‘Us’ Plot Points and Ending: Explanations and Theories

Us is an incredibly complex and well-written movie (read our review here!), and some of the well thought out plot points may have gone straight over the top of your head. So here’s an explanation to those confusion-inducing elements, and some theories thrown in for good measure.

Seeing as this is explaining the movie’s intricacies and ending…

JEREMIAH 11:11

This passage appears several times throughout the movie, most notably on the homeless man’s sign at the beginning of the movie, then on the forehead of his Tether. It also appears on the clock in the bedroom.

The passage reads:

“Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them.”

Linking this to the plot, the Tethered are the relentless evil that is being brought upon mankind.

But, to get an even better look at why this passage is referenced so much in the movie, looking at the book of Jeremiah as a whole, we see that Jeremiah was a Prophet who warned the Jews that God wasn’t happy that they were worshipping false idols, and that it could lead to all sorts of misery.

In the movie we see all kinds of materialism and ‘worshipping of false idols’, particularly from the Tyler family who enjoy flashing their cash.

Red, the apparent leader of the Tethered uprising is Hell bent on revenge against the surface people, and makes it very clear that she doesn’t think they deserve salvation. Of course we find out that Red is in fact human (more on that further down), so her hatred and vengeance is aimed at her own kind, for their selfishness and greed.

The numbers in this passage are also a mirror image of each other, which also links to the the Tethers’ mirror image of the humans on the surface.

THEORY 1: Early on in the film, on the way to the lake house, Zora is on her phone as usual, and says something along the lines of, “Did you know there’s fluoride in the water that the government uses to control minds?” She gets no answer from her family, to which she adds, “Oh yeah I forgot nobody cares about the end of the world.”

This talk of mind control links to the Tether experiment, which obviously went wrong, and has resulted in the apocalypse. Her family’s ignorance to her statement reflects the way the human race have always ignored warnings of the end of the world, throwing away their chances of salvation.  

THEORY 2: ‘Us’ = U.S.

When Adelaide asks who the Tethered are, Red replies “We are Americans”. The Tethers represent the American government, and the obliviousness of the American people. The American people worship false idols (celebrities, money), and will pay for it eventually.

THE TETHERS

The Tethers are the result of a failed government cloning/mind-control experiment and live in the miles and miles of unused underground tunnels all over the USA. Writer/Director Jordan Peele says these characters are heavily inspired by urban legends, mainly The Mole People. This was a nickname given to the homeless people who dwell in tunnels, abandoned subways, etc; those who the Hands Across America movement was intended to help back in 1986.

Peele also said that these creatures feed into the Jungian psychological idea that we all have a “shadow”, a dark side. “We are our own worst enemy, not just as individuals but more importantly as a group, as a family, as a society, as a country, as a world,” he told The Guardian.

The big climactic reveal of course is that Red is in fact the human, and Adelaide is the Tether (their names switched too, but for ease of explanation we’ll keep them as they are). Once we find this out, things fall into place, like why Adelaide acted so different after her incident on the Boardwalk, and why Red is the only Tether that can speak.

Red becoming the leader sheds some light onto the Tethered’s uniforms of red jumpsuits and one glove – she was a Michael Jackson fan, hence why she wanted the Thriller t-shirt at the Boardwalk.

And while we’re on the subject of Michael Jackson, can we all agree that Jason’s mask is a werewolf (probably paying homage to Thriller), and NOT Chewbacca as some sources are saying?! Thanks.

THEORY 3: While we’re told that the experiment was a failure and the Tethered couldn’t be used to control people, Jason is able to make his Tethered doppelgänger Pluto walk backwards into a fire. From their first introduction, it’s clear Jason and Pluto have a special connection. So maybe the experiment failed because it worked out the humans control the Tethered, not the other way round as planned – see the fairground scene and the Tethered acting like they’re on rides when they’re not. Or maybe Jason was able to do that because he had an open enough mind, in a similar vein to it being conceived that children can see and communicate with ghosts more than adults because of their open minds. Or maybe the popular theory that Jason and Pluto switched places is true, but I’m not a big fan of that idea. 

THEORY 4: Was the entire population cloned, or was Santa Cruz chosen for the experiment? If the latter was the case, it’d be a little coincidental that Gabe, as well as Kitty and Josh Tyler, lived in Santa Cruz in the 1980s too. It seems more likely that the whole country was cloned, and that the Tethered live in tunnels near to their human counterparts, moving around with them. There’s thousands of miles of unused tunnels, you’re never far from a tunnel, so you’re never far from your Tether).

HANDS ACROSS AMERICA

The last thing Adelaide saw before going to the Boardwalk was the TV ad for Hands Across America, so she never got to find out that the event was unsuccessful. She used the idea when planning the uprising to create awareness for the Tethered (which is kinda difficult to do when you’ve killed everyone, but hey ho). As we see from the final camera pan of the movie, theirs worked way better.

THEORY 5: Hands Across America failed because of ignorance, just like humanity failed because of its ignorance.

Hands Across America failed because it was an ignorantly big idea and didn’t take into account the inhabitable areas that couldn’t possibly be used in the demonstration. It also failed because people were too lazy and self-absorbed to pay to participate in such a thing, even if the money is going to charity.

Humanity failed because of materialism and – you guessed it – worshipping false idols, instead of appreciating the simpler and finer things in life, which is all the Tethered wanted to do.

So there you have it, an explanation of the major plot points in Us, as well as some theories on what they mean/represent. Do you agree with these theories? Do you have any theories of your own? Let us know in the comments!

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