Ugh! Its just so sad that the story was such a mess. The aesthetics and cast were fantastic but an incoherent script and bad directorial leadership (kudos to Florence for trying to pick up Wilde's slack) just tanked the whole project. What a shame.
no thanks. not going to be going cashless to satisfy annoying 22 23 year olds queuing in Starbucks who wear those pathetic tracksuits and think that being 31 is old
In the original script (the one not edited by Olivia Wild and her team) Alice comes out of the simulation and remembers that she was seeking a divorce from Jack and that’s why he brought her into the simulation. She also logs onto a computer and sees she’s a missing person. Jack comes out of the simulation as well and he and Alice have a showdown outside the simulation and Alice kills him.
This doesn't make much sense either,how can someone who has been laying in bed for months in a coma like state has the physical power to kill someone?it would take weeks to even walk properly
@@Colorfulinblack the script explains that she can’t walk but she kills him by stabbing him with a screwdriver (I think) repeatedly when he has her pinned down I can suspend reality if it was done like that rather than ONE hit to the head with a glass
I feel like Olivia Wilde tried to make this Midsommar 2.0 with the odd visuals but she failed to realize Midsommar had the story and plot that the visuals complimented 😭
I feel like this would have made a good 6 episode mini series. That way we could actually explore all these characters stories, answer all those questions, stretch out Frank’s obsession with Alice and draw out Alice slow peeling back the layers of the simulation.
Good point. Jack is his own undoing. He didn't realize that his actions in the real world, when he's near Alice, are sinking into her subconscious and making her realize things in the simulation.
I mean, exactly. I agree with many of the issues this movie has. But what this video and other similar ones fail to do is recognize things that don't need to be spoonfed to figure out. It was really clear to me that she was hearing his voice because Jack had his videos playing in the background.
Definitely too many plot holes and lack of explanation, totally agree really needed to be a series to draw out all the details it was way too rushed a lot of the couples needed to be explored in depth, and the concept some one else mentioned of the possible kidnapping and imprisonment of the other women by incel men or what type of men were they were in life and how did they trap these women
I remember reading an article about this movie titled “Olivia chooses Styles over Substance” and I think that’s the most accurate way to describe this hot mess of a film.
It doesn't make sense that Alice is a surgeon, yet people would certainly notice if she suddenly stopped showing up for her busy shifts. Also, Jack signed up for the Victory Programme because he didn't want to have to work, yet he basically has to look after Alice while she's in the stimulation, and make sure that she doesn't die.
@@onewinter9411 It'll been interesting if the women were killed and their consciousness was uploaded to the program. When it revealed the women flip the script and take over the program and trap the men a hell of their own creation.
Moreover if he didn't want to work, he still has to work a job in real life to pay rent like Space Ninja said XD like bro I don't think this is the better option for you
He thought that Alice was unhappy and that he should work, be the “man” and that would make everything better. He was radicalised and thought he could have the perfect like with her in the sim. Like the other men. He at least is in a pre existing relationship, it’s implied that isn’t always the case
The plot twist of the wife of the villain randomly killing him reminds me of OSP's trope talk on plot twists: "if the audience knows there's a bomb under the table, then a clown jumps out and stabs someone, no one wins because the audience is left going 'uuuh, what?!'" That twist really had no reason to exist
@@Alice-me2qk OSP is a Overly Sarcastic Productions. It's a youtube channel. One of the people who runs the channel has an ongoing series where she breaks down common tropes in media called "Trope Talks". It's a pretty interesting series and she does a good job of discussing all the various ways any given trope can be played.
This could have been way cooler if it was either an actual psychological thriller about realizing you’re in a simulation and slowly becoming aware or losing your mind, or if it was a psychological thriller as all the wives become aware together and it turns into a hostile takeover of the simulation
I recommend The Stepford Wives (1975, not the one with Glenn Close and Nicole Kidman). Princess Weekes did a video called "Why Don't Worry Darling doesn't Work" it compares the two, well three, films, it's really good.
I interpreted a lot of those strange scenes as metaphors, or glitches in the simulation. For example, the eggs are a metaphor for her perfect life being an empty shell; the odd-shaped building symbolizes her eye. The earthquake tremors could be movement in the real world coming through into their fake one.
I agree. I just felt it all fell flat in the end and that was super disappointing because I was expecting a really badass or tragic ending but it was just…bad
I feel like the biggest problem with the twist is that everything falls apart once you think about it even a little bit. Jack is a jobless loser that somehow gets a good enough paying job to support him and Alice in the real world AND also pay for the simulation? He yearns for this idealised version of the 50's where he is successful and she is a housewife, but in reality he has to do all the chores and stuff that he presumably didn't want to do while Alice was the breadwinner, but now he also has to ensure she doesn't die. When does he even have the time for fancy dinner parties when he has to work full time, cook, clean, etc AND take care of his wife who can't even leave their bed? How did nobody notice she was missing? Olivia Wilde's character's mini twist also makes the whole thing fall apart. If the simulation can create other people like her kids without needing a real human connecting with them, why do they need to have any kidnapped women at all? Why couldn't Jack and all the other losers just make copies of their wives? Whats the difference between a fully simulated person and a person held in the simulation? Why did they think they didn't need to explain anything about how the simulation works? Seems like they came up with the main twist and were so pleased with themselves they didn't even make a second draft.
You know, this got me thinking that maybe a better twist would have been that the wives were also simulations, like they were AI constructions the men built to be their idealized wives and then they went rogue in the program...
I also hate that in the simulation he apparently only wanted to give her oral sex all the time, as though an Incel is deeply invested in pleasuring women. In reality any Incel in a simulation would be doing this to degrade the woman and make her sexually satisfy him without caring about her own needs. But because Olivia decided it's "feminist" to show female pleasure we have to pretend this one Incel is deeply invested in hers. His character just doesn't make any sense. If he'd gone into deep podcast Incel territory, she would've just dumped him and he would've gone crazy and maybe kidnapped her or something.I agree about making copies of the wives. Why not just live out his Incel fantasies with a fake woman? And what were all those cracks in the simulation meant to be about, the sim glitching, but why? I could see them doing that in a much smarter way where ALL the women notice the glitches, not just her character.
Watch this movie again. No, seriously, watch it again. He doesn’t do chores, they live in a dingy dark apartment. He doesn’t cook, he eats tuna out of a can for survive. He doesn’t much take care of himself, he’s thin and unwashed. His hair is greasy. He probably has a minimum wage job to get by and makes the money go to where he wants (Victory Peoject, electricity, internet are priorities, water, yes, but (my conjecture) hot water isn’t. Cleaning isn’t. Keeping his wife alive is a priority. He has to maintain her and keep her healthy enough to remain in the simulation. Yes, this means she needs water, nutrition, IVs, …maybe physical therapy so she doesn’t atrophy(?). Also, he has a limited number of hours in the simulation. He must be out of it and at work (irl) to remain in TVP. He has to leave the simulation everyday (apparently weekends and days off don’t exist) I’m GUESSING, because there isn’t enough memory to keep the men in the simulation more than the allotted hours.
I remember watching a TikTok clip of the credits showing and someone in the audience just say “WHAT?!”, and then everyone laughed. Like that person said what everyone else wanted to say.
The fact that she suddenly can drive actually makes sense, seeing as she now remembered her real life, and presumably already knew how to drive there. What bothers me, though, is that she’s still restrained in the real world, so how is she going to get out of those with her husband dead next to her, and a billion locks on the door?
@@ML-uu7wy been a while since I saw it, and only watched it once, but didn’t he die inside the “simulation”? Wasn’t it a thing that if they died in there, they would die for real? In that case I imagine she would still have been shackled. But I absolutely might be remembering wrong!
I guess we don't know if she can get free, but they did (and possibly still do) live in an apartment building so screaming out for help would surely work. Although if he kept her in the same apartment she lived in before becoming a missing person, I have no idea how he got away with this.
spoiler: the reason she hears franks voice throughout her day is because in the real world, jack constantly listens to franks podcasts on his computer. so the movie is highlighting the cracks in the victory project (literally the simulation) and the glitches in it i guess. so when alice hears franks voice it’s actually from jacks podcast and reality seeping into th victory project. idk if that makes sense but yeah
Wasn't he wearing headphones while listening? I thought that was a flashback to what he was listening to before he got them into the simulation. Once they were in the simulation my assumption was he was now working for Frank at that point so that's why he had to "leave" every day and would go work on the simulation for Frank in the real world then come back to the simulation afterwards. To me it seemed like she was just listening to him on the radio. I think that was a point that Frank put those things into the simulation to keep essentially brainwashing them to stay.
I heard somewhere the original script had Jack NOT be her husband, but some employee at the hospital who doesn't earns that much. Which was a much better way of dealing with the twist, as it would only further highlight why so many women in the simulation have a backstory that seems copy pasted, they are kidnapped by incels they know in their actual lives, and their families, friends and actual husbands have reported them missing all along. Statistically speaking some could be lesbians and have had their sexuality forcibly changed by the stimulation. If it had been framed like that, this movie would have painted a very horiffic dystopian reality where incels obtained the actual means to make women subject to them and their pathetic insecurities. But no, Olivia scrapped the best version of the script, and gave us this. If that is not the ultimate sign she chose aesthetics over an actual good movie, I don't know what is.
Same. After watching the movie I felt just kind of disappointed, but after learning about the original scripts for it and how much better they were I actually felt angry. This could have been so amazing.
I actually quite like the fact that jack and alice were originally in a romantic relationship, i think it makes for an interesting and realistic dynamic where men, even while married, often view women as pretty objects whose only goal should be to please and serve them. Jack constantly states that he loves Alice, and yet submits her to those horrific events, and I think that makes it a lot more disturbing! My favorite acting moment from Florence in the movie is when she finds everything out and is conflicted about still loving him. However, I would have still liked to see some background into some of the other wives who were clearly kidnapped.
That would have even made Jack seem more psychotic than just sad when everything is revealed. I feel like the existing relationship between Alice and Jack almost made me sympathize in a way for Jack and made me feel super sad for him. I wish they would’ve kept that original script, it would have been so much more unnerving and jarring.
In the original screenplay Alice wakes up whilst Jack is at work and she finds out about the Victory Project on his computer as well as a bunch of missing posters as her family and the police tried to find her but Jack misled them. Jack comes home and Alice kills him in real life. Sadly Olivia changed the script and cut it out and instead went with the cliffhanger (seemingly setting up a sequel with Gemma Chans character in charge of the simulation)
After many thoughts (mainly questions XD), I've had after watching the movie I simply came to the conclusion that this whole movie was just executed like a "prequel" to another one that will "presumably" explain what wasn't in the first, with Gemma's character in charge, my thoughts exactly! I wonder if Chan will be up for a sequel, though. Or even Pine, cause there are bound to be flashbacks going back to the starting of this whole project and how their characters' relationship developed in parallel.
I felt this should've been a 3 episode mini series - episode 1 is her living in this world and noticing a lot of slightly odd things and getting more and more confused, episode 2 would be her trying to escape and discover what is actually going on, and then episode 3 would be her in the real world and what happens with her trying to speak the truth and being gaslit by the world and feeling even crazier than when she was inside.
I just had a thought that maybe Bunny saying she “lost” her kids in the real world isn’t because they died, but because they were taken away from her, possibly because of neglect ? It’d explain why she still doesn’t appear to spend much time with them
I was wondering which it was, too. If they somehow died tragically or if they were just taken away. I also found it interesting that she was the only one in the town who had kids.
I thought that too. She's hardly a loving, hands-on mom. I instantly thought she lost them to the system and not to death and living in the simulation was the easy way to get them back; she doesn't have to better or prove herself etc like she would have to in the real world.
I’m glad you brought up the messy contrast of creepy weird occurrences being immediately followed by mundane life moments. If there was an increasing ramp off of these instances, it would’ve been better
yeh but aren't the creepy parts supposed to hint that this is not real life (in the end we learn they are in a simulation) so tbh it makes sense. The things that don't make sense are like glitches in the simulation, no?
@@Jess-ci8re that’s what I gathered as well, like the simulation was glitching and not catching up fast enough, and it would try to unalive her before she figured out what was really happening. Overall this movie was a good attempt but we definitely needed more to happen before she found out
I have seen the movie, read the original Black List script, AND read a version close to the shooting script. This movie is a Frankenstein's Monster of both versions with some more madness thrown in. Black List script version Alice was Jack's ex-wife who he managed to declare dead somehow before trapping her in the simulation. In the later version, she is a surgeon at the hospital and Jack is like an orderly who kidnapped her which makes more sense to me personally. Should have picked a lane instead of trying to be all things but also make Jack/Harry Styles kinda sympathetic. "Just loved you way too much to watch you have to work triple shifts to support us while I refuse to get a job."
Pine's voyeuristic smile of satisfaction when he watches Alice and Jack stems out of the control of her sexual pleasure. He's the puppetmaster that created this world that is ultimately pulling the strings on her every emotion. It's like a passive threeway for him.
What makes me enjoy this movie isn’t the weird stuff that happens to Alice but how she reacts to it. It’s an exploration into her not knowing if she’s really crazy or if everyone is lying to. And it’s an exploration into her relationship with jack and how much she’s willing to forgive
ik everyone hated it but i rly liked it. the whole time i just kept thinking “this is what psychosis feels like.” everyone and everything is convincing you that your experience isn’t real. but you know what you’re experiencing
Olivia Wilde put my ego in check. This reminds me of those times I have a cool vague idea for a story in my head, with specific scenes and imagery that I know would be cool, but not actually put in the work to sit down and create a fleshed out world, characters, and plot with a good consistent storyline lol.
Start writing it! I have a huge writer’s block because im afraid of writing something that could come out as dumb and unbearable, while this nonsense was approved and produced by a major company 😂 I dont care anymore ill just start to write
YESS this is something I'm realizing too! I used to have so many little ideas that I thought were so great, but it was overwhelming. Now I realize the important part is the work and the inspiration to truly flesh out a story, and this is actually empowering because it's how you make something good.
Watching this movie I was like dang they put Florence through it. Like having to get squished between a wall and a pane of glass so she can't move, cover her face with plastic wrap so she can't breathe, run barefoot on dirt/gravel, meanwhile everyone else is just like chillin lmao
I mean Chris pines character implies she’s different than the rest, so it makes sense if she’s fighting back against the simulation she’d be the one having the negative experience. Also didn’t another character kill themselves because of it? So maybe not everyone else was chilling lol
@@AJ-pu9jq ya what that person said lol Florence as an actress felt like she had to do so much more than the others who were mostly filming scenes of parties or lounging by the pool or something like that lol
@@AstraeaAntiope oooh I thought they meant character wise, thank you for letting me know and I completely agree like damn i hope she had plenty of care bts when doing those
Feels like they tried to add some of that psychotic energy from black swan to the movie but forgot that it has to be explained and that it has to make sense
I personally like the weird shifts in scenes because it makes it feel like a dream and already from the start you know something is up, it's artificial. Like in dreams your surroundings or situations can just morph into another thing and you just accept it because in the dream it makes sense.
Also, Alice starts to question her reality because Jack keeps singing the same song in the real world (the one she keeps humming throughout the movie) and it brings her snippets of memories of them together in real life. Bunny never tells her that they'll find her real body and kill her. She only her that they'll kill her, which they try to do before she gets to headquarters. Also, the wives in that world can't drive, we don't know if Alice in the real world knew how to drive. The movie explains most things if you pay attention. It doesn't spoonfeed them. The ending was abrupt, because that was the end of her simulation. We start the movie with her in the simulation, we end the movie with her waking up. It makes sense. I liked it. I almost didn't watch because I'm not a big Harry Styles fan, but a clip of the dinner table discussion scene changed my mind
@@lactose.free.milky.way. Biggest issue is fact, that first 90 min was known before movie even aired. Trailers were so much "oh it's next remake of stepford wives". First 50-60 min is ok, then we have wasted 30 mins and in last 30 mins we have snipshots of what should be most important. Like if it's simulation, then why losers? It's some illegal experimental R&D? Why those women are kept and looked by men? Shouldn't it be proffesional medical faculity? Brainwashing, especially so big, isn't cheap, so you don't want your "asset" to stop existing because of "user error" We knew it would be "men bad" movie, but it should have at least some social commentary about it instead of "look men bad, they have PODCASTS!"
I thought the same thing watching this video. I was like did you pay attention at all cause this was all explained. Not to say there aren’t some holes but that’s just reality sometimes not everything can be tied up in a nice bow
I've never seen the movie, but hearing people describe it leaves me with so many questions. Who gives Florence her eyedrops when Harry is away? Does she ever go to the bathroom? How is she able to escape the virtual simulation so easily? How much money does Harry have to make so he can pay for the apartment and the VR?
I feel like their are so many issues with this film related to olivia wilde and other writers for the film not understanding technology/not having a very strong imagination of how this tech would have to work to actually exist.
I may be wrong but I think it’s implied that Jake now works for the Victory project, like Victory pays for everything and the men have to make it back by working for victory in some way. About Alice’s upkeep - I don’t know, maybe she’s just living in her waste while he’s working
@@KD-ou2np I feel like a lot of movies (and writters in general) have problem with their high concept stories because they usually will explore it just enough for you to like it and want to learn more about it and then either drop it immediately or give it some out of nowhere, reminds me of those edgy kids that say ash is in a coma and all your favorite characters are dead because they don't want to indulge in the fantasy
Imagine if Jack had put as much effort into actually having a good relationship with his girlfriend as he did kidnapping her and shoving her into a simulation where they had a good marriage, he wouldn't have needed the simulation at all. Especially since he apparently landed a good enough job to support the household plus however much it costs to have a kidnapped girlfriend shoved into a simulation so the job hurdle was already covered.
The part about him having to need to leave the simulation to go back into the real world and make money to keep being in the simulation was so dumb like if he could get a job back in the real world and take care of such a big complicated thing, then why go to all this trouble about being in a fake world at all? I know, I know, it also gave him a new much cooler identity and all but that was also something he could've achieved in the real world - I mean once he had landed a good job to support his household and felt ''good enough'' (because as we saw, obviously the problem was that she had a job while he stayed rotting at their house glued to a computer all day) as his girlfriend then he could've only progressed to better things from there. It just didn't make sense to me at all, I mean I get the bit about wanting to live the dream like we all fantasize about being someone better, prettier, richer, successful etc but we always have to come back to reality at some point and it's no different in this case at all, I mean since he already had to leave the simulation every day to make sure that he keeps being in it then why not just give it a go outside of it too? I mean if you think about it he didn't even really get to enjoy the simulation that much since he had to get in and out of it all the time lol so what was even the point of it.
@@jisookomblackpinkkru256 maybe I know too much about alpha/incel culture but this was never a question for me. Its much easier to work a job that only pays for the "basics" than trying to have everything he can in the simulation. On top of that I cant help but remember all those dudes that sell this mindset to men that essentially pay their viewers to promote them and get more people on board, I wouldnt be surprised this might be how he pays for the simulation. Like yes, its correct if he actually put in the effort in their relationship and life they would probably have a good life together. BUT they dont. The mass shooter that even had a manifesto, essentially openly admitted it, he never put any effort into meeting women. He would sit parked in his car for hours and get mad because women didnt just approach him. This is incredibly common in incel spaces. Im not sure if we find out what his job/profession is, my bet is that there was little to no chance he would be able to get a job that would carry better "social prestige" or salary than a surgeon. By laws of the manosphere this means hes a failure and his wife will leave him for a "higher value male" sooner or later. So to him the simulation is the only way he can actually have the life he wants. Which in those cyrcles is the imaginary version of the 50s from coca cola ads with a traditional hot wife at home and an amazing house, job and prestige.
@@jisookomblackpinkkru256 That the dude was whining about her always working and really just complaining about the concept of a surgical resident having a busy work schedule while he watches YT videos all day, told me it was more about making sure her entire existence was focused solely on him than any financial motivation.
@@jisookomblackpinkkru256 When I first watched the movie I assumed he's able to find a job but unable that find a good enough job to have the life he wants, big house, stay at home wife, fancy dinner every night, etc. I think somehow keeping himself and Alice alive in that thing is cheaper than we imagine and he can barely manage that
@@BambiLena666 Yesss thanks to my knowledge about incel culture and right before reasearching about kidnapping of Colleen Stan, I did not have problems with "coherence" of the plot. I can perfectly see how this would happen if it was possible in the real world. Keep on going in real life instead of living in an artificial world where you have the authority as a MALE and your ex girlfriend is under your control, that would be more easy and approachable for a healthy person, not for an insecure incel.
So much of this movie’s plot would have been solved if all the people forced into the simulation were digital copies of the originals. No questions about bodies or death rules, really heavy stakes when it comes to Chris Pine’s character, the glitches can be a software issue (or Harry’s failed career being a programmer and his poor attempts at hacking his Florence-bot gives her extra abilities), and the escape from the simulation can be hijacking the bodies of the husband maybe (leaning into themes of SA, control and bodily autonomy). Ending the movie with Alice-in-Jack looking at Alice coming home tired in her scrubs would have been _haunting_
That's basically the plot of the USS mcCallister episode of Black mirror: after a pretty normal interaction with a neckbeard colleague, a young woman wakes up in a parody of original star trek where neckbeard is the captain everyone has to fawn over. It's quickly confirmed though that the people in the simulation are virtual copies, and the original copies are actually still living their normal lives in the real world, but the copies are held hostage in a creepy scenario. actually, it's pretty lighthearted for black mirror.
I could totally understand Olivia’s character wanting to be in that dream world over reality, her kids obviously died and the dream world she gets them. If my kids died I would want to escape too.
I think the biggest plot hole is that Alice is a SURGEON. If she was just a nurse I could under the financial difficulties. But a surgeon would not be living that kind of poverty with their salaries.
I really think that something happened during editing because of the "Chris pine is dead now" scene. It is so out of nowhere that I cannot believe that a writer can pull something like that up without realizing it comes out of nowhere. I think there was a whole storyline about Gemma Chan's character that was cut out of the movie. And starting there, I wouldn't be surprised if it was the case with several other plot moments.
That's a really good point, about Gemma Chan's storyline being cut out- it definitely feels like she had more of a background but we just didn't know about it. I was so surprised when she killed him, especially after she seemed so defensive over him at the dinner scene, I thought she would know about it and be running the simulation alongside Chris Pine or something.
Kiki Lane’s character, who is kinda the main catalyst for Alice to begin questioning things, had her entire character’s storyline whittled down to only a few scenes for no reason, so I can believe they did it to someone else. That or it’s from a earlier draft of the script and for some reason they couldn’t think of a better punishment for Chris pine’s character so they decided to leave it
I’ve really started to dislike Chris Pine. Lately every movie I find him in, it’s terrible lol. Next time I see him in something, I’m changing the movie.
I think it would've made more sense if they made the Victory Project bigger. Maybe it's not just a simulation, but a physical building with the program running inside. Instead of Jack having to care for Alice, they have care centers in the building for the wives, like coma patients in a hospital. Maybe the town is laid out exactly like the building, so instead of a car chase at the end, Alice breaks the simulation and her real world self has to escape the real world building based on her knowledge. She kills Jack in real life when she comes home, and maybe the other wives physically wake up too, so the ending is all of them coming home and killing their husbands in the real world.
this idea could also explain how Jack is even able to afford this program, maybe they're like test subjects used for some study on how minds are affected by simulations, while the whole 50s setting is essentially a byproduct. And the husbands could be leaving to the real world to participate in some real world tests... Heck, make it so that they both agreed to participate for some reason but Alice's memory of it was erased - maybe it would add complexity to the whole "women good men bad thing". I don't know, this idea would need a lot of polishing but at least it could be made into a semi-coherent movie
while I was watching the movie that's kind of what I tought the plot twist was gonna be! I was convinced it Project Victory was a real place and Alice was kidnapped and had her memory erased
I also thought the project extending to the real world and the jobs were for the victory program in some way depending on their skill, recruitment sure but also programmers and medical people who took care of the women stuck in the program in some sort of facility so that Victory is maybe so insidious they can fake deaths and make people go missing without question So their whole lives depended on Frank and The Victory Project Like they had so much to work with and they did so little with it in the movie
As a woman who has men trying to control her body, thoughts, and beliefs on the daily, I understood the movie. Chris Pine's character watching them have sex is him showing his power and control. He watched them have a deeply personal moment that Florence Pough's character didn't want him seeing, but ultimately was powerless to stop him.
I don't think she could have stopped even if she wanted to. I interpreted all the sex scenes as her being programmed to give Style's character sex whenever he wanted it. Some men with old-skool mindsets think wives should always be submissive like that.
if people actually were trying to control you, just get away from them. If you can't because you're financially reliant on them, you're a leech. However, we all know the truth is you're just a wanabe victim.
This video is a frustrating mix of good complaints (there are definitely weird things that seem to just happen for the sake of being weird, like the eggs and the plane crash) and places where the movie did actually address those things, such as: • The “woman standing mysteriously in her backyard” is the person before Alice who realizes something is off about the town. • Ditto with the “strange phone calls from her neighbor”. • The distant shaking is supposed to sell that the men are working on something big and dangerous enough to warrant telling people to keep away. • Her hearing Frank's voice in her head (and having visions) is part of the system of repetitive messages and images designed to keep her brain in a state where it can be kept in the simulation (fairly common with horror media that involve hypnosis). • Frank's speech does not mean anything because the Victory Project is not real, so he is just improvising something that sounds inspirational. • Alice is exceptional to Frank because she has resisted the hypnosis more than anyone else who has been put into the simulation, which tests the limits of his system. The response of an engineer who found a really good QA tester mixed with the sadistic tendencies of someone who would trap people in a simulation. • Alice is shown to have an IV, presumably giving her what fluids and nutrients her body needs. • There was allegedly an earlier version of the script where we found out there was a missing persons report filed for Alice. • There are myriad reasons someone in Bunny's position might choose to staying in and stay aware, and a plethora of sci-fi media have explored those sorts of responses to grief. • IIRC, we were never told the women are fine if they die. We never see what happens to Margaret, and no one who tells Alice that Margaret is fine is trustworthy. • Alice can drive at the end because she regained her memories from the real world. • It is shown more broadly that Alice regaining her memories also caused the other wives to start to “wake up”. I agree the movie never explains why/how (or why/how that also causes streetlights to explode), but it does explain why Shelley suddenly turns on Frank. To the issue of the meaning of the movie, it read very much to me like a heavy-handed metaphor for living in a patriarchal society, and Wilde specifically talked about the focus on how “MAGA” men idealize the 50s. Far from your complaint about a lack of any meaning in the movie, my complaint after watching it was that it was *too* heavy-handed 😄
For a psychological thriller this had my theater in cacophonous laughter more than anything else. Very funny theatrical experience honestly. Like a really great 10 year old cinematographer got to write, direct, and edit a movie
Fr, I loved her in If Beale Street Could Talk and was excited to see ger and Florence worked together, but no. Her scenes were cut and Bunny somehow got more screentime than her
It made all her and her husbands scenes pointless, there would have been more interest if the only stuck to Alice’s pov and take the friend storyline out of it
@@jasminewilliams1673 well idk because kiki laynes character is what made alice start seeing something was wrong i think it was very necessary it just needed to be done right
@@makaylalashe4730 yes I get that was started her journey but I felt it was done so poorly, they either could have given actual scenes and not exposition for Kiki laynes experiences, or just focused on Alice loosing her footing. I just didn’t care when the character attempts s**cide because there was nothing the audience witnessed of their friendship
A really dystopian version of the ending could be her waking up, and because she is restrained and her muscles have (probably) atrophied, she starves to death, or just dies. would have made this movie more unsettling and more like the aesthetics the movie was aiming for, it wouldn't make the movie not bad, but it would be cool..
After freshly coming off watching this, I'm gonna add this real quick: I believe Jack had to work for Frank (Pine's character) outside the simulation in order for access to it and to support himself and Alice. That seemed especially poignant when they were arguing the last time and Jack was saying how much he hates going out to work. I definitely think Frank had a cult-like following with everyone and was able to convince the men (and Bunny) to join him in his new world order mission. You can also see it in the way the other characters idolize and essentially worship Frank in the simulation that makes me think he convinced everyone on the outside to contribute to the Victory Project.
You have to read the original script before Olivia Wilde ruined it. Jack was supposed to be Alice’s stalker and at the end you realize she doesn’t actually know him, he kidnapped her from the hospital. In the real world people were looking for her but she was in a secret location. There’s a part in the movie where she’s supposed to try and escape but they catch her and stick her back in the simulation. All the women in there were supposed to be kidnapped, and the Jack was supposed to be mean and abusive and very 1950s mean husband. Olivia Wilde took over and ruined the whole script, Harry Styles also did not want to portray and abuser because it would be bad for her image. Literally it would have been such a good movie if they had stuck with the OG script
I was super excited for this as well. At least Florence’s performance is amazing as always. You guys should check out the Pitch Meeting for this after. It’s a good laugh.
the last scene where gemma chain stabs chris pine is the biggest head scratcher for me. we are never told why she stabs him. what is she probably gonna get out of it.
it made no sense, we don’t know enough about either character nor how the victory project runs to understand why she did that. she proclaimed it was her time now (i believe) so what is she gonna do? take over the project… for the women?
@@aonsayss i interpreted it as a corny “feminist” sex revenge line. there’s so much focus on sex in the movie, and she says it’s her turn right as she stabs (ie penetrates) him with a knife, with the camera focused on her shoving it into him. i groaned out loud in the theater at it, so i’ve been surprised no one else really took it that way. the original script apparently had alice shove something up jack’s ass in “revenge” so that interpretation isn’t coming out of nowhere.
@@SalveRegina8 i think she was waiting for the perfect moment to kill him. like as soon as all hell broke loose, she was able to gain the upper hand. she just played along so he wouldn’t suspect a thing.
I think’s it tacky (in a lowkey funny way) that Olivia Wilde gave her character be the 3rd lead in the film behind the two main stars😂😂 Kiki Layne should of been the 3rd lead
I think everything about this movie shows how tacky she is, especially in how she tried to market the film (showing women having sex they enjoy is automatically empowering, even if it’s under false pretenses??)
@@calisha1889 I was about say there was something off about it. They’re pointless and drag on. Yet both scenes are of only Alice being pleasured?. Tf is wrong with Olivia Wilde?.
what Don't Worry Darling attempts to say with its plot, The Stepford Wives did better nearly two decades ago (some of the jokes aged poorly but the main plot line of intimidated men turning their accomplished wives into subservient underlings is still relevant)
Not only that but it’s like white women have been trying to write their own version of get out since that movie came out and they’ve failed every single time.
I will literally watch anything you upload. Even when I don't know whatever movie/series you're talking about. The amount of work you put into each video can really be felt on this side of the screen
I’ve watched it twice now, and I think I can explain one thing! The scene where Alice wraps her head in the plastic wrap comes after she witnesses the girl slash her own throat, and after she’s told that the girl is somehow just fine now - so I think that scene is her intentionally trying to suffocate herself to see what happens to her? (Like maybe to see if she’ll just wake up in bed again, just like she did in the plane crash sequence?) We just see of course that she ultimately can’t go through with doing it, when she tears the plastic off.
I liked it. Imagination is everything and yes there could have been more scenes to explain in the end. The visuals were incredible and I love FLORENCE and Chris
I truly don't understand how you were so lost during the movie. And as someone who is reviewing something I can't believe how many concepts you didn’t catch or couldn't understand
I don't think it's about Jack not having a job. It's about Jack not accepting how his girlfriend could be smarter and more accomplished than him in the relationship. Once Alice becomes a vegetable and "lives" fully in the simulation, Jack takes control of her life, of their relationship. He's still a looser, he's just denying it by living in the simulation. That's also why he hate going to work, it's a reminder of his real situation. Also, I think Chris Pine's character kinda tricks these guys in working for him to keep them under his grasp. Like, they have to debt to him for the simulation, so they have to work for him to pay it back - it's a closed system, nobody can get out so Chris Pine won't go to prison. It's a cult, basically. Also, even if it's not explained clearly, it's easy enough to imagine someone as influential as Chris Pine being able to make someone disappear, even a surgeon. You say she moved away and that's it. A little bit more difficult for friends and family tho, but we don't know Alice's situation so maybe she's truly isolated in the real world (no life outside of her job type of character). Or maybe she's legally dead, but not truly dead? I didn't understand that women who died in the simulation didn't die in real life? I think everyone who dies in the simulation dies in real life, no matter the gender? Anyway, good video about the movie, you raised some points I didn't think about while watching. But overall, I think some elements didn't need more explanation (like the glitches in Alice's POV: once we have the simulation reveal, it kinda explains every single weird scene for me). Others truly need some development: did Keke Palmer's character really die or what? Why did Gemma Chan kill her husband out of nowhere? Why was there this weird scene between Gemma Chan and Alice during the first dance class? Why is Alice the only one to challenge Chris Pine when KiKi Layne was right there? And I think the main theme is the control of men over women's bodies and now minds, mostly.
your comment is great and I agree with 99% of it, I just wanted to point put two things: 1) it's not Keke Palmer, it's KiKi Layne 2) the scene between Alice and Gemma (I guess you mean when Gemma corrected her posture and stuff), I believe it was to point out that Alice was coming out of the "simmetry", harmony, perfection and overall control the project expects of its... subjects? idk, just my thoughts
@@VictoriaClerici oh crap, yes I did mix up the names, thanks I'll correct it. And yes, I was talking about this scene and I like your interpretation. I also think it's a way of showing us how Gemma isn't fully under the control of the simulation. She's aware of the problem, just like Alice, but she hasn't found a way to exist yet bc her "husband" is the freaking creator of this hellhole. That's probably why she kills him at the end too, she didn't find any other solution. Maybe I'm reaching here, but maybe she's sacrificing herself by killing her "husband", bc nobody will take care of her body after his irl death. I dunno, it's making me sad.
@Elsa Vercellino I almost wonder if his wife was working with him at some point. So they both could go in and out of the simulation together and she was never a "hostage" like the other wives but she got so sick of it that she finally killed him and wanted to take over somehow.
I think that due to her high intelligence (she was a surgeon in real life) she started noticing flaws on the simulation just like that woman who jumped off the roof
they NEEDED to reveal the twist about halfway through the film or at least 3/4 of the way because i believe they did it in the last like 20 minutes which obviously didn't work...ugh this movie had SO much potential
I was so excited for this movie - the trailers looked really great -, but then all of the exhausting drama happened and I just couldn’t be bothered to watch it … I’ve chosen to consume it through RU-vid review / reaction videos and after seeing all the disappointed reviews, I feel like that was the perfect decision 👀
Thank you for recommending Humans and pointing out how great Gemma Chan was in that series! It's one of my all-time favorite shows, in big part because all of the actors did a phenomenal job
@@FLdancer00 do you like shows that ask philosophical questions and make you think? Do you like shows with well-written characters that are complex and have interesting character development? Do you like shows that are more about family and bonds with the ones you love instead of teen drama/ triangle romance? Do you like shows that expand the universe as the show goes on? If the answer to all of this is yes, then this is a great show for you!
@@8niidle13 Aww that's a bummer. I was onboard with everything except the family bonds part. But I don't take direction from strangers, I'll check it out anyway. Thanks for responding 👍🏽🙂
It’s showing jack is franks puppet. That’s why he’s making him dance weird until he almost passes out. A victory dance of a character in a video game. Notice how everyone in that scene does what frank says, like they all sit immediately synchronized.
@Lauren T. that makes sense especially when you see the look on Jack's face like first he doesn't want to dance and then in the middle of the dance he's tired but keeps going.
The weird neighbour freezing outside her house scene is meant to introduce a link - a toy plane, that used to belong to the side character's son, and further led the protagonist to the portal aka 'a weird building' by flying over and crashing. So, the neighbour was able to interfere with the tech by using a toy plane image, kinda passing her discovery telepathically through the tech. The key point is that the movie might not be that shallow.
There were extremely quick clips of Alice dancing and looking happy at the very end - I guess to suggest she survives and readjusts to life and is happy and healthy. I haven't seen anyone else mention those clips though but it's the closest thing the plot has to a conclusion or epilogue
The tech behind Victory project is likely to be an MVP/underdeveloped which makes all the 'patchy' scenes, glitches and identical meet cute stories self-explanatory.
This movie reminds me of a few books I’ve read, it’s very surreal-fiction-like, which is a genre of fiction not many people enjoy, and VERY hard to pull off when translating to film, because it’s different than surreal-cinema. I like when books don’t give me answers but I don’t usually like when movies don’t answer things.
So I don’t have any examples for similar plot, but more so the surreal-ness, lack of answers, and ambiguity of the plot, things like: Just Like Home (be prepared for weird), Wilder Girls, The Trees Crept In (get physically don’t listen to it, even the way it’s printed is unique), and This Thing Between Us. Btw, all of those came from watching booksandlala for her recommendations, her channel is what got me into books like this, and she just posted her favorite thriller/horror list and it has a lot! Also, if you haven’t seen Vivarium and want a movie that doesn’t answer a single question (but did a great job anyway) definitely watch it!!
I was so confused when this movie ended abruptly, but after thinking about it, I realized that every unexplained plot point is basically the setup for a sequel. I think they were really gunning for this movie to blow everyone away and become a huge success so that everything could be explained in the sequel. Also, Chris Pine was just the figurehead of the Victory Project, and his wife was the one pulling the strings all along. That’s why he is so stupid and confusing (because he’s just a loser like all the other men). If this movie gets a sequel, then I think it’ll be a showdown between the two women.
Never seen it but I believe every word you say. How....how is such a pretty aesthetic and contrast between the old world and modern world wasted? I love when an old world has a very dark and backroom creepy horror to it and this looks like it COULD'VE done that. I kinda just wanna watch it bc it simply looks good😭😭😭
This would have really been a thriller if they didn't make Jack an incel. If he had been a charismatic, popular, and conventionally handsome person who had a good job who still took Alice and put her in this program, it would have sent absolute chills up my spine.
This is how I would write the story. Set-Up: Alice and Jack are living the 1950s lifestyle doing whatever they did back then. Alice talks with some of the women before Chris Pine gives his speech to a crowd of people about challenges and how he likes to be challenged. They clap and one of Alice's friends humorously rolls her eyes. The next scene to show a stage hand pointing a mistake, challenging him, Chris Pine made only for him to get really upset and defense. This shows that he only likes challenges where he can win and feel powerful. Later, Alice and Jack party, then go to bed. Alice wakes up in the real world and prepares her day as a busy neurosurgeon who has relationships at her job and a family. After she comes home, she finds the house in a bit of a mess and Jack is still in his pajamas. Both argue. Alice argues that Jack should either look for a job or do more around the house because she can't do all the domestic labor. Jack is depressed that he is unable to find a job in his very competitive field and secretly feels emasculated that he’s felt doing all the domestic work, which will foreshadow the ending. Conflict: Alice realizes that her friend’s memory is off and she’s been acting differently. Not only that but some of the other women have the same symptoms of false memories and seeing things that aren’t there. Alice in the real world uses it less and until she decides to stop. She feels like there is something wrong with this device and decides to do some research on it. All of it leads to a radicalized group form that are known to assault women for their ideals. Meanwhile Jack is upset that Alice isn’t using it anymore she says she doesn’t need to because she likes her real life more. Alice feels uncomfortable and asks Jack where he got it. This leads into a fight that ends with Alice being knocked out, Jack tries to call for an ambulance but decides against it and instead puts Alice in the machine. Stakes: Alice is now on a race for time as she starts to share the similar symptoms as the woman and tries to escape. Ending: Since Alice is a neurosurgeon she realizes this place is built and wired like a brain and she uses that knowledge to find a weak point. Meanwhile, days has past and Jack can’t keep up with people asking him where’s Alice and the pile of bills. This shows that he can’t escape reality forever. Chris Pine reveals to Alice his plans to use this technology to prove the misogynist idea that women were happier as housewives by showing his results to the world. However, his plan started to fail because woman have lives and thoughts outside of the fantasy. So he virtually lobotomized to be happy and thoughtless. Suddenly, a weak point appeared and Alice took it as a chance to escape. Alice wakes up and Jack tries to apologize but Alice knocks him on the end with the helmet. The next scene reveals that the weak point was just Chris being murdered by his wife. Two weeks later, Alice’s doctor is looking over her charts to make she’s healed after lying down on her bed for days. Finally at home, Alice scrolls through her phone and not only find the news article about Jack being arrested but also how the helmet device is now being launched and that it’s being run by Chris’ wife. It ends with the message that both genders can feed into misogyny and how fantasies are used to control people.
Two things :) First, I love the idea of Jack considering calling the ambulance, but deciding against it. It takes his character from just sort of pathetic, to officially villainous. Two, I didn't care for Alice finding out about his arrest via the news. As his wife (or gf, I'm not sure whether they're married), police would have questioned her. Also, his arrest frankly just wouldn't be newsworthy, unless it was a tie-in with the helmet story the news was running. But again, it's hard to imagine he would even be important enough to mention, even in passing.
They say in the description it’s supposed to be in the 50s but the soundtrack is very sloppily arranged. The Oogum boogum song came from 1966/67; I had looked this up because I had to make sure my own soundtrack was era accurate because a lot of people hate these slip ups. The love witch gets a pass because it’s not a period piece movie but has vintage styling to look like a 60s or 70s psychedelic psychological thriller, it was evoking the styles we remember while being a new movie.
I hope Florence Pugh and Chris Pine get the chiropractic attention they need for literally caring so much of this movie. Like I was enjoying it for the most part, it wasn’t great but it was fun in a stylish way… Then that twist, oh my God, it’s like the entire film took a nose dive down the bad writing cliff until the… oh that’s right, the movie doesn’t have an ending lol
The problem with this movie is that it is immensely shallow. It’s a Stepford Wives meets the Matrix concoction but unlike those movies, it says nothing worthwhile at all. It’s a bunch of typical psychological thriller-esque shots skewed together with no thought to the story and that’s it. also lmao why is Florence Pugh’s hair styled like the 60s instead of the 50s
Thank you for this video. I felt so insane after watching this...I was like did I miss something...and had all the exact same questions you pointed out! This movie had so much potential and it's like she gave up caring during the editing and just threw crap together.
I think it does make sence that jack did what he did. He didn’t do it because he was unemployed. He did it because he felt emasculated and entitled. The simulation gives him prestige and the life he wants. And an attentive wife who is dependent on him. In the real world his wife isn’t there to see him what she does see is what he wants her to. Its not just because he’s unemployed. Also I think Olivia is trying to make social commentary but it doesn’t land the way it’s supposed to. Though your analysis of “women good men bad” is idk weird. Both Gemma and Olivia’s characters actively work to uphold the oppressive structures of other women simply because it benefits them. Olivia knowing gaslighting Alice and allowing one of her “friends” to die. Gemma only acting when it’s convenient for her. She could have killed him at any point. The movie is still very messy but I can see the point she was trying to make. Jack did this because he wants a mother, a maid and a sex toy. And it isn’t just the men keeping the women there.
Right? Before he kidnapped her, he whined about her working too much (I guess conveniently forgetting that's par for the course with doctors, especially residents) and doesn't make enough time for him, even though most of the reason for taking extra shifts is because she's the only one with a job and he doesn't seem to be making any real effort to change that. Then when she makes it clear she remembers everything, he's still trying to tell her what her own emotions were.
You're a much better person than me, because the moment I heard about the drama, I decided I wanted to watch the film, no matter how bad it is. The thought of people being miserable on set is a lot more intriguing than the general PR story they try to sell in every press tour 'we're one big family, we had a blast, blah, blah, blah"
some notes: it wasn't just a disagreement between shia and florence. it's the fact that shia is a known abuser. also, it's pretty clear that anyone can die in real life if they are killed in the simulation. maybe the wording is different, but the chase scene does not make sense otherwise. it's pretty clear that alice is gonna be murdered if she doesn't escape. like that is not confusing at all.
Olivia wild tells her that they will come and kill her in real life so she needs to escape the simulation to protect her real life body, that’s why she was trying to get to the real world and why none of the red suit guys just shoot her or something
Right I thought for the most part the entire movie explained the circumstances pretty well lmao despite the plot holes (ie how she used to bathroom irl)
I understand that there were holes and the writing wasn't phenomenal or anything...but he claims that NOTHING is explained in this movie when...a lot of it makes sense given the twist. If a movie has to explicitly lay out every event and its purpose in the storyline...it's poorly written and presents a weak storyline. Margaret's character for example, she did everything she did and seemed crazy because she figured out that something was wrong, the same way Alice did. While the movie never explicitly explains the weird things that happen throughout the film, they make more sense when you learn it's all a simulation. Therefore it also makes sense that Alice's reality seemed distorted on multiple occasions. ALSO she's a surgeon, so she's incredibly intelligent and observant, and she was never really content with life as a housewife the same way the other women were. I definitely don't think this movie is groundbreaking or makes the most sense, but it certainly deserves more credit than is given to it in this video from a narrative and character perspective. It's unnerving and unsettling and honestly I love movies that are confusing before they make sense, especially when it's a psychological thriller.
My friend and i were looking for movies to watch in our florence pugh marathon. We came upon this movie, read the summary, watched the trailer and went “what”. Honestly could not comprehend that the summary and trailer were regarding the same movie!
