takes, recommendations and sarcasm, you can follow her on Instagram .

Feature image: Warner Bros.