MovieChat Forums > Us (2019) Discussion > The "Forgetting" Topic/Misconception

The "Forgetting" Topic/Misconception

posted 6 years ago by danton90 (8)
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I see a lot of people posting on here that they don't understand how Adelaide/Red could forget where they actually came from. (Underground Adelaide forgetting that she's from the surface and Above Ground Adelaide forgetting she's actually from the underground.)

I don't think either one of them forget where they came from.

Above Ground Adelaide was afraid that the original Adelaide was going to come back eventually and take everything she'd made for herself since escaping.

Underground Adelaide wanted to kill the above ground people because she could see their actions reflected in the clones underground and felt a kinship to them after growing up down there. And she wanted to do the hands across America because that's one of the last things she remembers.

The underground clones knew she was different after the ballet I'm pretty sure because it showed her autonomy.

I didn't see anywhere near as many "plotholes" as people are pointing out.

Someone asks how did the clones have children? What? They're tethered to the above ground people. They screw, they bear children.

[–] hiitsbrian (11) 6 years ago

But during her spiel to the family, she doesn’t mention the fact that she’s the real Adelaide and the person they’ve all been living with is the impostor? Come on.

[–] danton90 (8) 6 years ago

What good would that do for her? She's been down there for 33 years. To them, the imposter IS the real Adelaide.

[–] WhereIsRent (1080) 6 years ago

Red wanted revenge by making the clone suffer, she didn’t care about exposing her as an imposter. Plus Peele was going for his Shyamalan moment with the plot twist which paid off for me as I didn’t see it coming.

[–] LTUM (1033) 6 years ago

[deleted]

[–] stratcat45 (118) 6 years ago

Clone definitely remembered, she was afraid of the real one coming back for her but when she told her husband the story, he laughed it off. Even if she didn't remember, it could be from the fact that she just walked into a world she didn't know, couldn't talk and her parents did speak to a therapist so she probably had therapy as well. Many people block out traumatic events that happen to them.

The real one obviously experienced trauma from the event which probably made her somewhat "crazy" BUT she was more advanced then the other clones, which made her "special" in their eyes.

Let's say lookalikes show up at your house, hold you hostage and the one able to talk says "hey, you're married to a clone, I'm the real one" Would you believe it?

[–] woollybully07 (32) 6 years ago

Still the part that makes this confusing is that Red seems to completely identify as a clone now and it seems to fix in well with the world the movie creates that Adelaide repressed her past.

or it's like what other people are saying where all the moments we thought were honest motherly love were actually self serving from Adelaide because she knew what was up.

Either reading seems to fit just as well. Neither completely fills everything in since they left it so vague. I think kinda like that aspect about the film.

[–] EvilPinata (1186) 6 years ago

I was under the impression that after the doppelganger traded places with the actual girl, the doppelganger was then controlling the girl from above much like the actual girl was controlling her before or the whole dancing thing would've been a major coincidence. That being said, it's supposed to be after she dances where she discovers how to do things herself. Why would she not have left earlier? She may not have ended up with here same family, but it would've been a better life than what she had underground. Where did she get all the jumpsuits and scissors? How were there enough rabbits for everyone to eat and sustain themselves for so long? Why did the doppelganger show remorse when the doppelganger children were getting killed when they had absolutely no relation to her? If the actual woman figured out how to do things independently after the dance, why would she have had to be with the doppelganger father and birth the sort of doppelganger children?

I absolutely loved the movie, but it asks the audience to take large leaps of logic and suspend their disbelief quite a bit which creates plot holes.

[–] APPLEhead54 (13) 6 years ago

actually the switch twist should have never been introduced into the movie cuz it made no sense. the real people above controlled their clones below. by Ade being a clone above and red a real person below there was no way red should have been controlled by her clone Ade. a clone is a clone regardless of whether they are above or below and they are controlled by the real people. that was a major movie mistake. i think peele should have just left it at the whole hands across america theme and the clones killing. he threw the twist in for the sake of throwing a twist in, it created more questions than answers.

[–] ExTechOp (2770) 6 years ago

Y'all are missing the point - it's a nature vs. nurture theme

Peele uses the term "tethered," not "clone." When you call the underground people "clones," it implies they're copies of the originals above ground. Calling them "tethered" implies co-dependence.

If that's the case, maybe underground people imitate above-ground people because they have no inspiration, stimulation or motivation of their own down there. Their world is very deliberately limited, monotonous and barren.

That's explain why Adelaide grows up to be more like them, and even empathizes with them enough to lead a revolution. She's like Trump in a way - someone who was born into great privilege but adopted "commoner class" attitudes, and wound up leading them in a revolution.