Sage Larsen 165803 IB Film, Textual Analysis Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017) Sequence Chosen (“Give Me the Keys”) Word Count: 1442 Jordan Peele’s debut film “Get Out” is a complex horror layered with casual racism and historical traits. The scene I have chosen is dubbed “Give Me the Keys”. I will analyze it in terms of historical and social context, while using storytelling, specific plot points, dialogue, and lighting to depict how Peele used these to give meaning to his film. “Get Out” follows a young African-American’s weekend with his girlfriend at her parent’s upstate house. Rose’s parents are seemingly overbearing and accommodating, but Chris initially reads this as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter’s interracial relationship. …show more content…
One night, Rose's hypnotherapist mother, Missy, pressures Chris into a hypnosis session to cure his addiction to smoking. While under a trance, Chris confesses his mother was killed in an accident and that he felt responsible. The next morning, he wakes to find the session was successful, and that his smoking addiction was gone. Later, dozens of wealthy, white family friends arrive for a get-together - and they all take a strange interest in Chris. Away from the party, Chris relays his want to leave to Rose, who agrees, while the family holds a silent auction where Chris is the prize. While Chris and Rose pack to leave, Chris finds photos of Rose in prior relationships with several black partners, including Walter and Georgina, contradicting her earlier claim that Chris is the first person of color she has ever dated. Rose and her family reveal …show more content…
One of the most hinting lines of the movie appears almost halfway through when Chris tells Georgina, “All I know is sometimes, if there’s too many white people, I get nervous.” Later, during the “Give Me the Keys” scene, this is demonstrated when Rose and her parents surround Chris. Chris is stressed and demands Rose gives him the keys, though Rose’s parents and brother aren’t advancing on Chris in any way other than verbally. Just being seemingly surrounded by all white people, Chris panics and yells at Rose. When Rose holds up the pair of keys she was hiding from him the entire time, Chris drops his bag in defeat. This major plot point stresses how Chris sensed something was wrong with the Armitage family. Finally, the keys themselves may physically and metaphorically represent Chris’s freedom, captive in Rose’s