Official Discussion: Us [SPOILERS]

I really enjoyed the movie in a “I’m still kind of disappointed” type of way. It wasn’t really funny and entertaining, but I had a few criticisms.

For one, the flashbacks to young original Adelaide going into the fun house was a dead give away for me in regards to the twist since the trailer showed original Adelaide getting choked by her own clone already. I ended up anticipating that scene the entire movie as the final reveal. And I thought that twist in itself was kind of weak and that there were some better options there. The twist itself also only caused more questions that undercut the story.

For example, if young clone Adelaide was able to just walk out of facility with apparently no locked doors, why wasn’t original Adelaide able to just escape and do the same after her handcuffs were clearly removed at some point? If the tethered clones mirrored the above ground originals, how were they able to suddenly act on their own to fulfill Reds plan, were they only tethered some of the time or did they build that ability over time? If the original Adelaide was actually swapped with the clone as a child, why was the original suddenly the one that was mirroring the clone above ground (i.e. as shown through dancing) and the clone was now instead in control? There were a lot of things that were left as plot holes for me and I felt there was a lot of opportunity to make it more suspenseful and mind boggling if they thought it out a bit more.

Also, a better twist for me would’ve been something like the following: unknown to everyone, if an original actually succeeded at directly killing their own clone, their tethered souls fully bonded again and the spirit of the evil clone slowly entered the body of the original again. This would’ve circle back to the explanation that the whole experiment was originaly a way to try and control people by splitting the soul.

It would’ve been terrifying if 3/4 of the original family members actually ended up killing their own clones at some point in the story, except for the original daughter because the mom kills the clone daughter in the woods herself. So that way, as the ending scene plays where they’re driving away, all three who did kill their clones start suddenly exhibiting small ticks/traits from their clones. It could’ve been Reds smile or laugh, the son putting his mask on and breathing slightly heavily or making strange noises, and the dad suddenly taking his glasses off and looking stoicly ahead.

Then, as the daughter begins to notice and realize this, they all begin looking at each other satisfied in a way that is slightly unsettling, which makes you wonder if the people you’re seeing now are the originals satisfied for having escaped or if its actually the clones being satisfied with finally having taken their place above ground. And as the final scene, they turn to the daughter, and Adelaide asks or says some final line that subtly calls back to something Red had said too. And then it all just cuts to black. Leaving the audience wondering who actually was that the end. The originals or the clones.

That’s just my perspective on things, but like I said, the movie was still great in a funny and surprisingly say to watch for a horror movie type of way.

/r/movies Thread