Jordan Peele’s film often brings us to question the mere existence of humans and the lengths they can go to for their freedom. ‘Get Out‘, the directional debut of Peele, and ‘Us‘ are almost based on similar lines. But ‘Us’ is kind of the movie that sticks with you, long after you have watched it. The more you dissect the movie, the more interesting it gets. The movie is not just a mere psychological horror movie, it adds several layers to it.
The movie begins with young Adelaide – wandering away into a funhouse, in the hall of mirrors. She is confronted by a copy of herself. Cut to the present, the grownup Adelaide is on vacation with her family in their beach house. And then, they see four figures at the end of their driveway, holding hands, standing motionless. They won’t go away. When, all at once, they converge on the house, the family discovers to their horror — they’re the family’s doppelgangers.
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The Twisted ‘Us’ Ending
The movie revolves around Adelaide and her family fighting tooth and nail with their doppelgangers. The movie literally has you in every scene. Just when you think you have figured the movie out, something new respawns. This movie has metaphors one after the other. Towards the end of the movie, the Wilson family finally makes out to the beach alive. Only to find out more disturbing things. The citizen’s doppelgangers in red suits form a chain starting from the shore to the sea, a replication of Hands Across America. But wait there is more.
In the last segment of the movie, Adelaide enters the hall of the mirror to find her son, who was abducted by Red. She enters an underground tunnel, with rabbits out of their cage and classrooms. Red explains that they are Tethered created by the government, who are shunned away from the rest and restricted to staying in these underground tunnels. One final twist of the movie is revealed – Adelaide is Red and Red is Adelaide.
The movie takes us back to the night of 1986 when Adelaide witnesses her mirror image. But the real shocking event is that the mirror Adelaide choked the real Adelaide unconscious damaging her larynx and taking her to the tunnels and chaining her. Red then takes up Adelaide’s place and adapts to the world above. But Red repressed those memories causing her to forget the incident. It was Adelaide in the red suit trying to fight for her life back above the ground and getting killed. The crucial part of the movie is when Red looks at her son Jason, who is clearly terrified because he knows that Tethered switched places with Adelaide and pulls down his mask.
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‘Us’: Nature Vs Nurture And Other Themes
‘Us’ literally has metaphors lined up in every scene and segment of the film. But the prime theme of the movie is Nature vs Nurture. The movie divided people into two- above-the-ground- humans and below-the-ground- Tethered. When Red switched places with Adelaide, she acclimatized to the world above. That is Nature. In the final segment- when she kills Adelaide, she lets out a roar-Tethered first language. That is Nurture. There is also a theory that Jason and Pluto switched places.
The theme of the movie is forgotten people — which is present in the opening title card about the forgotten tunnels and how the Tethers are forgotten as well. The only difference between the Tethers and the above-ground Americans is that the Tethers were just used, tossed aside, and forgotten by the government. By giving the Tethers names, Peele is also giving them the humanity that the country does not afford them. Tether Gabe is Abraham, Tether Jason is Pluto, and Tether Zora is Umbrae. On a more symbolic level, the names Abraham, Umbrae, and Pluto have significant meanings in mythology and religion.
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