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Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a movie or literary work.

Racial Exploitation and Objectification 

Get Out explores the theme of racial exploitation and objectification in a grimly transparent way. The movie zeroes in on how Black bodies are fetishized, exploited, and dehumanized by the structures of white patriarchal America. The Armitage family and their guests quite literally treat Black people as objects for their own use. For example, during the “silent auction” at the Armitage party, Chris gets sold to Jim without his knowledge. Like an enslaved person being sold at a marketplace, Chris’s autonomy is utterly stripped from him as the wealthy white people at the party decide his fate. The guests also openly discuss Chris’s physical traits and generalize about the bodies of other Black people. The fact that some of these comments seem to be admiring and complimentary does not make them less abhorrently racist. The Armitages and their guests fetishize Black bodies, and their fascination reduces Chris and other people of color to being mere commodities. The willingness that the party guests display in treating Chris like a slab of meat also exposes their grossly entitled belief that they both have a right to him, and to claim anything they desire from him. Every aspect of this thinking is a microcosm of the way that systemic racism exploits and dehumanizes people of color. 

The Loss of Bodily Autonomy 

The Coagula procedure brutally robs bodily autonomy from the Black people that the Armitage family exploits, separating their minds from their physical forms and trapping them in the Sunken Place. Once they’ve endured the Coagula procedure, Black victims become unwilling passengers in their own skin as their bodies are controlled by their white buyers. Just as systemic oppression hinders a person’s physical and psychological ability to act in their own best interest, Dean and Missy Armitage seek to remove Chris’s ability not only to defend himself, but to live as himself, fully in control of his identity and actions. 

Georgina and Walter are examples of the horrifying consequences when the Coagula procedure is successful. Rose’s grandparents have taken over their bodies and are now living in and controlling them, leaving only small traces of the original Walter and Georgina. In Get Out, the Armitages do not just seek to inhabit Black bodies—they want to erase the original person entirely. They want the physical blessings of youth, strength, and Blackness and are willing to commit an unimaginably brutal theft to get them. 

Deception and False Allyship 

From the first minute that the Armitages lure Chris into their home, Dean constantly (and cringe-ly) attempts to convince him that he and his family are allies, saying how much he admires Black athletes and celebrities and claiming that he would have voted for Obama a third time if it were possible. In trying to prove how accepting he is, Dean only emphasizes that fact that he sees Chris as a person very different from himself (and later, we learn that he in fact doesn’t see Chris as a person at all). Missy takes a different approach, acting concerned about Chris’s smoking and using false kindness to manipulate him into a hypnosis session with her. Rose, of course, plays the most significant role in deceiving Chris. She begins the movie by “defending” him from her family’s subtle racism and assuring him that they will not care that he’s Black. In reality, their relationship is an elaborate, sinister ruse to trap him and subject him to the Coagula procedure; she’s simply waiting until the right moment to betray him. 

The guests at the Armitage gathering also pretend to admire and respect Black people, but their crude and unsubtle conversation reveals their real motives. They speak about Black physicality as if it exists for their use, and as though Black bodies were mere meat to be bid on. Even Jim Hudson insists that he “sees” Chris only as an artist, not as a Black man, but his enthusiasm and entitlement in attempting to steal Chris’s body proves otherwise. 

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