In recent years, Jordan Peele has released three spectacular films. The movies Nope, Us, and Get Out, may be the best horror selection out there for any horror marathon. These, all directed by Jordan Peele, include the best suspense I have ever seen in a movie. All have an intricate plot line woven with horror that leaves you needing to search for an explanation of their ending on BuzzFeed. The sense of a strong plot line in all of these truly enhances their ratings. Nothing can top an interesting plot intermixed with jump scares and disturbing background music. A possibility for why these movies gained so much popularity is the reality of them all. These stories begin almost normal until they become more and more difficult to sit and watch without shielding your eyes. Besides a grateful ounce of comedy, the plot lines quickly become convoluted, disturbing, and confusing. I rewatched this movie to create this article and I do believe that the film becomes clearer as it moves along. Everything that Jordan Peele includes is necessary to the current or later plot. Out of the selection, the movie Us is by far my favorite and ranked first on my ongoing favorite horror movie list. Today, I will dive into this movie in particular and discuss its complex characters and plot. As a warning, this includes spoilers. 

The movie Us is one that I find myself constantly bringing up on a family night when deciding what to watch. Although it is shockingly always rejected as an option – due to its horror attributions – it truly has more layers to it than it comes across, literally. It is good to know that the meaning does not always appear right away and it may come to light afterward when you realize the true implications of Jordan Peele’s masterpiece. The filming of the movie itself is terrifying, a picturesque film with cast members trained to acquire a frightening persona. Lupita Nyong’o takes the cake as my favorite character in the movie as she plays both Adeline and her doppelgänger, Red. Although Red can speak, when she does it comes across as raspy and broken. The background music is unlike your average horror movie’s eerie silence, it becomes hard to listen and leaves you shaking in your bones. Another plus that adds to the movie’s alarming cinema is the movements of the tethered. Red walks in a slow “Halloween” like pace, moving her head, if ever, in quick jolts. The father, Gabe, struts similarly and once in a while, in an attempt to scream, widens his mouth and yells. The son acts and barks like a dog and the daughter can run and climb abnormally fast, always having a sharp grin on her face. A normal family going on vacation is the original, relatable plot line. But we soon learn that everyone is not who they seem. Jordan Peele makes great efforts to include some type of twist in all three movies. The cover work should be credited for designing it to reveal a part of the deeper meaning of the movie through the depiction of Adeline, Red, a mask, and scissors. I will not connect the dots in this article but I highly recommend you check it out, find clarity, and determine the truth about the movie’s cover. 

The movie begins with text describing a separate world below the United States. An underground system of tunnels and subway lines that “have no known purpose” and are supposedly empty. We soon learn that this place holds a group of underserved and disadvantaged people, the tethered. Throughout the movie, Peele labels the tethered as people who have no purpose compared to those above ground. These connections hint at how there is a type of unfairness and separation between the two groups of people. The whole plot of the movie is the tethered working against this stereotype and Red even goes on to claim that “we’re Americans,” when asked who they are. The movie shifts into a festival scene which we discover is a memory of the main character, Adeline. Through the mirrored maze Adeline makes contact with a tethered version of herself. The use of the mirror maze and the sign that hangs above the entrance spelling out “find yourself” foreshadows the doppelgänger of the tethered. Afterward, Adeline is traumatized and remains silent for a long time.

We learn to side with the family at the beginning, enjoy their comedy, and experience their fear as they travel to their family beach house for a vacation. The father takes on the role of comedian while the mother, Adeline is fairly quiet. The family is interrupted by a family standing awkwardly in their driveway, on the first night of their trip. It is revealed to be a doppelgänger family, almost identical to them, each member with respective, unnatural characteristics, a red jumpsuit, and a pair of sharp scissors. These are the tethered who are stuck in a poor world underneath reality. Jordan Peele associates a deeper meaning with each doppelgänger. Red, the mother figure of the family, is the only one of the tethered that can speak, the reason behind this is revealed at the end of the film. Red and the rest of her tethered family hold a pair of scissors. Scissors are symbolic of a revolt that is occurring, the tethered breaking away from their underground homes, determined to win over their country and replace their on Earth doppelgangers. Jordan Peele, as always, incorporates a greater purpose and meaning into this revolution. Dividing humans and the tethered mimics the division of injustice in the real world. Including clips that compare the two worlds in the movie, we can visualize the disadvantages of the tethered world. The same situations are happening above ground and underground but in different ways. Underground characters do not have the same rollercoasters and prizes as those above ground would have on a typical day at the fair. The details in this film are so extraordinary that no matter how much I explain I simply can not cover it all and you must watch the movie yourself.