Jordan Peele's follow-up to his masterly debut Get Out is a terrifying plunge into the double
depths of humanity.
And hidden in the movie's opening scenes and throughout the film are a stack of clues that
cleverly reveal its dramatic twist ending.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, I'm Jan and today I'm really excited to peel back and break
down for you the many layers of the horrifying and thrilling film Us.
We've got tons of easter eggs you may have missed and hidden secrets to examine; and
there will, of course, be spoilers, so take care if you haven't seen it yet.
Let's quickly review what happened at the end of Us so we understand exactly how all
the clues in the movie foreshadow and explain the final twist.
The Tethered were originally created as part of an experiment to control their above-ground
counterparts.
When that failed, the doubles were abandoned in their underground world of tunnels.
But Red, Adelaide's double, helps the Tethered rise up against the above-ground people, killing
many of them and forming a human chain across the land.
However, the twist we discover is that the Tethered's leader Red is actually the original
Adelaide.
In the 1980s fairground scene, young Adelaide encountered her double in a hall of mirrors.
Adelaide's double overpowered her and took Adelaide's place with her parents above ground.
In the final showdown, present-day Adelaide kills Red burying underground forever the
truth about who she really is, or at least that's what she thinks.
Because her son Jason was also in the tunnels when Red revealed that present-day Adelaide
was originally one of the Tethered, and it seems like he may have overheard her secret.
Which is why he gives her a sort of strange look and pulls down his mask as they drive
off in the final scene.
So, now we've got the ending covered, let's jump back to the movie's opening scenes where
Jordan Peele laid clues for everything in the ending and the twist.
The movie starts with Young Adelaide watching a Hands Across America commercial, which is
full of imagery and themes we'll see repeated during the film.
The idea of doubles and twins is immediately brought up with the mention of 6 million people
and 12 million eyes, the Twin Towers, the repeated letter Gs of the Golden Gate bridge,
and the words 'from sea to shining sea' accompany an image of a lighthouse which appears twice,
once on the left of the screen and then immediately flipped with a mirror image to the right;
and to cap it all, after the promo ends, we see a copy of Young Adelaide reflected in
the TV screen, sitting next to a white rabbit toy.
Now, that's intriguing because the advert is a huge clue to the real identity of the
Tethered's leader.
When Young Adelaide is switched with her tethered counterpart, her tethered double steals her
Michael Jackson Thriller T-shirt and leaves her only with her Hands Across America T-shirt.
Over the years she spent growing up underground, Adelaide, who we now call Red, found inspiration
in memories from her previous life above ground.
Her memory of that 1986 Hands Across America charity event during which millions of Americans
formed a human chain across parts of the country to raise money for the homeless is something
that's been seared into her brain.
And so Red takes inspiration from that to organise an act of rebellion where the Tethered
send a bloody message by rising up, killing their above-ground counterparts, and recreating
that human chain from Hands Across America.
The clothes worn by the Tethered give their group the feeling of a cult or escaped prisoners,
which in a way they are.
And Red, who designed these outfits, took inspiration from several classic horror and
cultural icons from the time prior to 1986 when she was still above ground.
The red work-wear jumpsuits and the single gloves worn by the doppelgangers are a nod
to Michael Jackson's Thriller video as well as his custom of donning a glove on just one
hand.
Their outfits also evoke Michael Myers' overalls in the Halloween movies.
And, likewise, their gloves are a shout-out to Freddie Krueger's look in the Nightmare
on Elm Street series, a VHS tape of which you see by the TV set at the start of Peele's
film, which is doubly fitting as it's one of the director's favourite horrors.
Another of those VHS tapes by the TV is the mid-80s horror film C.H.U.D., which hints
nicely at how Us will end because as well as featuring monsters living beneath the streets
who eventually emerge above ground, C.H.U.D. also includes a government cover-up and, interestingly
for Peele's movie, people who go missing.
By the way, the idea of conspiracies also pops up early on in Us when Zora says that
the government uses fluoride in water to control people's minds.
Not only is this a pointer to the failed experiment revealed at the end of the movie, but it may
also be a little shout-out to the movie Dr Strangelove, especially given Jordan Peele's
love of Stanley Kubrick films like The Shining.
Another key detail to understand the film's ending is the constant repetition of the number
11.
In the very first scene, there's the news and weather promo, "all on 7 at 11".
There's the prize young Adelaide choses at the fairground, "I want number 11", she tells
her dad.
There's the alarm clock that hits 11 minutes past 11 shortly before the Wilsons' doubles
turn up and wreak havoc.
And those same numbers are on the roof of the ambulance as it drives away at the end.
And, importantly, a man with a "Jeremiah 11:11" sign pops up by the beach in the past and
the present.
The man with the sign is a harbinger of doom, as you can tell from his Biblical verse: "Therefore
this is what the Lord says: 'I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape.
Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them."
This Biblical warning precedes Adelaide's traumatic experiences in both the past and
the present.
What's intriguing for this movie though is that this particular chapter of the Bible
is all about how God's people have forgotten their own history, where they come from, and
the commitment and promises they made to get to where they are.
All of which ties in nicely with the way Adelaide tries to bury the memory of what happened
in 1986 as she wants to forget how she ended up where she is today.
In other words, she's desperately trying to avoid confronting the fact that she's a doppelganger
who used violence to replace the original Adelaide and now she's terrified what consequences
her actions back then might have for herself and her family today if she returns to the
scene of her original crime.
The film's frequently repeated Bible quote is a stark message that goes out to its protagonists
and viewers in general, and also, given the double meaning of the film's title, specifically
to the US.
When Gabe asks his family's doppelgangers, "What are you people?", the question word
"what" implies a certain dehumanisation as Gabe doesn't quite see the doubles as human
beings.
Red's answer, "We're Americans", is unnerving for the Wilsons who see the strange but familiar
beings in front of them as different, not equal to themselves.
As a visual double of the number 1, the number 11 perfectly suits the film's imagery and
themes of doubling, mirroring, and repetition.
But through the ages, the number 11 has also acquired some interesting symbolism as it
can signify "transition, excess, peril and conflict", all of which there's plenty of
in this film.
And it can also symbolise "sin and repentance", which seems very fitting given this movie
suggests we need to take a long, hard look at ourselves to find the source of our individual
and collective problems rather than constantly be rushing to blame other people or groups
for our self-inflicted disasters.
That is, we are our own worst enemies.
The owl that pops out and frightens Young Adelaide at the fair fits in with the murals
of trees and wildlife around her.
But given the setting is a Vision Quest, with a sign to 'Find Yourself', the bird's symbolism
is also interesting for the film.
In some symbolism, owls are connected to magical forces and the idea of being able to see beyond
your immediate reality, something the film seems to implore us to do.
And it's also intriguing that, symbolically, owls embody the duality seen in the film as
they can be considered a good or a bad omen, depending on what happens next.
Clearly, for young Adelaide, it was a bad omen, though things worked out better for
her doppelganger who got to experience life above ground.
Inside the hall of mirrors, Young Adelaide starts whistling the tune to the nursery rhyme
Itsy Bitsy Spider, but then her clone takes over, whistling it too.
The nursery rhyme is about a spider climbing up a drainpipe before being flushed down again
when it rains.
And then when the sun comes out and dries away the rain, the spider is able to finally
emerge from below.
The lyrics match exactly how young Adelaide's clone comes up to the surface, then drags
Adelaide back down below, before returning to the surface to take young Adelaide's place
in the world above ground.
Years later Red finally has her moment and comes up to the surface for the Untethering.
And that final emergence from below by Red is foreshadowed in the scene at the holiday
home where present-day Adelaide spots a tiny little spider creeping out from below a bigger
toy spider on the coffee table.
The cages of rabbits gradually revealed during the film's opening credits are another fascinating
detail that point to the film's final twist.
Peele moves quickly from an image of young Adelaide's horrified face at seeing her double
for the first time and cuts straight to a close-up of a caged rabbit's face, indicating
young Adelaide's ultimate fate of being caged underground with the Tethered, who, like rabbits,
have been living in tunnels and were used for experiments.
The flashback to Young Adelaide and her parents at the doctors after her traumatic hall of
mirrors experience is another vital clue to the film's body swap twist.
Two details are particularly crucial: first, Adelaide has been acting differently to her
usual self and she doesn't speak.
And secondly, there's her mother's words: 'I just want my little girl back.'
A few scenes later we learn that the Wilson family's doubles do not speak, which explains
why young Adelaide couldn't speak after the funfair.
And the fact that only present-day Adelaide's doppelganger can speak but sounds like someone
who hasn't used her vocal chords in an extremely long time is further evidence of the hall
of mirrors body swap.
Young Adelaide's mum didn't realise, but she never did get her 'little girl back' as the
child living with her after that day in Santa Cruz was actually her daughter's clone.
This hint is echoed in the present day when Adelaide tries to tell her husband Gabe why
she feels so uncomfortable on holiday, 'I don't feel like myself', she says; but just
like Young Adelaide's parents, Gabe doesn't know or understand what that really means,
and replies, 'I think you look like yourself.'
Then there's the way, later during the home invasion, that Red orders Adelaide, 'tether
yourself to the table', an act which mirrors how Young Adelaide's doppelanger chained her
to the bed in the underground tunnels before leaving her there and replacing her above
ground.
Of course, there are other signs that things are not all they appear to be.
For example, in the background here, there's the board game 'Guess Who?', and notice that
other game, 'Magic', is actually turned upside-down, much like Adelaide's life has been since the
hall of mirrors encounter with her double.
Peele's film begins by showing us how we like to think of ourselves – the good Samaritans
of the Hands Across America promo – and ends by exposing our shadowy side which we
so often prefer to keep hidden both from ourselves and the rest of the world.
Essentially, Us is a film about society's hypocrisy, the everyday violence of our privileges
and power, as well as issues such as class, race, xenophobia, and general fear of the
other, as well as the way so many choose to ignore the ties that bind us and look instead
to sow seeds of division, keeping others down in order to raise themselves up, in a constant
game of Whac-a-mole, a game we see Young Adelaide's dad playing as she wanders off, soon to be
lost to her parents forever.
Now, did you catch any other details in Us?
And do you have any theories about the ending?
Let me know in the comments below!
Coming up I'll have new videos on Pet Sematary and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, so if
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all my new videos.
Tap left for my theory on how Us and Get Out are connected or tap right for another video
you're sure to like.
Thanks for watching and see ya next time.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!