Blog #12

Us (2019)

Directed by Jordan Peele

The film Us, directed by Jordan Peele, explores Adelaide Wilson’s past traumas that come back to haunt her and her family’s life. What I loved about this film was the plot twist. The whole time, we’re following along Adeline’s journey with PTSD from being tormented by something evil when she was young. Then we come to realize she had switched lives with this underground doppelgänger, the little girl in the mirror. This film had a lot of twists and turns; I’m excited to discuss it further.

Peele used horror to depict the grievances other communities have faced. Throughout the whole film I was thinking of different reasons why these doppelgängers were attacking everyone in sight. I began to piece together that this was a deflected community that had an uprising. Everyone underground was forgotten, suppressed from society. Throughout the whole film, Adelaide had her hands cuffed. This symbol can mean many things, from references of slavery to the “tether” holding them all together. I took this as a reference of slavery and captivity. After Adelaide came from the underground to try and experience a real life above ground, the symbol of handcuffs displayed the suppression she once faced. The “underground tunnels” were also a reference to the underground railroads slaves used to escape their owners. The symbol of white rabbits, and how they are not only easy reproduce but they all look a like, showed how we’re all the same. That “Us”, meaning all people, are trying to live in this world. There were many symbols and metaphors within this film, when all tied together they made so much more sense.

After writing this I could also see this film relating to incarceration rates in the United States. When the doppelgänger family comes and attacks, they could be like the police. Taking people in or killing those who do not corporate. The forgotten people underground are the prisoners in America. Their red suites all represented prison-like uniform in relation in mis-en-scene. Adelaide was taken captive forcefully by this underground world; maybe she was the symbol for a wrongfully accused victim. This film can take many different avenues which is the reason why I believe Peele created it.

The end was another ambiguous one, something we’ve seen many times this semester! My take on this, which many would agree, that the son switched roles with his own doppelgänger like his mother once did. She realizes this at the end when they are driving in the car together. She gives her son a smile and the audience is left guessing. This left me wanting more which is what Peele wants to evoke out of his audience.