6 Hidden Details In 'Us' That Help Explain So Much About What Was Going On
If you have already seen Us, then you are probably already planning on seeing it a second time. Jordan Peele's new horror epic contains so many shocking twists that it takes more than one viewing to fully comprehend everything that is going on. Peele also stuffed the movie with a lot of references and tiny details that go a long way in explaining his twisted story, but you may have missed them. Check out these Us easter eggs that you can keep an eye out for on your next rewatch.
Spoiler alert: This post contains spoilers from Us. Don't read on if you have not yet seen the movie. Us is definitely not as straightforward to understand as Jordan Peele's horror debut Get Out. The 2017 movie revealed the truth about what was really going on the whole time in its final scenes, but Us leaves viewers with a lot of lingering questions. To get some more answers, fans are just going to have to take a much closer look at the easy-to-miss details in Us, like these easter eggs:
1. "11:11"
In the first scene of Us, a young Adelaide walks past a man holding up a sign that reads "Jeremiah 11:11." When she returns to Santa Cruz as an adult, she sees that he has recently died.
The sign is part of a major motif of Us, which is the recurrence of "11:11" throughout the movie. The baseball game that Gabe watches has a tied score of 11 to 11, and Jason points out that his clock reads 11:11 as Adelaide tucks him in. The numbers are a clear sign of exact duplication, and can also represent the four members of the Wilson family.
2. Jeremiah 11:11
But let's look at the exact Bible verse that the mysterious man is referencing. According to the King James version of the Bible, Jeremiah 11:11 reads as follows:
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.
The verse has a vengeful "wrath of God" element that definitely fits in with how ruthlessly the Tethereds go after the above-ground humans. In its full context, the verse is part of a warning God gave to the Jews, describing his wrath should the Jews continue to worship false idols. This could translate to how humanity turned their back on the Tethered to instead focus on their own "false idols," such as the Amazon Alexa stand-in Ophelia.
3. Ophelia
The Wilson's bougie family friends, the Tylers, use a voice-activated electronic assistant that is called Ophelia instead of Alexa. This is likely a reference to the Hamlet character of Ophelia, who was so grief-stricken over her lover Hamlet's murder of her father, Polonius, that she went mad and killed herself.
4. Red's Glove
Young Adelaide gets a T-shirt of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video in the first scene of the movie, and that video actually has a lot more meaning in Us than viewers might realize.
In the final moment of Us, it is revealed that Adelaide's doppelgänger, Red, actually kidnapped and switched places with her when they were little girls. Although the real Adelaide went mad living with the Tethered in that underground lab, she clearly kept her love for Michael Jackson alive: she is always shown wearing a glove on her right hand, just like MJ.
5. "Thriller"
Red's glove is not the only important element of "Thriller" to pop up in Us. At the end of the movie, it becomes clear that the plot of Michael Jackson's iconic music video is eerily similar to the plot of Us. The music video shows a horde of zombies rising up from the underground to take over, much like the Tethered. And to really seal the deal, Jackson is revealed to have been one of the zombies all along at the end of the video, just like the reveal that Adelaide was really a Tethered all along.
6. From White To Red
Another really cool element of the movie that foreshadowed the big Adelaide reveal at the end was her clothing. While the rest of the Wilson family wears blue, Adelaide is shown in white, denoting her difference from the rest of her family. As the film progresses, Adelaide's white outfit becomes more and more blood-stained, turning it red. Of course, red is the signature color of the Tethered, so it becomes more clear that Adelaide is actually a Tethered.
