Us: What Does The Ending Really Mean?
Wait, so who's a doppelganger and who isn't?!
Joran Peele's latest horror movie, Us, is currently tearing up the box-office, and its ambitious, abstract finale has undoubtedly left everyone leaving the cinema a little perplexed. Unlike Get Out, which took specific aim at a tight, self-contained issue that was neatly wrapped up by the end, Us is sprawling and purposefully ambiguous, giving the audience just enough to make their own minds up as to what the story is actually about, both figuratively and literally.
This harrowing tale of doppelgangers, underground tunnels home to a sinister government experiment and a murderous Hands Across America protest is difficult to untangle even with all of the pieces of the puzzle available. Considering it starts as - and is marketed as being - little more than a home-invasion thriller, Peele's film grows beyond its horror tropes, and with each new question he answers, the director raises about five new ones in the process.
The sheer openness when it comes to he interpretations is perhaps best summed up when Red (the doppelganger of Lupita Nyong'o's Adelaide) answers her double's cries to know who or what her family are with the simple response: "We're Americans". The connotations of that will mean different things to different people, but taking into account the film itself and conversations had by the cast and crew, there are answers to be found...