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).
The film was a commercial success, grossing $259.9 million against a $4.5 million budget, and received universal acclaim for Peele's screenplay and direction, as well as Kaluuya's performance, and was chosen by the National Board of Review, the American Film Institute, and Time magazine as one of the top 10 films of 2017. At the 90th Academy Awards, it was nominated for four awards, winning Best Original Screenplay. Retrospectively, Get Out is considered one of the greatest horror films of the 21st century, and in 2021, its screenplay was named the greatest of the 21st century by the Writers Guild of America West.
Plot On a suburban street at night, a Black man walks alone, talking on his phone. After a car approaches him, the man, sensing trouble, attempts to escape, but is subdued, dragged into the car and driven away.
Six months later, Black photographer Chris Washington travels to upstate New York for a weekend getaway to meet the family of his white girlfriend, Rose Armitage. Upon arrival, he has uncomfortable conversations with Rose's father Dean, a neurosurgeon, and mother Missy, a psychiatrist. Later, Rose's brother Jeremy arrives, and Chris observes eerie behavior from the family's Black staff, Georgina and Walter.
Missy manipulates Chris into an individual hypnotherapy session, using the sound of a spoon stirring in a teacup as a hypnotic trigger, ostensibly to cure his smoking habit. While entranced, he reveals that his mother died in a hit-and-run when he was 11 years old; he feels partially responsible, as he delayed calling for help. At Missy's prompting, his consciousness falls into a dark void she dubs the "sunken place", where his body becomes temporarily paralyzed. The next morning, he finds that he no longer has a desire to smoke.
Dozens of wealthy white guests arrive for the Armitages' annual get-together and continually make uncomfortable remarks toward Chris. Chris meets blind art dealer Jim Hudson, who takes an interest in his photography, and a Black man named Logan King. Like Walter and Georgina, Logan behaves unnaturally, and is married to a white woman thirty years his senior. When Chris photographs Logan with flash on, Logan lunges toward Chris, frantically telling him to "get out." Dean removes him, later explaining the sudden erratic behavior as a seizure.
Chris confides in Rose about his worries, and both ultimately agree to return home. Meanwhile, as the party guests have a silent auction for a photo of him, Chris sends the photo of Logan to his friend, TSA officer Rod Williams. Rod recognizes Logan as Andre Hayworth, a missing man from Brooklyn. Chris discovers photos of Rose dating numerous Black individuals, including Walter and Georgina, and he tries to leave, but Jeremy and Dean block the doors. Rose, revealing herself as an accomplice, refuses to give him his keys, and Missy hypnotizes him back to the sunken place.
Awakening strapped to an armchair in the basement, Chris views a video in which Dean's father Roman explains that the Armitage family transplants the brains of wealthy white people into Black bodies to acquire their physical characteristics, leaving the host's consciousness trapped in the "sunken place". Jim then reveals that he is going to be transferred into Chris' body, but maintains that he does not care about the color of Chris' skin and only covets a body with working eyesight. Meanwhile, Rod consults the police, who laugh off his theory about the Armitages.
In another room, Dean begins the transplantation process, removing the top of Jim's skull. Jeremy arrives to retrieve Chris, who has seemingly been hypnotized by a clip of the teacup sound earlier, but Chris awakens and bludgeons him—having blocked the trigger by plugging his ears with cotton stuffing from the armchair. Chris kills Dean, who sets the operating room ablaze, then Missy, then Jeremy when he attacks again. Attempting to escape in Jeremy's Porsche, Chris accidentally hits Georgina, who possesses the brain of Rose's grandmother Marianne. Reminded of his own mother's death, Chris guiltily takes her into the car, but she reawakens and attacks him, causing the car to crash and kill her.
Rose and Walter, who possesses Roman's brain, arrive to capture Chris. During a scuffle, Chris uses his phone's flash to free Walter from Roman's control. Walter shoots Rose with her rifle, then fatally shoots himself. Chris begins strangling Rose, but relents when she manipulatively pleads for her life and promises she loves him. A police car arrives; Rose cries out for help, but Rod emerges from the car and picks up Chris, leaving Rose to bleed out on 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 white daughter of the Armitage family and Chris'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, a Black man 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.
Filming Principal photography began on February 16, 2016. Shooting took place in Fairhope, Alabama for three weeks, followed by work at Barton Academy and in the Ashland Place Historic District in midtown Mobile, Alabama. The exterior and interior of the Armitage house were filmed just south of Fairhope. Principal photography lasted 23 days.
Although filmed in Alabama, Peele has said the story was not intended to read as set in the South; he wanted to avoid familiar regional stereotypes and instead place the film's racism within a more outwardly "liberal" social environment. A contemporary report described the film as set in Upstate New York.
Peele has described developing the concept of the "sunken place" from the sensation of falling as one drifts to sleep, and from the idea of being trapped as an observer behind one's own eyes while one's body is controlled by someone else. In the same interview, he connected the idea to themes of abduction and to a metaphor for the prison industrial complex.
Lil Rel Howery has said the film's allegory draws on the historical fears and traumas experienced by African Americans, and he cited events such as racial segregation and the murder of Emmett Till as part of that cultural context. Peele also expressed concerns before release about whether White audiences would resist being implicated as villains, and whether Black audiences would want to see Black characters placed in peril.
Alternative endings In the original ending, Chris kills Rose and is arrested by the police; Rod then visits him in jail, where Chris insists the threat has been stopped. Peele has said he originally intended the ending to reflect the realities of racism, but later shifted approach after considering the cultural moment and audience reactions at test screenings, opting for a more hopeful resolution while still preserving a brief moment where viewers might fear Chris will be arrested.
Peele considered several other endings, including one in which Rod finds Chris at the estate but realizes Chris is no longer himself.
Music
Michael Abels composed the film's score. Peele has said he wanted the music to foreground Black voices and musical traditions, while avoiding genre shorthand such as a "voodoo" motif, and Abels incorporated Swahili vocals along with a blues influence. The refrain "Sikiliza Kwa Wahenga" is Swahili for "listen to your ancestors", and Peele said it functions as a warning directed at Chris and echoes the film's title and premise.
The song "Redbone" by Childish Gambino appears at the beginning of the film. Other songs in the film include "Run, Rabbit, Run" by Flanagan and Allen and "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes.
The soundtrack was released on vinyl for the first time in 2018 by Waxwork Records and included an essay by Peele.
Themes and interpretations