Chris Washington

**Chris Washington** is the main protagonist of *Get Out* and the ex-boyfriend of antagonist Rose Armitage, also best friend of Rod Williams. He is portrayed entirely by Daniel Kaluuya throughout the whole film, while the 11-year old version of Chris was portrayed by Zailand Adams.

## Biography

Chris is a African-American photographer who has been dating a Caucasian girl named Rose Armitage for the past 5 months, then Rose decides to bring Chris down to her family's estate in the middle of nowhere to meet her parents, Dean and Missy. Though Chris is not really comfortable with it since Rose hasn't told her parents that he's black, he still goes. Once they arrive there, the first thing Chris notices is their black groundskeeper Walter and their black maid Georgina along with Dean and Missy's over accommodating behaviors. But when asked about his family, Chris tells them that his father was never involved in his life and that his mother died in a hit-and-run incident when he was 11 years old and also talk about his smoking addiction, which they recommend be treated with the help of hypnosis since Missy is a psychiatrist but he kindly declines. After having dinner with Rose and her family, Chris decides to go smoke a cigarette in the middle of the night but starts noticing weird and strange behavior from both Walter and Georgina. When Chris goes back into the house, Missy lures him to the study to talk about his smoking habit and then brings up hyponosis to him again while she asks him about the night his mother died, where he reveals that he feels guilty for not calling 911 when he noticed that she didn't come home and that he just sat there on his bed and watched television. It turns out that Missy is hypnotizing him after realizing that he is unable to move, Missy then commands Chris to "sink into the floor" as his consciousness ends up going into the "sunken place". Chris then wakes up the next morning and ends up believing that what happened the night before was all just a nightmare. Until after having an encounter with Walter, he realizes that Missy did indeed hypnotized him.

During the day, guests start to appear for a annual get-together that the Armitages usually hold. Chris then notices that all of the guests are taking a very big interest into him. Chris meets a blind art dealer named Jim Hudson and a African-American named Logan, who acts the same way that Walter and Georgia have been acting since Chris has gotten to the estate. Chris decides to call his best friend Rod Williams, who is a TSA officer about the weird behavior of the black people that he has been experiencing and also Missy's hypnosis. Chris goes back down to the party and tries to take a picture of Logan but accidentally gets caught once his flash goes off which triggers Logan to get a nosebleed and then yell at Chris repeatedly "get out!". Dean says that Logan suffered a slight seizure due to the flash and he then leaves the party early.

Chris tells Rose that he wants to leave the trip early which she agrees to do so as well. Once they pack their things, Chris notices a small open closet door where he finds photographs of Rose with several black people including Walter and Georgina. As the two are about to leave, Dean, Missy, and Jeremy are preventing them from leaving and while Rose is struggling to find her car keys as Rose soon reveals herself to be an accomplice in her family's plan, Chris tries to fight Jeremy off but is sent back into the sunken place due to Missy's hypnosis.

Chris is dragged downstairs to the family's basement as he later wakes up bound to a chair, he then learns that the family have perfected the method of pseudo-immortality in which Dean, who is a neurosurgeon transplants the consciousness of a older white person into younger black men and women while the black person's consciousness is stuck to live in the sunken place while the white person's consciousness takes over total control of their body. It is also revealed that Chris' body was going to be used by the blind artist seller he had met at the party, Jim Hudson as he bought Chris so he could use his perfect eyesight. After being sent to get Chris ready for the procedure, Jeremy is knocked out by Chris as he puts stuffing from the couch he was sitting on into both of his ears to block himself from being controlled under Missy's hypnosis. Chris proceeds to kill Dean, Missy, and Jeremy; he then leaves the house and calls 911 while driving away in Jeremy's car until he hits Georgina. Chris decides to help Georgina after feeling guilty for not helping his mother when she died. Upon saving her, Georgina regains consciousness and makes Chris lose control of the car and crash into a tree, killing her in the process. Chris survives the crash but Rose tells Walter to go after Chris as he tackles him to the ground until Chris frees him from the hypnosis with the photo flash on his camera. Rose arrives at the scene but Walter says he will kill Chris as Rose gives him the gun but instead he shoots her in the stomach and then shoots himself in the head.

As the wounded Rose attempts to grab her rifle, Chris pushes it away and tries to strangle her but finds himself able to kill her. A police cruiser arrives to the scene as Rose starts crying for help hoping that Chris will be seen as the attacker but it turns out to be his best friend Rod, who has come to save Chris. Chris and Rod drive away while Rose dies from her bullet wound.

## Trivia

* Chris is the first African-American lead character in a horror film of the 2010's era.
* In the original ending of the film, Chris was originally suppose to be arrested by police for murdering Rose and her family but director Jordan Peele decided that it would be better for Chris to have a happier ending.
* Daniel Kaluuya won the MTV Movie Award for "Next Generation" for his role and was also nominated for "Best Actor".
* Eddie Murphy was originally suppose to play Chris but Jordan Peele felt that he was too old for the role.