- We're breaking down that crazy twist
in Jordan Peele's, Us.
Us dominated the box office this weekend,
and whether you loved it or were traumatized
by the stylized horror flick, we're pretty sure
everyone who saw it will never look at red jumpsuits
or in the mirror, the same way again.
Like any good horror film, Us had
a dynamic and mind-boggling twist
that audiences are still trying to decipher.
So, let's dive in and explain what that crazy ending means.
Of course, if you haven't seen Us, and are planning too
then you might want to get out,
because we will be spoiling the hell out of it!
Seriously, this is your spoiler warning.
(intense music)
Still here?
Cool, let's get in to this.
As you might remember, Lupita Nyong'o's
character Adelaide Wilson is haunted
by a childhood confrontation with a creepy doppelganger
in a hall of mirrors on the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.
The experience traumatizes her
and leaves her wondering for the rest of her life
if a doppelganger is coming for her.
When adult Adelaide and her family go on vacation to
their summer home in Santa Cruz,
her worst fears are realized when they come under attack
by evil doubles of their whole family.
After the Wilson family fights to escape,
or defeat their doubles, we find out that
its not just these four who have murderous, shadow selves.
It's also their next-door neighbors,
along with the rest of the country.
In the final act of the movie,
Adelaide's son Jason, gets kidnapped
by Adelaide's counterpart Red.
Leading her down into an old,
rabbit filled facility below the fun house.
There, Adelaide finds out that the doubles,
called the Tethered in the film,
were an experiment created to control
the citizens of The United States.
When the experiment was abandoned,
the Tethered were left to grow increasingly jealous
of the lives of their counterparts,
which led to their eventual invasion of the surface.
Adelaide manages to defeat Red in a final showdown,
finds her son, and escapes with her family
to rebuild their lives in this new world,
where the Tethered have made their claim
on The United States.
But of course, things aren't just left all neat and tidy
with the hero family making a clean escape.
We find out just before the end
what really happened to young Adelaide
in that fun house mirror all those years ago.
She was actually kidnapped by Red,
the Tether version of herself,
who trapped the original Adelaide below ground
and took Adelaide's place in her family.
Meaning the person we've been rooting for
this whole time was actually the soulless Tether!
And vise-versa.
The big reveal raises a ton more questions,
but it also explains some of the details.
Like why Red is the only one of
the doppelgangers who can speak,
and why exactly her voice sounds the way it does.
Not only is she the original Adelaide
who spent the first several years of her life
above ground, speaking with other normal Americans,
she was also choked by the Tether copy Adelaide,
who probably damaged her voice box.
The film definitely brings out the scares
and gory deaths to satisfy horror fans,
but it also dives into a ton of social issues,
like classism and income inequalities.
Jordan Peele has previously said that Us isn't about race,
but there are still some threads and themes
that touch upon America's socio-political inequalities.
But of course, even with all these heady themes
woven through the film, it was the twist along
with the very last shot of the Tethers
re-enacting Hands Across America,
that has fans wondering, what does this all mean?
Eagle eyed viewers may remember Adelaide watching
a Hands Across America TV commercial
at the beginning of the film.
Later when we see her kidnapped and dragged below ground,
she's seen chained to a bed and wearing
a Hands Across America T-shirt.
This original Adelaide who becomes Red,
clings to the idea of this nation-wide demonstration
and she organizes the Tethered into
their own twisted version of it,
just with a lot more murder than the original.
The last sprawling shot of the chain of Tethers
holding hands across the country shows
that as much as Adelaide would like to forget
who she really is and keep living her life
of normalcy, that's just not possible.
It also reveals that holy crap, there were millions
of these clones living underneath
The United States for more than 30 years!
So clearly the ending of us raises even more questions
than the big reveal answers, like how could
the government possibly think this clone scheme
to control people would work?
And why didn't they terminate these Tethers
when they decided to cancel the program?
And, if the Tethers didn't have souls,
how did Adelaide grow up to have
a real relationship with her family?
Ultimately, while the twist itself is easily explained,
the implications of the world built
by Jordan Peele are left to interpretation.
Even in the scenes where we're given answers,
those just lead to more questions.
The world built by the films narrative is much larger
and we've only seen a glimpse of it.
Who knows what other weird experiments
are lurking beneath the surface?
So will we ever get answers to these questions
and could we ever return to this world
and see how things have shaken out?
Well, when asked by Polygon if he would ever return to
the world of Us, Jordan Peele replied,
"Sure! It's a fun one. There's a lot going on there.
"The 'Us-verse' ... I like that"
Of course if you want even more in-depth analysis on
the film, be sure to head on over to nerdist.com.
But, what do you folks think?
Do you hope to go back to this universe in a sequel?
Are you going to watch Jordan Peele's
take on The Twilight Zone?
And, how can any of us really be sure
we're not the creepy, Tethered versions of ourselves?
Let us, discuss.
Thank you so much for watching,
be sure to like, subscribe and mash
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we go live with a show or drop a new video.
And if this wasn't enough Us for you,
check out the latest Nerdist News Edition
where the cast of Us, tells us what Us means to us.
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