A mess


I will try not the ruin the movie for those who didn't see it, but the plot holes are really big and the semi explanation fails.

Could had been spectacular.

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What about us though

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And them.

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[SPOILERS AHEAD]

1. How could she forget who she was? Leaving that place she became the person she was not and acted like it was the other way around?
2. How did the original Adelaide stayed there and ran away? Of course, she was a kid, but no one could stop her from leaving the place, looking who the look-a-likes were. Red left the sewers without any problem so Adelaide could had done the same.
3. Who created them? And after that weird explanation, how come they kept on appearing as they did (see the kids of both families as shadows). Red said that they were abandoned after they couldn't replicate the soul.
4. Who did explain to Adelaide what was happening there and the origins of the shadows?
5. Why the human chain? What was the reason behind it.

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3. I didn't like that part either, it was suggested that "every soul has two", or some bullshit like that. I figured that somehow everyone was born with an identical twin, one of which went to the underground.
5. The human chain was explained right at the start: the TV in 1986 was covering the "Hands Across America" movement in which thousands of Americans held hands from "sea to shining sea", and obviously, the Reds wanted to replicate it.

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5. I've seen that at the start, yeah, but why?
I reckon Adelaide saw it when the movie started, but still made no sense why they did that. I thought the goal was to replace all of them, but looked at some point they stopped and made that chain.

Also, they said they were americans a few times, so that was only on US soil, not worldwide?

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That's why the movie is called Us, which has two meanings: "us" vs them and US citizens.

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1. Probably repressed the memory of it. If you start living someone else's life long enough you probably could convince yourself you are them?

2. They were still tethered. "The soul remains one shared by two." The only reason the clone was able to switch and escape was because the original Adelaide went into the fun house. Some government scientist somebody carelessly left the door to the underground tunnel open one time? I'd say out of all of your points this one has the most potential to be a plot hole.

3. Red said "It was humans that built this place. They created the tethered so they could use them to control the ones above like puppets. But they failed and they abandoned the tethered. For generations the tethered continued without direction. They all went mad down here." So basically evil government mind control experiment with clones that were abandoned and the subjects all just went insane.

4. Red could understand English so maybe she overheard the government scientists talking? The other clones just made noises and weren't taught English.

5. Red says "I didn't just need to kill you. I needed to make a statement that the whole world would see. It's our time now. Our time up there." I think the idea was that once the clone had killed their human double that they then joined the chain. The dead guy being taken into the ambulance when the Wilsons first arrive at Santa Cruz is the homeless guy holding the Jeremiah 11:11 placard. Seems he was murdered by his doppelganger who then went to the beach to take his place in the chain (Jason sees him on the beach with blood dripping from his hands.)

The movie is very weird and ambiguous about a lot of things and leaves the viewer with a lot of questions but it did enough to satisfy rather than frustrate in my opinion. The mystery is always more interesting than the answers anyway.

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Fair points.
But why at:
3. "evil government mind control experiment with clones that were abandoned and the subjects all just went insane." - but if it was abandoned, how could all of them (that was the sensation of it) could give birth? Adelaide had kids, somehow makes sense if she was the 'normal" one. But what about Kitty? Or the others that had kids?

What I liked was that didn't eplained what Jeremiah 11:11 ment. That was cool.

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I think that the project was abandoned only a few years before the clones came to the surface. Jason's clone was probably part of the last generation of clones to be made. When the project was abandoned the connection between the clones and the people on the surface was lost and that's when Red started planning her revenge and rallying the other clones to follow her.

At least that's the theory I have. The movie definitely makes you think a lot.

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My thoughts

1. “Adelaide” was treated for severe PTSD and her parents were doing anything they could to help her forget about that night. Remember, they think she just got lost in the mirror maze and freaked out. It showed them taking her to dance lessons like the therapist suggested.
I’m guessing they continued with the therapy on top of this and she just suppressed it. She was a little kid, desperately trying to become the real Adelaide so it’s not a stretch to believe she wouldn’t have forgotten.

2. She was locked up and scared. Because the tethered didn’t have souls, she was likely there for a while tied to the bed. She was again, a little kid and would have been terrified, plus she was nearly just strangled to death. We also don’t know that they aren’t being watched by whoever created them. They might have tightened security after they saw what happened. Clearly other tethered people weren’t leaving en masse otherwise they’d be public knowledge.

3. Some arm of the government. Like they’re cloning shit already. They cloned a sheep when I was a kid. It’s not that far fetched.
They kept appearing because Red organised them. She trained them and told them what to do. She let them know what they were missing and created a movement.

4. Adelaide remembered it. When they were on the way to the cottage she saw the now old man with the sign and it jogged her supressed memories. Then her son went missing and that jogged her memory. You see her become more aware of it as the holiday progresses. We also hear a little exposition with the news reporting on it etc.

5. Red I guess (real kid Adelaide) was seen watching TV at the start of the movie. There’s an advert for hands for humanity, a real thing in the 80’s. It was like a vigil I guess where people stood hand in hand.
She’s also wearing a t-shirt with it on before she gets the Thriller t-shirt. She was like 5 or 6 when she went down there. She obviously based her movement/escape on it.

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I don’t see why people complain about plot holes on movies like this.

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They complain because a quality movie is a quality movies no matter the genre.

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Really? You don’t get why people complain about things that don’t make sense?

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I thought it was entertaining and well made. Yes, there was a lot of unanswered questions and I'm not sure if the plot made total sense, but I still enjoyed it.

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Why could the brother control his shadow, BUT NO ONE ELSE COULD. If he could control it why wasn't the tethered Adelaide being controlled by the real girl after the switch.


The biggest thing that bothered me is that they all, except for the kick ass daughter, had no chance of survival. They all made the dumbest choices. The father.........I was rooting for his death. Dumb. Dumb. Bad movie. Bad story telling. Bad.

Good acting from the kids and Lupita.

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The brother was still tethered to his clone, might have been something to do with them being the youngest. Maybe the older you get the weaker the tethering gets and it eventually breaks? Regardless it's not a plot hole.

They all had no chance of survival? Not sure what you mean by that as they all survived. Not sure how they made dumb decisions given the circumstances, the only dumb bit was after they all escape on the boat and they go to their friends house instead of a police station but they didn't know at that point that the doppelgangers were all over the country killing their opposite selves so I'll let that slide. The father was the real MVP, he killed his double and the double of his friend and he was a likeable guy, not sure why you were rooting for his death.

The acting, directing, musical score and the screenplay were all good in my opinion, we probably get horror/thriller movies this good about once a year if that.

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I agree with your assessments generally. I enjoyed the film even though there are many problems. I call it a good horror/thriller because so very few are even close to this good. Most are blistered by stupidity. While this one has some major problems, the quality is high by comparison. Horror just has to have a different scale.

1.I don't think she forgot who she was. I think she learned to play the role. She didn't know english at first (we hear what she hears in end flashback) and she was afraid to go back because of what she did.

2.This is my 2nd biggest complaint. It was apparently easy for any of them to get out. Young Adelaide should have easily escaped. A 30 second scene could have explained why she was trapped.

3.This was easy to extrapolate. CIA etc have been doing unethical dark-science experiments forever. It is a part I really like.

4.Adelaide was intelligent enough to read things left behind etc. She had a lifetime to figure it out.

5.I really want the red human chain to make sense! It is a cool idea that unfortunately doesn't fit. The thought that there was some long tethered connection to that big event is intriguing but it doesn't wash. I hope someone has a cogent theory. I really do. Part of me loves it.

My other big complaint:

6. Why did all the tethered have the same clothes on as their counterparts in all the flashbacks? The idea that whatever scientists conducting the test would keep track and up to date wardrobes is bad enough but how did they stay current after being abandoned? Lame.

7.How did switching places change the tethered status of Red-to-Adelaide? Would all of Red's above ground begavior still be a shadow of the real McCoy below? No explanation.

8. The kids and everyone are unphased by the deaths/killing of their friends. Funny at times but a reaction from one of them to the fact that they just murdered someone or even the sight of a dead acquaintance would have played better.

Still, though, I liked it. Get Out was better.

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I agree, it needed a brief scene showing why Adelaide remained trapped and why she now imitated the clone on the surface.

The human chain thing I suppose was Red’s way of sending a message that it was the clone’s time up above. They’re looking up into the sky and in awe of it because of being trapped underground for so long and they only join the chain once they’ve killed their opposite. Something more to it though would have been cooler I agree, but it was definitely an unsettling sight to behold.

The same clothes thing is indeed daft, they should have all just been in red jumpsuits.

Glad you still liked it though despite the flaws like I did. It just seems odd that Peele would overlook these things when they could have been corrected quite easily with just a few tweaks to the script.

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I saw it tonight. No, it's NOT "a mess" (funny how people love to post in extremes), but it is definitely flawed.

My issues:

The pacing of the first act - takes way too long to get to the home invasion.

The dad: We don't need a sitcom father to "relieve" us with corny jokes and demeanor. The overall imbalance
of tonality kept kicking me out of the story. Peele should've went "straight" with a desperate, serious and
frightened father. The dad character didn't impress me in any way, except in an attempt to provide comic
relief. A truly moronic father, and the greatest weakness in Peele's script. I actually HOPED the father would
be killed, as he's such an idiotic character.

My other issue is that is borrows (way too much) from "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and "Night of the Living
Dead", yet isn't anywhere as fine or lean (or as straight to the point) as those groundbreaking films.

My ultimate conclusion: The film is pretentious and overlong.

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I do agree about the initial pacing. I started feeling like it was taking too long for the first shoe to drop.

I liked the dad. Sure, maybe they went a taste too far with his levity, but he was a likable nice-guy.

There are a million Invasion of the Body Snatchers copies out there. It is like a genre unto itself. Some films do it right with enough twist to have value. I rank this among them.

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interesting enough the father controlled his clone when he bumped his head on the boat and knocked the clone out. i wish he would have communicated this info w/the family on how to take them down. there is some connection between the mom and son (both real and clone) throughout the movie. interesting that jason was the one who saw the family in the driveway in the first place. the power went out, what made him look out the front door window or whatever window showed the driveway? and he was so nonchalant when he told the fam they were out there. also he was the only human to go in the tunnel. also what if red killed Ade, what was she gonna do w/jason? why did she take jason? was it cuz jason killed pluto? these aren't questions i want answered just thoughts i have.

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I'm not interested in dissecting it play by play. It was an ok film to me..nothing groundbreaking or particularly special..
Everyone seems to be complaining about the dumb father but I found him to be the most likable...he and the son. The mother and the daughter seemed totally joyless..and too serious... even before the s#it began hitting the fan. And the little bit they showed of the white family made them seem pretty banal and their ongoing friendship with the main family didn't ring true.

And the big twist was what I had thought from the very beginning..

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