8. The Tethered – Us (2019)
Jordan Peele’s Us is a layered and beautifully crafted piece of cinema, and that comes across in the depths of his narrative. The twists and turns of Us afford a number of revelations about its main character, but the greatest of all comes right at the end, and it’s one that makes the Tethered seem far more justified in their violent actions. After revealing that they are soulless genetic clones doomed to exist underground forever, Us takes yet another turn by revealing that Red wasn’t Tethered, after all.
Us goes on to explain that Red was the real Adelaide, hurt and trapped by her Tethered clone as a child and forced to live in the underground facility. Naturally, she grew up to hate her other self and led the Tethered uprising that led to the violent events of Us. Not only does this reveal that the Tethered have a good reason to hate their other selves, but that Red in particular was only trying to reclaim the life that the Tethered Adelaide stole from her.
Even worse, Adelaide’s ability to assimilate into the real world shows that the Tethered are capable of living normal and healthy lives. This makes their imprisonment underground entirely unnecessary and proves that they aren’t at all wrong to resent their above-ground selves. Though Us uses the Tethered as its terrifying antagonists, they were shaped by cruelty, begging the question of who exactly should be considered the real monsters.