50 Fun Facts About Us (2019 Film)

Which 1980s charity event do the Tethered re-create at the end of the film Us?

Hands Across America asked people to link up in a line across the country in May 1986 to fight hunger and homelessness. An advert for it plays on a TV in the opening scene.

Which Oscar-winning actress plays both Adelaide Wilson and her double Red in the film Us?

Lupita Nyong'o confirmed her casting by posting the poster on Instagram. Her dual performance earned a Screen Actors Guild nomination, though the Oscars passed her over.

Which household tool do the red-suited Tethered carry as their weapon of choice in Jordan Peele's Us?

Scissors, giant gold ones, seem to echo the paper-doll chain cut in the underground classroom: two matching blades joined at one point, made to separate what is connected.

Which animals overrun the underground facility hidden beneath the funhouse in the film Us?

Rabbits are the only food the abandoned Tethered have, eaten raw. Jordan Peele said he chose the animals simply because he finds them scary.

The red jumpsuits worn by the Tethered in the film Us were designed as a nod to which 1980s pop star?

Michael Jackson wore red in the Thriller video and a single glove on stage, and young Adelaide wears a Thriller T-shirt when she is taken. Jordan Peele called him the patron saint of duality.

Which Oscar-winning 2017 horror hit did Jordan Peele write and direct immediately before making Us?

Get Out won Jordan Peele the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Unhappy with the genre confusion around it, he set out to make his next project a full-on horror story.

Which 1995 hip-hop hit plays in the Wilsons' car before an eerie remix scores the climax of Us?

I Got 5 on It, by the duo Luniz, was slowed into the orchestral Tethered Mix for the trailer. Viewers liked the remix so much that it was edited into the final fight.

Which ability, a clue to the final twist, sets Red apart from every other Tethered in the film Us?

Speaking is beyond every other Tethered, who only grunt and howl to one another. Red's own voice is a strained rasp, as if it has barely been used in years.

Which Bible verse appears on a homeless man's sign and recurs as a number motif in the film Us?

Jeremiah 11:11 warns of a disaster that nobody will be able to escape. Its digits also turn up on a bedside alarm clock and on the roof of an ambulance.

In which California city, famed for its seaside boardwalk, do the Wilsons vacation in the film Us?

Santa Cruz and its Beach Boardwalk host both the 1986 prologue and the present-day attack. Filming began there in July 2018.

How does Jason Wilson send his masked double into a burning car near the end of the film Us?

By walking backwards, Jason uses what he worked out earlier in a closet: his double copies his every move. The mirrored boy steps back into the flames.

What does the closing flashback of Jordan Peele's Us reveal that young Adelaide did in 1986?

She swapped places with Red, choking the real Adelaide and trapping her underground. The heroine the audience has followed all along is the Tethered one.

Which Black Panther actor plays Gabe Wilson, the father of the family, in Jordan Peele's Us?

Winston Duke rose to fame as M'Baku in the Marvel films. He was born in Tobago and moved to Brooklyn at the age of nine.

The aerial shot that introduces the Wilsons in Us echoes the opening of which Stanley Kubrick film?

The Shining also opens with an aerial sweep over wooded mountains as a lone car heads toward trouble. New York Times critic Manohla Dargis called it Peele's most obvious guiding star.

To which country do the Wilsons decide to flee by driving along the coast in the film Us?

Mexico is the plan once the TV news shows doubles killing people all over the city. The family only gets as far as the boardwalk, where a burning car blocks the road.

Which Emmy-winning actress plays Kitty Tyler, the Wilsons' wealthy friend, in Jordan Peele's Us?

Elisabeth Moss, the star of Mad Men and The Handmaid's Tale, also plays Kitty's double, Dahlia. A year later she led another horror hit, The Invisible Man.

Jordan Peele said Us was inspired by Mirror Image, an episode about an evil double from which TV series?

The Twilight Zone told that story in 1960, with a woman meeting her double at a bus depot. Peele went on to host and produce a revival of the series in 2019.

In Us, Kitty Tyler asks her smart speaker for the police; which rap group's protest song plays instead?

N.W.A recorded the anti-police anthem that the device takes as a music request. It keeps blaring through the fight when the Wilsons reach the house.

Which Beach Boys hit is playing in the Tyler family's home when their doubles attack in the film Us?

Good Vibrations, the sunny 1966 single, plays on as the Tylers are killed. Jordan Peele likes to take something that feels safe and make it sinister.

Which comedian was Jordan Peele's partner in a Comedy Central sketch show before Peele directed Us?

Keegan-Michael Key was Peele's Mad TV castmate before their own sketch series ran from 2012 to 2015. Two years after it ended, Peele re-emerged as a horror director.

What is the name of the Tylers' virtual assistant, which mishears a plea for help in the film Us?

Ophelia shares her name with the doomed heroine of Hamlet. One critic listed the gadget among the wrong things that the film's characters worship.

Which historically Black university, host of an early Us screening, appears on Gabe's sweatshirt?

Howard University fans spotted the grey sweatshirt in the first trailer, months before the director and stars brought a private screening to the campus.

In Us, Zora Wilson claims the government adds which substance to tap water to control minds?

Fluoride is Zora's conspiracy theory, aired during a family car ride. It is one of several early hints that the authorities in this story are hiding something.

Jordan Peele saw the Wilsons in Us as an archetypal foursome; which role did he assign to father Gabe?

The jester, or fool, is Gabe. In the same scheme Adelaide is the leader, Zora the warrior and young Jason the magician.

Which object does Adelaide use to stab Red during their final fight beneath the funhouse in Us?

A fireplace poker ends the duel only after Red has dodged every attack. Adelaide wins when she stops lunging and lets Red come to her.

Which name, shared with a god of the underworld, belongs to Jason Wilson's masked double in Us?

Pluto is a pyromaniac whose mask hides facial scars. His sister's name, Umbrae, comes from the Latin for shadows.

Which mechanical bird springs out to startle young Adelaide inside the hall of mirrors in the film Us?

An owl makes the child jump in 1986. When Adelaide returns to the funhouse as an adult, she shows no fear of it, a contrast fans read as a hint of the twist.

Which nursery rhyme does young Adelaide whistle in the Us hall of mirrors before her double joins in?

Itsy Bitsy Spider tells of a creature washed down that climbs back up again, much like the Tethered. The tune returns, faintly, during the final fight.

At which festival did Us premiere as the opening-night film, pushing its cinema release back a week?

South by Southwest gave the film its opening-night slot in Austin in March 2019, so the studio moved the cinema release back a week to follow it.

The opening weekend of Us was the biggest for an original live-action film since which 2009 release?

Avatar had opened to about $77 million a decade earlier. The newcomer took just over $71 million, at the time the best debut ever for an original horror story.

Which real voice disorder inspired the strained, raspy way that Red talks in the film Us?

Spasmodic dysphonia makes the vocal cords spasm involuntarily. Disability groups objected to linking it with a frightening character, and the film's star apologised.

Which composer, who also scored Jordan Peele's first feature, wrote the choir-driven music for Us?

Michael Abels was a concert composer before Peele recruited him for film work. He later shared the Pulitzer Prize for Music for the opera Omar.

Which soul singer, famed for her five-octave range, performs Les Fleurs over the ending of the film Us?

Minnie Riperton topped the US chart in 1975 with Lovin' You. Her daughter is the comedian and actress Maya Rudolph.

Which production company, founded by Jordan Peele in 2012, is the credited studio behind Us?

Monkeypaw Productions also backed Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman, the 2021 Candyman and Dev Patel's Monkey Man.

Which producer, founder of the studio behind Paranormal Activity and The Purge, co-produced Us?

Jason Blum built his company on micro-budget horror that gives directors full creative control. Its first big payoff, Paranormal Activity, cost about $15,000 to make.

Which prize from the Horror Writers Association did Jordan Peele win for the screenplay of Us?

The Bram Stoker Award is named after the Irish author of Dracula. The script took the prize for superior achievement in a screenplay in April 2020.

Which 1987 vampire film, shot on the same boardwalk, is referenced in the 1986 prologue of Us?

The Lost Boys was shot on that very boardwalk in June 1986, the year the prologue is set. Jordan Peele said every 1980s reference in the story was deliberate.

Which 1984 creature feature about cannibals living under New York sits on VHS beside the TV as Us opens?

C.H.U.D. stands for cannibalistic humanoid underground dwellers, a wink at what waits below. The Goonies and The Right Stuff sit on the same shelf.

Which Tchaikovsky work's pas de deux did the script of Us first call for under the final fight?

The Nutcracker's pas de deux was written into the script for the showdown. After the trailer's success, an orchestral remix of a hip-hop hit took that spot instead.

In Us, Red explains that each of the Tethered shares what with a counterpart living on the surface?

A soul is split between each pair, because the cloning copied bodies but could not copy that. The doubles have come up, Red explains, to untether themselves.

Which biblical patriarch shares his name with the animalistic double of Gabe Wilson in the film Us?

Abraham mirrors a man whose own full name, Gabriel, is biblical too. He is the first of the four intruders to be killed.

On which holiday in 2018 did the first trailer for Jordan Peele's Us arrive online?

Christmas Day brought the first look, set to a darkened 1990s rap hit. Its echoes of the director's debut made fans wonder whether the two stories shared a universe.

Which comedian, half of an Adult Swim sketch duo, plays Kitty's husband Josh Tyler in the film Us?

Tim Heidecker and his partner Eric Wareheim made Tom Goes to the Mayor and Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! for the network.

Which Hollywood studio released Us in cinemas and built a maze based on the film for a Halloween event?

Universal Pictures put the film out in March 2019, and that autumn its Halloween Horror Nights turned the Tethered into a walk-through maze.

What does the choir sing on Anthem, the marching main theme of the score for Jordan Peele's Us?

Nonsense syllables keep the ear on the mood, not the meaning. The composer wanted the 30 voices, a third of them children, to sound organised and evil without belonging to any real culture.

Cinematographer Mike Gioulakis made his name before Us on which horror film shot in Detroit?

It Follows earned him a nomination for Best Cinematography at the Independent Spirit Awards. M. Night Shyamalan then hired him to shoot Split.

Kym Barrett designed the red jumpsuits of Us two decades after costuming which sci-fi film?

The Matrix began her long partnership with the Wachowskis, for whom she also dressed Speed Racer, Cloud Atlas and Jupiter Ascending.

Which Disney live-action remake knocked Us off the top of the box office in its second weekend?

Dumbo, directed by Tim Burton, took first place as the horror hit fell by about half, a far steeper drop than the director's debut had seen.

The second trailer for Us, narrated by Adelaide, was made for which televised sporting event in early 2019?

The Super Bowl spot ended by announcing the new cinema date, one week later than first planned.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II appears in the 1986 scenes of Us as which relative of young Adelaide?

Her dad, Russel Thomas, appears only in flashback. The actor went on to win an Emmy as Doctor Manhattan in the series Watchmen.