US BY JORDAN PEELE [outline]

US by Jordan Peele. Outline on next page. 

​LESSONS: 
- Good interpersonal tension. Husbands and wives don't get along. Family friends don't quite click. Brother and sister don't get along. That's what kept the story interesting before the horror started.
- MORE GOOD IMAGERY. Rabbits. Carnivals. Kid's drawings. Etc. Haunting imagery is important. 
- for us... less is more. We don't need all the gore that this movie used. Let's go more in the direction of THE RING or SCREAM. Constant suspense to create fear more than gore and guts and stuff. 

1. HANDS ACROSS AMERICA MTV CLIP. Ad for a big event that will help homeless.


2. CARNIVAL. Russell throws the ball. Wins daughter Addie a shirt. Wife Rayne and Russell argue about whether he should have another beer.


3. Russel is supposed to watch Addie. Plays whac-a-mole instead. ADDIE walks toward the ocean. Sees teenagers who keep getting same thing in rock paper scissors. Walks toward water edge.


4. WATER’S EDGE. Addie finds Native American fun house called VISION QUEST under boardwalk and walks toward it as it starts to rain.


5. ADDIE in fun house. Very odd. There is an identical girl there. NOT a girl in a mirror… WTF is going on?


BLACK.


6. CLOSEUP OF A WET RABBIT’S RED EYE


Music of creepy kid’s choir.


Reveal stacks of rabbits in cages.


7. CAR. 34 y.o, Addie with husband and kids. THey are the Wilsons.


8. BAYSIDE HOUSE. Addie and kids (JASON AND ZORA) and husband GABe are there to sell Addie’s childhood house.


Gabe says he wants to go to the boardwalk. Addie seems creeped out by the beach…


9. KID’S SHRINK OFFICE. Young Addie. Shrink informs parents she has PTSD from whatever happened when she was lost for 15 minutes at boardwalk.


10. HOME. Gabe convinces Addie to go to beach later.


11.  BASEMENT. Addie has flashback. Remembers doing ballet down there.


12. HOME. Jason accidentally gets locked in a closet after scaring family with mask.


13. BAY. Gabe has a boat. Family is not enthusiastic.


14. CAR. Family bickers. Gets together over a song.


LATER. Zora begs to drive. She’s not old enough.


15. FLASHBACK. In car. Her parents argue.


16. ROAD. Cops stopped cars. Bleeding homeless man carried into ambulance.


17. BEACH. Addie steals glance at creepy attraction she got lost in. Details have changed but it’s still there.


18. BEACH. Meet up with white friends. They are drunk assholes.


19. LATER. Addie and Kitty (other woman) talk about life. Wishing they never had kids. Etc.


Kids play in ocean. Jason is weird. The other kids pressure him to play various games.


20. LATER. Wives still talk. Jason wanders far away to port o potty.


BACK TO ADDIE. Notices lots of odd coincidences. Tries to stay normal but is a bit disturbed.


21. BEACH. Jason walks toward odd yoga man.


22. BEACH. Addie searches for Jason with concern.


OVER BY JASON. The odd yoga man has dried blood on his hands.


Addie finds Jason.


23. ADDIE FREAKS OUT. People look on like why is this lady so upset.


24. CAR ON WAY HOME. Radio report about stabbings.


25. HOME. Gabe and Addie. She goes to bed he stays up.


Says goodnight to Jason. He has a creepy drawing. Still has the creepy mask.


26. BEDROOM. Addie tells Gabe about what happened when she got lost as a kid.


27. FLASHBACK INTERCUT WITH ADDIE TODAY. She says she saw a girl who looked like herself and the girl tried to strangle her. She’s afraid the girl is getting close.


28. THERE’S A FAMILY OF FOUR AT THE EDGE OF THE PROPERTY. THEY SEEM LIKE THE WILSONS…


29. Gabe confronts. They don’t move. Gabe comes back with a bat. They are freakish bad family. Crawl and attack.


30. BACK IN HOUSE. Good family tries to lock doors etc.


31. HOUSE. Bad family attacks. They have powers. The mom - RED - runs the show. Sends the kids away. Has her husband take Gabe out back to beat him. Stays with Addie.


32. INTERCUT
Zora v. Girl
Jason v. Boy
Gabe appears to defeat husband
Jason locks boy in closet
Evil Red goes to find boy, leaving Addie alone.


33. FAMILY ESCAPES on boat (good family).


34. TYLERS (WHITE FAMILY) HOUSE. They get killed swiftly by their own “bad family.”


35. GOOD FAMILY arrives. Does battle with evil white family.


NEWS: This is a country wide epidemic. Uh oh.


36. GOOD FAMILY kills most of evil white family. Takes their car and escapes.


37. ROAD. Red and her evil kid Pluto block the road. Red takes Jason.


Addie runs off toward the creepy amusement funhouse.


38. FUNHOUSE. Addie retraces old steps. Finds an underground mall. Filled with rabbits and a sweatshop that furs them.


39. FAMILY. Walks toward boardwalk together.


40. BEACH. Line of people holding bloody hands.


41. FUNHOUSE UNDERPASS. Red reveals what’s going on. Explains THE TETHERED. And how she and Addie met and were tied together all of life. Intercuts show random shit like the tethered eating bunnies.


42. BATTLE. Addie wins.


43. FLASHBACK. We see that when Addie went into the funhouse as a kid…


SHE GOT TRAPPED BY EVIL ADDIE. And Evil Addie is the one who has been living Addie’s life all these years.


44. FINAL IMAGE. The creepy people hand in hand.