PLOT SUMMARY: Adelaide is certain her past is coming after her when she and her family are threatened by intruders.
A couple of years ago, a huge scientific breakthrough had made headlines: cloning.
Sometime later, it was deemed illegal to clone humans, but that didn't deter sci-fi fans to make several movies on the topic.
Over the years, only a few movies did justice to the topic. The Island is one such example.
After that, there was a dearth of good movies on cloning, which was perhaps a good thing. I've never been a huge fan of sci-fi movies anyway.
Ten minutes into the movie Us, and I grew sceptical. The minute they showed rabbits in cages, I understood it was a movie about clones.
However, by the end of it, I was highly impressed. The movie had all the twists and turns and surprises of a well-made thriller.
Yes, it is from the director of Get Out, another remarkable movie.
I was so impressed that I am ready to watch anything that the director's name will be attached to. I know now that a director can make or break a movie. The story and acting aside, the direction is the most important part of the movie. And crisp editing.
Us gets a positive grade in each section.
US Movie Plot
The movie begins in 1986. A little girl is celebrating her birthday at the beach. Unfortunately, her parents get distracted and she wanders off. She finds the hall of mirrors and is intrigued. She enters, unmindful of the storm outside.
Inside, she whistles a tune to help stave off her nervousness. The next instant, she comes across a reflection of her. Except it is her from the back. Except, it is another girl that looks like her.
Years later, the little girl is all grown up, married with kids: a son and daughter.
She seems to have left her traumatic experience in the past and moved on. But you do see her getting the jitters as her husband mentions going to the beach. The very beach where she had seen a girl that resembled her.
They meet up with some friends and we can see that Adelaide is uncomfortable around people.
But she is terrified for her children's safety. The second she doesn't see her son around, she freaks out. Her son has the terrible inclination to wander off and comes across a man in an overcoat, bleeding from his fingers.
That night, Adelaide reveals to her husband what she had experienced in her childhood. He makes fun of her, then explains that she must have seen her reflection and gotten spooked.
Adelaide is terrified. She can feel the girl from her past, approaching.
The lights go off.
Her son creeps up behind them, informing them that a family is standing on their driveway.
Indeed, there are silhouettes of a family standing, holding each other's hands.
The husband puts on a brave face and goes out to confront the intruders.
After repeated warnings, and they still don't move, the husband finally realizes they are in trouble. But is too late.
They enter the house and when the little intruder lights up the fireplace, they see it is them.
Yes, doppelgangers. Yes, clones.
The other Adelaide explains how they were tethered to each other and lived in the shadows. But now it was time the shadows came into the light and had a life they deserved.
The family is attacked and just about make it alive and escape on a boat. But that is not the end of the story.
On the other side of the city, the family friends are attacked by their doppelgangers. By this point, we are made aware that everyone in the city has clones, attacking their counterparts. They are dressed in red jumpsuits and are also seen holding hands as a sign of protest.
Adelaide and her family vanquish some doppelgangers through great difficulty.
The husband does little to impress with his limited fighting skills. He's injured and hides in the bushes while the kids go rescue their mother.
Adelaide is saved but only after killing her captor herself. Their doppelgangers make an appearance again and we see the daughter take hold of the steering wheel and kill her clone.
You never know how much courage you have within yourself until you are faced with a difficult situation.
The son, too, realizes his clone mimics his movements. When the family has their way blocked by a burning car, the son realizes his clone is going to set their car on fire as well and warns his family to get out. Then, moving one step back at a time, the clone mimics the movement and falls back into the fire.
US Ending Explained with Spoilers!
Adelaide has had enough and decides to go to the hall of mirrors where she is sure the evil clones reside, one who has abducted her son.
Once she finds a tunnel in the hall of mirrors, leading down to a hidden facility overrun by rabbits, she learns the real story.
Apparently, after a failed government experiment, the clones were abandoned. None of them had any other skills apart from mimicking their counterparts.
Adelaide's clone was the only one who could speak and the others deemed her special and entrusted her with taking leadership.
She rallies them up against their counterparts and they all follow without a thought.
Enraged, Adelaide attacks the clone who dodges her attacks well. But Adelaide eventually gets the best of her. Right before the clone succumbs to her wounds, she whistles a tune from the beginning.
Adelaide is ecstatic to have defeated her clone, but her son, hiding in the lockers and a witness to everything that happened, is apprehensive of her.
He likes wearing a mask and when he gets into the car with his family, watched Adelaide and pulls down a mask.
Why? Because Adelaide is wearing a mask as well.
She's not the real Adelaide. All those years ago in the hall of mirrors, the clone had pulled little Adelaide into the tunnels, handcuffed her and worn her shirt.
The reason she hadn't spoken a word wasn't that she was traumatized. It was because she was incapable of proper speech at that time.
Like in all Jordan Peele's movies, the twist is what makes the movie amazing.
There's not a dull moment here, and the surprises keep coming.
A well-crafted film that delivers horror efficiently to the viewer.
Scare scale: 4.5/5
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