The real answer: without that loophole, there would be no movie. The in-world answer: “Because that’s what sets us apart from other places,” Holloway smarmily tells the Chinese newscaster. “Here, politics require compromise. But on this night, we have made the use of protection mandatory.”
Wait a minute: condoms are mandatory?
They are. In the world of One Night Only, you can and will be arrested for having sex without using a condom.
Specifically a condom?
Yes.
Do birth control pills and IUDs not exist in this universe?
They might, but nobody in One Night Only ever mentions them.
And how do the authorities know if you’re using a condom?
No idea; it’s never explained.
Could it be that this rule exists only to catalyze a sequence where both Turner and Barbaro’s characters go on a desperate quest to find a condom, conveniently bringing them to the same bodega at the same time and allowing for a second meet-cute—and also so the movie can engage in a little Durex product placement?
That’s the most likely explanation, yes.
Isn’t there a Jennifer Love Hewitt movie with almost this exact same premise?
There is, and it’s called Trojan War. Don’t tell Emily Wilson!
So single people can’t have sex in this world. But married people can have all the sex they want?
That is correct.
Could two people get around the mandate by getting married to each other, then having sex with other people who are also technically married to other people?
You’d think, right? But nobody in the movie ever raises this possibility.
Could a person just get serially married and divorced every time they want to have sex?
There’s no reason to think they couldn’t, although if the government is fervently pro-marriage, they’re presumably not so hot on divorce either. But again, none of this is ever addressed in the movie.
Is infidelity also illegal? What about swinging? Open marriages?
No clue! Maybe all this will be tackled in a sequel called Two Nights Only.
Couldn’t people just go to another country, have sex there, then return to the US?
Apparently yes! At one point in the movie, Turner and Barbaro pass an advertisement that reads, “Fly to Cuba, where fun is always legal.” The surveillance state that’s constantly tracking American citizens’ dopamine levels is evidently fine with this, too.
If there are so many apparent loopholes and contingencies, why is the One Night treated as such a huge deal?
Because, again, if it weren’t, there wouldn’t be a movie here.
Callum Turner as Owen in One Night Only.Nicole Rivelli/Universal Pictures
