Stanley Kubrick died just six days after showing his final cut of Eyes Wide Shut to Warner Bros. executives. That timing alone fueled decades of conspiracy theories, but honestly, the film itself is weirder than any rumor. People go into an eyes wide shut summary expecting a standard erotic thriller, maybe something akin to Basic Instinct but with more art-house flair. What they get is a slow-burn odyssey through a dreamlike New York City that feels more like a nightmare than a fantasy.
It’s a movie about a marriage. It’s a movie about the elite. Mostly, it’s a movie about what happens when you realize you don’t actually know the person sleeping right next to you.
The Night Everything Changed for Bill and Alice
The story kicks off with Dr. Bill Harford (Tom Cruise) and his wife, Alice (Nicole Kidman), attending a lavish Christmas party hosted by Victor Ziegler. It’s all very high-society and glittering. While Bill is whisked away to help a naked woman overdosing in an upstairs bathroom—a moment that hints at the dark underbelly of this wealthy world—Alice is downstairs being hit on by a suave Hungarian man. Nothing happens. No one cheats. But the seeds of resentment are planted deep.
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The real shift occurs the next night.
They’re high. They’re arguing. Alice drops a bombshell that shatters Bill’s ego: she once had a vivid, soul-shaking sexual fantasy about a naval officer she saw at a hotel. She tells him she would have given up everything—Bill, their daughter, their life—just for one night with this stranger.
Bill is floored.
He doesn't get angry in a loud way; he gets cold. He’s a man who views himself as a provider and a protector, and suddenly, his wife’s internal world is a place he isn't allowed to enter. This confession triggers a midnight "odyssey." Bill leaves their apartment under the guise of a house call, but he’s really wandering the streets of Manhattan trying to escape the mental image of his wife with another man.
The Password is Fidelio
Bill’s night goes from mundane to bizarre very quickly. He encounters a grieving daughter who confesses her love for him over her father’s corpse. He meets a young prostitute named Domino. But the centerpiece of any eyes wide shut summary is the masked orgy at Somerton.
Bill runs into an old friend, Nick Nightingale, a piano player who mentions a secret gig. Nick is blindfolded while he plays for people in masks at a remote country estate. Bill, desperate for some kind of rebellion or sexual validation, decides he’s going to sneak in. He rents a costume and a mask from a creepy shopkeeper named Milich and gets the password: Fidelio.
The Somerton sequence is iconic for a reason.
It’s filmed with a ritualistic, haunting precision. It isn't "sexy" in the way Hollywood usually does sex. It’s clinical. It’s terrifying. Men in robes and Venetian masks watch as dozens of people engage in performative acts. Bill is eventually found out because he doesn’t know the second password. He’s "redeemed" by a mysterious masked woman who sacrifices herself so he can leave.
He’s told to never speak of this. He’s warned that his life and his family are in danger.
The Aftermath and the Ziegler Confrontation
The rest of the film is a paranoid spiral. Bill tries to find the woman who saved him. He finds out a woman died of an overdose at a hotel—was it her? He returns his costume, only to find the mask he wore sitting on his own pillow next to a sleeping Alice.
He breaks down.
The movie reaches its climax not with an action scene, but with a conversation. Bill is summoned by Victor Ziegler (Sydney Pollack). Ziegler admits he was at the party. He tells Bill that the whole thing was a theatrical performance designed to scare him off. He claims the woman’s death was a coincidence—just another junkie overdoing it.
Was Ziegler lying?
Kubrick leaves that intentionally vague. In the original novel Traumnovelle (Dream Story) by Arthur Schnitzler, the lines between reality and dream are even thinner. In the movie, Ziegler represents the "real" world—the world of power and cover-ups—but Bill can’t tell if he’s being told the truth or just a story meant to keep him quiet.
Why the Ending Still Sparks Debates
The final scene takes place in a toy store. Bill and Alice are Christmas shopping with their daughter. It’s bright, it’s commercial, and it’s a jarring contrast to the purple-hued darkness of the rest of the film.
Bill confesses everything. He tells her about the night, the orgy, the fear. Alice’s reaction isn't what you’d expect. She doesn't scream. She basically tells him that they should be grateful they survived their dreams—both the literal ones and the waking ones. She says they are "awake now," but for how long?
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The very last word of the movie is "f*ck."
It’s Alice’s way of saying they need to ground themselves in the physical reality of their marriage rather than the ghosts of their fantasies. It’s a cynical yet strangely hopeful ending.
Key Takeaways for Understanding the Film
- The Dream Logic: Everything in the movie feels slightly "off" because it’s meant to mimic a dream state. The sets are clearly soundstages, the acting is stilted, and the geography of New York makes no sense.
- The Role of Money: Bill thinks his status as a doctor makes him elite. The Somerton crowd proves he’s just a "middle-class" interloper.
- The Mask: We all wear them. Bill’s literal mask is a metaphor for the persona he maintains as a "perfect" husband and professional.
- The Source Material: Reading Dream Story by Arthur Schnitzler provides a lot of context for the psychological themes Kubrick was obsessed with.
If you’re trying to wrap your head around a full eyes wide shut summary, you have to stop looking for a logical conspiracy plot. It’s not a whodunnit. It’s a "who are we?" Kubrick was exploring the fragility of commitment. He was showing how easily a life can be dismantled by a single thought or a single night of wandering.
To truly appreciate the nuance, watch the film again but ignore the plot. Look at the colors. Notice how many times characters repeat each other’s sentences. Pay attention to the mirrors. The movie isn't trying to tell you a story about a secret society; it’s trying to show you the secret society that exists inside every long-term relationship.
Next Steps for Film Buffs:
Check out the 2024 4K restoration of the film to see the detail in the Somerton masks, and compare the film's pacing to Schnitzler's original 1926 novella to see how Kubrick updated the "dream logic" for the modern era.