Nope: Something Sinister in the Skies Above
Nope stars Daniel Kaluuya (OJ Hayworth) and Keke Palmer (Emerald Hayworth) as a brother and sister trying to obtain photographic evidence of a UFO. They become obsessed with getting the footage, since it will prove its been terrorizing them, and because they can sell the evidence for lots of money.
***SPOILER ALERT***
You can probably read a lot of breakdowns about this film already since it was so popular, so I’m just going to call out the things that stood out to me watching this movie.
The Alien
The UFO turns out to be an alien creature that eats any living thing that looks directly at it. OJ and Emerald name it Jean Jacket, after a horse Emerald was supposed to train in her youth. Jean Jacket is terrifying. One of the coolest things about Nope is that you don’t see the alien directly at first, only signs that it is passing by. Before you find out it’s not a ship, just its shadow creeps you out. When you finally see the alien expand from the saucerlike form it usually holds, it’s disturbingly beautiful. Its body looks like long, diaphonous streams of cloth, rippling and billowing in the light, and there is something oddly angelic about it. However, it also eats a whole crowd of people and terrorizes everyone, so its beauty comes across as sinister.
Get it on Camera
A running theme in the movie is about what it costs to display something noteworthy, get it on camera, and get yourself noticed. Even though everyone’s armed with cameras or eye witnesses, the pursuit of fame blinds them to the danger they’re in.
The first example of this is when we learn about a sitcom called Gordy that starred a live chimpanzee that lives with a family. The desire to put something unique on display — a chimp tame enough to be on a family sitcom — blinds everyone involved to the dangers of working with a physically powerful wild animal. When Gordy goes insane, the cost is the lives of all the actors except for Mary Jo (who ends up disfigured) and Ricky ‘Jupe’ Park. There’s a moment after the carnage where Gordy walks over to Jupe cowering under a table and tries to offer him a ‘friendly’ fist bump.
The story acts as a cautionary tale for Jupe that goes unheeded. As an adult, Jupe is still obsessed with creating a display that draws crowds and applause. His obsession makes him ruthless. Even though as a child actor he survived a horrific event with Gordy, a wild animal that proved he couldn’t be tamed, Jupe thinks he can tame the alien Jean Jacket.
Jupe starts buying horses from the Hayworths and secretly feeding them to Jean Jacket in an attempt to form a bond he can exploit to create a show. This seemed like it could be commentary on any entertainment endeavors that go too far. At what point is the way you get your show to happen too disgusting?
The end goal for Jupe, is to create ‘The Star Lasso Experience,’ a show where people can come and sit and watch Jean Jacket eat a horse. Creating a popular experience and receiving accolades is more important to Jupe than the danger involved. And, he and the crowd end up paying for it with their lives.
Jupe isn’t the only one that risks his life in the interest of creating a display. The cinematographer OJ and Emerald hire to help them film Jean Jacket, Antlers Host (Michael Wincott), takes it even further. When they have good footage of Jean Jacket, it’s not enough for him. He has to go out and try to film the alien alone, in the best lighting during ‘the magic hour.’ I laughed at this part, I was like, well I guess this guy is about to go. That ends up right, but Antlers also gets the perfect shot — himself being lifted into the air and eaten by the alien. He watches himself die through the camera.
Even the main characters in the story, OJ and Emerald, can’t drop their obsession with finding a way to get attention, and it nearly kills them both. At the end of the movie, Emerald spends time trying to take pictures of the alien using an old fashioned camera at the Jupiter’s Claim Theme Park, risking her life to do so. The cost ends up being far less for her though — the stress and trauma of the whole experience and a handful of coins from the ground.
The different kinds of obsession the characters have with finding a way to earn money by capturing something on camera seemed to drive home a point about society now. We have so many people who are more interested in getting their experiences on video or photo rather than living in the moment of an experience. Antlers’s death was so ridiculous it would have been funny if the tone of the film wasn’t so terrifying. Capturing experiences was so important to him that he preferred to watch himself die on camera than set it aside.
The Shoe
Jordan Peele explained that the shoe represents an impossible moment that occurs when people check out during trauma. I was a little bummed that that was it. When I first saw the shoe standing on end my mind raced around various possibilities — maybe the alien caused the whole thing with Gordy and the shoe is a sign! Etc. But then, it wasn’t.
The Title Nope
Peele said that the title ‘Nope’ was a reference to how some people react to horror. ‘Do you wanna see a horror movie?’ ‘Nope!’ or after watching something terrifying ‘Nope!’ or in the case of ‘Nope’ there’s all the times somebody does something you would not do. Like decide to film an alien in the best lighting….Nope!
Aside from the audience reaction to some of these moments, if you set aside the obsession with capturing everything on camera or in a show, the main characters often make good choices you don’t see in horror movies. It’s like they’re saying ‘Nope!’ from their perspective. Just some examples:
In one scene, an idiot biker falls off his bike. OJ goes to save him, then realizes he’s going to be eaten. Do we get a dramatic scene where he finds a way to save the idiot? We don’t. Instead, OJ says ‘Nope!’ and saves himself, which is the only choice in the scene if he wants to live.
There’s also a scene where a horse statue crashes into the windshield of OJ’s truck. It’s nighttime, it’s pouring rain, the alien is out terrorizing the land. It’s not that far from the car to the front door of the house. I was like ‘DO NOT GET OUT OF THE CAR!’ in my head, and partially expecting he would since people always do dumb things in horror movies like split up, decide to do the satanic ritual that says it summons demons, investigate the bestial growling, etc. And OJ goes nope, and stays in the car, which seems like the best decision.
Conclusion
If you haven’t seen Nope, and you like sci-fi and horror, you absolutely need to see this movie. It’s creative, it has a lot to say, and if you don’t want to analyze the heck out of it, it’s a creepy, emotionally gripping story!
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