Get Out: An Interracial Dating Nightmare
Get Out is a comedic horror film written and directed by well-known comedian, Jordan Peele. Commercials briefly show the strange dynamic between Chris, played by Daniel Kaluuya, and the people of the town— who all just so happen to be mostly white – where his girlfriend's family resides. Though strange, audiences have no idea what is really going on beyond the shadow of this family until they see the movie.
The film begins showing a black man walking in a white, suburban neighborhood talking on the phone. A white car, which appears later on in the film, stops next to him. Seeing that this could be trouble, the man tries to walk away, but is attacked, knocked out, and thrown into the car. It then shifts to the main character of the story, Chris, getting ready to Redbone by Childish Gambino ( I knew the movie would be good at that very moment ). We meet his brown-haired, fair-skinned girlfriend Rose shortly after. The two seem completely in love and crazy for one another. Chris gets nervous however at the fact that he has is going to meet Rose's family for the first time. This is a terrifying task for anyone in a relationship, let alone a black man and Rose's first black boyfriend (so she says). She assure him that her family are not racist, and if anything all her father will do is talk about President Obama with him.
In the car on their way to Rose's family's house, the audience learns that Chris has a smoking problem, something that seems insignificant at the time, but turns out to be extremely important. Chris talks to his friend Rod, a crude-humored airport TSA agent, about his worries regarding the trip. Rod warns him of how crazy white people can be and to be careful. The two then hit a deer out of nowhere, and talk to the police afterwards. The racism of the movie begins right then when the officer asks for Chris' license even though he was not the one driving the car.
Once Chris and Rose arrive at the Armitage house, the micro aggressions begin. Rose's father begins talking about deer and how they are overpopulating and need to be dealt with, alluding to other non-white people in society. He also emphasizes the word "black" when describing mold, as well as tries to use slang wording such as "you know what I'm sayin'," when talking to Chris. While awkward, it is nothing Chris didn't expect while meeting the (white) parents for the first time.
Things start to get strange when Chris meets the Armitage's servants — and the only other black people around— Walter and Georgina. They act extremely robotic and bizarre, which sets off a red flag for Chris. Things get even crazier when Chris goes out for a cigarette at night and Walter charges at him before turning and running in the other direction. Meanwhile Georgina is staring at herself in the window brushing her hair and Chris can see all of it. When he goes back inside he is bombarded by Rose's mother about his smoking, whereupon she uses her psychiatrist skills to entrance him into an unconscious state that will supposedly help him quit. Little does he know that this was a huge mistake.
After this encounter the family has a huge gathering with tons of, wait you guessed it, white people! They proceed with several cringe-worthy comments to Chris such as saying "Oh I love Tiger Woods," or "What is your opinion on the African American experience," one woman even asked if the sex is better with black guys! Chris talks to one blind art dealer who knows of Chris' art pieces who almost seems normal. There is also one other black man named Logan that Chris meets at the party. As soon as he turned around I thought: wait this guy looks kind of familiar, and not in the racist all black people look the same kind of way. Oh yeah! It is the same guy who was taken in the opening of the film. Relieved, Chris introduces himself, only to find out that this guy is just as strange as Walter and Georgina. Chris takes a flash photo of the guy, whereupon he snaps out of his weird trance and begins screaming "Get out!" at Chris. Chris tells Rod all about it later, even sending him the photo he took. Rod recognizes the missing man, and the two start to get freaked out. Other events unfold, and Chris realizes that he needs to get the hell out of this place. He holds a lot of trust in Rose throughout the movie, until he finds a box full of pictures of Rose with other black guys and girls. That's right, Rose lied about her jungle fever in the beginning when she told Chris she had never been with another black person.
While trying to escape, Rose and her entire family trap Chris, knocking him out unconscious. The mother uses a tea cup and spoon to entrance Chris and send him into a black whole where he is stuck viewing the outside world. In a way it is a metaphor for being black in America. Where you are forever in a dark vessel (b
oth literally and figuratively ) and there is no escaping. It is revealed that the Armitage family, dating back to Rose's grandparents, have developed a procedure where people ( who just so happen to be black ) are hypnotized into a dark oblivion and undergo a procedure whereupon their souls are separated from their neural, motor functions and another person is put into their bodies. For Chris, the first step was the cigarette "cure" where he was conditioned to snap into a trance when hearing a spoon stir in a tea cup, the second was meeting the sick person who would be transferred into his body— the blind man at the party — and the third step being the physical procedure where Rose's dad takes out the brain of the there patient and puts it into Chris.
Chris however has a ride-or-die friend in Rod, and he is doing all he can to look for Chris. Chris in the meantime gets clever, finding his way out of his chambers, killing all of the racist psychopaths he has been staying with. Rod comes to the rescue and the two drive off in the TSA work vehicle.
Get out was everything I could want in a movie: laughter, horror, love, and a few good ol' jump scares. The film's themes of racial tensions really shed light on the social injustices and subtle micro aggressions black people encounter on a daily basis. Get out can be seen as a metaphor for how black culture has been looked down upon for so many years, yet nowadays it is in fashion to act, look, and sound black. In a way non-black individuals want a look through black eyes. Another interpretation is a modern-day slave trade, where black people really have not escaped the reigns of white society, and will always be dictated and looked down upon by white culture.