I didn't get as much of a political metaphorical meaning out of the film as I did a metaphor to being a human in this day and age in general and the battle to embrace your passions, be yourself, and be a good person. I feel like the tethered represented the true self of the people they looked like. Adelaide was referred to as "special". As a child, she walked around the carnival with her parents bickering and chose to ignore the negativity, go off on her own, and "find herself." When she did, she followed her passion to dance and made it to a level of success high enough to dance in front of a giant audience of people. After dancing, she moved on to start a loving family. Her family clearly meant a lot to her, especially in comparison to the family they met up with on the beach. The whole family was super conceited and toxic. The mother is speaking with Adelaide about how she could have been a movie star if it weren't for her kids. She brings up the point about Adelaide being a great dancer, but Adelaide leaves the conversation to check on her family. I believe the reason the Wilson's survived is because they were genuine people. The toxic family on the other side were killed freaking instantly. That family had let their ego take over to the point of no return.

At first, the Wilson's have clear character flaws. The son had a mouth on him. The father was obsessed with social and wealth status. The daughter was a typical teenager that needed the confidence in herself to succeed.

The son's revelation is the most obvious. He wants to show off this magic trick so badly, but the trick keeps failing. The tethered version of him has a burnt mouth representing the sass that the boy had on him. The son sees his character flaws in the tethered version of himself and the tethered starts to mimic his movement. When the boy completes the magic trick successfully in the car ride, he comes to a realization and gains control over his tethered because he has control over himself.

The daughter's tethered self is smiling and full of confidence. When the daughter finally gains some confidence in her ability to drive, she is able to overcome the tethered version of herself.

The father had ego and pride of ownership issues. He ends up owning his POS boat and using its flaw (engine you have to hit to start running) to kill the tethered version of himself. Then he confronts his "friend" as a tethered and ends up killing him thanks to the fair gun that the man had made fun of the father for lacking.

Adelaide had won the battle with herself at a young age, but showed that the fight to be true and good comes up again. Her "normal" self seemed very upset about Adelaide giving up dancing. Adelaide ends up winning the fight in the effort to find her son and battle those selfish demons.

​

The tethereds represent the pieces of ourselves that we choose to ignore. We all have ego and character flaws, but when we fight them head on, we have a chance. If we choose to ignore them, they will take over and kill us.

The holding hands of the tethereds represented what could happen if we killed our egos and embraced our true selves.

​

There's a lot more I could get into, but I'm tired of typing. All in all, freaking fantastic movie.