Us caught me from the left. Lupita Nyong'o plays two characters: Adelaide Wilson and her doppelganger Red, and she eats both roles. As a child, Adelaide had a scare in a Santa Cruz funhouse and lost the use of her voice for a period of time. As an adult, Adelaide is happily married and the mother of two children. While on vacation at their lake house in Santa Cruz, the Wilson family is terrorized by the arrival of their red-suited doppelgangers called the Tethered and the remainder of the movie revolves around this conflict. Adelaide goes head up with her doppelganger Red, who speaks in a raspy voice, and eventually kills her.
Later we learn that the woman we knew as Adelaide was actually Red the doppelganger and Red the doppelganger was the real Adelaide. When she was a little girl messing around in the funhouse, Adelaide ran into her “evil” twin, Red and Red promptly choked her out, damaging her windpipe and vocal cords. Red dragged Adelaide to the underground location where the Tethered lived and took over Adelaide’s life.
I went into Us without any idea what it was about and came out of the theater feeling like I’d been hit over the head. It messed with my brain for a day or two and I spent the next week thinking about the ideas and themes present in the movie. Such a good film; an excellent sophomore effort from Jordan Peele. It makes me want to see Lady Lupita play a full-on villain, and somebody needs to make this happen.
