I got 5 on it . . . An in-depth analysis of Us, an Apocalyptic thriller.
I don't go to the movies often, because obviously Hollywood is all about mind control, but Us (2019) is a meaningful one, a film which made me wish I had seen it on the big screen. And this one will definitely have you double-locking your doors at night. Not that it will do you any good, duh!
Written and directed by Jordan Peele, Us is a fantastically frightening silver screen prophecy, abundant with subtle racial undertones, 80's culture Easter eggs, Jungian psychology, hidden occult meanings and Apocalyptic symbology. The film is replete with images of fire, the color red, blood, smoke and mirrors. And of course, lots of shadows.
The movie's dark screen prologue mysteriously informs us of the fact that beneath our very American soil resides thousands of miles of supposedly unused underground tunnels, abandoned subways and deserted mine shafts.
The film opens surprisingly low-key: the image of a 1980's era television. (TV tells lies to your vision.) Following a brief weather blip, the voice of a local newscaster subtly spouts a sound byte of fear concerning the potential consequences of imminent climate change in the San Francisco Bay area. Next comes a benevolent-seeming Hands Across America commercial. Finally, a fun ad for the breezy boardwalk vacation town of nearby Santa Cruz.
The film commences in the year, 1986. One night as a young girl, the film's heroine, Adelaide Wilson (Lupita Nyong'o), became "momentarily" separated from her parents at this same beach town amusement park. Addie's carefree, beer-drinking father had just won her an oversized Michael Jackson Thriller t-shirt, prize number 11, which adorably overshadows her cute little Hands Across America tee (which we won't actually see until much later, Twisted Ending spoiler alert.)
While her mother reluctantly heads to the bathroom, leaving their young daughter in the care of her half-drunk daddy distracted by Whack-a-Mole, young Addie dreamily wanders off. She passes a young beach drifter not-so-subtly brandishing a cardboard Jeremiah 11:11 sign. She slowly saunters towards the dark beach, subtly illuminated with flashes of lightning and peppered with thunder. Suddenly dropping her caramel apple in the sand, Addie ill-advisedly turns to venture into a creepy unmanned funhouse, Merlin's Forest. (Although at first I thought it read Vision Quest.) "Find yourself inside." Startled by an animatronic owl, as the place next goes eerily dark, she becomes frantically lost within the otherworldly confines of the spooky mirror house. In a weak effort to soothe herself, she begins whistling Itsy Bitsy Spider, and soon hears her whistles echoing back to her. But clearly this is no echo. Already on the verge of panic, she then literally backs into the frightful figure of her young underground Doppelganger. Young Addie's overt, almost cartoonish eyes become large as saucers.
In subsequent flashbacks, we learn that Addie was significantly traumatized by the experience. Previously, an aspiring young ballet dancer, the girl even stopped speaking for some period of time. As her concerned parents seek counseling, in a notable scene, Addie's distraught mother proclaims, "That's not my little girl . . ." Usually aided by a convenient mirror, grown-up Addie frequently flashes back to visions of her younger self, and often with a subtly strange, almost alien look in her formidable eyes, a barely discernible inner smile painted across her lips.
The next shot during compulsory opening credits is a purposefully long image slowly panning back from a huge wall of caged rabbits in a dingy, dark room, which to me sort of resembled an abandoned old makeshift classroom. Note the obvious white rabbit symbology, as in Alice in Wonderland, down the rabbit hole, Easter, the Crucifixion, etcetera. (Ironically to this film, in some cultures the rabbit is a spiritual sign of good luck, abundance and something new on the way.)
[Gratuitous aside: The rabbit likewise plays a significant role in lunar mythology. The symbolic 3 hares chasing each other in a circle is a mystical symbol from the Middle and Far East associated with fertility and the lunar cycle. When used in Christian churches, it is presumed to be a symbol of the Trinity. Its origins and original significance are uncertain, as are the reasons why it appears in such diverse locations.
Before the first alleged moon landing in 1969, the Chinese moon goddess Chang-o, or Heng'e, was referred to in the Apollo 11 Air-to-Ground Voice Transcription between the Spacecraft Center in Houston and the Apollo 11 crew. A voice from the center advised, “Among the large headlines concerning Apollo this morning, there's one asking that you watch for a lovely girl with a big rabbit. An ancient legend says a beautiful Chinese girl called Chang-o has been living there for 4,000 years. It seems she was banished to the Moon because she stole the pill of immortality from her husband. You might also look for her companion, a large Chinese rabbit, who is easy to spot since he is always standing on his hind feet in the shade of a cinnamon tree. The name of the rabbit is not reported.” To this, astronaut Buzz Aldrin reportedly replied, “Okay. We'll keep a close eye out for the bunny girl.”
In 2002, a French team of genetic scientists produced the world's first cloned rabbit by employing cells from an adult female rabbit. "The Chinese rabbit was the world's first to be cloned using "fibroblast" cells from a fetal rabbit," reported the China Daily.
Interestingly, the first reported mammal to be cloned was a sheep in 1984.]
Transitioning to present-day, the film officially presents the Wilsons, a typically busy, upper-middle-class African-American family of four, in their car casually en route to their annual summer vacation cottage.
Patiently riding in the backseat are quiet, intuitive 10-year-old Jason and cool, smart-mouthed 12-year-old Zora. Fun-loving Daddy, Gabe Wilson, a slightly clumsy, unapologetic goofball, is excited about meeting their white family friends at the beach in fabled Santa Cruz. Mama Wilson, the now grown-up Adelaide, is firmly resistant to going back to the place but slowly, predictably relents to her quirky, convincing hubby. Back in the car, as the Wilsons casually groove to "I Got 5 on It" by Luniz, Gabe playfully assures his son, young Jason, who overtly dons a cheap Halloween mask, that the song is not about drugs. Although, it clearly is, duh. Though Zora is perpetually attached to her cell phone via earplugs, the children seem more awake than the distracted adults, as she knowingly informs us "the government puts fluoride in our water to control our minds." The grown-ups have no immediate response to the obvious non sequitur.
Excitedly approaching Santa Cruz, the family encounters the scene of an accident, and Addie spies a vaguely familiar, haggard old man being lifted into an ambulance. On his lap the dead or dying man holds a familiar cardboard sign displaying Jeremiah 11:11.
As the Wilsons slowly trudge across the beach to meet their friends, we are treated to a significant shot of the four, intrinsically linked to their immense morning shadows moving side-by-side across the landscape.
Just enjoying a day at the beach, the Wilsons hang out, enduring the vapid company of their superficial, booze-addled, richer friends, Dahlia and Josh Tyler, along with the couple's fairly annoying, hyperactive teenage twin girls, showing off their expert cartwheels. Innocently running off to the port-a-potty, Jason comes across the same funhouse into which his mother disappeared as a child. He then witnesses a strange and very disturbing scarecrow-like figure on the beach, unseasonably coated with bloody hands and arms outstretched, crucifixion-style. Is it a scary homeless person? A ghost? The boy's imagination? We don't know . . . yet. If you notice carefully, you will see the specter is wearing a red jumpsuit. Adelaide soon realizes that her son is missing and panic ensues. She rushes off across the beach in search of him and the two are promptly reunited, no harm done for the moment. The Wilsons decide to call it a day and retreat to their summer cottage.
That evening, Addie appears quite disturbed and is oddly determined to head home prematurely. She confesses to Gabe the incident of her traumatic disappearance as a girl and explains the strange coincidences she has been experiencing, i.e., the tiny spider scurrying across the table, putting her son to bed at 11:11, Jason's creepy drawing of the shadow man, the old man at the accident scene, etc. Addie tells Gabe that she does not feel like herself, as if that shadow girl is close by, coming back to get her. Just then, the cottage lights go dark. Unlike the slightly more privileged Tylers, they have no working back-up generator, Gabe vehemently curses.
This scene raises some interesting points about consciousness. Do our thoughts manifest our reality, or influence it in significant ways? Do our subconscious fears become real just by thinking or feeling them? When you think bad, is that what you get? Own your shadow, or it will own you, Sparky. Moving on . . .
Young Jason suddenly materializes in the bedroom, giving his parents a frightful start. Even more frightening, he promptly informs them there is a strange family standing in their driveway. A disbelieving Gabe's comically lame attempts at scaring off the shadowy intruders with a baseball bat obviously fail. The dark intruders suddenly separate and advance and Daddy Wilson wisely retreats back to the villa. The sinister trespassers commence to invading the family cottage.
Enter the murder clones . . . The mother shadow, we will soon come to know as Red, easily locates the hide-a-key beneath the welcome mat. ("Hide-a-key, what kind of white shit is that," Gabe comically exclaims moments before getting his ass beat.) The shadows indomitably force their way inside despite Gabe's best efforts, and shadow Daddy, Abraham, apparently bigger and stronger than sluggish Gabe, quickly overpowers his inferior counterpart. Big Abe proceeds to mercilessly cripple his tethered human with Gabe's own Louisville Slugger. The creepy shadow children likewise find their way inside, breaking in through windows and such, and the Wilsons are cornered, effectively helpless. Predictable Mr. Wilson foolishly attempts to negotiate with the intruders in material terms. Take my money!
We don't want your stinking money! We want your life, your family, fat boy . . .
The crudely masked shadow Jason, a fast-crawling, fire-obsessed little creep named Pluto carelessly lights up the fireplace.
"Who are you?" finally inquires a petrified and wide-eyed Addie.
We are Americans . . .
Scary Red finally squats down to offer a brief explanation of what the unholy hell is happening here, struggling to utter her disturbing, creaky shadow voice. She starts with a brief intro of the invading shadow fam and commences to tell a short, not-so-sweet story, Once upon a time, there was a little girl and her shadow . . .
They are the Untethered . . . The uninvited guests appear to be shadowy twins of the Wilsons, albeit disheveled and malformed to various degrees. Ruthless Mama Red appears to be the only one who can speak actual words. All wearing red jumpsuits, not unlike escaped convicts, and wielding scissors, the rest of the vengeful clones seem to communicate via hand signals initiated by Red or through primeval grunts, groans and monstrous screeches. Shadow Gabe/Big Abraham is strong and brutal but abnormally clumsy while the shadow children, Shadow Jason/Pluto and Shadow Zora/Umbrae are equally merciless, frightfully agile and move inhumanly fast. Here, we can make some obvious correlations to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in chapter 6 of the Book of Revelation, or War, Famine, Pestilence and Death.
At this point, Red reveals a telling, quite chilling fact regarding the rabbits. Namely, that the poor bunnies, raw and bloody, were the sole food source of the recently escaped underground shadow clones.
Clearly the one in charge here, Red orders Addie to chain herself to the coffee table. She quietly orders Abraham to dispatch of Gabe, offers Zora a slim chance to save herself by running from Umbrae and instructs young Jason to go play with Pluto. Wandering down to the cottage basement, Red finds Addie's childhood stuffed bunny and extracts a bizarre bit of vengeance as she proceeds to scissor off its little head.
Entrancing Pluto with his sparky little magic trick that finally works, Jason temporarily locks his pyromaniac shadow in the tricky closet. Dragged out to his rented boat by Abraham and stuffed in a giant trash bag, Gabe manages to push Big Abe, momentarily distracted by the faulty boat motor and some strange screeching from across the water, into the lake. Zora likewise escapes from Umbrae, who is distracted by the disgruntled guy whose car she jumped on, and who then is promptly murdered by Umbrae. The Wilsons eventually reunite and escape in the boat to flee across the lake to take refuge at the nearby Tylers'.
Meanwhile, the unsuspecting Tylers are likewise being invaded by their homicidal white shadows, all four effectively dispatched to the underworld in an unholy heartbeat. All this wonderfully ironic carnage happening to the unsympathetic sounds of the Beach Boys' Good Vibrations (How white can you get?) and NWA's Fuck the Po-lice. (How much blacker can you get?) Very shortly, the unfortunate Wilsons stumble directly into the grisly scene. The truly psychotic shadow Dahlia captures Addie as Gabe battles cheeky shadow Josh, clumsily luring him down to the boat. Brandishing a handy golf club, Zora single-handedly takes out the whirling dervish shadow twins only to be overpowered by shadow Dahlia, who spies her sneak attack in the bedroom mirror. Jason saves his big sister and Addie by braining evil Dahlia with the hefty art knick-knack he has chosen as his makeshift weapon. Outside, Gabe manages to do away with shadow Josh with a little help from the boat's handy flare gun.
Briefly recuperating, just chilling now at the Tylers' bloody crime scene cottage, the Wilsons find that calling 9-1-1 tonight is totally useless. The po-lice are more than a little preoccupied tonight. They discover from the rather disturbing TV news report that what is happening appears to be a nationwide if not global pandemic of terror. The escaped shadow people have mounted an inexplicably well-coordinated attack of vengeful mass murder and are presently forming some manner of ghoulish Hands Across America coalition.
A tired, wounded and nearly-defeated Gabe wants to stay put en casa but the uncharacteristically aggressive Addie, who has obviously taken charge of the family at this juncture, insists they run, promptly head to Mexico, muy pronto. While retrieving the Tylers' car key, she is waylaid by a still not-dead shadow Dahlia. Addie manages to stretch out for a pair of discarded scissors in the nick of time and viciously slashes her attacker to death just as Jason walks back into the cottage. Mother and son share an odd, ambiguous look.
What follows is yet another thrilling scene in which an Uber persistent and obviously fearless Umbrae continues doggedly to pursue the Wilsons, desperately fleeing in the Tylers' stolen luxury SUV. Not that those empty-headed dead white people will be needing it anymore. Sadly, poor Umbrae meets a gruesome end at the hands of her equally murderous tethered human, Zora, who finally realizes her long-awaited pre-teen dream of driving a car, a little too fast and quite recklessly. At the end of the scene, Addie does something else a bit bizarre, foolishly exiting the vehicle to check on their disabled, hopefully dead, pursuer. Stumbling through the dark woods, she soon finds Umbrae, whatever is left of her, and quietly consoles the dying and horribly dismembered young murder clone.
Having managed another short-lived escape, early next morning out in the bloody streets the Wilsons traverse a seemingly hopeless scene of ubiquitous carnage and mayhem. (California Rest in Peace by Red Hot Chili Peppers suddenly comes to mind here, but I don't think this was actually used in the film.) The battered family soon comes across a fiery vehicle in the road conspicuously blocking their path. It appears to be the smoking remnants of their own family car, very recently firebombed by the sociopathic fire bug, Pluto. The little masked monster suddenly emerges from the road. Once again, Addie takes it upon herself to exit the vehicle, presumably to take out the little shite. Inside the car, young Jason quickly realizes this is a trap and urges his fam to Get out the car! Of course he was right as we spy a lethal trail of gasoline leading right under their escape ride. The boy understands that his shadow clone is easily led to mimic his own movements and Jason cleverly leads Pluto to back into the burning car to fatally immolate himself. Once again, strangely sympathetic Addie appears quite distraught at this outcome.
Unfortunately, just as Jason saves his family once again, the pesky and pestilent Red steps out of the shadows to nab him. Red promptly absconds with Jason, tearing off to the still nearby Santa Cruz boardwalk, which we can see in still within relative walking/running distance in the background. Addie takes off on foot in hot pursuit. Where else could they be headed?
Back to the creepy amusement park funhouse and the dreaded underground cloning hive, for lack of a better term. Needless to say, this short but suspenseful chase scene leads to the inevitable High Noon battle royale subterranean showdown between the indomitable Red and plucky Addie. Hereabouts we are presented with a telling mélange of flashbacks, which more or less point to the true facts of Addie's terrifying childhood ordeal.
Twisted ending spoiler alert, forthcoming! So, finally it appears, just as most of us suspected all along, that wide-eyed young Addie who wandered off at the fun park and briefly disappeared was actually kidnapped by the underground Tethered and switched with her socially retarded and mute clone. Grown-up "Addie" is, in fact, the shadow clone who managed to slowly assimilate herself into mainstream society and eventually have a family, start living the good life up here, and all the rest of it. True young Addie, trapped all these years in the brutal spartan underground, conceiving her malformed shadow family, is Red, the bitter, homicidal mastermind who motivated her clone captors to do, what else? Rise up to the surface world, take these weak bitches down in a historic bloodbath and brutally claim what is rightfully theirs as the Untethered Bloody Hands Across America.
Questions, questions, questions. So many questions. It's clear to see that in cultural/social terms the Untethered represent the decadent, immoral, and highly ignorant collective shadow of shamelessly materialistic modern-day America. (Us =U.S.) Within the dimension of the plot, are they a natural, albeit freakish phenomenon? The horrific byproduct of some ultra-secret shadow government project? Or some unspeakable combination of both? If so, what other myriad untold horrors likewise reside deep within those thousands and thousands of supposedly deserted underground byways right beneath our feet? . . .
What would Carl Jung think of Us? Aside from being absolutely and rightfully terrified, at first, I believe he would give the film 4 shadowy stars, just like me and my shadow . . .
