A Script By: Jordan Peele - Get Out

0:01 Welcome to a Script by Episode four. I am your host, Brad Kozo. Thanks for joining me on this show. We break down some of Hollywood's most notable screenplays and explore why they remain so powerful on the page. So far, we've explored corruption in Chinatown, the wit and charm of Butch Cassidy and The Sun Dance Kid, and teenage life in nineteen fifties Texas in the Last Picture. So this time we're going more modern. We're diving into one of the most shocking and original screenplays of the twenty first century, Jordan Peel's Academy Award winning script get Out. This is a script that takes an over the top concept and grounds it in something real, exploring race, identity and a horror that feels both unimaginable and uncomfortably familiar. From its opening pages, the film delivers tension, unease, and something much deeper beneath the surface. This is a script by Let's turn the page. Welcome back to a script by I Am Your Host, Brad Kozo, and this is episode four, Get Out, written and directed by Jordan Peel. This is

1:34 the screenplay that helped redefine modern horror, blending social commentary with general storytelling in a way that feels both entertaining and deeply unsettling. What starts as a simple premise a young man going to meet his girlfriend's parents quickly becomes something much more complex, a story about identity control and the systems that exist just beneath the surface. What makes his script so affective is how it builds it. It doesn't start extreme, It starts familiar, and then it slowly pushes the familiarity into something far more disturbing. But before we dive into the script, let's bring in today's guests. Jeff Johnson calls her the voice of Reason. She's frequently appeared on episodes of a film by Docking Base seventy seven and now a script by Amber Lewis. Amber, welcome to the show.

2:28 Thank you. I am very excited to be doing an episode. Well, it's good to have you. When was the first time you saw the movie? And then later, what did you think about the script? I wasn't able to see the movie in the theater, but I was like waiting, maybe made a breath for it to come out, like on streaming or whatever. So the second it dropped, I was watching it because I heard everybody was just losing their minds over how good it was, right, and I didn't want any spoilers, and that's hard to avoid in this day and age. So you know, I watched it like the second it dropped and just it was instantly like one of my favorites.

3:13 But hadn't read the script. I had listened to the director's commentary, but hadn't read the script until we started on this episode. And I was really interested in the fact that it the script and the filmer are pretty much identical, and I thought that was interesting and perhaps due to Jordan Pale also directing his own script, I think, yeah, you know, of course makes a difference, but the cuts that he made I thought were very judicious and very well done. He made the. Choices, and I was just really impressed that the only diversion is Rod. He is the only difference to what is on the page, and for good reason.

3:57 Yeah, and I don't know if I included it in this episode, but a shout out to the character Rod. It really he's he's us. Yeah, he's us as we're as we're you know, watching it. He does our talking for us, you know, he's he's the most rational one in like that entire screenplay. Yeah, I remember I had to wait, yeah for it to come out to or just you know, just like I said, time didn't have it didn't have time to get into it. And once I saw it, I was I was just more shocked at first because I didn't realize that it would that he went that far and it and then it worked, and then obviously I just had to revisit it again.

4:43 And it's just one of these movies that now you got to come back to it again and again, and I can't. I don't know how many times you watched it before prepping it. I did twice, but four. Yeah, but still it was just like and still each time was like, there's that, there's that, you know, so and obviously we're gonna we're gonna dig into all of that. Yeah. We actually covered this film on Docking Day seventy seven back in twenty twenty two. It was one of it was like my third episode ever on the show. Okay, so if you go back and listen, it's a little rough, but we had a great time and it's one of the I listened to that episode today and it's one of those things where I've picked up things in subsequent viewings that I missed back then.

5:35 Oh yeah, yeah, me too. Yeah, weren't even on my radar back then. It's a film that grows more on you. You know, you don't love it immediately, you keep seeing it and loving it and loving it and just like more and more kind of protective of it. Yes, absolutely, Well, let's get into the background of our writer, Jordan Peel. He began writing get Out in the early two thousand, but also a little bit more complicated the way that I saw in an interview that he said he goes it was during the Obama administration and everybody was like, Okay, oh, we're good, black president, racism over, you know. But he basically described the idea of what if the system itself was the monster? You know. So he approached the script as a genre film at first, a horror story that could stand on its own, but layered with some social tensions underneath. He was influenced for films like Stepher Wives Rosemary's Baby, but he built the story slowly, grounding it into familiar situations but pushing it into something far more extreme.

6:45 But getting it made wasn't that easy. I mean, Peel was known for comedy, you know, sketch comedy. That's all anyone knew him from, you know, and the script itself really didn't fit into one specific like horror category, you know. So, but it was Jason bloom that saw it, the script, and he was just like, yeah, he took the chance, I mean, directorial debut. I mean it just worked as pure entertainment, but it maan, it sparked conversations, and of course, of course it without a doubt deserves the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

7:26 Yeah. Absolutely, I mean what he does with this script is really just amazing, and I think, you know, shout out to Bloomhouse for agreeing to make it and to give a voice to a demographic that was largely unseen in the horror genre, you know, kind to the point where it became like a joke, like you don't see black people in horror movies, Like it just doesn't happen. So to get this rich cultural you know, a description of a genre that we know so well and just turn everything completely on its side. Oh yes, it you know, it is just absolutely fascinating to me.

8:15 Yeah, I mean it's we're gonna we're gonna dig into it more. But I mean, it's just the layers of this script is I mean, it's just it's a masterclass. And but we'll get into. And I love his intention like he when you hear him talk about it, and I for for this episode, got the the annotated version, so it's got lots of notes that he has written about the script and how thoughtful he was with everything he put in it. There is nothing in there that, with the exception of a little bit of rod, everything else is one hundred percent intentional. It's one hundred percent. Yes, I was making an homage to this movie. Yes, I did deliver. Really have this character say this to address this racist trope, you know, and that kind of just genius level thinking is it's just brilliant.

9:13 Yeah, well, we're gonna have to take our first break. But when we return, we're going to jump into the first ten pages and act one of get Out. Welcome back to a script by we are talking Jordan Peele's Get Out and breaking down the first ten pages. The first ten pages of get Out don't ease you in, they grab you immediately. We open with a kidnapping, no context, no explanation, just a quiet, suburban street sense that something isn't right, and then it happens. It's direct, it's unsettling. It tells the audience one thing right away, this world is dangerous. Then the script shifts. We meet Chris, everything feels normal, comfortable, even a relationship, a conversation, a trip being planned. Now the writer can hit the brakes a little bit, you know, because that opening has already done its job, because now the audience knows something the main character does, and that creates the tension in every single scene that follows, even the little smallest moments, you know, meeting Rose's parents, casual conversations, seemingly harmless interactions, they all carry that little bit of weight because watching for something, we're waiting where is it? Where is it? And that's what makes the first temp pages so effective. They don't just introduce the story, They control how we experience it.

10:42 And so I guess my question for you is, then, do the first temp pages work because of the shock of the opening or because they give the audience the information the main character doesn't have. I think it's the shock value for me at least, because you are already kind of wrong footed, because it's got a very Halloween feel to it. You know, you're in the suburbs, you're at night, and you know something because you're in a horror movie, like something's going to happen, right, But we have been conditioned to think he's probably going to be andre I'm speaking of is probably going to be harassed or questioned, or someone's going to call the cops on him, you know, and how far how dangerous is that interaction going to be. That's what you're presuming is going to happen. So the shock value of him getting choked out and thrown into the trunk of a car was not on my list of things that were going to happen to him in that scene. No, So I don't feel so much that we know something that Chris doesn't. I just feel like we just got this like car craft of a shock value, you know, in that cold open and you're still kind of the adrenaline is kind of wearing off as you're meeting Chris, and you're kind of distracted by that whole domestic scene that

12:14 you get. But I think what it does, why it's so affective, is because we do know that we do know that thing that you know that Chris doesn't know, because we know that something is going to be off somewhere. So every scene that follows. That we know in this world the suburbs are more dangerous than you think they are. Yeah, and now they're going to the suburbs, you know, and it's just like you from the second they're going, you're like, oh, it seems Harmer's but this is gonna go really bad. But you can't put your finger on it. But you you must know, you know, I mean it just that's what's so great about it. It's not I think some it's a great way to start a script, you know, to get people to want to immediately finish it.

13:06 I mean, if you're selling a script and you want to make sure that the person that reads it doesn't flow it down after like the first ten pages or fifteen, you know, have an opening like this. Even if they don't like it, they're gonna want to finish it to the end. And that's right to. Find out at least what happened to that guy. Yeah, that's what's so effective about it. Well let's get into act one, then, shall we. Act one of get Out is built around a simple decision that Chris agrees to go meet Rose's parents. On the surface, it feels normal, a relationship step, something routine, something everyone's done. But then the script frames it differently because from the very beginning there's a hesitation. Chris asks that question, do they know him black?

13:52 You know? Rose brushes it off. You know, it's a small moment, but it tells us everything. There's already tension there, not over not explosive, just enough to feel off, you know. And as they arrive to the Armitage House, that feeling builds keeps building. The environment is welcoming, almost overly so though the conversations they're friendly but slightly uncomfortable. People say the right things, but in the wrong way, and that's what defines Act one. Nothing is openly wrong, but nothing feels right. You know. These supporting characters, Missy, Dean, Walter, Georgina each add to that unease, but individually they seem pretty harmless, but together they have something unsettling. And then we get the turn. Chris gets shypnotized and falls into the sunken place, and for the first time the film stops suggesting something's wrong and it finally shows it there is.

14:59 You're inciting and because now the danger isn't just social now, it's real. So at what point of the script does the tension shift from social discomfort into something that feels genuinely dangerous? You know? I mean to you, like, when did it go from this is weird to oh, oh, this is bad. I it took me a little longer because the film does such a good job of gaslighting you at the beginning, because you're with the liberal elite. I would have voted for Obama a third time if I could have, you know, And it's easy when you're in, you know, a very conservative, racist environment to know who the villain is. But when you're in this environment that everything on the outside is telling you no, we're on your side. We like you.

15:55 We may not do it in a in a smooth way, we may be awkward about it, but you know, we want to be woke, we want to be yeah, you know, set do all the good things and be inclusive. And you know, and that goes on even through his first hypnotism session, because you're left with did that happen or did he dream it? Right? Because and if it did happen, was it just to get him to stop smoking? Which is invasive? But kind of harmless, right and helpful but intrusive way. So I didn't feel threatened until Andre got flashed with the phone and started screaming at him to get out. And the way I explained it to a friend of mine who was like, you know, I don't really get it, but maybe it's because I'm white, And I said, the way I got it is I'm a woman. And what if I was in an environment and there were only men there, Yeah, and the one other woman all of a sudden starts screaming at me to get out, Like I'd have been in the car ready, I wouldn't have packed and I've been like, nope, sorry, I gotta go. So uh that was the thing that got me where, Like my stomach turned over when that happened, and I was inwardly screaming at Chris for the whole rest of Act two.

17:25 Like justle That's what I like about this script so much. There isn't very much that you look at and go I wouldn't have done something so stupid. A lot of the stuff, a lot things that are said really smart, very yeah, they're very much like yeah, that's what I would have done, you know, or that's what I would have said, you know type thing, especially with the Rod dialogue as well. Oh yeah, well, and my favorite horror trope is, I say, every time people die in horror movies because they're polite, right, They don't want to be rude, they don't want to make a scene, they don't want to look stupid, you know, so they're just like, well, I'll just go along and you know, it's probably fine, and and that's how they get you.

18:12 Yeah, yeah, I mean up to that point, yeah, you were waiting for something bad to happen, but you still weren't sure who's involved. But you knew someone in that family somehow is involved and you but you but you're just not sure. They seem so polite. They seem so polite, I mean well. And Bradley Whitford as Dean is just like a master class of like bad dad jokes and you know, awkward wokeness. Yeah, he just really plays it well.

18:52 So they're very very convincing. Well, we are going to have to take our last break, and then we're going to dive into Act two of Get Out. Welcome back to a script. By we are talking and Jordan Peele's Get Out and we're into Act two, and that is where the script begins to really tighten. What started out as social discomfort slowly turns into something much more unsettling. At the Armitage House, everything feels slightly off, but never enough to confirm that something is wrong. Conversations are polite but loaded. Behavior is friendly but unnatural, and that's intentional because the script is building the tension through contradiction. People say the right things but in the wrong way. Georgina and Walter don't behave normally. The guests that the party treat Claris like an object, even the compliments they feel just weird, and it's it's all surface level more, but there's just something underneath it. And then the film crosses the line when Misy hypnotizes Chris and we're introduced to the sunken Place. That's the midpoint because for the first time the film stops suggesting something is wrong and shows it, and from that moment on, the tension isn't socialomore, it's physical, it's psychological, it's real, and everything after that builds toward that great revivial. Act two doesn't reveal the whrror. It lets you feel it big before you before it shows it.

20:25 So is act too about just discovering what's happening or is it realizing how long it's already been happening. I think it's as the peeling back of the layers, like it's not just some kind of superficial threat, you know. Then you peel back the layer when they're at the bingo game and you find out that they're auctioning him off for what you have no idea, like is this going to be the most dangerous game and they're going to hunt him down? Like what? Yeah? I mean your mind can go anywhere. Yeah, so you still don't really know what the endgame is.

21:06 You might have a suspicion, but then you know, to go into like another deeper layer of the whole family's in on it, you know, And then to go into the deeper layer and the reveal that Rose was in on it, you know. I think that's where your mind is just blown. Yeah, because she is so convincing of what's wrong with my parents? You know? And why is this? Because she's agreeing with him that things are weird. Well, and she's the first one to point it out. She's the first one to say, like what was with what my mom was being rude and yeah, you know, she's the first one to jump up and say, like, that was the most awkward dinner ever.

21:51 Oh my gosh, yeah that yeah, Like I said, the family's in on it. Okay, that's awful, and the daughter and it's been going on this, you know, this long and just yeah, when he sees the pictures, it's just wow, you're still really not convinced though, You're still like really really and you gotta go for it. Until Rose said, oh you mean these keys, babe. Until she said that, I one hundred percent thought that somehow she was being tricked. Yep, that she was being tricked. She was not in on it. Yeah, and which I guess says word about me than it does about the script.

22:37 But man, when she just like her entire her physicality changes, her facial expression changes, her voice changes, she pulls her hair up and that ponytail, and all of a sudden, she is we realize we have not met Rose at all. No, she is. I mean, and it's a long time because they have been together for five months. Yeah, I mean that's the thing. It's like, wow, this is so extreme and so over the top, and still at this point you know where. We don't know what is fully happening until we get in two Act three, and that is where everything is revealed. Because up until this point the film has been building tension, suggestions, small moments, uncomfortable interactions, okay, the feeling something's not right. Yes, Now the script makes it clear. The Armitage family isn't just strange.

23:38 They're part of a system. The coagula, the idea that bodies can be taken, controlled and repurposed. It's shocking, it's extreme, and on paper it shouldn't work. But by the time we get there, the script has already prepared us, so the reveieal doesn't. The reveal doesn't feel random. It it feels earned, you know. And that's what makes Act three so effective, because once Chris understands what's happening, the story just shifts again. It's not about this long discovery. This is all about survival now, and everything that follows becomes focused. Every action matters, every move is intentional. The horror is no longer beneath the surface. It's it's out there, it's fully exposed. Act three doesn't just reveal the truth, it shows it from the you know, from the very beginning.

24:28 I mean, like you said it, it shouldn't work on paper, and yet it does and it still is so satisfying. You know, how are they able to or how is he able to go that far and not have the audience question it? I guess is my question because it's so over the top but just so cleverly done. Because what he's really saying is when you're getting taken to the sunken place, your will is being taken away and your body is going to be used. So it's just modern slavery. So it's what white people have already done to black people. He's just got this, you know, Frankenstein supernatural, you know, horror trope element to it. But you know, to come right out and say, you know, you're being valued as a culture and as a color and for what you bring to enhance white people's lives, but you're not being valued as a soul or a human being.

25:43 Right, you know? Is passenger? Yes? I mean when he explains that that part of the dialogue, when when he's explaining everything to Chris and how he just says, you'll you'll be there, But like like I said, you know, he won't be able to say anything or do anything, but you'll just have to watch as a passenger this happened. It's like you don't even die. You have to just be tortured with this forever. I mean, it just so terrifying, so terrifying. What they're doing is so creepingly clever. But like I said, it's it just it works on so many levels, and like I can't think of you know, I know I said before that you know it changed modern horror, but I kind of think it did. You know, there were you know, horror obviously doesn't die, but this, you know, ones come out every once in a while that you know, do really well or really clever, but this one was a game changer.

26:51 This one's going to be talked about for a long time. Yeah, because you know, any art that puts you in another culture's perspective and another person's point of view and changes your mindset is something that is going to be endlessly debated and argued. And there's layers that you can just keep peeling as you reveal more about yourself, you reveal more about what you know and what you don't know, and so it just becomes more. You know, you can watch it on a like creepy Stepford wives, you know kind of level and you know, or you can really get into it and go out for coffee after and talk about all the things that you know, we're not supposed to talk about. And I think that, you know, the more that we have other cultures allowed to really immerse you in their point of view, I think the better the art is.

27:55 And another thing that that didn't really get touched up, I think as much is his the humor. The humor in the film, every comedy beat is well earned, well deserved, not very misplaced, and kind of needed that you know, needed to kind of bring us down to reality. I was like, this is still a movie. This is still a movie, but we're still having fun here. We're making a fun horror movie, but we're not. It's taking yourself seriously but also being like, yeah, this is what i'd say too. I mean, like with Rod saying this stuff like this is eyes wide shuck kind of stuff, can you start to think until you don't know, is Rod right? Yeah?

28:38 I mean he really didn't stray too far from the mark, to be honest, like he kind of hit it. Yeah, And that's something that Jordan Peel, you know, himself said was that he feels that that horror and comedy are just kind of the same coin, but different sides, you know, because it's all about the pacing and the reveal, right, and the understanding that you can only go so far without needing, like you said, needing to release some of that tension, right, and you're either going to release it by le you know, there's one point he gives us one good jump scare and that kind of okay, I can relax a little bit. You know. It lets you get rid of some of that adrenaline. And then you get Rod to come in and you know, be let's be honest. The best friend ever, Like he never tells Chris he's wrong or you're overreacting or anything. The first thing he says is get out.

29:35 Yeah, so you. Know, but he also is very funny and he lets you release some of that tension by kind of laughing at the situation. And you know, so it just I think is a brilliant choice to have a comedian make such a tight horror film. And I feel like he's saying what we want to say to Chris. Yes, you know, it's like we want to say that to that Yes, well, now that we have gone through the script, we're going to go to our special sections, and our first one up is going to be foreshadowing and set up. Now. One of the most impressive things about get Out is how carefully it sets everything up. Nothing in this script is accidental. I mean, early on the details they feel small.

30:21 They're very easy to overlook. You know, a comment here, a behavior there. Some feel slightly off but not fully explain, But as a story unfolds, those details start to connect. The deer, the tea cup, the way Missy stirs it, the strange behavior of Georgina and Walter, even the party guests and the questions they ask. It's like, say, but it's it's It all feels like atmosphere, but it's not. It's structure because every one of those moments is planning information the audience doesn't fully understand yet, but you know we will, and that's what makes the script so effective. When the reveal comes, it doesn't feel like a twist.

31:01 You know, it's not an all twist. It feels like something we've been watching the entire time without realizing it. That's the difference between surprise and payoff. Get Out doesn't just surprise you. It prepares you. Do you think the film is more effective because you don't notice the setup the first time, or because you can see how carefully it's built when you go when you go back. I love the fact that every time you watch it, you get another piece that maybe you missed the first time. It took me several watches before I understood what the Deer was all about. I didn't get that like at all, which, right, it may seem really obvious, but I just didn't get it.

31:45 And then on the most recent watch something that I hadn't noticed before. The scene where they're having tea on the back veranda, Yeah, and Georgina like into a trance and she spills the tea and Missy kind of snaps at her and tells her to go lay down and take a nap. Yeah, and she just kind of gives her that smile and she's like, you know what, I'll do that. All of that is like passive aggressive mother in law and daughter in law stuff. Yeah, And like I never clued into that before, and I was just watching it, going, oh, they hate each other because they're it's that mother in law daughter in law, Yeah, stereotype and they can't stand each other, these two. And I never noticed it the twenty other times I watched the movie, So I think that's what. You know. It's it's like hitchcocky in in that way where you always see these little winks that he gave you all along. Yeah, you know, and you just didn't realize.

32:50 With the very beginning when she when her and Chris are deciding to go to you know, her parents and are just talking about it, and he's like, I just don't want to, you know, be chased off the you know, lawn with a shock. He has literally chased off the law with the shotgun. That is great, yes, well, and even like the little piece after they hit the deer and she rose is getting into it with the cop. Yeah, and you think she's being like, yeah, stand up white person, saying like he doesn't need his ID. I was driving, And then you realize it has nothing to do with that. She doesn't what a paper trail exactly. Oh my god, I mean you're and then we were watching she's like, god, you bitch, You're just you're awful. You're the worst, the worst.

33:36 So now we come to dialogue, character and subtext. Now what makes the Dialogue and get Out. So effective is that it's doing two things at once. On the surface, the conversations feel polite, friendly, even welcoming, but underneath, there's something else happening. The characters say the right things, been in the wrong way. Lines that sound like compliments, you're strong, black is in fashion. I would have voted for Obama third time. They don't land as compliments. They feel invasive, uncomfortable, and that is where the subtext lives, because the script is using dialogue to create tension, not by what's being said, but what's being implied even the simple conversations they carry. Wait, Chris isn't just reacting to the words, He's reacting to their tone, their behavior, and the feeling that just Sun's not right. And that's what makes the dialogue so powerful.

34:30 It builds unease without ever announcing it. The whore isn't in the words, it's with what is underneath them. Do you think the dialogue works because of what the characters say or because of what they don't realize they're saying. I think for I think it works on two levels. In that I think especially the party scene, every black person watching that scene has been in a situation like that, and it's had somebody say some stupid stuff like that to them. But I think also it's the moment of self awareness for the white audience to go, oh God, did I sound like that?

35:13 Do I say these things? You know? Like what an idiot? So I think that that's a great self aware layer to you know, this story that you're trying to figure out this puzzle, because all of that section is Chris is kind of being a detective at this point and trying to figure out like, so, what is the deal with this family? What is the deal with these friends and this party that's supposed to you know, honor the grandparents, and you know, like none of this seems like it's it is what it should be. Yeah. So I like that you're thrown a little bit of an ex direction with the obviousness of the things that they're saying.

35:59 Yeah, and then I'll throw out like a big clue, but doesn't fully explain it. Like when Chris goes upstairs to check his phone and everyone he's gotta go past everybody in the like the dining room and stuff like that, and he goes up and they all start stop talking and just listen to him. Yeah, they're all staring at the. Killing creepy, but we still don't know yet. You know, Yeah, you just you don't know why. So we're gonna get into page versus screen. Now. You said you you have a script that you bought. The script that I read, I think is a very maybe first draft, So there were some differences, Yeah.

36:43 Through like two hundred drafts. Yeah, but still on the page, the story's already tight. Yeah. I mean the structures there, the foreshottings precise, the tone, it's carefully controlled. Uh. There's some additional moments in ended scenes give a little more detail of that world. But the thing that really stands out, you know, is the ending. But because the original script, you know, Chris doesn't escape cleanly. Instead, he's arrested, and the final scene takes place in prison where Rod visits him. Chris understands what happens, but the system remains intact. It is a much darker ending. If it's the theme, sure, but Jordan Peele ultimately changed it, and in the film, obviously Rod vibes just in time and Chris escapes. That decision matters because I think it shifts that emotional impact the original landing reinforces the idea that the system wins. You know, this version gives us release without undoing everything that the film is built. Now, the difference between screen and it's not the structure, it's it's just like the diaro, it's the intention. Do you think the original ending would have been more powerful or the version that we get, you know, truly land better for audiences?

38:11 Well, I like that that. The way Jordan Peele described it was that when he was originally writing the movie, it was a much more cynical place that he was in. And by the time you know, it was coming up to filming, you know, people were our eyes were being opened to the racial injustice that is just everywhere, and the activation of people, you know, to really push for societal change had begun, and so he was in a much more hopeful place. Yeah, and so he felt like giving us like a reward, you know, like we need a win. And and for me that the powerful the most powerful thing about the theatrical ending and why I like it so much is as a white woman who grew up in the suburbs, you are trained through your real life but also through every horror movie. You know, all you have to do is make it until the morning comes. All you have to do is make it until you get to this location or until the police arrived to rescue you. And so I have spent you know, by the time this movie came out, I was in my forties, you know, decades being told like once the police arrived, you're saved. And I was so into this

39:42 movie and had so become at one with this protagonist that when he is fighting with Rose and you see you hear that siren and you see the blue lights flashing, my first thought was not, Oh, thank god, the cops are here. My first thought was, oh my god, the cops are here, and is he going to get arrested or is he just going to get shot? Like there was no relief, There was no oh, he's saved. It was what horrible thing is going to happen next? And so the reveal that it's Rid is like I was cheering. I was like, I have never been happier in a movie to see a character arrive because of the despair that I felt for what I thought was going to happen, right, And I just think that the power of that where I can't be the only person that felt like that you know what I mean. So the power to have your audience feel that way and to put them in those shoes in that moment, I think is so important that Yes, artistically the director's original ending is artistically more power, but we needed the wind and I did with with changing our perspective, like cannot be understated.

41:09 Yeah, I mean once you because when those like you said, when you see those blue and red lights, you're you start because you're you're you're think you're out of the clear. Everyone else is dead. And he's got Rose by the throat. That's gonna be it. She's she's not gonna survive. She got a you know, bullet, you know. And then the cops come up and you're just like, this isn't going to go good. Yeah, this is not going to go good. So then you as the reader or the audience member already like oh no, and then he pulls you out of it. Yeah, but you get that moment. This is how black people feel every day.

41:50 Yeah, but but more of like and also to it just it felt earned. It felt that Chris needed to be we needed to he needed to win. Yes, Yeah, so yeah, I am usually a person that likes dark endings but I agree with you here this this ending is more satisfying. I mean, if you have the I think the Blu ray or just the DVD, the ending is on there and it's depressing. So I mean, yeah, I add on. That person like the darkest I can go is like the ending of Halloween, where like is he dead or isn't he because he disappeared? You know, that's as dark as I could go. Otherwise that when everybody whoever's left gets to go, I'm happy.

42:36 Well, now we talk to the section where the moment that defines the script. Now every script has a moment where everything comes into focus and get out. That moment is the Sunken Place. Up until this point, the film has been building tension through suggestion, awkward conversations, subtle discomfort, the feeling that something isn't quite right. But here the script makes it clear Chris isn't just uncomfortable. He's trapped. And what makes the Sunken Place so powerful is how simple the idea is. He's still there, still aware, still able to see what's happening, but he can't control anything, and he's watching his own life from a distance. That's the core of the film because it isn't just physical horror psychological, it's symbolic. It's about losing agency. The Sunken Place takes everything that the script and the film have been hinting at and turns it into something visual, immediate, and undeniable. Before this moment, the danger isn't suggested. After at the danger is just defined. Do you think the Sunken Place works more as a plot device or as a metaphor.

43:52 I think it depends on who you are, Yeah, and what scares you, because like this movie, it was in tense and adrenaline field, but it didn't scare me the way it terrified my son, Like the idea of being hypnotized and not have control like that. Just he's like mm mmm, nope, never munched this movie again. Conversely, we went to see Jordan Peele's next film, US Right, and I was so terrified, like I had my eyes closed half the time, like, and Liam loved it. He thought it was a great ride. So it's what scares you more, you know. And so for me, the Sunken Place works more as a metaphor of you know, the oppression and the slavery and the taking over of another you know, culture and another people and not regarding them as people, just regarding them as shells to do with whatever you wanted.

44:52 All those layers make it more meaningful to me. But I think there are other people that that is their greatest fear is to not have control, and so as a plot device, like that's all they need to see. So I think it. I don't know, it works. It works both so well. It's a great plot device because, like I said, that feeling of it's almost like being very alive. Yes, you know that's creepy, but like I said, it is a metaphor for everything, and especially somebody of Chris's character. You know, it's like does one work better than the other? I mean, I think they work just as good, but I think it's more fascinating that it works as a metaphor as well. Yeah, I think that's It's like it's scripts are not supposed to be this good, you know, it's like you know this.

45:47 Like especially your first one, like yeahs at college about. It, Yeah he Citizen Kane and through this one. You know, yes, But I feel so bad because I was one of the people that It's like I loved Key and Peel the television show, like I just thought that was the funniest thing I'd ever seen in my life. And when this movie came out, I was like, but he's a comedy guy. Yeah, you know. I was that person that was like, he can't do more than one thing? And oh how wrong I was. Coadians are are just as wicked as the all of all. Yes, well then let's get into legacy and lessons. Uh, you know, get Out didn't just succeed as a film. I mean, like I said, it changed a conversation. It proved that screenplay could be both entertaining deeply thematic without sacrificing either.

46:40 You could take a genre like horror, something built on tension and payoff, and use it to explore real world ideas in a way that feels immediate. That's what makes it last. Structurally, it's incredibly precise. Every setup pays off, every detail matters. The script doesn't waste time and it ever loses control of its tone. But more importantly, it understands something fundamental. You can take an extreme idea and make it feel real, not by explaining it, but by grounding it in an experience. That's the lesson. Because get Out doesn't ask the audience to believe the plot. It asks them to recognize the feeling behind it, and that's why it works because beneath the horror, beneath the satire, beneath the structure, there is something honest about it. And yeah, I mean it's gonna have a lasting effect I think for decades. I mean, do you agree, Oh yeah, I mean our children, you know, Yeah.

47:41 This will be one of those that everybody talks about. Yeah, this will be on the list of screenplay lists for you know, the top twenty ten to fifty or one hundred. You know, it'll it'll be on there. You know. It's definitely has lasting power. I mean, it doesn't feel like a first script, you know, No, it doesn't. Well, and I guess in fairness, like it is a first like feature film script. But I mean he wrote Key and Peel, so you know, he's he's been practicing for a while and he's, you know, a horror film efficient auto. I mean the subtle ways that he puts homages to all these other films that he loves in his work, I think is just fabulous. It's like he's one of us, you know, like he loves all these things too. But I think the you know, just the social impact of you know, a black led film with you know, a black crew and a black protagonist. You know, all of these things can succeed at the box office, and therefore we can put our money into these things and you know, come up with richer storytelling.

49:04 And this was a huge payoff for Bluemhouse. Yeah, this was a huge, big deal for them. I mean it was a four and a half million dollar budget and it grossed over two hundred million. Yeah right, so my god, it opened the floodgates for them, basically. Yeah. Well then, so let's talk about some other things, like our companion picks. I'm sorry, let's talk about our companion picks. Each episode, we like to highlight a companion piece that pairs well with the script we're discussing. For this one, it's an easy one, but I am going to choose US from my get Out and US Trip double feature here, another high concept idea, just as unselling on paper, and again it grounds it something unsettling. We'll get out some precise and controlled US just feels symbolic, uh manic, uh, just kind of pushing the edge, you know, so I guess it bloop if get Out is the blueprint, then Us is the evolution. I mean, I liked this one right away, and I'm so glad that it was not at all like get Out, not at all. I mean, it just was. I was like, this guy has ranged, and I'm really surprised he hasn't done more.

50:29 But I mean, well, you can add Nope in there too and just make it a trilogy and call it a day, because all three of those are bangs. Nope kind of. I think that it wasn't the story that flow flat with Nope. With me, it was the the appearance of the monster or the thing. You know, it's very unusual, it's very. Yeah, I felt like, but I mean, you can't make every single. One to say it's wrong though. Yeah, but that movie is once again doing something. It's kind of out getting some traction on streaming and stuff of people being revisiting and stuff. But what was your companion pick?

51:12 Okay, well do it? Jeff hates it when I do this. Do I have to have one? Oh? Good? So I did too. Then I went old school and knew for the old school choice. For me, this movie most closely parallels Rosemary's Baby, which is a film that I absolutely love and I think the same themes of you know, you have this woman being gaslet by everyone around her, and you're in this with her and going but I saw what she saw, like how can we belong? You know? I was right there, right.

51:55 And so I absolutely the paranoia the possession angle. I think that that would be a great double feature. Yeah. But then also, if you want to go new, the best film of twenty twenty five was Sinners, and so you can continue the black horror filmmaking experience and watch that absolute masterpiece of a film and just relish in the genius of it all. Everybody loves horror. Yes, horror movie is of a past.

52:36 Yeah, well that's going to be a wrap on Get Out, a script by Jordan Peele, a screenplay that proves you can take an over the top concept and ground it in something real, something honest, and something that stays with you long laughter. It's over and that's what makes it work. It's not just the horror, it's what's underneath it. Next up on a script by We are heading to the Streets of New York. We are diving into mean streets. A script by Martin Scorsese and Mardik Martin, a raw, character driven story that helped you find the new Hollywood movement in one of the earliest looks at the themes Scorsese would returned to throughout his career. That's coming up next on the script by I want to thank my guest Amber Lewis for joining me. Amber. Anything coming up for you? Any spots on a film buy or docking Bay?

53:23 Uh yeah, We've got a couple of things coming up on a film buy. I know we're going to revisit Ocean's eleven here in a couple of weeks, so very excited about that. Five years Uh yeah, hard to believe. Yeah, oh, well, you know what this is. And I forgot to mention this is the ten year anniversary for Get Out, so. Oh that's right, it is. Yeah, and o we're on docking Bay. We're continuing our live action Disney movie special events. So check it out all right, Well, make sure you keep up with a film buy, with new episodes dropping every Monday. In the continuing Star Trek series, Phaser set to stun every Wednesday. You can also find us on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and x Be sure to visit the official website at wwwafilmbypodcast dot com and email us at a film by Podcast at gmail dot com. We love hearing from you, sharing opinions, taking requests, and debating great movies that'll do it first. Script by Thanks for listening, See you next time.