Foreshadowing in Sorry To Bother You
With its first premier at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2018, and its theatrical release in December 2018, “Sorry to Bother You” is a must watch. This star studded dark comedy tells the story of one Cassius Green (Lakeith Stanfield), a slightly pessimistic and newly hired telemarketer in Oakland California. Cassius finds that his way to the top is through his “white voice”. Despite what he thought, Cassius quickly realizes the company he’s working for is not the company they claim to be.
This film does a great way of using non-diegetic sound to draw the viewers attention and add suspense. They make a point of telling Cassius’ girlfriend Detroit (Tessa Thompson), “Nice earrings.” They get a close up every time and a sparkling sound effect is laid over the track. Her earrings seem to always match the situation, foreshadowing future events. The first pair of earrings she sports say murder and kill.
The films score also adds to the foreshadowing, with eerie music playing almost unnoticeably in the background in some scenes, such as his first walk through of RegalView and during Squeeze’s (Steven Yuen) speech before their strike. There are moments when they bring this music to the forefront, like when Cassius used his white voice for the first time.
The “white voice” itself is another interesting use of sound. The actors that use this voice are dubbed over, and it’s noticeable. The words line up extremely well, and all of Cassius’ friends are put off by the voice. This main plot point relating to code-switching in the workplace is essential to the understanding of this movie in regards to race, so why not make it over the top?
Mise-en-scene is also used to foreshadow the twist end. A poster of Steve Lift (Armie Hammer), the WorryFree CEO riding a horse is on a bookshops window. There are horse statues and pictures in his office. Even the plate he gives Cassius the drug on has a horse on it. The last 30 minutes of the film took me completely by surprise, but watching a second time and noticing all these things, I was amazed that they all went right over my head. These props may seem insignificant at first but they bring validation to the entire ending of the movie. Once you find out that WorryFree is turning people into human-horse hybrids, all the horse memorabilia starts to make a lot of sense.
Billboards and ads are also used as foreshadowing, as many WorryFree ads were defaced by their protestors, Left Eye. But, this foreshadowing is another trick. These signs are made to say “SLAVERY AT WORK” and “FREEDOM”. In the end, you are pushed to believe Cassius will expose and defeat WorryFree and come out on top, but that doesn’t happen. A victory is foreshadowed, but Cassius still is ironically in the same place. Well, accept he’s a horse now.
