{"id":9731,"date":"2025-10-03T03:04:35","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T01:04:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/2025\/10\/03\/decoding-the-chilling-symbolism-of-get-out\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T03:04:35","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T01:04:35","slug":"decoding-the-chilling-symbolism-of-get-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/2025\/10\/03\/decoding-the-chilling-symbolism-of-get-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Decoding the Chilling Symbolism of \u2018Get Out\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nofilmschool.com\/media-library\/the-symbolism-of-get-out.jpg?id=61692543&amp;width=1245&amp;height=700&amp;coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0\"><\/p>\n<p>When Jordan Peele\u2019s <em>Get Out<\/em> hit theaters in 2017, it didn\u2019t just scare us; it started a conversation. I remember seeing it in DTLA, it was like the theatrical premiere, and I went with a buddy, and we sat with some execs and went to an after-party.<\/p>\n<p>And I was in such awe of the movie and so sure we were witnessing the birth of a great new director. It was one of the best nights for me in all of my time in Hollywood.<\/p>\n<p>Here I am, years later, still talking about this movie and how many layers there are inside it.<\/p>\n<p>Jordan Peele is one of my favorite current directors, and today I wanted to go over all the symbolism he packed into his debut feature.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s break down some of the most powerful symbols in the film.<\/p>\n<p class=\"shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube\"> <span class=\"rm-shortcode\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"2b90236ce5ed45fe14932b3b5d0382d1\" style=\"display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"auto\" lazy-loadable=\"true\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ubNKSgdT1FQ?rel=0\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" width=\"100%\"><\/iframe><\/span> <small class=\"image-media media-caption\" placeholder=\"Add Photo Caption...\">&#8211; YouTube<\/small><small class=\"image-media media-photo-credit\" placeholder=\"Add Photo Credit...\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ubNKSgdT1FQ\" target=\"_blank\">www.youtube.com<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n<hr>\n<h2>The Sunken Place<\/h2>\n<p>Let&#8217;s start with the big one. <a href=\"https:\/\/nofilmschool.com\/get-out-sunken-place-meaning\" target=\"_blank\">The Sunken Place<\/a> is more than just a cool visual or <a data-linked-post=\"2661198701\" href=\"https:\/\/nofilmschool.com\/plot-devices\" target=\"_blank\">plot device<\/a>; it&#8217;s the film&#8217;s thematic core.<sup><\/sup> When the spoon taps the teacup, Chris plummets into a dark, watery void.<sup><\/sup> He can see the world through a tiny screen, but he can&#8217;t move. He can&#8217;t speak. He can only watch as someone else controls his body.<\/p>\n<p>I have to admit that upon first glance, I thought this was just some cool storytelling. But the more I read about the movie, the more I was interested in the reading that it was actually a metaphor for systemic racism.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a suppression of an individual and a trap you can&#8217;t escape while in the passenger seat, and someone else is driving your life.<\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;re screaming, but you are never heard.<\/p>\n<h2>The Teacup and Spoon<\/h2>\n<p>I know we mentioned this right before, but before you enter The Sunken Place, you get dinged with a teacup and a spoon.<\/p>\n<p>This is a civilized and high society way to take control of you.<\/p>\n<p>The family at the center of this movie does not see themselves as racists; they would have voted for Obama a third time,  Armitages don&#8217;t see themselves as brutes. They see themselves as enlightened, sophisticated people.<\/p>\n<p>It represents covert racism that is hidden and maybe even not fully realized by the people practicing it; it&#8217;s far more insidious and dangerous.<\/p>\n<h2>The Deer<\/h2>\n<p>The deer shows up twice in crucial moments.<sup><\/sup> First, Chris and Rose hit a deer on the way to visit her family. Chris&#8217;s reaction is one of empathy and pain, which contrasts sharply with Rose&#8217;s cold indifference.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s a <a data-linked-post=\"2661197472\" href=\"https:\/\/nofilmschool.com\/plant-and-payoff-in-screenwriting\" target=\"_blank\">plant and payoff<\/a> for her character, but also a greater metaphor about how she views people different than herself.<\/p>\n<p>Later, we see a large, stuffed deer head mounted on the wall in the Armitage home, its dead eyes staring down. That brings Chris back to that violence and also connects to his past.<\/p>\n<p>The other part of this is that Chris is seen as a hunting prize to bring home; he&#8217;s the trophy she brought back for her family to use.<\/p>\n<h2>Cotton <\/h2>\n<p>When a captive Chris is tied to a chair, he pulls the cotton stuffing out of the armrest to plug his ears.<sup><\/sup> <span style=\"background-color: initial;\">It\u2019s a literal escape tool, but the visual of a Black man picking cotton to save himself is an unmissable and deeply ironic reference to slavery.<sup><\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Summing It All Up <\/h2>\n<p><em>Get Out<\/em> is a horror masterpiece because its scares aren&#8217;t just visceral moments, but also layered into the very fabric of our society.<sup><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Jordan Peele trusts his audience to connect the dots, and in doing so, he creates a film that is so rewatchable and so beautiful to discuss.<\/p>\n<p>Were there more symbols I missed?<\/p>\n<p>Let me know in the comments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Author: Jason Hellerman<br \/>\nThis article comes from <i>No Film School<\/i> and can be <a href=\"https:\/\/nofilmschool.com\/get-out-symbolism\" target=\"_blank\"><b>read on the original site.<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Jordan Peele\u2019s Get Out hit theaters in 2017, it didn\u2019t just scare us; it started a conversation. I remember seeing it in DTLA, it&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_customify_content_layout":"","_customify_sidebar":"","_customify_page_header_display":"","_customify_disable_header":"","_customify_disable_header_top":"","_customify_disable_header_main":"","_customify_disable_header_bottom":"","_customify_disable_page_title":"","_customify_disable_content_vertical_padding":"","_customify_disable_footer_top":"","_customify_disable_footer_main":"","_customify_disable_footer_bottom":"","_customify_breadcrumb_display":"","_customify_header_transparent_display":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[38,37,43,42,39,40,44,41,36],"class_list":["post-9731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-video-news","tag-editing","tag-film","tag-guide","tag-info","tag-news","tag-tips","tag-topics","tag-tricks","tag-video"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Brokenmount","author_link":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/author\/sysop\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/category\/video-news\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Video and Film News<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"When Jordan Peele\u2019s Get Out hit theaters in 2017, it didn\u2019t just scare us; it started a conversation. I remember seeing it in DTLA, it&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9731\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}