Dissecting Jordan Peele's 'Us'

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Major spoilers ahead.

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Peele's new film is a clever, cerebral look at modern day USA. I thought it was very good. It is such a layered film. I wasn't really a fan of Get Out, I thought that film was hugely overrated. But 'Us' is on another level.


There is alot going on in this movie in the background. So much foreshadowing and symbolism. So many nods to the socio-political landscape of America. The apocalyptic scenario we all face if we don't wake up. (11:11 is the rapture in the bible). Even the score in the baseball match is 11 - 11.

Right from the off we are given some easter eggs. There are are several characters wearing Black Flag t-shirts. Look up Black Flag records, what do you get:


With Scissors being the main motif for violence. As they're a symmetrical tool used to break things apart.

There is also a nod to 'The Lost Boys' in the opening scene as it's set in the mid 1980s on Santa Cruz boardwalk and we're told they're shooting another film there.


Lupita Nyong'o's character wins a Thriller t-shirt early on. Then we see her doppleganger presented in this way, more than a passing resemblance:





The main theme is one of how society has been torn apart in recent times. This manifests itself in the way people that you think are normal, showing behavioural traits / opinion / beliefs you would never expect them to show / hold. Some people describe this as "the rise of the right" and "empowerment". They suddenly have a voice. This is shown in the movie by the tethered suddenly having a voice (literally as Red can now speak). They rise up and challenge.

It's no coincidence then, that the main moment of the movie happens when the central figure looks into a mirror. We need to take look at ourselves sooner rather than later.

The ending (humans linked in a barrier) also has large connotations with 'a wall', we all probably know what Peele was alluding to there.


There is also a very strong link to those tethered underground being the underclass. Eating raw meat. Underground. Peele may be alluding to the poverty gap widening.

There are also a load of nods to popular culture. I loved the beach scene reminiscing Jaws. I loved the car on the road reminiscing the Shining opening sequence, plus the twin girls paying homage to that movie.



The VHS tapes on the shelf at the beginning are a nod to popular culture (the Goonies etc) . And if you think about it - there is also a character in the Goonies that is tethered and can barely speak. I wouldn't be surprised if this is another of Peele's tenuous but clever links.


The music is also used brilliantly, especially towards the end with a stripped down version of 'I got 5 on it 'adding to the tension. A comedic NWA moment hints at Peele saying that popular culture and consumerism is for the privelaged and has effects on us a sit seeps into the public consciousness.

There's also a hint at Peel's Hitchcockian influence with the birds on the beach.




I just enjoyed the intelligence of this film. The thought process gone into it. I wish all horror films were this cerebral.

Us tries to make us look at our shadows and reflect on who we are and whether we have best intentions or are complicit in something that will undo us. Whether we let the tethered prevail as they rise is the question left unanswered by Peele. Hopefully not.

Great film.



I will much rather watch horror like this, which has ideas and comments about us, society, politics and whatnot. It’s always fun to see a creative way of saying such things.

It’s just a shame that Us seem to have so many things that doesn’t make sense when you put it all together. I wish he had used more time on having the world building be perfect to minimize questions because they take you out of the film. I had a good time but while I enjoy dissecting these questions there are some that are simply too big and doesn’t make sense. That’s a shame.



I will much rather watch horror like this, which has ideas and comments about us, society, politics and whatnot. It’s always fun to see a creative way of saying such things.

It’s just a shame that Us seem to have so many things that doesn’t make sense when you put it all together. I wish he had used more time on having the world building be perfect to minimize questions because they take you out of the film. I had a good time but while I enjoy dissecting these questions there are some that are simply too big and doesn’t make sense. That’s a shame.
Which bits don't make sense?



I'm still trying to tie together several items... So if the swap happened when they were young, how were the shadow kids born? I remember the Mom saying he was born by fire or something, but how would that work exactly?



I'm still trying to tie together several items... So if the swap happened when they were young, how were the shadow kids born? I remember the Mom saying he was born by fire or something, but how would that work exactly?
He was born by caesarian section. The fire comment could mean he was burned at the time, though I thought he was burned by mucking around with the magic lighter toy.

Do you think the mum swapped him early on and he was also a tethered one? That would explain why he was building tunnels on the beach and why the mum yelled Nooooo when the clone boy died in the fire.



I love your take on this. This movie really is something you have to really sit and think about
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28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
Us




There are a few frustrating things about this film that is holding me back from giving it glowing praise and a highly recommended rating. Those issues fall under the illogical nature of Peele trying to explain things towards the end. This movie is so expertly crafted that it hurts to be so divisive over it. I'll go into as much detail as I can as to why this film is just short of being really great and how frustrating that is.

Adelaide, her husband Gabe and their two children vacation at their beach house in Santa Cruze. Gabe wants to take the family down to the beach, but Adelaide is apprehensive about it due to a traumatic childhood event that took place there. He convinces her either way and they go. Later that night when they get back home the power goes out and a weird family dressed in red jumpsuits stand in their driveway. Soon they find themselves face to face with themselves, literally. Now they try to fight for survival and discover the shocking truth behind who these people are and why they are here.

Peele has etched himself a place in the horror genre after two solid films. Get Out was my favourite film of 2017 because it was a well crafted and detailed horror film with excellent social commentary on our world. I'm not alone in that sentiment as Peele won an Oscar for his writing. So despite Us being his second film, the expectations seem to be high. So it is interesting to see this film be a huge hit with critics and have the audience be the ones who are so divisive about it.

There isn't any wasted space here. Peele writes very specifically and shows us what we need to see when we need see it. Everything has a meaning, so when the film opens with something as innocent as an ad for Hands Across America, you have to expect it to come back into the story in some weird way. In Get Out there are so many little bits and pieces that 'click' into place when the film is over that you want to watch it again to see it in a different perspective. There are plenty of moments in that film that I'm sure people are still discovering them. Peele does that again here and it just shows how skilled of a screenwriter he is.

WARNING: "Us" spoilers below
When we first see the doubles, only the lead can speak and she can only speak in a raspy soreness that is immediately off-putting. No one else is able to, they can only grunt to communicate. Why? Well, it makes sense when we discover the twist is that Red is actually the little girl on the beach at the beginning. The double swapped places, so it makes sense that she is the only one who can speak. But why the weird voice? The double crushed her larynx when they met and she has no one to talk to down the rabbit hole. This could be the first time she has spoken in years for all we know. The biblical number we see, 11:11 is about Judgement Day, we see this sign multiple times on the clocks, ambulance and televisions.

Why is the little boy's face burned? Because his tethered duo above keeps playing with that magic lighter. So it makes sense that the kid had to copy the move and ended up with burns. The handcuffs that Adelaide has on almost the entire film? Those are the same cuffs that she used to trap her tethered to the bed down below. While on the beach hanging out with Elizabeth Moss she isn't chatty and says to her "I'm not good at...talking". Things that we don't really question in the moment make total sense after the fact.


Excellent use of music and the score works well here. The slow haunting piece of "I Got 5 On It" works brilliantly here. Peele is a horror fan and that shows in his work. He has the entire picture mapped out in his head and is able to transfer it clear enough to the screen in writing, direction and small choices in music that the entire thing just works. He likes to place little nods to other horror films and Us has a ton of them. From the overhead driving Shining shot to referencing a movie being shot on the boardwalk (That movie would be The Lost Boys)

Lupita Nyong'o shines here with her double duty. Her movements of Red are creepy and specific. Her voice is eerie, but my theatre actually laughed when she spoke. Despite that, she nails the roles and is the clear highlight from the cast. Another solid performance comes from Elizabeth Moss. She has a small role, but one scene in particular where she is screaming in agony which turns into some weird maniacal laughter is spine tingling. Congrats to the kids as well, for not being annoying. I'm glad that we didn't get too much of the "phone addicted teenager" or "kid does something stupid and costs someone something" because those are cliches that are tired and Peele seems too smart to fall for those.

So if so much of this film works why am I going to complain about it? Why is it not a higher rating? Once Peele starts peeling back the layers of these people, the cracks actually begin to show.

WARNING: "Us" spoilers below
Peele leaves a lot unanswered or ambiguous. Cool, I'm down with that, but other parts not so much. So it's my understanding that these duos are clones from the government. They are using the abandoned and unused tunnels to experiment. They decide to abandon this experiment but leave these "people" down there. These clones are 'tethered' to their real life counter-parts on the surface (how they were all cloned? Who knows). So this means that they copy their movements exactly. If people are on a roller-coaster, then the tethered underground are moving around as if they are as well. If a couple is playing rock, paper, scissors then so are their tethered down below. This is key because the son uses the tethered to have one of the clones kill himself in a fire. But how this works is unanswered as Peele only uses it to his convenience within the plot.

When it is revealed at the end that our Adelaide was actually the clone from the basement and she had switched with her real life counter-part...why didn't the real Adelaide just walk up the escalator and escape? Is she 'tethered" down there? Why wait so many years for some weird insane revenge plot where every clone escapes, kills their real life above ground person and then form the hands across america symbolism? Is it because she has to be close to her double to be able to escape? Why now? Why not any other year they go to the beach house? We know that some clones have already gone to the top because the guy holding the biblical sign was killed by his double before they even reach the beach. How easy would it have been for her to run up, grab some police and show the hoards of people down below. Then have them take her home and surprise her double?

Where the hell did those red jumpsuits come from? Are they making these things down there? They have nothing there but rabbits to eat. Where did the scissors come from or the glove? Are they going to the top to steal these items in bulk? I get the themes behind the scissors, but the practicality of them are pretty terrible. There are plenty of things to question towards the end of the film.


More frustration comes from the ending. Not that is was bad, it ended the way it had to end. From the fact that it is so telegraphed from the beginning that there is no real shock factor. I felt like I was waiting for Peele to catch up to me the entire time for the reveal. Had there been more of a shock moment, maybe my overall reaction would be different. I do like that he asks the viewer to question whether they are questioning their allegiance. Us still showcases the talents of the filmmaker and it is a welcome addition to the horror genre for me. Peele just doesn't want to scare people, he has thematic elements and brings some intelligence to his films. Bravo.
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Suspect's Reviews



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I saw the movie tonight and even though I have now read what the movie is about, I still feel I have unanswered questions.

SPOILERS

Why did the families doubles not want to kill them but teach them some sort of lesson. The doubles wanted to hold them there alive for some reason, but we never find out what this reason is, since the family escapes and kills the doubles.

However, the doubles of the white married couple in the other house kill them immediately. Why did the white doubles want to kill the white couple immediately, but yet the doubles of the main family, want to keep them alive?

Also how is it that the male kid was able to control the double's movements and get his double to burn, when he had no control over the double's movements before? This seemed very inconsistent to me, and how did the kid figure it out, when he had no control over the double before?

Also, when Adelaide remembers that when she was a child that she switched with her double, why is it that she only remembered it right at the ending? Switching with your double when you are around 9 years old, and then living the rest of your life in a different dimension does not seem like something you would forget. It seemed to me that the only reason why the writers had her forget, is so she could remember right at the end, since that was the most convenient time for her to remember, just to give the twist maximum oomf. But it came off was too convenient, to the point where it felt gimmicky to me.

And also, who are all these people in a different dimension? Why do they live in this underground building world. They give us the who, what, where and when, but not the why it seems. I feel that the writer really needed to spend more time on developing the story world, rather than focus so much time on chasing, violence and killing, only to rush and pile on an explanation to everything in the end.

But what do you think, did I miss something?



Us




There are a few frustrating things about this film that is holding me back from giving it glowing praise and a highly recommended rating. Those issues fall under the illogical nature of Peele trying to explain things towards the end. This movie is so expertly crafted that it hurts to be so divisive over it. I'll go into as much detail as I can as to why this film is just short of being really great and how frustrating that is.

Adelaide, her husband Gabe and their two children vacation at their beach house in Santa Cruze. Gabe wants to take the family down to the beach, but Adelaide is apprehensive about it due to a traumatic childhood event that took place there. He convinces her either way and they go. Later that night when they get back home the power goes out and a weird family dressed in red jumpsuits stand in their driveway. Soon they find themselves face to face with themselves, literally. Now they try to fight for survival and discover the shocking truth behind who these people are and why they are here.

Peele has etched himself a place in the horror genre after two solid films. Get Out was my favourite film of 2017 because it was a well crafted and detailed horror film with excellent social commentary on our world. I'm not alone in that sentiment as Peele won an Oscar for his writing. So despite Us being his second film, the expectations seem to be high. So it is interesting to see this film be a huge hit with critics and have the audience be the ones who are so divisive about it.

There isn't any wasted space here. Peele writes very specifically and shows us what we need to see when we need see it. Everything has a meaning, so when the film opens with something as innocent as an ad for Hands Across America, you have to expect it to come back into the story in some weird way. In Get Out there are so many little bits and pieces that 'click' into place when the film is over that you want to watch it again to see it in a different perspective. There are plenty of moments in that film that I'm sure people are still discovering them. Peele does that again here and it just shows how skilled of a screenwriter he is.

WARNING: "Us" spoilers below
When we first see the doubles, only the lead can speak and she can only speak in a raspy soreness that is immediately off-putting. No one else is able to, they can only grunt to communicate. Why? Well, it makes sense when we discover the twist is that Red is actually the little girl on the beach at the beginning. The double swapped places, so it makes sense that she is the only one who can speak. But why the weird voice? The double crushed her larynx when they met and she has no one to talk to down the rabbit hole. This could be the first time she has spoken in years for all we know. The biblical number we see, 11:11 is about Judgement Day, we see this sign multiple times on the clocks, ambulance and televisions.

Why is the little boy's face burned? Because his tethered duo above keeps playing with that magic lighter. So it makes sense that the kid had to copy the move and ended up with burns. The handcuffs that Adelaide has on almost the entire film? Those are the same cuffs that she used to trap her tethered to the bed down below. While on the beach hanging out with Elizabeth Moss she isn't chatty and says to her "I'm not good at...talking". Things that we don't really question in the moment make total sense after the fact.


Excellent use of music and the score works well here. The slow haunting piece of "I Got 5 On It" works brilliantly here. Peele is a horror fan and that shows in his work. He has the entire picture mapped out in his head and is able to transfer it clear enough to the screen in writing, direction and small choices in music that the entire thing just works. He likes to place little nods to other horror films and Us has a ton of them. From the overhead driving Shining shot to referencing a movie being shot on the boardwalk (That movie would be The Lost Boys)

Lupita Nyong'o shines here with her double duty. Her movements of Red are creepy and specific. Her voice is eerie, but my theatre actually laughed when she spoke. Despite that, she nails the roles and is the clear highlight from the cast. Another solid performance comes from Elizabeth Moss. She has a small role, but one scene in particular where she is screaming in agony which turns into some weird maniacal laughter is spine tingling. Congrats to the kids as well, for not being annoying. I'm glad that we didn't get too much of the "phone addicted teenager" or "kid does something stupid and costs someone something" because those are cliches that are tired and Peele seems too smart to fall for those.

So if so much of this film works why am I going to complain about it? Why is it not a higher rating? Once Peele starts peeling back the layers of these people, the cracks actually begin to show.

WARNING: "Us" spoilers below
Peele leaves a lot unanswered or ambiguous. Cool, I'm down with that, but other parts not so much. So it's my understanding that these duos are clones from the government. They are using the abandoned and unused tunnels to experiment. They decide to abandon this experiment but leave these "people" down there. These clones are 'tethered' to their real life counter-parts on the surface (how they were all cloned? Who knows). So this means that they copy their movements exactly. If people are on a roller-coaster, then the tethered underground are moving around as if they are as well. If a couple is playing rock, paper, scissors then so are their tethered down below. This is key because the son uses the tethered to have one of the clones kill himself in a fire. But how this works is unanswered as Peele only uses it to his convenience within the plot.

When it is revealed at the end that our Adelaide was actually the clone from the basement and she had switched with her real life counter-part...why didn't the real Adelaide just walk up the escalator and escape? Is she 'tethered" down there? Why wait so many years for some weird insane revenge plot where every clone escapes, kills their real life above ground person and then form the hands across america symbolism? Is it because she has to be close to her double to be able to escape? Why now? Why not any other year they go to the beach house? We know that some clones have already gone to the top because the guy holding the biblical sign was killed by his double before they even reach the beach. How easy would it have been for her to run up, grab some police and show the hoards of people down below. Then have them take her home and surprise her double?

Where the hell did those red jumpsuits come from? Are they making these things down there? They have nothing there but rabbits to eat. Where did the scissors come from or the glove? Are they going to the top to steal these items in bulk? I get the themes behind the scissors, but the practicality of them are pretty terrible. There are plenty of things to question towards the end of the film.


More frustration comes from the ending. Not that is was bad, it ended the way it had to end. From the fact that it is so telegraphed from the beginning that there is no real shock factor. I felt like I was waiting for Peele to catch up to me the entire time for the reveal. Had there been more of a shock moment, maybe my overall reaction would be different. I do like that he asks the viewer to question whether they are questioning their allegiance. Us still showcases the talents of the filmmaker and it is a welcome addition to the horror genre for me. Peele just doesn't want to scare people, he has thematic elements and brings some intelligence to his films. Bravo.
Nice work.

My theory for your question on 'why now' - is that like the "rise of the right" analogy - it's because those feelings have laid dormant until now, and now because of the socio-political perfect storm we find ourselves in - it is brought to the surface. She waited and waited until the time was right - until Adelaide was on the beach again.

I think some things in this film are purely plot devices, I mean are we really going to question where the tethered got thousands of pairs of gold scissors from? It's pointless really or we wouldn't have a film in the first place. It is not a perfect movie, but it's very well crafted and very well thought out.



28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
It seems like a logical question to me. The film showcases people using ordinary household items as weapons throughout. Peele has mentioned he loves seeing people do that in movies. So to purposely incorporate that but to give these others people with no access to anything a golden weapon, it seems odd and questionable.



Welcome to the human race...
Maybe part of the reason it took so long was so that they could get those things together for this very purpose.

Do you think the mum swapped him early on and he was also a tethered one? That would explain why he was building tunnels on the beach and why the mum yelled Nooooo when the clone boy died in the fire.
I don't think so. If she was Tethered all along then that would explain why she acts so distraught over the Tethered son dying (and also why her response to seeing the Tethered daughter dying slowly in the trees is just to watch with a sad look on her face).
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Welcome to the human race...
Why did the families doubles not want to kill them but teach them some sort of lesson. The doubles wanted to hold them there alive for some reason, but we never find out what this reason is, since the family escapes and kills the doubles.
I would think it was forcing them to acknowledge that they (and the rest of the Tethered) existed and could not just be ignored by the people responsible for creating them. As for why the main family was more or less intended to be left alive, that has to do with the established connection between Adelaide and Red and how it's about making sure that the person who gets to understand why this is all happening is also the one who is indirectly responsible for the uprising itself taking place.

However, the doubles of the white married couple in the other house kill them immediately. Why did the white doubles w.ant to kill the white couple immediately, but yet the doubles of the main family, want to keep them alive?
Because Red is revealed to be the only one who was an "original" human all along, which also explains why she's the only one capable of speech and acts more intelligently than the rest of the Tethered (which includes the white couple who act just like regular Tethered) to the point of being the one to organise them all.

Also how is it that the male kid was able to control the double's movements and get his double to burn, when he had no control over the double's movements before? This seemed very inconsistent to me, and how did the kid figure it out, when he had no control over the double before?
Guessing it's the kind of trope where the youngest and least skeptical family member is the one who's the most susceptible to the supernatural forces at play and possibly the most capable of defending against them. He realises that he can manipulate the connection with his double early on with his use of the lighter-ring in the closet scene and that is what pays off with him pulling off the fire walk later on in the film.

Also, when Adelaide remembers that when she was a child that she switched with her double, why is it that she only remembered it right at the ending? Switching with your double when you are around 9 years old, and then living the rest of your life in a different dimension does not seem like something you would forget. It seemed to me that the only reason why the writers had her forget, is so she could remember right at the end, since that was the most convenient time for her to remember, just to give the twist maximum oomf. But it came off was too convenient, to the point where it felt gimmicky to me.
You can consider that an example of repressed childhood trauma, which ties into the idea of the Tethered being "forgotten", plus she could just an unreliable narrator anyway as she only seems to remember the initial part of the flashback but not the rest of it. Might have to see it again to see what clues they are as to how much she is truly conscious of throughout the film.

And also, who are all these people in a different dimension? Why do they live in this underground building world. They give us the who, what, where and when, but not the why it seems. I feel that the writer really needed to spend more time on developing the story world, rather than focus so much time on chasing, violence and killing, only to rush and pile on an explanation to everything in the end.
I don't think it's ever even suggested that they live in a separate dimension so much as just inhabiting abandoned underground tunnels, but...they do give us the why. It's a government experiment gone wrong and abandoned and virtually none of them have the capacity for breaking away from their programming.



Great analysis of the film. I watched it this past Friday. I really enjoyed it. Get Out is still the better film of the 2 Peele films. Can't wait to see what he comes up with next.
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Movie Forums Squirrel Jumper
I would think it was forcing them to acknowledge that they (and the rest of the Tethered) existed and could not just be ignored by the people responsible for creating them. As for why the main family was more or less intended to be left alive, that has to do with the established connection between Adelaide and Red and how it's about making sure that the person who gets to understand why this is all happening is also the one who is indirectly responsible for the uprising itself taking place.



Because Red is revealed to be the only one who was an "original" human all along, which also explains why she's the only one capable of speech and acts more intelligently than the rest of the Tethered (which includes the white couple who act just like regular Tethered) to the point of being the one to organise them all.



Guessing it's the kind of trope where the youngest and least skeptical family member is the one who's the most susceptible to the supernatural forces at play and possibly the most capable of defending against them. He realises that he can manipulate the connection with his double early on with his use of the lighter-ring in the closet scene and that is what pays off with him pulling off the fire walk later on in the film.



You can consider that an example of repressed childhood trauma, which ties into the idea of the Tethered being "forgotten", plus she could just an unreliable narrator anyway as she only seems to remember the initial part of the flashback but not the rest of it. Might have to see it again to see what clues they are as to how much she is truly conscious of throughout the film.



I don't think it's ever even suggested that they live in a separate dimension so much as just inhabiting abandoned underground tunnels, but...they do give us the why. It's a government experiment gone wrong and abandoned and virtually none of them have the capacity for breaking away from their programming.
Oh okay, thanks. But I feel that this explanation does raise more questions. Like if these people in red are a government experiment gone wrong who live in tunnels, how come no one has ever seen these people ever?



Movie Forums Squirrel Jumper
Well people go into these underground tunnels for all sorts of reasons like work or travel for example.



28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
Well people go into these underground tunnels for all sorts of reasons like work or travel for example.
They are not in a subway tunnels. For creepy subway tunnel movies see Creep (2004).

The text at the beginning says some have no purpose whatsoever. The purpose of this underground tunnel was for the experiment. So unless you knew where it was, no one would really stumble upon it. The one entrance way we see is hidden behind a secret door.



Movie Forums Squirrel Jumper
Okay thanks. But I feel that that video explanation still left a lot out. One question I have is the huge coincidences. How is it that Adelaide just so happen marry the same guy, and they just happen to have the same kids, that were also Tethers. If this was a government how did the government know that Adelaide would marry the same man and have the same kids, that the government produced? Did the government watch the family and say "okay Adelaide married this particular man, and they had these particular children on these particular dates.

Which means in order for us to complete expirement without tethers, we have to get our Adelaide tether to bread with the same husband tether and have the same kids." The only thing is, by the time the government finds this out, they will be off in the timing if having the tethers have the kids at the same time, since they have to wait for the real Adelaide to have her kids first.

How does this make any sense? The video didn't even try to explain the huge coincidence there.



28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
You missed big parts of the film then. Because Adelaide married Gabe, Red was FORCED to be with Abraham. They are thethered. Whatever happens above happens below. So it’s the same kids, same marriage, same scars, etc.