Nope (film)

Nope (stylized in all caps) is a 2022 American science fiction horror film written, directed, and produced by Jordan Peele, under his and Ian Cooper's Monkeypaw Productions banner. It stars Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer as horse-wrangling siblings attempting to capture evidence of an unidentified flying object in Agua Dulce, California. Steven Yeun, Michael Wincott, Brandon Perea, and Keith David appear in supporting roles.

Peele officially announced his third directorial film in November 2020. He cited King Kong (1933), Jurassic Park (1993), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Jaws (1975), Signs (2002), and The Wizard of Oz (1939) as his main inspirations. Palmer and Kaluuya joined in February 2021. Yeun was cast the next month, and Peele revealed the title in July 2021. Filming began in June 2021 in northern Los Angeles County, and wrapped in November.

Nope premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on July 18, 2022, and was theatrically released in the United States on July 22, 2022, by Universal Pictures. It grossed $172 million worldwide, and received positive reviews for its ambition, performances, cinematography, themes, visual style, and musical score, and for Peele's direction. It was also named one of the top ten films of 2022 by the American Film Institute. Since its release, the film has been included in lists of the best science fiction films of the 21st century and of all time.

Plot

In Agua Dulce, California, the Haywood family trains and handles horses for film productions. One day, at their ranch, small metallic objects begin rapidly falling from the sky. A nickel strikes Otis Haywood Sr. in the head, killing him.

Six months later, Otis's children, Otis Jr. ("OJ") and Emerald ("Em") are fired from a production after their horse, Lucky, reacts disruptively to his reflection in a chrome ball used for visual effects. To raise money, OJ has been selling some of their horses to Ricky "Jupe" Park, a former child actor who operates a Western-themed amusement park called Jupiter's Claim. Jupe previously starred on Gordy's Home, a family sitcom about a chimpanzee named Gordy. During filming in 1998, one of the chimps who portrayed Gordy reacted violently to the sound of popping balloons and mauled most of the cast and crew before being shot. Jupe has since settled down with his wife, Amber, and their three sons, but now exploits his trauma from the event in the hopes of revitalizing his career.

One night, the Haywoods notice their electricity fluctuating and their horses aggressively reacting to an unknown presence. They discover an unidentified flying object (UFO) that has been taking their horses. The siblings decide to document and sell evidence of the UFO's existence, recruiting electronics store employee Angel Torres to set up surveillance cameras. The UFO arrives and abducts a horse that has broken out of the ranch stable, as well as a metal horse statue Em has stolen from Jupiter's Claim to act as a decoy. The next day, Em attempts to recruit famed cinematographer Antlers Holst to help them record the UFO. Holst declines, not wanting to encourage Em in what he considers an unfulfilling pursuit of wealth and fame. Angel arrives, having noticed while watching footage from the cameras a cloud in the valley that never moves; OJ suspects this is the UFO's hiding place before concluding, based on its flight patterns, that it may be a living creature.

After months of secretly offering the Haywoods' horses to the UFO to gain its trust and attempt to domesticate it, Jupe introduces a live show in Jupiter's Claim, intending to use Lucky as bait to lure out the UFO. The UFO arrives earlier than expected and consumes everyone in attendance, ultimately leaving only Lucky alive. While retrieving Lucky, OJ confirms his theory that the UFO is actually a territorial, predatory organism. After the creature showers the Haywood household with the regurgitated remains of the Jupiter's Claim crowd, OJ realizes that it only attacks those who look directly at it and devises a plan to record it. Em and Angel are hesitant until Em receives a call from Holst, who now agrees to help. OJ names the organism "Jean Jacket" after an unruly horse the Haywoods once owned.

To circumvent Jean Jacket's effect of shutting down all electrical equipment in its vicinity, Holst brings a hand-cranked film camera. The group sets up a field of battery-powered tube men to track its location. However, a TMZ reporter trespasses onto the field and is thrown from his electric motorcycle when it shuts down near Jean Jacket, which devours him shortly after. While capturing footage, Holst climbs a hill for a "better view" but instead sacrifices himself to be consumed along with his camera, but capturing footage of the creature. Angel is almost swallowed by Jean Jacket. Jean Jacket then unfurls into a much larger form resembling a jellyfish.

OJ intentionally looks directly at Jean Jacket to distract it, allowing Em to rush to Jupiter's Claim on the motorcycle. There, she untethers the park's large helium balloon mascot of Jupe, whose winking eye attracts Jean Jacket's attention. Jean Jacket attempts to feed on the balloon while Em uses a manual camera from the park's coin-operated wishing well attraction to photograph it. After Jean Jacket swallows the balloon, it bursts, violently rupturing the creature's body from within and killing it. With photographic evidence of the creature's existence and reporters arriving nearby, Em sees OJ and Lucky standing outside Jupiter's Claim, unharmed.

Cast

• Daniel Kaluuya as Otis "OJ" Haywood Jr., the son of Otis Haywood Sr., and the older brother of Emerald.
• Keke Palmer as Emerald "Em" Haywood, the daughter of Otis Haywood Sr., and the charismatic younger sister of Otis Jr.
• Steven Yeun as Ricky "Jupe" Park, a former child actor and owner/creator of the theme park "Jupiter's Claim"
  • Jacob Kim as young Ricky "Jupe" Park, who plays Mikey Houston on Gordy's Home
• Michael Wincott as Antlers Holst, a renowned cinematographer
• Brandon Perea as Angel Torres, a tech salesman at Fry's Electronics
• Wrenn Schmidt as Amber Park, Jupe's wife
• Barbie Ferreira as Nessie, Angel's co-worker at Fry's
• Terry Notary as Gordy, a chimpanzee and star of the sitcom Gordy's Home
• Devon Graye as Ryder Muybridge, a paparazzo who rides an electric bike
• Donna Mills as Bonnie Clayton, a commercial actress
• Osgood Perkins as Fynn Bachman, a commercial director
• Eddie Jemison as Buster, a crew member on the commercial
• Keith David as Otis Haywood Sr., the owner of Haywood's Hollywood Horses Ranch
• Sophia Coto as Mary Jo Elliott, who plays Haley Houston on Gordy's Home
  • Haley Babula as Mary Jo Elliott (adult)
• Jennifer Lafleur as Phyllis Mayberry, who plays Margaret Houston on Gordy's Home
• Andrew Patrick Ralston as Tom Bogan, who plays Brett Houston on Gordy's Home

Themes and interpretations

The film has been described as containing themes related to spectacle and exploitation. GQ's Gerrick D. Kennedy wrote that Nope "is a movie about spectacle. More specifically, our addiction to spectacle [...] Nope is about holding a mirror up to all of us and our inability to look away from drama or peril." Kennedy also states that "the erasure of black contributions" to the history of filmmaking plays a significant role in the film. Writer-director Jordan Peele was partly inspired to write Nope by the COVID-19 lockdowns and the "endless cycle of grim, inescapable tragedy" in 2020.

Richard Brody of The New Yorker considered Nope to be a film about exploitation and the cinematic history of exploitation in film; he wrote that he thought the premise of the film was "acknowledging and extending cinema's legacy while also redressing its omissions and misrepresentations of history." Brody also noted that the film's action "pivots on the power and the nature of movie technology", and felt that the film critiqued computer-generated imagery (CGI) in its TV commercial production scene, writing, "Peele presents [CGI] as a dubious temptation and a form of dangerous power." Brody interpreted the choice to have the space creatures target a black-owned horse farm as "a sardonic vision of the universality of racism".