The Social Commentaries of Jordan Peele's "Us"

        In high school, I watched Key and Peele sketches for my Lit class and I went home to talk about it with my sister. She suggested I watch a Jordan Peele film, and that's when I saw the movie “Us”. I have watched the movie countless times, as well as his other pieces “Get Out” and “Nope” but the one that stuck with me the most is “Us”. The incredible use of symbolism as well as themes of societal classes, privilege, and even one's own identity really captivated me. A quick synopsis for context is the film follows Adalaide Wilson who goes to her beachfront home with her husband and two kids when she has a gut feeling something bad is going to happen. As night approaches, four masked strangers appear at her house, but they each take the appearance of one of them. Horrified (spoilers ahead), they soon realize they are not trying to hurt them, as each “tethered” is part of a forgotten population living underground mimicking the lives of those above and they simply crave how those above get to live. It goes from being a typical home invasion horror movie to making viewers reflect on their own privileges, all while making a statement on what happens to those shunned from society. 

        Peele uses a very intricate and intentional approach to his creations, and we see this throughout the film “Us”. In multiple interviews he states he has been very fascinated with the idea of doppelgangers since a young age, asking himself “what if our darker selves (or hidden selves) are as real as us?” (Itzkoff, 2019). His creative process involves a lot of utilizing his own experiences and interests and incorporating them into thought provoking commentaries on society. He uses everyday settings, with many scenes filmed in broad daylight, to build an uncanny tension that does not just evoke fear but also uncertainty, creating a powerful and captivating film. He also shares that he loves to incorporate “easter eggs” in his films as he does in “Us” to keep expanding in the depth of his symbolism and keeping viewers engaged. To learn more about easter eggs in “Us” here is an article written by Yohana Desta on some featured.

        

        The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson shares the long journey to the discovery of CRISPR, a groundbreaking gene editing technology, following Jennifer Doudna. Something in common with both Doudna and Peele in their creative processes is that of a motivation that drove them to create. While RNA technology and a critical horror film are very different from one another, both creatives had this internal drive that pushed them. Doudna went to college in the 1980s, studying biochemistry in a field women were shunned from joining. Driven by curiosity that started when she was a teenager reading James Watson’s The Double Helix, she stayed motivated through all hardcomings eventually leading her all the way to a Nobel Prize. Peele created “Us” as a way to explore the duality of humans while providing a social commentary on topics rarely shown in modern films. His motivation stemmed from a desire to cultivate deep thought and deliver it in an accessible and appealing way. Both creatives, while very different, shared the same internal push to share their works in hopes of having an impact. 

           For more insight on the film, here's a video of Peele on the process of creating of “Us”: