Red explains that the Tethered are actually genetic clones created by the government to control the populace. When the experiment failed, the Tethered were abandoned underground for generations, mindlessly mimicking the actions of their counterparts and surviving on raw rabbit meat.
The Tethered in Jordan Peele's "Us" are the result of a failed government cloning experiment, meant to control the above-ground population. The Tethered are tied to their above-ground counterparts and live in underground tunnels, forced to mimic their counterparts' lives.
The initial purpose of the Tethered in Us was to literally turn the population into puppets: from underground, the Tethered would dictate everybody's life, removing free will and leaving leaders in complete control.
Red holding scissors close to her all the time is a symbol of severing parts of life, as well as the connection between the Tethered and their originals. Red was the first one to break free from the connection with her double above ground, so it makes sense that scissors became her and the Tethered's symbol of freedom.
Adelaide was really Red all along. She shares a glance with her son with him seemingly understanding who his mother actually is. After all, he saw the brutal, tether-like behavior she displayed underground.
Us: The Tethered Explained | Everything We Know About Jordan Peele's Latest Terrifying Characters
What did Red whisper to Addy?
Warning: Spoilers for the film Us. “How you could have taken me with you,” Red wistfully states to the Adelaide that has taken over her life. All that you have, all that you are, all that you've become — you took from me.
But Adelaide doesn't seem to know that she's the kidnapper who originally grew up Tethered — that is, until the final moments of Red's life. In the film's climax, Adelaide has fatally wounded Red; Red uses her final moments to do something unexpected: She whistles.
The iconic handwear debuted during a 1983 television performance of "Billy Jean" for Motown's 25th anniversary celebration. The lone white glove would become synonymous with Jackson throughout his career — and ultimately, provide a cryptic image for the Tethered to incorporate during their exodus from the underworld.
In the process, some Tethered are killed but in the final shot of Us, it's revealed that many survived the night and joined hands to create a human chain that runs for quite some distance - perhaps even from coast to coast.
Rabbits commonly symbolize rebirth in human culture as explained by their usage around Easter to signify the rebirth of Jesus Christ. In the case of Us, the rabbits symbolize the rebirth of the Tethered who are now rising up to take their place in society.
Adelaide is not a tethered, the ending is just her coping with what happened and a play on how oppressors like to tell themselves they are the victims. They are just made up memories as a coping mechanism. Which is why she is shown making a weird smile as an 8 year old in the made up memory and also in the car.
This reveal is quite good, especially since the seed is planted at the very start of the film, but it can be a little confusing. As it turns out, Red is actually the original non-Tethered Adelaide, and the Adelaide we've been following the entire movie, and thought was the hero, is actually the Tether.
But there's one more subtle twist at the end of the movie that complicates it further. Jason looks at Adelaide in the car—who we now know is a Tethered—and some sort of acknowledgement passes between them. This seems like an indication that Jason seemed to realize that his mother was actually one of the Tethered.
Josh Tyler is the father in the Tyler family, with him being killed at the same time as his two daughters. Much like Lindsey's death, Josh is killed on-screen while the camera is outside the house and in a wide shot, making his killing less impactful.
As of yet, there are no concrete plans for an Us sequel. Though unanswered questions and murky thematic elements seem to be an integral part of Peele's style of filmmaking, he has suggested that the Us universe is rich enough to support another story.
There are jump scares, plus many attacks and killings with blood and gore. Characters use blunt objects on doppelgangers, and doppelgangers slice and stab people with sharp scissors. A woman is handcuffed, and children are sometimes in peril.
All of which is to say, when Jason looks at Adelaide late in this movie, seeing, for the first time, his mother's true self, he's not realizing that she's Red, or that she's Adelaide, or anything like that. He's realizing that she is, and always has been, both.
At the end of Us, a quintessential plot twist is revealed: the woman thought to be Adelaide was actually kidnapped as a child by her clone, Red, who replaced her in the above-ground world.
Us' Tethered and underground tunnels are haunting, but both have compelling origins related to the U.S. government. For starters, the Tethered are the result of a botched cloning experiment. Red explains that the government hoped to use these genetic clones to control the above-ground populace.
As for why they escaped, Adelaide and the Tethered doppelgängers want the Untethering, which involves killing their aboveground counterparts and possibly taking their places. But first, they want to make a statement by doing an imitation of a little-remembered charity campaign from the 1980s. Why Hands Across America?
In Us, Jeremiah 11:11 reads as, "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." Narratively this is represented through Adelaide's duplicate, Red, who represents the evil she and the other ...
Peele told Vanity Fair, without giving too much away about the societal connections the movie makes, that the doppelgangers are tired of being “shadows” want to take what they feel they deserve. They are on a mission for vengeance.
What happened to the mother in the movie tethered?
This was so obvious. The boy's mother changed into the monster he'd heard in the distance. At the end he discovers her living nearby, chaining herself so she wouldn't kill anyone. He comes close, angered she lied to him and left him, kills her, and is changed to a monster himself.
JASON EXPLAINED: It's clear that Jason's language issues and want to hide in small places is because he's half Tethered. His sister just takes more after dad. And it didn't matter if Zora's clone was good at running or not, she had to practice just as much as the original.
While Red is defeated by Adelaide in the end, situating Adelaide as the film's final girl, the finale reveals that the ultimate switch had been successfully carried out years ago by the true Tether pretending to be "real Adelaide" all along.
