Nonononono

Peele’s third film is out of this world. (ba-dum-tis) (Massive Spoilers)

Halloween might be over, but that doesn’t mean we have to stop watching scary movies. Here’s a review that I’ve had on the back burner for a while but haven’t gotten around to publishing until now. The film I’ll be going over is Nope, our third helping of horror from Jordan Peele—unless you count Candyman (2021). I’m not because he was only a scriptwriter on that movie. 

The plot of the Nope concerns Emerald “Em” Haywood (Keke Palmer) and Otis Jr. “OJ” Haywood, two siblings who come from a family of horse wranglers. After evidence of UFO phenomena comes to light on their ranch, the two of them set off to get proof that’s good enough to get them on Oprah. 

The big plot twist to this movie is that the UFO isn’t a ship. It’s the alien, which OJ nicknames Jean Jacket. It’s no more intelligent than any other animal, allowing OJ to use his knowledge of animal wrangling to try and get “the money shot.” Interestingly, like in Get Out, the twist comes right before the climax and not at the very end. The only Peele film thus far to do that is Us, which has probably the most predictable twist of his filmography.

I’ve read several people be enthralled with Palmer’s performance, but the one I was really into was Kaluuya. Sure, he plays the less flashy character—the introvert likely on the spectrum to Palmer’s extrovert who lights up the whole room. It takes real talent for such a naturally smooth man to be so awkward, probably more so than an awkward man playing someone smooth. At least that’s what I think. I could be wrong.

Another prominent character is Ricky “Jupe” Park. His big break was being in a fictional Kid Sheriff franchise before appearing on the also fictional Gordy’s Home. The latter came to a close when one of the chimps playing the title character went crazy while filming an episode called “Gordy’s Birthday.” Now Jupe runs a theme park called “Jupiter’s Claim,” whose website holds the disclaimer that it’s in no way affiliated with the Kid Sheriff franchise.

Midway through the film, we get a flashback of the Gordy incident. It’s the most harrowing scene in the movie due to how mundane it is and the actual violence left to our imagination. During the attack, a shoe belonging to one of the actresses sticks straight up on its own for reasons that are never explained, the meaning of which has become a point of contention for some people.

 I believe it’s in reference to how Jupe has it displayed in his museum of Gordy’s Home artifacts, for those willing to pay, right next to the case containing a birthday hat. Besides any deeper symbolic meaning, at the very least, it’s one of several signs that Jupe has been way more affected by the incident than he likes to let on. Another instance of that is when Jupe’s asked about what happened, and he can only bring himself to talk about a parody of the incident Saturday Night Live did with Chris Kattan as Gordy. 

The whole Gordy sequence is only tangentially to the main plot by playing into the film’s themes. Such as what a “bad miracle” is, as OJ wonders. Tying into how you may predict and influence an animal’s behavior, assuming you have them completely under your control is a big mistake. Even the Haywoods horses will still buck if you look them directly in the eye.

The Gordy sequence also fleshes out Jupe’s character. Jupe would just be a greedy and fame-hungry theme park owner without Gordy. With Gordy, he’s that, but in a much more tragic manner. The root of those flaws seems to be that harrowing incident from his past. One that he’s learned nothing from. Jupe tries incorporating Jean Jacket into one of his park attractions and gets himself, his whole family, and many other people killed.

There’s an SNL skit where host Rami Malek guesses that Peele (played by Chris Redd) is making a horror movie about racism, with the joke being how that’s the only type of movie he does make. That’s an exaggeration, as while race is an element in all his films, Get Out is the only one with it as its main subject. Us was about how ‘maybe the monster is you,’ while Nope is about spectacle.

In my ranking of Peele movies, I place Nope above Us but below Get Out. Of course, I don’t think anything he does will be able to recreate that ‘what the hell was that’ feeling I got while watching Get Out for the first time. Either way, I recommend Nope. It’s what some would call elevated horror (NSFW), so even if you don’t like horror, you should like this.