The film features an ensemble cast, starring Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex, Elisabeth Moss, and Tim Heidecker.

Peele produced the film alongside Jason Blum and Sean McKittrick, having previously collaborated on Get Out and BlacKkKlansman, as well as Ian Cooper.

In 1986, young Adelaide Thomas wanders away from her parents at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and enters a funhouse.

On the way, they witness paramedics taking away the bloody body of an old man holding a sign identical to one Adelaide saw on the day of the doppelgänger encounter.

Red vaguely explains that the Tethered are duplicates created, presumably by some secret organization, to control the populace.

[5] When the experiment failed, the Tethered were abandoned underground mindlessly mimicking the actions of their counterparts and surviving on raw rabbit meat.

After the other doppelgängers realized Red was "different", when she snapped them out of their lethargy, she spent years organizing them to escape and take vengeance by murdering their counterparts.

The doppelgänger, having choked Adelaide unconscious (damaging her larynx, resulting in her hoarse voice), dragged and trapped her underground then returned to the surface to usurp her life.

[8] Peele has said that an inspiration for Us was The Twilight Zone episode "Mirror Image", which was centered on a young woman and her evil doppelgänger.

And that’s where I love to start with a horror story: ‘What is this primal thing that’s affecting me in a way I don’t quite understand?’"On May 8, 2018, it was announced that Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke and Elisabeth Moss were all in negotiations to star in the film, with Nyong'o and Duke portraying a black couple, and Moss portraying one half of a white couple.

[11] The rest of the cast, including Tim Heidecker, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex were all confirmed in July of that year.

[12] Peele saw the characters of the film as an "archetypal foursome", with Adelaide being the leader, Zora being the warrior, Gabe being jester/fool and Jason being the wiz/magician.

In order to perfect her voice, she "worked with an ear, nose, and throat doctor, a vocal therapist, and my dialect coach to try and make sure I could do it and do it safely.

The once-fun song transmogrifies into an eerie "Tethered Mix", slowing everything down, and fully indulging the ominous quality of the film.

Due to the track's popularity upon the trailer's release, it was edited into the final cut of the film, appearing during the climax.

[19] Waxwork Records announced in August 2019 that they would release the soundtrack to the film on vinyl, which contained Abels's popular score.

That trailer featured a narration by Lupita Nyong'o's character, Adelaide, speaking with her husband Gabriel about the strange coincidences happening since they arrived at their beach house, and describing it as a "black cloud" hanging over them.

The website's critical consensus reads, "With Jordan Peele's second inventive, ambitious horror film, we have seen how to beat the sophomore jinx, and it is Us.

[7] Monica Castillo of RogerEbert.com gave the film four out of four, writing that: "Us is another thrilling exploration of the past and oppression this country is still too afraid to bring up.

Peele wants us to talk, and he's given audiences the material to think, to feel our way through some of the darker sides of the human condition and the American experience.

Peele has proven that he's not a one-hit wonder with this truly terrifying, poignant look at one American family that goes through hell at the hands of maniacal doppelgangers".

[43] Critic Jim Vejvoda related the Tethered to "urban legends" and "xenophobic paranoia about the Other", also writing they resembled the Morlocks in H. G. Wells's 1895 novel, The Time Machine.

[46] Manohla Dargis of The New York Times notes that the Wilsons are "introduced with an aerial sweep of greenery" similar to the opening of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, and sees that movie as the principal influence on Us.

[46][48] Peele referenced many other instances of 1980s culture, including allusions to The Lost Boys and Hands Across America, stating "Everything in this movie was deliberate, that is one thing I can guarantee you.

[48][49] The film contains numerous references to Jeremiah 11:11, which reads: "Therefore thus saith the Lord: 'I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape.

Critic Rosie Fletcher commented on the context, with Jeremiah warning Jerusalem was facing destruction due to false idols, and expressed the opinion that the film's characters also "worshiped the wrong things", such as Ophelia, the virtual assistant.