The Story of "Us" Looks a Lot like a Tragedy Now

When Jordan Peele first tweeted the phrase “watch yourself” with a link to the trailer for his latest psychological thriller “Us” he was telling audiences to literally watch themselves. Our tendencies to ignore what we’re uncomfortable with and the act of forgetting one’s history is depicted through the abandoned subways which house the community of tethered people which parallel the Underground Railroad and duality between privileged societies and communities who live in poverty.

The film opens with a shot of a vintage television from the 1980’s which shows an ad for “Hands Across America,” a campaign in which approximately 6.5 million people held hands in a human chain for 15 minutes in an attempt to alleviate poverty. Despite the amount of planning and unitive imagery that was produced out of this event, only half of the donations were actually utilized to alleviate poverty since the other half went to “operating costs.”

Another pivotal theme of he story is represented through the scissors that the tethered carry around as a weapon. The scissors signify duality which is further depicted in Peel’s use of repeated shots, common occurrences, and the doppelgangers.

We’re later introduced to the young Adelaide while on a trip to the Santa Cruz Pier with her parents. We get our first image of broken duality as Adelaide’s mother stands far from her husband who she doesn’t trust because of his inability to take proper care of his daughter and his addiction to smoking. While Adelaide’s father is playing a game at the pier, she tells him that she wants “prize #11” (Jeremiah 11:11) which is a Michael Jackson “Thriller” shirt. It’s no coincidence that “Us” released 2 weeks after “Leaving Neverland” a documentary that exposes the duality of Jackson as a performer to the public eye who was exposed as a child molester. The tethered also wear one glove on their right hand and red jumpsuits as a reference to the artist.

While Adelaide’s absent-minded father continues to play games at the pier, the young girl decides to wander around the beach where she eventually passes a hippie man holding a sign that reads “Jeremiah 11:11” which alludes to a biblical verse that states that evil will come upon us and we won’t be able to escape it. Adelaide continues to venture deeper into the pier while holding a red apple (symbol of temptation of Adam’s apple) where she walks through an attraction featuring a racist caricature on the outside and the line “Find yourself.” While walking through the mirrors, the power shuts off and the girl frantically tries to find the exit but meets her worst nightmare as she faces her doppelganger.

The story jumps to present day and leads with an aerial of rolling hills which is as an homage to Peel’s favorite horror film “The Shining.” In a close-up of the car, we see an older version of Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o) is on a family vacation with her husband Gabe (Winston Duke) and their two children Jason and Zora. Adelaide wears white as a reference to the white rabbits from the underground who lived alongside brown rabbits that were so few in population that they were barely noticeable. Her husband and children wear indigo which was a color of cloth that was often used to trade for slaves. This color was also used in lighting during flashbacks to young Adelaide’s face at the house of mirrors before she’s taken to the underground.

Once they arrive at their vacation home, the father and children exhibit the gluttony of eating fast food while Adelaide eats red strawberries. Gabe tries to convince his wife to visit their friends at the pier, she immediately refuses because of her tainted memories of seeing her doppelganger there as a child but eventually agrees to the trip as long as they only stay during the daylight. While on their way to the beach, the song “I’ve Got Five on It,” starts to play and Adelaide to goads her son to dance to the beat. Just like how Adelaide had trouble speaking because of her past as a tethered, she is unable to fully sync to the beat since she can’t sync with the rest of society. The song also relates to the theme of social economic status and duality since the duo can’t afford a bag of weed on their own so they both have to pitch in $5 in order to buy a bag that’s worth $10.

The family meets with their family friends Kitty Tyler (Elizabeth Moss) and Josh Tyler (Tim Heidecker). After trying to have a conversation Adelaide, Kitty asks her why she’s been so quiet, in which she responds “I have trouble speaking,” since she grew up only knowing how to communicate through a primal language while growing up in the underground. Later on, Adelaide panics when she realizes that Jason is lost and eventually finds that he was near the hall of mirrors that she went through as a child. However, the former racist image that was at the front of the building has been replaced by Merlin, signifying the theme of wiping away one’s past and history.

After they escape from their doppelgängers, the family ends up at Kitty and Josh’s luxury vacation home. After killing her human counterpart, Kitty’s doppelgänger looks creepily happy while putting on lipstick but her smile fades as she uses her scissors to cut the side of her face, mimicking how Kitty had plastic surgery done to correct her facial flaws.

Similar to Kitty’s mask of make-up and plastic surgery, the eventual reveal that Adelaide is actually a tethered causes Jason to puts on his toy mask of childhood innocence as his mother repeats that “everything is going to be okay.” While the reveal of Adelaide as a tethered not only is a reference to the reveal of Michael Jackson as a monster in “Thriller,” it’s also a reflection of the audience. “Us” not only reminds us of the negative implications of forgetting our history, but if we can’t muster the courage to venture our bubbles to face the uncomfortable, even one’s indifference and inaction can feed towards a collective contribution to the demise of the “Us(A)”.