You have not picked up on the most important element...why Tom Cruise is called away to his patient who has died, home? Why he is called away the same night as the party?

The key is Nicole Kidman's character. She is needed at the party. Tom Cruise needs to be away so she can do what she is programmed for.

Why does a doctor need to go to the home of an already pronounced dead patient...a patient who probably traveled in the same circles as the elites at the party? Why is his daughter, who is at the house with her husband suddenly and ham fistedly attempts to initiate sex with him?

To distract him so Nicole Kidman's character can do her duty.

Her character is already "initiated". That is why her character is named "Alice".

What Tom Cruise saw as a Christmas party early in the film was a pre-party to the ritual. That is why the piano player is there. He is initiated as well. Well...partially initiated. He serves them, but in a capacity closer to the truth.

That is why while the models distract him, his wife dances with the wealthy, older man. That is why she acts almost spacey while flirting with him. Her alter is being activated for the big party.

Tom Cruise is more out of the loop than we think as the viewer. We assume people like his housewife and the pianist who dropped out of medical school are below him, when in fact they are more in the loop than he his.

The prostitute that is dying of aids serves as a microcosm for the doctors place in society. The rich man at the Christmas party has models and beauty pageant queens as his prostitutes. Whereas Cruise has the prostitute of the Everyman. Both prostitutes die at the hands of the elites, but one does directly and the other does indirectly.

Even his wife is only his wife because they allow it. he basically handles her and takes care of her. in the end she is their property. she was just like the model at the party and was there to be used sexually. We as viewers do not know this because she is masked.

Now why the piano player leads him to the ritual...I have yet to figure out.

Perhaps the piano player ( an artist) is reference to Kubrick himself. Maybe Kubrick, like the Piano player, was trying to reveal the truth to Tom Cruise (us)

Perhaps he did it as such because 1) who would believe such a crazy story and 2) to try and survive revealing it by just giving Cruise enough to see for himself.

Yes, Kidman is a programmed toy, but she is a part of the game, whereas Cruise is literally the Everyman. His being a doctor being a red herring. We think of doctors as elites, when in fact they are just like an electrician or plumber, but of the human body. They are just paid better because they endure more education and are of a more important service. Otherwise, the elites see him as a sheep...a servant.

Kidman's nightmare was her hypnotic interpretation of being fucked at the ritual. Her anger towards Cruise in the bedroom after the Christmas party was actually an unknown guilt she has. She is projecting her secret on him. She is making him pay for what she has been made into. Much how the every man is ridiculed by feminist for what females have been programmed to be. Her story of the naval officer is an instance where her programming was triggered.

The implication of all these symbols I have yet to flesh out. Are all women programmed to be switched on at anytime if they are desired by the elites? Do the elites see men as their tradesmen and women as their geishas when so desired? That anything we get from females is only because they do not always want or always need the women. Do they just see the Everyman as a care taker and a place holder?