The Art of the Twist: Starring Jordan Peele Presenting: Us
Spoiler Warning: This reveals the plot.
"Once upon a time, there was a girl, and the girl had a shadow. The two were connected, tethered together. So whatever happened to the girl happened to the shadow…" This line comes from the pivotal moment from the climax of the movie Us, Jordan Peele's sophomore outing as a writer/director.
Us is about a family vacationing in Santa Cruz, and their world is turned upside down when their doppelgängers appear and terrorize the community. Adelaide and her family are trying to figure out why these people are terrorizing the world. Along the way, Adelaide discovers a shocking truth that she's bottled up since childhood.
The Twist
Peele really messes with your head with this movie, but the best thing about this movie is the twists and turns throughout the entire film. He reveals just enough of the story but still finds a way to have a few solid twists that still blow your mind throughout the film.
The biggest twist in the movie is set up within the first ten minutes when young Adelaide wanders around the Santa Cruz Pier and gets lost in the Shaman's Vision Quest. The best things that happen in movies are never said. They are shown. Before young Adelaide enters the Shaman's Vision Quest, a simple shot reveals the words Find Yourself. In the script, on page 7, it is written, "Signs near the arched doorway read "Get Lost" and "Find Yourself." Although Get Lost didn't make it into the film, the words Find Yourself did. This is a subtle clue already hinting that Adelaide will have to find herself throughout the movie. This moment is so clever because, throughout the film, Adelaide is trying to "Find herself." This is the first setup for the big twist at the end.
We jump to the present and see Adelaide with her family: her husband, Gabe, son, Jason, and daughter, Zora. They are returning to Santa Cruz for the first time since Adelaide gets lost in the Vision Quest. It is slowly revealed that Adelaide changed after she came out of the Vision Quest. She wouldn't talk after seeing what she saw and had to be taken to a psychiatrist to find out what was wrong with her.
When Adelaide finally reveals to Gabe what has been happening to her, she confides in him that she saw another Adelaide in the Vision Quest, and the other Adelaide tried to kill her. She got away, but her whole life, she felt like her doppelgänger was still following her. Boom! Power goes out, and Red, AKA Adelaide's doppelgänger, shows up with doppelgängers of the entire family. Red has finally caught up to Adelaide.
Halfway through the script, we learn that not only does the family have a doppelgänger, but everyone has one, which makes Adelaide question who she is. Throughout the film, she never says, "Who am I?" But this relates to the theme of the movie: find yourself. After that brief moment, we have the movie's most significant decision that even makes Adelaide's son Jason question who she truly is. At minute 80, Adelaide wrestles with Nix, the doppelgänger of one of the daughters of the Tyler family. Adelaide grabs a pair of scissors, and to Jason's surprise, the way Adelaide handles the killing of Nix looks a bit like how the doppelgängers handle the scissors. But she also has a look that seriously makes us question who she is.
Just as we think the family will get away, they become trapped, and Jason is taken by Red. Adelaide knows where Red has taken her son. Adelaide travels below the tunnels. Ultimately, Adelaide kills Red. As she does, she weeps. And her weeps turn to laughter. This is the final nail that tells us who Adelaide is, and it's revealed that Adelaide is the original tethered, and she hid the "real" young Adelaide when she found her in the Vision Quest all those years ago. Her son, Jason, has put together the pieces and decides not to say anything.
Why It Works?
One big thing to think about in the ending twist is why Red is the only one who can talk. None of the other doppelgängers can speak. And, of course, Red's voice is a little raspy because she didn't talk much while she was stuck below. The opening image is the last hint I will touch on. That commercial was obviously watched by Red when she was little. That's where she got the idea to hold hands across America.
Although some may think this twist came out of nowhere, as you can see, it doesn't. Jordan Peele sets up this twist from the beginning. From the hands across America to something happening to Young Adelaide in the VisionQuest. His slow reveals about Adelaide is what truly creates the Art of the Twist, which is why this movie is a great example to study when it comes to twists.
