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Jordan Peele's Get Out had a lot to say, but Us is arguably twice as ambitious, doubling down on both the horror and the social commentary. But if you didn't quite catch what the movie was going for, then it might also be a frustrating watch. There's a lot going on beneath the surface of this movie - and we mean that literally.
The premise of Us revolves around sinister, slasher-movie doppelgangers, who show up out of nowhere with apparently murderous motives. It supposedly focuses on one family, the Wilsons, being attacked in a home invasion by brutal copies of themselves. But the third act reveals that it's not just the Wilsons having this strange experience - it's the entire United States of America, with an unfathomably huge army of doubles being led by a woman named Red, the shadow version of Lupita Nyong'o's Adelaide.
That's the first twist the movie throws at you. But the second big twist, teased out slowly, is that the Addie the audience has been following the whole movie isn't the original Adelaide - it's her double, who switched places with her at a young age during the movie's opening flashback scene.
Post-traumatic
Grown-up Addie is haunted by an experience from her youth, when she wandered into a boardwalk funhouse and saw a sinister vision of herself. But the movie leaves out crucial information of what happened during that encounter, apparently reflecting the fact that Addie herself has suppressed what happened. As she recalls, she wandered into the attraction, found herself, and then shortly returned to her panicking parents. But as the final frames of the movie reveal, a whole lot of consequential stuff happened during that brief period - like the fact that the original Addie never came back.
In the movie's final moments, Addie realizes - or perhaps just finally admits to herself - that she is the double from the underground, who strangled the original Addie and took her place, leaving the original Addie shackled down below to begin a new life as Red.
One big clue that this is what happened is that Red is the only one of the doubles that can talk. Everyone else only emits inhuman grunts and moans, with Red speaking in a raspy, damaged voice. Turns out, this comes from the damage her double did to her throat when she strangled her. When the double entered the real world, she still didn't know how to speak, leaving her parents baffled at their daughter's sudden, apparently trauma-induced muteness.
Keep watching the video for the rest of the ending of Us explained!
#Us #UsMovie #JordanPeele
The big reveal | 0:17
Post-traumatic | 0:58
The itsy-bitsy spider | 2:01
Us vs. them | 2:23
You think you know someone… | 3:09
Who did this? | 3:57
United states | 5:18