Not long after the series finale of sketch comedy powerhouse Key & Peele, Jordan Peele made his feature film directorial debut withGet Out, which quickly became a modern horror classic and earned Peele an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay in the process. Here, we’ll take a look at 10 things you never knew aboutGet Out.
10Eddie Murphy
During a red carpet interview at the film’s premiere,Jordan Peeletalked about a bit from the Eddie Murphy standup film Delirious and the influence it had on his movie’s title. “Eddie Murphy is talking about the difference between how a white family and a black family would react in a haunted house,” Peele told Entertainment Tonight. In the classic routine, Murphy says if a supernatural presence told a black family to “get out,” they’d leave. “It’s one of the best bits of all time,” Peele said.
9Edgar Wright
During an interview about theKey & Peelecomedy Keanu, Keegan-Michael Key called it a “spiritual cousin to a movie likeHot Fuzz.” A year later, Jordan Peele moderated a Q&A with filmmaker Edgar Wright at aHot Fuzz10-year anniversary screening in Los Angeles, shown as a double feature withPoint Break. During the conversation, Peele cited the British director’s penchant for planting small things throughout a film that pay off later, as a huge influence onGet Out. Wright Tweeted his thanks afterward, adding, “[It was] a blast to watch the film next to you, too.”
8Black Mirror
Much praise has rightly been lavished upon the cast ofGet Out, with outlets like The Washington Post and of course Peele himself expressing the importance of the movie’s players. Daniel Kaluuya’s work in an episode ofBlack Mirrorhelped land him the job. As Peele told Seth Meyers, “he does the full range of quiet and internal to primal rage and passion. He had every emotion I would need.” In a separate interview, with GQ, the writer-director said it was important that the actor playing Chris was someone, “who related to the isolation of being the only black person in a given space.” The British actor, who sued London’s Metropolitan Police over a 2013 racial profiling incident, told Vulture that he’d “been to so many parties in England and in America that’s exactly like that, where you’re kind of like seen as Other.”
7The movie nods
Peele is an unapologetic movie lover and stuffedGet Outwith all kinds of references to classic films. He’s spoken lovingly about the influence of movies likeThe Stepford Wives,The Silence of the Lambs,Rosemary’s Baby,Night of the Living Dead, and even Hitchcock’sNorth by Northwest. In his Blu-ray and DVD commentary, he described the opening scene’s subversion of “the perfect white neighborhood” as inspired byHalloween. The white car stalking the movie’s first victim is a nod to bothJawsandChristine.
6The Shining
No film gets as much Easter egg love as Stanley Kubrick’sThe Shining. The director had paid tribute before, in theKey & Peelesketch “Continental Breakfast.” (As of the time we’re making this video, Peele’s Twitter profile is still from that sketch.) InGet Out’s opening scene, Andre compares being lost in the ‘burbs to being “in a hedge maze.” TheGet Outtitle scene is a direct homage toThe Shining’s opening credits. Chris tours the Armitage home much like the Torrance family toured The Overlook Hotel. And during a pivotal moment, the movie cuts to Rob, who ultimately saves the day, much asThe Shiningcut to Dick Holleran, who also tried to come to the rescue. The number “237,” as inThe Shining’s Room 237, can be heard over a P.A. system.
There are Easter eggs hidden in the film’s music, as well. In an interview with GQ conducted shortly before the movie’s release, Peele revealed that one of the songs in the beginning of the film issues a warning to Chris, albeit in Swahili. The lyrics translate roughly to, “Watch your back. Something’s coming, and it ain’t good.” A couple of months later, a Twitter user translated another part of the song’s lyrics as, “Listen to ancestors… Run away!” to which Peele confirmed, “This is correct.”
4"Stay Woke"
Another musical moment ties into that Eddie Murphy routine. Peele told Hip Hop DX that he chose the Childish Gambino song “Redbone” partially for it’s “Stay Woke” chorus, explaining it ties into his determination to, “verify this movie satisfied the black horror movie audience’s need for characters to be smart and do things that intelligent and observant people would do.”
3The Holy Grail
Jeremy is wearing a Knights Templar helmet, one of many ritualistic feeling moments inGet Out. By the end of the film, the audience gets the impression he’s probably worn this every time, just as the brain surgeries have been performed over and over. In his director’s commentary, Peele explained that theGet Outvillains are part of a secret organization stretching back to the Knights Templar called The Red Alchemists Society. “They believe they are destined for immortality and deity status and over hundreds of years they have worked to figure out, through science, a way to achieve the power of the Holy Grail.” During the chilling silent auction, the Red Alchemists Society isn’t bidding with money. “In my particular lore… the Knights Templar… were collectors of antiquities and treasures,” Peele said. “I have it in my mind that they trade amongst each other these relics and artifacts.”
2The original ending
Get Outwas originally going to end with the police showing up and arresting Chris. During an appearance on Buzzfeed’s Another Round podcast, Peele explained that moment was intended to challenge the idea of a “post-racial world” following President Obama’s election, the notion that racism was somehow over. But a number of current events, like the shooting deaths of unarmed black men Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin, caused the director to change his mind. “It was very clear that the ending need to transform into something that gives us a hero, that gives us an escape, gives us a positive feeling when we leave this movie,” Peele said.
1Get Out 2
Not long after the movie’s release, Peele told different interviewers that he already hadan idea where a sequel could goand whether or not he made a direct follow-up, he certainly planned to make more social-commentary stuffed thrillers. As recently as the summer of 2018, Blumhouse producer Jason Blum told Variety, “If Jordan wants to do a sequel, I’ll do it in a second, but it has to come from Jordan Peele. I think he’s flirting with the idea.” As for Peele, he told the Hollywood Reporter, “I can tell you I will definitely consider it. I love that universe and I feel like there is more story to tell. I don’t know what it is now, but there are some loose ends.”
