Jordan Peele has emerged as Us proved that he wasn’t a one-trick pony.
While fans of social thrillers wait for Jordan Peele to cook up his next project and we’ll see if he can pull off a hat-trick, his first two features are endlessly rewatchable in the meantime. Both Get Out and Us are filled with quotable lines.
Get Out: “Get Out!”
Right off the bat, one of the most memorable lines in Get Out is the line it was named after. When Chris recognizes a man introduced to him as Logan King as a Brooklynite named Andre Hayworth, he decides to snap a picture of him to send to Rod.
He accidentally leaves the flash on, which briefly brings Andre out of the Sunken Place and back into his own body. With his several seconds of consciousness, he rushes up to Chris and tells him, “Get out! Get out!! Get out!!!”
Us: “There’s A Family In Our Driveway.”
The conflict of Us, which has huge ramifications across the country and changes the Wilson family forever, is established with a casual statement from Jason: “There’s a family in our driveway.”
The image of the Tethered family standing at the end of the driveway in the middle of the night, wearing red onesies, holding hands, and staring coldly at their surface-dwelling doppelgangers, is truly haunting and scaryn.
Get Out: “I Would’ve Voted For Obama For A Third Term If I Could.”
The villains in Get Out aren’t neo-Nazis who wear their racism on their sleeves; they’re virtue-signaling liberals who don’t realize they’re being racist. While Dean is showing Chris around his house, he makes sure to tell him, “By the way, I would’ve voted for Obama for a third term if I could. Best President in my lifetime, hands down.”
Apparently, when Bradley Whitford read the script, he didn’t realize this was supposed to be a joke in Peele's movie. When he was informed of the irony, he was shocked to discover he was one of the movie’s targets.
Us: “Who Are You People?” “We’re Americans.”
When the Tethered family first breaks into the house and sits the Wilson family down on the couch, Gabe asks them, “Who are you people?” Red ambiguously replies, “We’re Americans.”
Many critics noted that the title of Us can be seen as a double meaning with U.S., and that the whole movie can be seen as a critique of the current state of America.
Get Out: “You Know I Can’t Give You The Keys, Right, Babe?”
When Chris catches on that the Armitages have a nefarious plan and he’s putting himself in danger by staying at their house, it’s a few seconds too late. He tells Rose he wants to leave immediately and they head for the front door.
He’s accosted by her family in the living room as she fumbles around in her bag for the car keys. After fumbling around for a while, with a terrifying emptiness in her eyes, Rose pulls out the keys and says, “You know I can’t give you the keys, right, babe?”
Us: “Ophelia, Call The Police.” “Sure. Playing ‘F*** Tha Police’ By N.W.A.”
As terrifying as Us is, Peele still found plenty of spots for laugh-out-loud moments like in Key & Peele. One particularly great gag plays on Alexa-like virtual assistants’ tendency to mishear people. When Kitty is bleeding out, with her murderous doppelganger standing over her, she says, “Ophelia, call the police.”
Ophelia replies, “Sure. Playing ‘F*ck tha Police’ by N.W.A.” Aside from being a hilarious moment, it introduces N.W.A. to the soundtrack, juxtaposing a hip-hop classic with a brutal killing.
Get Out: “Now, Sink Into The Floor.”
Under the pretense of using hypnosis to get Chris to quit smoking, Missy sits Chris down in the middle of the night and hypnotizes him. She gets him to talk about how he watched TV while his mother died, all while stirring a teacup.
When Chris is under her spell, she says, “Now, sink into the floor,” and Chris finds himself falling through the terrifying, dark, empty Sunken Place.
Us: “If You Wanna Get Crazy, We Can Get Crazy!”
The Wilsons are freaked out when the Tethered show up, but Gabe doesn’t think there’s anything to worry about, because they’re just a family.
He goes out into the driveway with a baseball bat to scare them off. When they refuse to back down, he says, “If you wanna get crazy, we can get crazy!”
Get Out: “I Mean, I Told You Not To Go In That House.”
At the end of Get Out, as Chris manages to fend off every member of the Armitage household and stave off the theft of his body, he sees sirens up the road. Fearing he’ll be arrested (or worse), he and the audience are extremely relieved to see Chris’ best friend Rod get out of the car.
Chris s his friend in the car and Rod gets to enjoy an I-told-you-so moment. After a few moments of silent tension, Rod simply says, “I mean, I told you not to go in that house.” He’s right, to be fair.
Us: “It’s Us.”
When the Tethered versions of the Wilsons come barging into the house and stare them down in a chilling scene inspired by Funny Games, Jason notices something curious about the home invaders.
As he realizes that the family staring back at them are copies of themselves, albeit dressed in red, he simply says, “It’s us.” Peele has a penchant for putting the titles of his movies in the dialogue.
