At a glance
| Director | Jordan Peele |
| Release year | 2019 |
| Runtime | 116 minutes |
| Genre | Horror |
| Starring | Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker |
Plot
Adelaide Wilson returns to Santa Cruz with her husband Gabe and their two children. She does not want to be there. As a child she wandered into a hall of mirrors and came out different. That night, a family in red jumpsuits appears in the driveway. They look like the Wilsons. They do not talk the way the Wilsons talk. The mother, Red, does the talking, and she has a pair of scissors.
The doubles are the Tethered. The film follows the Wilsons through a night that is also happening to their friends, and then to more houses than one beach town. Adelaide is the one who knows the boardwalk. Red is the one who knows why they came up. The explanation is a system, not a ghost.
Production
Jordan Peele wrote and directed Us as his second feature, after Get Out. Lupita Nyong’o plays both Adelaide and Red. Winston Duke plays Gabe and his double. The budget was about $20 million. It opened on March 22, 2019, and grossed about $255 million worldwide. Peele has said the film is about the fear that the enemy is us, and also about the country that sentence can mean.
Nyong’o learned a different voice and a different walk for Red. The Hands Across America image in the film is a real 1986 charity stunt, used here as a picture the Tethered remember. Michael Abels wrote the score, including a choral rearrangement of Luniz’s “I Got 5 on It.” The sequels people asked for did not happen. Peele’s next film was Nope.
Cast
- Lupita Nyong’o as Adelaide Wilson and Red
- Winston Duke as Gabe Wilson and Abraham
- Shahadi Wright Joseph as Zora Wilson and Umbrae
- Evan Alex as Jason Wilson and Pluto
- Elisabeth Moss as Kitty Tyler
- Tim Heidecker as Josh Tyler
Trivia
- Nyong’o plays both mothers. The doubles are not a digital face on another actor for the lead.
- The jumpsuits and the scissors are the uniform. The film does not give the Tethered a brand name on a logo.
- Hands Across America was a real event, May 25, 1986.
- Peele produced and scored the marketing as a horror film first. The satire is in the premise.
- Get Out is not a prequel. The two films do not share a plot.
- The boardwalk hall of mirrors is the origin scene. The film returns to it.
Related on this site
Trailer
Go Behind the Screams
The cast discusses working with Jordan Peele in this official behind-the-scenes featurette from Universal.
Becoming Red
A chilling look at how Lupita Nyong’o built her terrifying dual performance as Red.