The Things You Notice After the First Watch

I don't know about you guys, but I actually don't like to watch movies more than once. Believe it or not, as much as I love watching movies, I have this tendency to not watch one again because I feel like any time won't be as good as the first time (hm, life really do be like that...). It's also very possible though that I may be finding an excuse for not having the attention span to watch a movie where I already know everything that going to happen. Either way, I don't like to watch movies multiple times. But, when I do, I have the pleasure of seeing so many things I missed before, and that's probably one of the most satisfying rewards of rewatching films. 

Just recently, my film class watched Jordan Peele's Get Out (2017). The film centers around Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya), a black photographer who is visiting the family of his white girlfriend, Rose Armitage (Allison Williams). I had already watched this film before and I also actually enjoy it very much. Therefore, I already knew the bizarre plot, the jump scares, and that the girlfriend is one crazy female dog. Because I already knew the narrative, I was able to pay attention to small, but very important details that either foreshadowed the plot twist at the end, or gave more depth and meaning into the film, its theme and cinematography. In this post, I'm going to share some things I noticed in my second watch of Get Out that made me think a little deeper or facepalm at how many giveaways Peele gives the audience. 

The Deer

On the way to Rose's family home, Chris and Rose accidentally hit a deer with their car, bumping it into the forest. Chris gets out of the car and goes to check on the deer, staring very attentively as it lies dead on the ground. 

Starting off with one that I'm really mad I didn't catch, I completely did not see the significance of the deer collision scene in the beginning of the movie. Probably the most explicit meaning would be that towards the end of the film when Chris is strapped to a chair, about to succumb to brain switching surgery, a deer head taxidermy is attached to the wall, which Chris eventually uses to kill Rose's father. In this purpose, the deer is very much an element used to foreshadow it's appearance at the end of the film, and even possibly foreshadow that there will be another death, but at the hand of the deer. 

But doing a bit more research, I found out that the deer is actually very symbolic and foreshadows way more than just it's weaponization in the end. A few scenes after the car collision, Chris and Rose arrive at the Armitage residence and meet Rose's parents, Dean and Missy. Indulging on casual talk, Rose mentions hitting a deer, and soon after, Dean begins talking about how much he hates deer, saying things like they're "rats," "destroying the ecosystem," and that a dead deer on the road is a start to getting rid of them. 

One would think that Dean is just casually talking about his hatred for deer, but of course, everything means something in film, and Peele made sure that every detail in Get Out had meaning. When thinking about deer, one would probably think of their tendency to be hunted, a/o on the walls as taxidermy mounts. Either way, both of these visuals lead to the same idea of being hunted and objectified as trophies. When Chris is staring at the deer and the camera zooms in on both, this is Peele's implicit way of showing Chris and the deer as parallels. By the end of the film, we realize that like deer, black people are being hunted and used as trophies that white people show off amongst their friends. So when Dean is talking about his hatred for deer, he's actually talking about his hatred for black people, and believes the world is better off without them. It's even possible that the deer collision scene in the beginning was a foreshadowing of what Chris would later face in the movie. Who knows, it's all interpretation. 

"He almost got over it."

After breaking the ice with Rose's parents, Chris goes on a tour of the house with Dean. When passing through a hallway of family pictures, Dean points out a picture of his father, who was a track and field athlete that got beat by future Olympic star Jesse Owens at the qualifying round for the 1936 Berlin Olympics. After Chris expresses what a "tough break" it must've been for his dad, Dean comments back by saying, "he almost got over it."

This line of the movie is one that would completely go over someone's head on the first watch. On the first watch, the audience is probably paying more attention to the underlying story of Dean's father and Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics, where Owens won in front of Hitler, contradicting his ideology of the Aryan race. By including that backstory behind the photo of Dean's father, Peele continues to build the narrative that the Armitages are progressive, inclusive, and unprejudiced, contrary to the idea of the stereotypical political white family. The audience is influenced to think positively of the Armitage family for most of the movie, so we don't catch onto the small, fishy details in the beginning, like Dean's comment. 

After watching the film once, we all know that the procedure of the "Coagula" all started with Dean's father, Roman, whom we eventually see in the explanation video Chris watches when he wakes up strapped in a chair. When watching the movie a second time, hearing Dean say that his father almost got over Jesse Owens beating him out of the Olympics was such a big "oh my gosh" moment, because the reason he almost got over it, was because his father never actually got over it, and instead planned a way to redeem his glory moment that Owens, an African American, took from him. Furthermore, this line also sheds the backstory for what is essentially the whole reason the plot exists; Roman couldn't handle being beat out by a black man, therefore he figured out a way to transplant brains into black people, which garnered a cult-following of clients, which brought in the entire family's involvement to find black people for their clients, which thus led to Rose bringing in Chris to her family home. It's such a small detail, but man does it have a huge impact when you're actually able to point it out. 

Walter: The Running Groundskeeper

After waking up in the middle of the night, Chris goes outside to smoke. But before he gets the cigarette to his mouth, Chris turns to see Walter, the Armitage's groundskeeper, as he quickly runs towards Chris. Walter reaches Chris, but then makes a sharp left turn, and continues to quickly and intently run.

I feel like this was a detail that a lot of people probably could've caught after the first watch, but even after my second watch of Get Out, I completely missed why Walter all of a sudden ran towards Chris. I was even more confused about why Walter ran the way he ran; sprinting, upper body in an upright posture with minimal movement, his palms flexed out and arms bent at the elbows, symmetrically moving back and forth. 

Well, after watching the movie on the first watch, the audience knows that Walter is actually Roman Armitage, Rose's grandpa. Therefore, it makes sense why Walter is running the way he is and also why running seems to be a motif for Walter's character, as he does it both in the beginning, and at the end when Chris is escaping the Armitage home. I think it's also important to point out that the running had to be very meticulous in order for it to be a significant detail in the movie. All the elements of the running including the speed, posture, hands and arms were done to a tee in comparison to the running forms of track and field athletes at the Olympics, including Jesse Owens' runs, so props to Peele for paying attention to detail, but mainly to the actor for executing it for the screen.

Segregating Cereal Scene

While Chris is fighting off the rest of Rose's family, Rose is seen in her room, eating cereal, separate with a glass of milk. On her computer, she searches up "Top NCAA prospects," under the assumption that Rose is scouting (haha, pun intended) for her next victim. As the frame zooms out to a wide shot, it is revealed that Rose has a picture frame collection of her past partners that she lured to her family's home. 

My initial reaction to this scene on the first watch was that there was no better way to portray Rose as a sociopath than having her eat Froot Loops separately from milk sipped through a straw. That being said, I also initially thought that this scene was supposed to be a bit of comedic relief for all the blood shed that's happening downstairs with Chris and the rest of the family. But looking into the scene a bit more and finding out it's process behind filming it, this scene does indeed have some underlying significance. 

From what I read from an Insider interview with Rose's actress, Allison Williams, this scene wasn't in the original script. In fact, many of the details and choices for this scene were made even right up at the time of shooting. But even if this scene wasn't in the original script, I think it was an excellent addition to the film. Moments before this scene, we find out that Rose was in on the family's operation and that she is actually a very frightening and probably messed up person. As mentioned before, having Rose eat cereal separate from the milk just goes to show how unusual this girl is. But the detail of her not mixing the colorful cereal with the white milk might also be an implicit detail of her and her family's true racist and prejudice ideals. So could this scene really just be for a fun, comedic relief, or actually portray Rose's real character? 

I also wanted to point out that after the plot twist is revealed that Rose was in on her family's plan to capture Chris, Rose's appearance completely changes right when she pulls out the keys from her bag. Immediately, she starts to put her hair up into a ponytail, and it stays in a ponytail for the rest of the film. We also see Rose wear all white tops for the rest of the film, including this cereal scene, compared to earlier scenes where she's always wearing color. I think this is such an important detail, because this change in appearance dictates the switch of Rose's character and also helps the audience to recognize the complete shift of who we thought Rose was in the beginning of the film compared to the end of the film. Rose is actually a white supremacist who helps her family capture black people to use their body? Well, makes sense, the girl is internally and externally white. 

Chris' Silent Auction 

During a big get together at the Armitage residence, Chris and Rose go on a walk to a lake. While they're away from the house, Dean is seen leading out what seems to be a silent auction among the guests that came to the party. As the camera zooms out to a wider shot, the audience sees a portrait of Chris being displayed, signaling that he is the item that is being auctioned off. 

Anyone can tell that there is something weird about this party. All the guests come in black cars, are wearing black a/o dark clothing, asking odd questions to Chris pertaining to his African American background, and even the chairs and gazebo during the auction scene are black. With the unusual behavior of the guests and excessive black details, you can't help but sense that something is not right. 

Well, always trust your gut, because of course, people were literally bidding to have their brain implanted into Chris' body. That's probably the main point people get from this scene as it's later confirmed in the film. But what I noticed on the second watch is the reference to the historical significance of this scene. Of course, Peele wanted to draw attention to racism in the modern world, but he also wanted to draw back to the deep roots of African American racism, which began with American slavery. This auction scene is no doubt supposed to parallel the slave auctions that happened when slavery was legal in the United States, and elaborates the idea that slavery was never completely abolished and still exists today in modern America. Along with the historical recall of this scene, the excessive black furniture and details also anchors the idea of white people fetishizing black people as items and mythical creatures instead of actual people. No wonder the party looked like a funeral. 

Conclusion

Although there were some other details that I noticed on my second watch of Get Out, they were quite small and didn't get me thinking as much as these ones did. At the end of the day, I do think watching films more than once is necessary, mainly for the satisfaction of realizing how much more there is to see on a second watch. Usually during the first watch, majority of our attention goes to just comprehending what the plot is and what we see on the surface (or on the screen I guess). It's not until we rewatch films that we notice the things beyond the surface (or beyond the screen) that gets us to appreciate films even more and the process behind making them. It's a bad habit that I'm trying to break, but then again, I don't think anyone wants to rewatch Jack dying after he let go of Rose in Titanic (1997).