Below you’ll find the notes I made while preparing for our essential explanation of Us. This was my first time seeing the movie since it came out in theaters in 2019. So it’s been 3 years. There’s a lot of plot connectivity, like Jason having a toy ambulance and the family escaping Santa Cruz in an actual ambulance. And finding those details was fun. But I was really concerned with the thematics and seeing if there was more being said than I remembered.

Director: Jordan Peele

US Second Watch

• “There are thousands of miles of tunnels beneath the continental United States….
  • Abandoned subway systems, unused service routes, and deserted mine shafts
  • Many have no known purpose at all.
• Starts with TV
  • Old news reports, old TV, old objects on the shelves. VHS. Rubix cube. 
• Reporter says something about “outside the walls”
  • Does this foreshadow the eventual uprising?
• “What has 12 million eyes. 192 million teeth. And stretches from the Golden Gate Bridge all the way to the Twin Towers? It’s Hands Across America. A 4,000 mile long chain of Good Samaritans standing hand in hand, through fields of grain, past purple mountains, and across fruited plains, from sea to shining sea. That’s right. This summer, six million people will tether themselves together to fight hunger in the United States.”
• Says year is 1986
• Girl reflected in TV
  • No Country For Old Men shot
• Cut to carnival. 
• Santa Cruz 1986
• Addy gets number 11
  • Thriller t-shirt
• Addy takes in the boardwalk as her parents fight. Dad being fun, mom being responsible. Roller coaster. Couples eating at the tables. 
• Mom asks Addy to go to bathroom, she says she doesn’t have to go, wide shot that establishes Addy between her mom and dad. She’s essentially rejecting her mom and choosing her dad. Mom’s clearly worried about Russell not watching Addy and Addy running off or getting stolen. 
• JEREMIAH 11:11
• Sounds of people screaming gives way to the crash of the waves on the beach. Addy has wandered far from her father. 
• Thunder and lightning given a lot of emphasis. Storm was mentioned at the beginning on the news report
  • Double check
• Turns and sees Vision Quest. The subtext is “Find Yourself”
  • Tongue in cheek because this is where Addy literally meets her other self
• Drops apple
• VISION QUESTION AUDIO
  • Then Sotuknang went to Taiowa and said, “I want you to see what I have done. And I have done well.” And Taiowa looked and said, “It is very good. But you are not done with it. Now you must create life of all kinds and set it in motion according to my plan.” [inaudible but maybe says something about universal planning] and went into the endless space and gathered substance to create his helper, the Spider Woman. “Look all about you, Spider Woman,” said Sotuknang. Here now is endless space, but in the world there is no joyful movement. The world needs…”
  • LOOK UP NAMES
• Rain starts as soon as Addy goes in.
• Cave looking interior that’s actually supposed to be a forest. Robotic owl. Mirror starts to distort Addy.  
• Power goes out. Addy sees the exit sign in the distance. 
• Mirrors. We see another her and she runs into herself. Exit sign reflected.
• Two hers. 
• Whistles Itsy Bitsy Spider
• See Mirror Her moving
• Someone else whistles. 
• Addy backs into another version of her that isn’t a mirror
• Eyes go wide

• Cut to rabbit in a cage, kind of intimidating rabbit 
• Choir music and credits
• US over top of the rabbit in the cage
• Slow zoom out reveals more cages with more rabbits
• One brown rabbit
• Two shelves of rabbits.
• Four rows. 
• Classroom desks. 
• Weird combination of desks and rabbits.
• 5 rows. 11 columns. 
• Oh man, there’s another set of rows/columns. That was one of at least three. Many rabbits.
• Cut to PRESENT DAY
  • That means that shot of the rabbits and the class was still 1986? 
  • Or was it dislocated from time because it’s just the opening credit sequence?
• Present day aerial road shot: The Shining
• Family sticker on rear windshield. Mom, Dad, two kids. 
• Lupita asleep facing the camera. In passenger seat. Reflections of trees in the window.
  • Recalls the forest and mirrors of the Vision Quest
• Fun family energy. Dad is goofy. Addy is responsible. Kids are kids.
• WiFi isn’t working
• Knock Knock. Who’s there. You. You who? Yooo-hooo open up the door.
  • Plays on main duality that there’s another you out there
  • There’s literally a “you” at the door a little later
• Lots of family photos
• Zora is track and field runner
• Jason wearing monster mask
• Dad mentions going to the beach and Addy reacts. Looks worried.
  • What beach?
  • Santa Cruz
• Josh, Kitty, girls
  • Other characters
• Jason has flint lighter thing that he says is part of a magic trick he left last year
• If they were there last year, it’s a little strange Addy is so freaked out about the beach? Don’t they go every year? Or haven’t they gone before? Her response made it seem like they’d never been since she was a kid.
• “When you point a finger at someone else you have three pointing back at you”
  • Not exact quote. 
  • Argue about thumb being a finger or not and not pointing at you. So three is technically correct. 
• Addy flashes back to mom and doctor talking about her having PTSD. She’s arranging animal toys in a line on the sand. Sandbox is fancy and in the doctor’s office. Kid psychiatrist.  
• Dad says she was lost for 15 minutes. 
• Addy isn’t talking. 
• Addy’s dad tries to comfort the mom but she pulls her hand away. Tension we already saw at the boardwalk has only gotten worse. She blames him. 
• Says he’s going out for a smoke. Takes a long look at Addy. The long look has some implications about it being a last look. 
• Addy in the present sees a spider on a table. There’s a larger, fake spider behind it.
  • Duality
• Husband mentions that they have a summer home by the beach but don’t go to the beach. So Addy has been avoiding that area. 
• “It’s the first summer we’ve been back here since grandma died. I know it’s been pretty hard on him.”
  • But Jason said he left his magic thing there last year?
• Addy gives in to going to the beach. Makes a point to say they leave before dark.
  • Viewer suspects she’s just freaked out by whatever happened in the Vision Quest
• Can’t find Jason. Goes downstairs. There’s definitely an increase in tension. 
• Cut to Zora looking at herself in the mirror. Hard not to think about little Addy in the VQ and the mirror. 
• So tension is definitely increasing. Music has picked up as well. 
• Jason has mask on and is in a cabinet.
• Scares his sister. Goes into a closet. Propps the door open with an ambulance. 
• Addy sees photos of herself. Has memories of doing ballet in that basement. 
• Zora kicks the ambulance and locks Jason in the room. 
• Little Addy in mirror
• Horn going
• Dad has a boat
  • Why don’t I know his name yet
  • Hold up, google
  • Gabe
• Gabe has a boat
• Boat seems like a failure. Gabe is definitely comedic relief so far. 
• Zora mentions fluoride in the water the government uses to control minds
  • Conspiracy theory kind of reminds me of Rod in Get Out
•  Jason still has toy.
  • Does he keep playing with that toy because Pluto always has matches? 
• “I forgot, nobody cares about the end of the world.”
• “We don’t always have to be talking.”
  • Addy couldn’t talk for a while
• I Got Five On It plays
• Addy tries to get Jason into rhythm, dancing background
• Happy family
• Round the corner and see the beach
  • Similar internal shot as first shot of Addy. Camera near the window, her in foreground, Gabe in background
• Cut back to Addy as a kid
  • She’s hyperventilating
  • What’s funny is that this is actually Addy 2’s memory, her first encounter with her “parents,” but to the viewer this feels like a continuation of the opening scene.
  • Parents arguing
  • “She left”
• Homeless guy on stretcher, put into ambulance
  • Jeremiah 11:11 guy
  • choir immediately resumes
• Cut and the choir is gone
• Creepy music plays though
• Addy sees Merlin’s Forest
  • Rebrand of Vision Quest
• “Us Wilsons”
• Meet friend family
• Friend asks Gabe about boat equipment. Gabe has everything except flare gun. Puts emphasis on the flare gun.
• Mentions being right across the bay from each other
• Elizabeth Moss drinking rosé is comedy
• Addy mentions she has a hard time just talking
  • Another emphasis on talking
• Addy doesn’t drink, anything to that?
• Tension between friend husband and wife
• Friend had some plastic surgery, anything to that or just playing into stereotypes?
• Now kids interact. Friend daughters feel super vapid. Makes Zora and Jason more likable
• Definitely contrasting family dynamics. The positivity of the Wilson family (despite the problem areas) vs the ugliness of the friend family.
• Friend mentions Addy was really good at dancing
• “I peaked at 14.”
• “Didn’t we all.”
• Weirdo
• Bathrooms right next to Merlins Forest. Camera follows Jason much like it did little Addy. 
• Friend says she could have been an actor. Funny because she just seems absolutely basic in every way. Blames not doing it on her kids and her husband.
  • Stella Adler
• Booked two commercials
  • Number two is probably insignificant here but just noting it
• Addy’s feeling weird
• Frisby flies by. Lands fully on the blue spot on the blanket. So there’s a red spot in the midst of the blue spots.
  • Symbolic of Addy? She’s the “different” one in the midst of everyone else. Frisbee is kind of imitating a circle, over top of the circle. Addy is imitating Addy. And is literally over top of Addy since all the doubles are underground. Hm.
• Friend mentions crazy coin
  • Googling names
  • Kitty and Josh
    • Man, she would be named Kitty
• Kitty mentions crazy coincidences. Reminds me of Zora mentioning fluoride for mind control. Just this idea reading into things and awareness of things
• Jason comes out of the port a potty and there’s a trash can that says Please Don’t Litter. Kind of looks like it has a fire painted on it? That’s can’t be right, though? Right? But would foreshadow the fire later.
• Jason’s also wearing a Jaws shirt. Kind of tongue in cheek as both that movie and this are horror-thrillers. Jaws is also “below the surface” and comes up to attack. Much like the tethered characters.
• Weird person in coat on shore
• Blood on fingers
• Addy can’t see Jason, starts to panic
  • We know because it’s similar to what happened to her
• TV report about the Houston Astros being short an everyday player
  • Might be nothing just noting since this movie is so much about people and who is who and who is where
• Gabe feeling a little competitive with Josh about having stuff since Josh got a new car
• Baseball game is tied 11-11. Jeremiah 11:11. Gets back to coincidences that Kitty mentioned. 
• Jeremiah 11:11
  • Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them.
• So it’s almost foreshadowing the disaster. The 11:11 is coming to pass. 
• Addy tells Jason she didn’t know if he was lost…or taken… and doesn’t say what else could have happen. But we know she’s thinking “replaced by your doppelganger”
• “Stick with me, and I’ll keep you safe.”
• Jason says “Look”
• Clock says 11:11
• So that’s three 11:11s. The sign of the homeless guy on the stretcher. The baseball score. The clock.
  • On the one hand, something like this does heighten tension and add some structure to the arrival of the disaster. But it’s also…a little inexplicable. Like the movie has strange things going on with this whole tethered thing. But it’s not…a larger universal power or something supernatural that would start to cause this much synchronicity. So the coincidences end up just being coincidences…but they’re played up as something far more literal and sinister. Hm. It’s not that you can’t do something like this. You can. I just don’t think it has the necessary payoff/follow through to earn doing it. Let’s see where it goes though.
• Addy finds picture Jason drew of the guy with the bloody hand. Weirdly, it’s the back of Jason’s head looking at the guy.
  • Addy knows better about this. That there are other versions of us. So she thinks it might be Jason looking at another Jason looking at the guy. Rather than Jason simply drawing himself looking at the guy. Or am I overthinking this?
• Cut to them in bedroom. Addy’s clearly upset. Gabe’s trying to get it on. Addy says she wants to go. Her voice sounds a little different. 
• Addy’s facing the window and her reflection is almost in the window.
  • Mentions black cloud hanging over her
    • Kind of fits with storm imagery from beginning
  • I don’t feel like myself
  • “I think you look like yourself”
    • Funny because she knows he doesn’t know what she knows
• Better shot of her reflection in the window
• Starts to tell us what happened that day.
  • Another girl in there.
  • She looked like me. Exactly like me.
• “I’ve felt like she’s still coming for me.”
• “You know how sometimes things line up”
• Talking about more and more coincidences lining up
• “I feel like it means she’s getting closer”
  • Again, I like the idea of this. But I still find it a little inexplicable. Especially when it’s not like…a single dark ritual that connects Addy and Red. There’s a tethered for every single person. So were those coincidences happening with everyone else? What makes Addy and Red different?
• She had never told Gabe any of this
• Gabe makes joke about beating other Addy up.
  • Addy has a weird look
  • I wonder if she’s wondering if other Addy has an other Gabe
• Loss of power
• “This is why Josh has a backup generator”
  • Still the competition
• Family in driveway
  • Looks like the family on the back of the car sticker from beginning
• Holding hands
  • Hands Across America
• Gabe is not taking this seriously enough
  • Always need that one character
• “Okay, let’s call the cops”
  • Too little, too late
• 14 minutes away
• Gabe asks Jason to get the bat
  • Jason has no idea, stays with mom
  • Zora gets bat
  • This says something about the dynamics/characters
  • Jason’s innocence, Zora’s resourcefulness
• You seriously don’t know if this will be the end for Gabe or not. 
• When Tethered Addy claps and the family breaks into action, yikes
• Can’t tell it’s other Gabe but see that it looks like Gabe
• Other Zora climbing tree
• Other Jason wearing a mask
  • We still don’t know these are matching others
• Scissor shadow
• Whistling… Hands Across America song?
• Knows where the hide a key is because this is where Other Addy grew up
  • Damn
• Other Zora in through skylight
• Other Gabe checking out curtains, kind of impressed
  • This kind of materialism all through the movie
• Tethered are new to everything, unused to it
• Other Addy wearing glove
• Both sets of family take seats in the family room of all places

• “It’s us”
• Hard for other Addy to talk
• “Girl had a Shadow” speech
  • tethered together
  • example
    • girl got food
    • shadow got rabbit
    • girl got christmas toys
    • shadow got sharp and cold toys
    • girl met handsome prince
    • shadow, at same time, met Abraham
      • Didn’t matter if she loved him or not, tether was all that mattered
      • MEANING OF SHADOW NAMES
    • girl had girl
    • shadow had little monster
    • Umbrae born laughing
    • girl had second child through c-section
    • shadow had to do it all herself
      • Pluto, associated with fire
    • Shadow hates girl
    • Shadow tested by God
      • Jeremiah 11:11 other God reference

• Gabe keeps treating this like it’s a robbery
• “What are you people?”
• “We’re Americans”
  • the title US can refer both to “us” as in “our group of people” as well as “U.S.”
  • couple that with Hands Across America and America is definitely in the thematic crosshairs
• Other Addy wants Addy to handcuff herself to the table
• “Don’t hurt my children”
• Hand signal communications
• Other Gabe takes glasses
• Gabe taken away, definitely seems like he won’t make it
• “Little girl, run.”
• So it’s not just about replacing the other person it’s about besting them
• Other Gabe has glove and scissors
  • Abraham
  • Abraham
  • Abraham
• “Show him one of your tricks”
• We feel bad for Addy on first viewing, but on second viewing it’s like…damn. You gotta feel for Red a bit. 
• Jason and Pluto go into closet, ambulance from earlier holds the door open
• Gabe punched
• Pluto shows Jason some affection, you think they might get along
• Pluto’s whole bottom face is burned

• Zora slows down and we see Umbrae run up
• Umbrae also has scissors
  • To cut the cord/tether
    • symbolically
• Ducks under car in a creepy ass way
• She’s on the car, Umbrae likes to climb
• First random person
• Umbrae uses scissors, heightens the danger our main characters are in

• “We’ve been waiting for this day for so long”
• Other Addy pushes Addy’s face into the glass table. Gets another reflection shot.
• “The untethering”
• Gabe is in a bag on a boat
  • How’s Abraham know to drive a boat?
• [Distant shrieking]
• Abraham and something else call back and forth
  • First hint that this is larger than just the Wilson family
• Abraham and Gabe both end up in the water
• Gabe wins!  

• Pluto’s mad now
• So structure of scene is that we see the Shadow family get the upper hand and now watch as our heroes find a way to escape
• Red finds an old toy
  • First viewers don’t realize why this is significant
  • Cuts head off rabbit
  • Oh, yeah, she would hate rabbits lol
  • Question is was this ever Red’s toy as a kid or something Addy got after replacing Red because it reminded her of home?
• Establishing boat hangs left sets up the boat going in circles rather than going straight until crashing
• Amazing that Abarham could have survived that
  • As far as we know none of these people are super powered but it does seem they have a higher pain tolerance
• Gabe bangs head on motor to get it going
  • Shreds Abraham
  • So in that way Gabe really was the first to go
• Shadow family left on the dock
• Cut to Josh’s house. Power flickers
  • Doesn’t go out because of the generator that Gabe mentioned
• Nice house
• Similarities and contrasts between Josh and Gabe.
  • Both are not as interested at first
  • But then Gabe gets super engaged for his family and Josh just couldn’t care less
• Shadow family doesn’t hesitate to untether
  • Super quick and effective
• Now we know for sure that this is beyond the Wilsons
• Kitty crawls toward Josh
  • Something sweet and sad about it
• Shadow Josh fakes helping Kitty up
  • Has that Josh sense of humor
• Ophelia plays  F*** the Police rather than calling the police

• Wilsons show up
• Well, out of the fire and into a fire
• Once again the family breaks off into showdowns and has to extract themself from a not so good situation
• Opportunity for the kids to step up
  • payoff for the twin girls being kind of rude earlier
• Girl does cartwheel across doorway
  • Blade Runner reference
    • There are some thematic similarities to Blade Runner as well
• Zora closes doors as she goes by: smart
• Golf club to the head wins
  • Why did that work here but Addy hitting Josh in the skull with a fire poker thing didn’t affect Josh?
• Jason hesitates to hurt anyone and stays completely innocent
  • Movie has placed special emphasis on him
• Other Kitty getting caught up in the makeup
  • You know this must be something she always dreamed about
  • Shows that the tethered have personalities, even if they’re twisted
  • You kind of feel bad for them
• Subtitles just say [Bad Josh]
• Other Kitty won’t hurt Addy even though she wants to
  • Is that because of some “has to be the other you” rule?
  • Why does Kitty cut her own face?
• Other Josh yells out. That’s who was [Distant Shrieking] before
• Gabe fires flare gun but it doesn’t work
  • Pay off on earlier flare gun conversation
• Other Kitty is sad and legitimately emoting but then laughing
  • She’s not all there
  • Impressive Other Addy could adjust so well
• Other Kitty starting to play with Zora
• Now Jason comes through. So loses some innocence. I guess it makes sense that when he sees his mom in danger he acts. Places more emphasis on their relationship. His self-protection instinct wasn’t as strong as his instinct to protect his mom. And the end of the movie does linger on Jason and Addy.

• Back to “I Got 5 On It”
• Now the Wilsons are in the upgraded house
• Addy attempts to call the cops, busy
• Gabe emphasis how he doesn’t understand how 911 isn’t answering
• Setting up the payoff of understanding this is a national issue
• Now we go to the TV and the news reports
• “coming from the sewers”
• So after untethering they’re holding hands and forming Hands Across America
• Gabe wants to stay in the fancy house
• “What are Micro Machines”
  • Esoteric enough that a lot of people will be wondering the same thing, not a bad question
• “What’s Home Alone”
  • Now that’s something everyone should know and is just outrageous. So definitely a set-up and punchline with Jason’s comment.
• Getting Josh’s car makes Gabe excited
• Forgot keys again
• Daughter’s body is gone
• Sees the scissors
• Addy screams and grunts like the tethered
  • First real hint that she might be the other Addy
  • Jason catches his mom and can tell something was different
• Kill count conversation with the whole family
  • Humor really stays peppered in
• Why’d Addy get out of the car?
  • Oh she wants to protect her kids by getting rid of their shadows
  • Umbrae is broken over a tree
  • Keeps laughing even though she’s losing life
    • Reminds me of Rose smiling

• It would be weird watching your kid’s identical self pass
• Next morning
• We’re seeing the aftermath of the uprising. Bodies everywhere.
• Why would Addy drive to beach?
• Burning car in the road
  • It’s their family’s car
• Pluto was on the car
  • Who knows what he did to it
• Pluto’s snapping?
  • Similar to Jason trying to start his fire thing
• Reveals his face to Addy
• Match in hand, gas on the ground
• Jason stands there?!!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?
• Ohhhhhh, Jason remembered the other him likes to mirror so he keeps walking backwards towards the fire
• But other Addy is right there!
  • Blending in with the red car lol

• Jason taken by other Addy to get Addy to go back to the room of mirrors
  • Addy knows exactly what’s going on
• Oh man, all the people standing in the water making the chain
• “Tater Twists” sign shows two identical tater twists
• Other Sign Guy is in line
• So now we’ve come full circle with Addy entering the mirror building
• She breaks the owl
  • Nice comedic moment. When Red was a kid, the owl was scary. Now Addy’s an adult and just breaks it. The place isn’t scary for its atmosphere in a “creep out a kid” way. It’s scary in the adult sense of returning to this place of trauma. 
• Coming all the way back to the moment of first encounter
• Rabbit comes out from the door a rabbit was painted on
  • kind of like the spider and the toy spider from earlier
• How did Addy know to go out that door?
  • I know the answer because this is a second viewing, but the audience wouldn’t at this point
  • Another sign that this isn’t OG Addy
• Yeah, some people would be like “It makes no sense she’s just so confident going through this place she’s never been.” Without realizing what that actually means. It’s pretty funny. 
• We’re also wondering why the hell the inside of this ride is so big. Then why there’s an escalator. And why Addy doesn’t seem shocked by any of this. 
• Rabbits everywhere
• We see a glimpse into one of the classrooms from the title sequence
• Other Addy drawing stick fingers joining hands on the chalk board
• “We’re human too you know”
• Ah, she’s not drawing, she’s using scissors to cut paper
• “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.” 
• “They all went mad”
  • Not saying “We”
• “We were born special”
  • Doesn’t elaborate
• We see the up top/down below dynamic
• People recreating the boardwalk the best way they can
  • Doesn’t explain clothes, so many clothes
  • Repeat shot of the boardwalk tables vs the classroom people eating
• “God brought us together that night.”
  • We haven’t heard any other Tethered talk, just grunt, another clue that Addy is OG
• Did OG Addy walk off because Shadow Addy wanted her to
• “How you could have taken me with you”
  • We think that’s referring to “real” Addy not taking shadow Addy. But it’s OG Addy getting left behind by shadow Addy.
• Years later, some miracle happened. Both girls doing ballet
  • That’s when I saw God and he showed me my path
    • Doesn’t really elaborate
• Other Tethered don’t move well so when OG Addy dances, they’re blown away and hail her as a messiah. 
• How’d they get all the gloves and scissors?
• How’d they get off their loop?
• Why were they on a loop to begin with?
• Cut the paper into people holding hands, holds it up, then cuts them apart
• Cuts them to two left then tears those two apart, end of the tether
• Classical version of I Got 5 On It
• Red starts dance fighting 
• She’s graceful but creepy
• She’s saying things we can’t hear
• Red’s really savoring this
• Story is a matter of perspective
  • From Addy’s POV its tragic
  • From Red’s POV it’s triumphant
• Addy wins
  • From Addy’s POV it’s triumphant
  • From Red’s POV it’s tragic
• Red whistles
• Addy finishes the job, clicks and grunts and gets more…tethery

• Drive off in ambulance
• Flashback to her childhood
• Now’s the reveal that Red was OG Addy
  • She was handcuffed to the bed
  • Explains the handcuffs
  • Also choked, which explains the raspy throat
• Chained to same bed at the end
• Jason looking at her and he kind of knows
• Addy smiles
• Jason pulls the mask down, showing some distance or fear
• Camera flies over America, calling back to the Hands Across America song about the American landscape, forget song name
• Now we see all the people are literally holding hands and that there’s smoke all over the landscape and helicopters, so this is a whole country thing
• I’m so torn at the end here. Scene by scene, it’s great. Great suspense. Great humor. Great shots. I’m satisfied by the story of Addy and her family. But the overall set-up for that story is outrageous. Government found a way to duplicate someone and link their souls? And they used this to control people. Okay? So how did that work? If the government had the shadow person walk down the hallway, would the actual person walk into traffic against their will? Like, how much did one affect the other? Did the tethered have no willpower and had to imitate what everyone else was doing? But then how did they ever organize to break free? How was the government clothing everyone? What about waste disposal? Addy mentions the government abandoned the program. But Jason’s how old? Like 10? And Addy’s how old? It just seems…what? So was the program active when Addy was a kid or not? Why did the tethered just never leave?
• There are just so many questions about the backstory that just don’t have a good answer. At least in Get Out you can say “it’s brain surgery and hypnotism” and that’s enough. In Us we don’t even get that. 
• And then what’s the state of the country? Do the tethered just go about their lives? What’s the state of the government? Will the government use the army to take down the tethered or make a program to integrate them? How will other countries respond to this? How long will the tethered hold the line? What happens to the global economy if the US completely disappears from it. All supply lines are done. You’d have global chaos. 
• That can work. It’s just such a huge thing to just…not get into at all. I would understand if this was the first part of a trilogy or something and you’re going to follow up. But with it just being a single movie…it’s just hard for me to buy into. 
• And I guess ultimately it’s the “Act 2 problem.” So many writers end their stories at the end of Act 2 rather than fully getting into Act 3. Get Out is kind of like that. Act 1 is getting to the house. Act 2 is getting away from the house. Act 3 would be coming home. There should be something that shows Chris in the aftermath of everything. Whether immediately after or days later, weeks later, years later. Something. But that brings the story full circle from where it starts. 
• This story, Act 1 is the escape of the first tethered. The rise of the tethered. And then there should be one more act that’s the aftermath of the rise. Whether it’s the victory or the defeat or the integration or something. But we end at the end of Act 2 rather than having even a brief Act 3. 
• No Country For Old Men is a good example of having the Act 3. Act 1 is finding the money and finding out Anton Chigurh is after you. Act 2 is the conflict with Anton. Act 3 is the aftermath with Tommy Lee Jones. It’s very short but it’s necessary. Too many stories end at Act 2. 

Quick look back through the movie

• First weather report shows two identical thunderstorm icons and a long line. Nice. 
• Red paper people on Hands Across America ad, same people Red cut
• Oh, yeah, she said she had to make a statement/send a message. I think millions of people emerging from the ground all at once is enough of a message. You don’t really need the whole Hands Across America thing. That’s another thing…where did all the people come up from? It didn’t seem like there would be many entrances/exits? And if you have…tens of thousands of people, hundreds of thousands of people, millions of people,  all trying to leave in a single file line? That’s pretty wild. 
• It’s just always so weird to me that the story is “What story can we tell that ultimately ends with Hands Across America becoming a reality?”
• So we see shots at the end of what shadow Addy was doing during the carnival. And we see the Shadow attendant already has a shirt in hand. What if Addy had picked a stuffed animal? Did Shadow Addy actually pick the prize? It certainly seemed Shadow Addy led Addy to the Vision Quest place. Is it just a moment of synchronicity? Did other tethered control people without the government doing it? SO MANY QUESTIONS and zero good answers
• Lightning flashes in the sky outside Vision Quest kind of call back to thunderstorm icons at the beginning. But that might be overthinking it. 
• Tethered are like rabbits in cages but also just eat the rabbits in cages?
  • Contrast when during the credits all the rabbits are actively caged vs the end when they’re all over
  • mirrors the tethered going from being “caged” to being all over
• The family sticker on the back of the car is also similar to Hands Across America
• Flashback Addy was arranging animals in the sand in Hands Across America way. Is that because even she knew what that was because Red did? Or was she doing that because little kid Red was thinking about it? One of the unconscious moments when a tethered affects someone? Because Addy, like Shadow Addy who replaced real Addy/Red, shouldn’t know about Hands Across America? Right? Just a coincidence?
• When little Addy’s listening to her parents talk to the therapist, she’s viewing them in the mirror. They are her “mirror” parents rather than her tether parents. A nice subtlety there. 
• When Addy picks up the toy rabbit in the basement, she can look at the rabbit fondly as something out of her time in the tetherverse
• Jason’s ambulance used to prop open the door, family ends up escaping in an ambulance at the end
  • Nice detail but doesn’t seem to have much meaning?
• Family being in the car repeats a lot. Good times. Tense times. Bad times. Then at the very end they’re still in a vehicle together.
  • Again, nice detail but not sure if there’s much meaning
• So Jeremiah guy was the first tether victim? Why was that dude the first out? And why was there such a long delay between the rest emerging? From the filmmaking perspective, you have the guy heralding destruction be the first victim of that destruction. It’s clever. Again, nice detail but kind of meaningless. 
• There is a theme off coveting
  • Gabe covets what Josh has
  • Tethered covet what regular people have
  • How much stock should we put into that though? Like with Get Out there was clearly a message. Is there a similar message here? And what does that even start to become? The displaced people in America will eventually rise up and take from the “rich”? Maybe. But then Addy is one of the have nots who becomes rich then denies others the same opportunity. And we’re rooting for the “rich” moreso than the tethered. Even though it’s easy to start feeling bad for the tethered. 
  • Kind of reminds me of Blade Runner and the replicants vs humans and the replicants wanting recognition of their humanity but also not quite great at being human all the time, a little awkward emotionally and socially
  • So is this movie a warning about what could happen?  A condemnation? Is it really trying to say anything at all?
• Jeremiah Shadow just kind of basking in the sun
• Has the glove on his hand
• When Addy tells Gabe what happened as a kid, her reflection is in the window but we also see trees, kind of similar to the wallpaper in the Vision Quest
• Red and fam standing outside are mini “Hands Across America” 
• God is mentioned a couple of times, is there any religious element to this that’s actually subtext or developed?
• Similar structure to Get Out where you have to defeat the family members one by one
• Red didn’t really care about her kids at all
• Where the hell does Red come when she takes Jason? When she appears, we see her hunched against a red SUV that her red clothes blend with. But you can see that same SUV in shots ahead of her reveal and she’s clearly not standing there. He also seems to go way past where the SUV is. And there’s no SUV parked next to that one. So it’s like…what? It’s a cool shot but makes zero logistical sense.
• It’s also a little bonkers that Red gets impaled. She had a 100% evasive rate. Then suddenly runs headlong into a weapon she knows Addy has? It’s just…nonsensical. Nothing had changed between the beginning of the fight when Red was outmaneuvering Addy. So why does Addy suddenly win?
• Jason brought one of the rabbits with him
  • He is a sweet kid
  • Symbolic of him maybe accepting his mom’s background?
  • Is there any meaningful symbolism in this movie though?