Get Out

Get Out is a 2017 American psychological horror film written, co-produced, and directed by Jordan Peele in his directorial debut. It stars Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Lil Rel Howery, LaKeith Stanfield, Bradley Whitford, Caleb Landry Jones, Stephen Root, Catherine Keener, and Betty Gabriel. The plot follows a young black man (Kaluuya), who uncovers shocking secrets when he meets the family of his white girlfriend (Williams).

Principal photography began in February 2016 in Fairhope, Alabama, then moved to Barton Academy and the Ashland Place Historic District in Mobile, Alabama. The entire film was shot in 23 days. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2017, and was theatrically released in the United States on February 24, 2017, by Universal Pictures. The film received critical acclaim for its screenplay, direction, acting, and social critiques. It was a major commercial success, grossing $255 million worldwide on a $4.5 million budget, with a net profit of $124.3 million, making it the tenth-most profitable film of 2017.

It was chosen by the National Board of Review, the American Film Institute, and Time as one of the top ten films of the year. It won many accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Peele at the 90th Academy Awards, with additional nominations for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor (Kaluuya). It also earned five nominations at the 23rd Critics' Choice Awards, two at the 75th Golden Globe Awards, the 71st British Academy Film Awards and the 24th Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Plot

On a suburban street at night, a black man walks alone, talking on the phone. A car pulls up to the curb beside him; sensing trouble, the man starts to walk away. A person wearing a helmet tackles and subdues the man, drags him into the car, and drives away.

Chris Washington, a black photographer, travels to upstate New York for a weekend getaway to meet the family of his white girlfriend, Rose Armitage. On the way, they hit a deer, and Rose defends Chris when the officer asks for his ID as he was not driving. He has uncomfortable conversations with Rose's parents, Dean, a neurosurgeon, and Missy, a psychiatrist. Later, Rose's brother Jeremy arrives, and Chris observes eerie behavior from the family's black servants, Georgina and Walter.

Missy tricks Chris into having a hypnotherapy session with her, using the sound of a spoon stirring in a teacup as a hypnotic trigger, ostensibly to cure his smoking addiction. While in a trance, Chris reveals that his mother was killed in a hit-and-run when he was a child, and he feels guilty because he waited too long to call for help. At Missy's prompting, Chris' consciousness falls into a dark void she calls the "sunken place", where his body becomes temporarily paralyzed. The next morning, Chris no longer has a desire to smoke.

Dozens of wealthy white guests arrive for the Armitages' annual get-together, and their remarks about Chris cause him to feel uncomfortable. Chris meets a blind art dealer, Jim Hudson, who takes an interest in his photography, and Logan King, the black man in the opening scene. Like Walter and Georgina, Logan behaves unnaturally, and he is married to a white woman thirty years older than he. When Chris photographs Logan, the camera flash causes Logan to become hysterical, rushing at Chris and frantically lashing out at him, telling him to "get out". Logan is taken away by Dean, who later claims Logan had a seizure.

The party guests appear to hold some sort of silent auction with a photo of Chris as the prize. Chris sends a photo of Logan to his friend, TSA officer Rod Williams, who recognizes Logan as Andre Hayworth, a missing man from Brooklyn. Chris discovers photos of Rose dating numerous black people, including Walter and Georgina, contradicting her earlier claim that Chris is the first black person she has dated. He tries to leave, but Rose refuses to give him the car keys. Jeremy and Dean block the doors and Missy hypnotizes Chris back to the sunken place.

Chris awakens strapped to an armchair in the basement. In a video, an old man, who introduces himself as Roman Armitage, explains that his family transplants the brains of their wealthy friends into black people's bodies to acquire their desirable physical characteristics, leaving the host's consciousness trapped in the sunken place. Jim Hudson appears on the TV, explaining that he wants Chris's eyesight. Meanwhile, Rod, who has been trying to contact Chris and suspects foul play, goes to the police, but they do not believe his theory about the Armitages.

Missy hypnotizes Chris again. However, it is revealed that he has blocked the trigger by plugging his ears with cotton stuffing from the armchair. Chris bludgeons Jeremy and then kills Dean (who falls and accidentally sets fire to the room) and Missy when she attacks him, before finishing off Jeremy when he attacks again. Chris tries to escape in Jeremy's Porsche but accidentally hits Georgina, who has the brain of Rose's grandmother, Marianne. Compelled by guilt over his mother's death, he picks her up to save her, but she attacks him, causing the car to crash and kill her.

Rose and Walter, who has the brain of Rose's grandfather Roman, arrive to capture Chris. During a scuffle, Chris uses his phone's flash to briefly free Walter from Roman's control. Walter takes Rose's rifle, shoots her, and fatally shoots himself. Chris starts strangling Rose, but cannot bring himself to kill her. A police car arrives and Chris surrenders, with Rose believing that the police will arrest Chris and save her, but it is revealed to be Rod's TSA car. Rod picks up Chris, leaving Rose to bleed out on the side of the road.

Cast

• Daniel Kaluuya as Chris Washington, a young Black photographer who is invited by Rose to her family's house
  • Zailand Adams as 11-year-old Chris
• Allison Williams as Rose Armitage, the daughter of the Armitage family and Chris Washington's girlfriend
• Bradley Whitford as Dean Armitage, a neurosurgeon and Rose's father
• Caleb Landry Jones as Jeremy Armitage, Rose's brother
• Stephen Root as Jim Hudson, a blind art dealer who is a member of the wealthy Order of the Coagula organization
• LaKeith Stanfield as Andre Hayworth / Logan King, the latter a member of the Order of the Coagula who has taken over the body of Andre, the person who had gone missing 6 months prior to the film's events
• Catherine Keener as Missy Armitage, a psychiatrist and Rose's mother
• Lil Rel Howery as Rod Williams, a TSA Airport police officer and Chris' best friend
• Erika Alexander as Detective Latoya
• Marcus Henderson as Walter, the Armitage's Black groundskeeper, who is actually Roman Armitage in Walter's body
• Betty Gabriel as Georgina, a Black housekeeper who is actually Marianne Armitage, the Armitage family matriarch and Rose's grandmother, in Georgina's body
• Richard Herd as Roman Armitage (before having taken over Walter's body), founder of the Order of the Coagula and the patriarch of the Armitage family, also the grandfather of Rose
• Jeronimo Spinx as Detective Drake
• Ian Casselberry as Detective Garcia
• Trey Burvant as Officer Ryan
• Geraldine Singer as Philomena King

Writer-director Jordan Peele voices the sounds made by the wounded deer, and narrates a UNCF commercial.

Production

Development

Get Out is the directorial debut of Jordan Peele, who had previously worked in comedy, including the sketch show Key & Peele. Peele has said that horror and comedy share similar mechanics (such as timing, rhythm and surprise), and that his comedy background helped inform the film’s approach to tension and reveals. He cited The Stepford Wives (1975) as an influence on its satirical premise. As the film deals with racism, Peele has said the story is personal to him, though not autobiographical.

Peele was introduced to producer Sean McKittrick by comedy partner Keegan-Michael Key in 2013. After Peele pitched the story during a meeting in New Orleans, McKittrick committed to producing and commissioned Peele to write the screenplay; Peele completed the first draft in about two months.

Casting

The lead actors, Daniel Kaluuya and Allison Williams, were cast in November 2015, with other roles cast between December 2015 and February 2016. Kaluuya was cast based on his performance in the Black Mirror episode "Fifteen Million Merits". He has said the role appealed to him because Chris is written as an everyman, and because the party sequence felt recognizable in its social dynamics. Tiffany Haddish was asked to audition for a role in the film but declined.

Peele has said he cast Williams partly to play against audience expectations formed by her earlier roles, making Rose initially appear more trustworthy. Williams later said some viewers—particularly white audiences—misread Rose as a victim rather than a perpetrator, an interpretation she rejected. The moment in which Rose drinks milk while browsing potential victims was added shortly before shooting to heighten the character’s detachment, and Peele discussed using the mundane detail as a deliberately unsettling image.