This is…

To start with, I have one thing to say.

Get Out is the better movie. I’ve now seen Us twice, and while it’s gotten better the second time, Get Out is still the better movie. Yeah, I thought I’d get that one out of the way immediately. 

The plot of Us concerns the Wilsons, made up of parents Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’ o) and Gabe (Winston Duke) and children Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and Jason (Evan Alex). One night, Adelaide explains to Gabe that when she was little, she encountered someone who looked exactly like her, and it’s something that she’s still terrified of. And I do not understand why encountering someone who looks like you would be frightening, because that’s even before we find out that the doubles are murderous. Frankly, if I were to encounter someone who was my exact double, after the shock wore off, that would be cool. (spoiler) Adelaide’s fear of her doppelganger makes a lot more sense once when you see the ending, but still. (/spoiler)

What exactly are the doppelgangers, known as the Tethered? Well, as Adelaide’s counterpart, Red states, they’re Americans. At first, that seems like a kind of funny, throwaway line, like the Joker saying he wants his face to be on the $1 bill, but it turns out to be foreshadowing (spoiler) that the Tethered are the product of a secret, U.S. (get it) government mind-control experiment. (/spoiler) Red also explains that because of a shared mental link, they hate the originals. So they have come to murder them with an impractical weapon like scissors for the symbolism.

I spent most of my first viewing of this movie, wondering where is this going. Then the ending reveals that (spoiler) Red is the original Adelaide, forced to switch places with her during there childhood encounter. Oh s**t, I’ve been Keyser Sözed. Except now a part of me is going ‘how did I not figure that out?’ The main character, actually being the clone/double is one of the oldest tricks in the book. And like in Get Out, there is a s**tload of foreshadowing. And as Peele has explained in an interview, that ties into how ‘we’ ere the bad guy’ theme the movie has. (/spoiler)

One of the most prominent features of this film is rabbits, who are a reoccurring motif the way deer are in Get Out. According to Jordan Peele, rabbits are scary because they’re like sociopaths. When you look into their eyes, you can tell that they have no empathy. Frankly, I feel like you could say that about any animal, including those that are much less cute and cuddly, so I guess we’re going to have to agree to disagree. Because the only rabbits that I think are frightening are the Rabbit of Caerbannog and that one rabbit with the scary voice in Toy Story 4.

A similarity Us has with Get Out is that there are some great comedic moments in this film. Like when Jason wonders aloud, (spoiler) “how many of everybody is there going to be.” Cue the ‘oh shit’ expressions on everybody’s faces and the cut to them watching the news and finding out yes, this is happening all over. And then another shot reveals that a Tethered dispatched earlier has landed in a coffee table in front of the tv, which the Wilsons aren’t paying attention to because that’s no longer even a little noteworthy. (/spoiler) It’s a very dark but funny sight gag. Almost as good as Zora arguing that she should drive because she has the highest kill count, which leads to the family tallying up their scores.

While this movie doesn’t comments on race and class as much as Get Out does, traces of it are here as well. For instance, the Wilsons are friends with this white family, the Tylers, who besides being wealthier, are much more shallow, materialistic, and rude, but they don’t seem too bad. I mean, the patriarchs are the only ones that seem genuinely close, but the two families seem to get along fine enough. Hell, the Tylers look like the Cleavers in comparison to the Armitages. Plus, Gabe’s also shown to not be above conspicuous consumption either. Just look at how he proudly shows off the boat he just bought and how Gabe doesn’t agree to run away until he realizes (spoiler) that with the Tylers dead, they can declare finders keepers on their car. (/spoiler)

My initial impression of this movie was that it would have worked better as an hour-long Twilight Zone episode. Which would be the attack on the Wilson’s home, the twist, and possibly without the explanation of what the Tethered are, because an explanation’s not that important. Once again, this is another opinion that has not changed after my initial viewing.