18 Answers to Our ‘One Night Only’ Sex Purge Questions

We had fun with One Night Only, but we’d be lying if we said we weren’t a bit distracted from the romance by its “Sex Purge” premise. As in, it takes place in a world where you’re only allowed to have premarital sex one night each year.

Created by Anyone But You director Will Gluck, the rom-com follows singles Allie (Monica Barbaro) and Owen (Callum Turner) on The Night. When Allie’s wingwoman ditches her, and Owen’s girlfriend wants to have sex with someone else, Allie and Owen set out to find a partner for the night. Somehow, they both keep failing, and they continue to bump into each other as they set out to achieve their goal.

Swooon, along with many others on the internet, had questions about this dystopian world. Quite a few were answered once we saw it, but quite a few weren’t. (Which we expected.) Below, we’ve added every single answer to the questions we had going into the movie. How is the law enforced? Is non-penetrative sex illegal, too? Scroll to find out.

1. Why would this law ever come to be?

Technically, Gluck has given a non-answer to this question. “No one remembers,” he told EW. “It’s like all things political, no one remembers why. That’s not the point. The point is that they have an exception for one night a year.” That can’t be it! We need to know more. We need a prequel for more context, STAT.

Answer: From what we could gather, a fascist, conservative Congress passed the law. Owen’s mom at one point calls it an “ideological grenade.” An old guy who seems to be the President explains in a TV clip that sex being reserved for marriage has made teen pregnancies go down to 0% and STIs are down. But that’s about all the insight into the political reasoning that we get.

2. If it’s worldwide, how did every country get on board with this?

In every description of the movie we’ve seen, it says Allie and Owen live in a “world” with this rule. You expect us to believe that every nation agreed that singles could only have sex one night a year? Get out of here. The world must have been in a seriously dire state to get all those governments on board. Or did the politically conservative somehow take over every country? We’ll say it again: prequel.

Answer: OK, the premise is a little more plausible because the ban actually limited to the U.S. only. Throughout the movie, we see brief broadcast news clips of other countries covering the temporary mandate lift. We bet no one is moving to America anymore. Then again, Allie’s friend chooses a British guy to hook up with, so who knows.

New question: Why aren’t people leaving the country in droves? If you want to move abroad, can you get your sex monitor chip taken out? (You’ll understand what we mean by “sex monitor chip” below.)

3. How is the law enforced?

Is there a sex police on the loose? Is this a Big Brother situation where you’re constantly being surveilled? Are people ratting each other out? Or is there a chip in everyone’s brain that gets rid of their sex drive on all other days of the year?

Answer: This one was answered pretty quickly. We were pretty close with our sex monitor chip guess, but it’s not implanted in the brain. A company called Rexon Labs created a “bio-sensor” that the government has implanted in everyone’s arm. It monitors your hormone levels, and it somehow knows if you’re in close proximity to another person when it spikes.

The bio-sensor is green if you’re married, allowing you to have sex whenever. For singles, your bio-sensor is red 364 days of the year, aside from the one single night the ban is lifted. Then, it turns green and everyone can bang to their heart’s content. Oh, and you also have to be wearing protection because somehow the sensor knows if you aren’t? A guy is arrested for not wearing a condom. We’re confused, too.

4. What happens if you break the law?

Maybe singles still do have sex year-round on the down low. Like, people obviously commit crimes and get away with them in the normal world, so surely they still could in this dystopian world. But what happens if you’re caught? There has to be some sort of consequence. Are they fined? Jail time?

Answer: If that aforementioned spike is detected, the police are sent to your location. The punishment for violating the law isn’t totally clear, though we find out that one guy Allie tries to hook up with has 14 violations. The police interrupt their hookup to arrest the guy for violating his parole. His sex monitor remained red on The Night, despite being single, because of his violations. So, it seems like you don’t get sent to jail for too long if you violate the mandate.

5. What happens if you’re having sex when the clock strikes 7 a.m.?

We imagine single people lose their minds a little bit on the night of the sex purge, which lasts from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. They surely aren’t checking the clock constantly during their sex marathons. So, what happens if you’re mid-act when the clock strikes 7 a.m.? Is that acceptable? Will you go to Sex Purge jail? Maybe everyone sets a warning alarm.

Answer: Throughout the movie, we see countdown clocks on subway cars, taxi cabs, and more. When Allie and Owen reunite at the very end of the movie, they only have 11 minutes left. Not too shabby, but the two of them decide to wait to have sex until next year (ugh), so they never really encounter the issue of going past the time limit. Since the violation punishment doesn’t seem too crazy, you probably just get a slap on the wrist if you went over the time a little. Who knows, though?

6. Have people rebelled against government?

Could One Night Only go from The Purge to The Hunger Games? Surely, people have rioted against this rule at some point, somewhere. Unless everyone is brainwashed?

Answer: There are people that aren’t happy with the mandate. We see “REPEAL” posters in windows and other signs of protest, but no actual mobilizing. Everyone’s too busy f**king, obviously.

7. How long has this been a thing?

Per the trailer, it seems like everyone is used to this one-night-only singles sex rule. How long has it been a thing? Since the dawn of civilization? Is it a recent law to stop overpopulation?

Answer: Three years. Honestly, people really do seem too adjusted for the mandate being passed so recently.

8. What night of the year is it?

One Night Only begs the question: What’s the sexiest night of the year? Is it the same night for every country? We imagine the weather would factor in. Imagine there’s a blizzard on the one night of the year you’re allowed to score.

Answer: August 7, it turns out. It’s a cute nod to the movie’s release date.

Nicole Rivelli / Universal Pictures

9. What qualifies as sex?

Let’s get into the nitty-gritty. Can you not go down on someone on other nights of the year? Is penetration the only thing that’s outlawed? Do phone sex and OnlyFans count?

Answer: Allie’s lesbian roommate (Quintessa Swindell) only kind of answers this question. She says queer people have been getting around the law. How? Not sure. Does that mean everything besides penetrative sex that could result in pregnancy is fair game on every other night of the year? So yeah, we aren’t sure about this one.

10. What if you’re legally married but separated from your spouse?

Are you considered single if you’re married on paper but on the outs with your spouse? We’d certainly wait to file for divorce if it meant delaying going back to single status in this universe. But that leads us to yet another question…

Answer: It seems like once you’re married, you’re locked in to only sleeping with your spouse. At the start of the movie, one of Owen’s employees says his single coworkers are lucky, which annoys his wife. Again, the key word here is seems. We never really get an obvious answer to this one.

11. Can you only sleep with your legal spouse, or can you have an affair?

All year, can a married person legally sleep with another married person who isn’t their spouse? Technically, it’s not premarital sex.

Answer: See previous. But maybe their year-round green bio-sensor doesn’t sense if their sex partner is their spouse or not? Or is it someone linked to your spouse? Yet another question that only creates more questions.

12. Do people even bother with engagement?

Surely, there isn’t a ton of fanfare around engagements and weddings in this universe. We imagine most would want to get married quickly to get down to business as soon as possible.

Answer: It seems like people do get married quickly in this version of America. When Owen and Allie are trying to buy the last condom at a bodega, a younger couple remarks that they seem old. It seems like they mean they’re old to still be single.

13. Are people getting married at 18?

We bet people are getting married willy-nilly in this universe, probably right when they become adults, in order to have sex. We don’t blame them, but that must make for quite a few divorces. Or maybe not, if they want to keep having sex whenever they want. Maybe the law makes more people tough it out.

Answer: Yeah, it certainly seems like some people are marrying just for sex. And based on the behavior of the teenager that Allie’s roommate is babysitting on The Night — he makes a shocking number of suggestive comments — we bet the teens aren’t waiting to tie the knot.

14. What’s the divorce rate?

We touched on this on the last one. But yeah, it’s an important one. Maybe the One Night Only government also wanted the law to lower the divorce rate.

Answer: Unclear, but we still bet that it’s low.

15. Has there been a population and economy decline?

We’ve already mentioned overpopulation a few times as the potential cause of the Sex Purge. Surely, the lack of single sex has decreased the number of pregnancies all over the world. We imagine the economy has gone down, too. People aren’t going out to bars and restaurants to have one-night stands, after all.

Answer: Everything looks fairly normal in this dystopian New York, which is crowded as ever, though we do know that teen pregnancies are down. Economically, it seems like the most lucrative business to be in is the condom-making and -selling one. At one point, a bodega owner asks Owen to pay $200 for her last condom.

Also, companies have ads tailored to The Night. There’s a Duolingo ad on the subway that says “flirt globally.” There’s an app called Night dedicated to finding a Night hookup. There’s an Equinox ad encouraging people to get in shape for The Night. What do all of these things imply for the economy? That’s above our pay grade.

Related

‘Here the Whole Time' Movie: All About Netflix's Brazilian Queer Romance

16. Does everything descend into chaos on this night?

How similar is this to The Purge? Instead of murdering people in public, are people having sex wherever? It would make sense for people to go off the rails.

Answer: Pretty much, despite all of the signs warning people not to engage in public sex. People are getting hot and heavy in cars and with their curtains and windows open. Even Owen almost hooks up with someone in a public park.

17. Does everything shut down on the night, like hospitals and emergency services?

God forbid you’re single and have a shift on the night of the Sex Purge. Are some hospital workers and emergency workers out of luck? Maybe they’re closed, and singles who have a medical emergency that night are the ones out of luck.

Answer: Well, the police are still working on The Night, and Allie goes to the hospital with her failed hookup Ezra (Charlie Gillespie). Long story. Owen gives his single pizza shop employees the night off, though it seems like some other people choose to work. For the most part, it seems like married people are the ones scheduled for shifts.

18. Can you have sex with more than one person?

This could possibly be explained in the movie, but the official synopsis doesn’t make it clear. This is the only night sex is legal, so can you just go ham with multiple sexual partners? Could you participate in a group sex situation?

Answer: Yep, which isn’t much of a surprise. Minutes into the movie, a couple asks Owen if he wants to have a threesome with them. (He declines.)

Let us know what your most pressing question was (and how you feel about the answer) in the comments below.

One Night Only, August 7, In Theaters Now