MovieChat Forums > Us (2019) Discussion > Can anyone answer these questions?

Can anyone answer these questions?


How was Adelaides doppelganger the only one able to escape the underground unless no one else ever went into that fun house ever?

If the real Adelaide was tethered after she got brought underground, how was she able to go through with her plan? They mention how the dancing liberated her or whatever, but she still grew up to marry the clone of her clones husband and have the same children.

Just two of the many questions l have that just don't make sense.

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nope can't answer any of those plot holes among the ones i need answered. but you're right how was Ade able to escape and how did she know the real Ade would be in that funhouse at that particular time? if she was able to get to the top of the house why not just leave out into the real world, was anything keeping them there? but these are my questions:
1. how did red communicate the plan to allllll the clones all over the world? (and get those jumpsuites? lol)
2. technically the whole "twist" shouldn't even have occured cuz the point of a clone is they mimic the real people. so how was the real Ade mimicking her clone?
3. did the clone Ade just remember she was the clone in the end or did that flashback happen for us to tie the movie together?
4. younge clone Ade should not have looked EXACTLY like the real Ade, so the fact that she escaped and went to live w/the parents is a movie mistake.
5. cloned Ade had no soul so how did she learn to love and live in the real world?

this movie had potential but i think he didn't think it through and left more questions than answers. i don't even think a prequel will make this movie make sense.

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They sensed each other - they were the "Us" of the movie's title. That's all we need to know.

Once Adelaide was trapped down below, she was forced to adapt and act like a gimp - similar things happen to long-term prison inmates and POWs.

The real Adelaide mimicked Red (her doppelgänger), because they're tethered together. They can't help it. Down below, however, Adelaide has no stimulation, so she must "play act" along with all the other doppelgängers.

Yes, the doppelgänger realized she was a doppelgänger, but had suppressed that memory.

And whatever imaginary science underlies the whole "clonus horror" scenario, it's clear the doppelgängers continue to look like their tethered above-ground counterparts, despite eating nothing but raw rabbit. It's not a stretch, in the world of the movie, to think that whatever force made them also controls their development.

And lastly, the "soul" thing may not be literal. In any case, the doppelgängers weren't soulless; they each shared a single soul with their above-ground counterparts.

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Someone explained that only Adelaide coming through the fun house was divine intervention, which I can buy because Red says that in the movie though when I heard her say it, I didn't actually think she meant literally. It still doesn't explain any of the other massive holes though.

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Real people and their doppelgangers are just the context of this movie and as such are not that important. This movie is actually about a dark side every person has and keeps in a dark corner of his mind (not unlike a caged rabbit). One day this dark passenger comes out and takes control.

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I could buy that if they didn't give an exposition dump at the end. It would've been better if it was kept vague.

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I had to google 'exposition dump' but am still not sure what you mean by it with regards to the movie...?

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Because if it was just an analogy for what you said, it would've made more sense to leave it vague and not explain the tethered. But instead they made it literal by explaining everything and causing the rest of the movie to not make any sense. The exposition at the end caused more questions than answers.

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Yes, I get that. I was asking what exactly do you mean by exposition - which part of the dialogue, narration, etc? The only thing I can think of is '...it was humans that built this place...' which is exactly what I was suggesting: A human is building some 'underground facility' to keep his dark side in. Each and every human does the same so in the end 'it was humans who build this place'. This explains why the doppelgangers are married to the same people and have the same children.

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The explanation at the end where Red tells Adelaide all about the tethered. That's exposition.

I get why the clones married the same people, but what made Red? She wasn't a clone.

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if course she was a clone

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But Red wasn't a clone, Adelaide was. When she was a girl, the woman we know as Red, was choked by her clone and left underground to take the clone's place.

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that is true.

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...How it must have been to grow up with the sky. To feel the sun, the wind, the trees. But your people
took it for granted. We're human, too, you know. Eyes, teeth, hands, blood. Exactly like you.

And yet... it was humans that built this place. I believe they figured out how to make a copy of the body but not the soul. The soul remains one, shared by two. 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. And then... there was us.

***

Personally, I still think it doesn't contradict my version. Hiding satire, critique, propaganda, etc. behind what is formally horror or SF or comedy is nothing new. So technically this is a horror movie but the main goal is not to show some monstrous creatures and gore but to deliver a certain idea. And the idea is this: People are trying to lock their dark side somewhere deep inside themselves but one day it rises. And on that day it's really hard to understand who's the real you.

Now, this is a movie, not a philosophical treatise. So the director needs some kind of a captivating story and the appropriate visuals to camouflage the idea. Does he manage to be absolutely logically flawless in creating this final product? Probably not. But I usually let such things slide. This is an artistic film after all, not a documentary.

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What I'm saying is though that your ideas of what the film represents would be represented better if they left the ending and the science behind it vague. I get what you're saying. I'm just saying it doesn't make sense in the way the film is presented.

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Maybe. However, I didn't see that much science behind it anyway. But then again I don't see much of it behind 'Stalker' or 'Robocop' as well.

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Exactly. The end ruined it for me. They were actually clones. That’s stupid. I was disappointed it went that route. I was hoping it was all spiritual or psychological or imagined. The little girl actually got swapped out with her doppelgänger. So dumb.

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Such terms as 'clones', 'science', 'scientific experiment' etc. were never used in the movie. Thus they only exist in fans' interpretations.

Red's monologue is rather vague. For example: '...they abandoned the Tethered. For generations, the Tethered continued without direction. They all went mad down here...'

If you take these words literally then 'for generations' could only mean 2-3 generations. And then there is no way mad clones breeding chaotically would produce the same children. Also, they wouldn't be wearing the same clothes.

All of these makes sense only if you see it symbolically (and also let some minor things slide).

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This theory would only fly if people were only encountering their own clones. When random people start encountering other clones this theory is blown to dust.

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One of these days you could visit the nearest soul asylum and watch people from the world above being replaced by their 'clones'. That's how random people encounter 'other clones'.

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