Nope is a horror/science fiction film from the brilliant mind of Jordan Peele. I loved Get Out and Us, two brilliant horror movies with heavy social commentary. This is Peele’s third movie, and I can happily say that he’s now three for three! Nope is an absolute must see!
Similar to Peele’s other films, Nope is a horror/comedy that also touches on a lot of deeper more complex themes. Exploitation, commercialisation of trauma, and our obsession/addiction with watching horrors unfold are all touched on. Some to a greater degree than others. But let’s have a quick look at what the movie is about.
Daniel Kaluuya once again stars in a Peele movie. The first being Get Out which earned him an Oscar nomination for best actor. In Nope he stars as Otis Jr. “OJ” Haywood. A horse handler who is left the family ranch when his dad is killed by a falling coin. Falling coin? Well, yes. Stuff tends to fall out of the sky around the Haywood’s ranch, which isn’t a good thing. OJ’s sister, Em (Keke Palmer), an aspiring Hollywood star, returns home and encourages her brother to sell up the ranch to Ricky ‘Jupe’, an owner of a cowboy theme park. This is where things get interesting, and freaky. It’s just a jump to the 90s…
Monkey business
You see, when the movie starts, it’s set back in 1998, on the set of a fictional show called Gordy’s Home. And holy hell, it’s disturbing. There’s been a massacre and it’s been carried out by the show’s star chimpanzee. Many of the cast are killed or maimed by the raging chimp, but one person managers to survive.
Ricky (Steven Yeun) manages to get away without being physically hurt but is obviously traumatised by the ordeal. In present day you can see he is using this tragedy to remain ‘relevant’, as people all want to know what happened. He revels in the attention it brings him, while still suffering from obvious PTSD. He’s been buying horses from OJ for a while, 12 I think he says, and he’s keen on the whole farm. For reasons that I won’t ruin for you, but they are anything but benevolent.
Nope to trailers
This is a tricky movie to write about. The marketing for Nope was absolutely horrific. It gave pretty much the entire movie away in the trailers, and I don’t want to do that. I remember going to watch Get Out and Us, without knowing absolutely anything. I assume that with Peele’s fame producers expect his movies to rake in a lot more. And showing the entire movie in a trailer seems to make people go, which is so weird. That said, I think everyone knows it’s about aliens because we’ve all seen the damn spaceship in the trailer. Well, at least there is a nice play on that, which I won’t ruin here!
The Oprah Shot
Suffice it to say, things are not as they seem for the Haywoods. They know something is up and decide to capitalise on it by getting the ‘Oprah Shoot’. Basically the money shot, literally. From the beginning of the movie they’ve been selling themselves as descendants of the first black jockey forever immortalised by film. I am of course talking about the so-called first film ever short. Of a rider on a horse.
Peele’s movie is about exploitation and the fact that the efforts of black people in cinema have been forgotten. So it’s apt that the image used in the movie, the one above, is not actually the first movie ever made (which may actually have a white man riding the horse). But that theme of claiming something is a strong motivator of our protagonists. They demand a note in history, and they are going to get it. At no matter the cost.
Enter Brandon Perea as Angel Torres, a tech salesman at Fry’s Electronics. He’s a very lovable character who adds a load of laughs to the movie. He’s here to set up CCTV cameras so our siblings can capture the UFO… Only of course they’re not called that anymore, now they’re called UAPs… What ensues is funny, but also bloody scary.
Nope to sleep
The first half of this movie is tense. There is one shot, where OJ is starring at something, that had my nerves fried. It was the expectation of that moment ending, that tenuous bubble about to pop, that almost gave me a heart attack. And you could feel the cinema squirming with you. And it was not only the superb acting and directing that did this, it was the sound effects and the music score.
Sound designer Johnnie Burn does a fantastic job of creating tension out of normal noises and a lack of sound where you would expect sound. Christ, I am just remembering now some of the horrific noises he creates mid way through the movie. They reminded me of the bear/human hybrid screams and groans in Annihilation. Absolutely terrifying.
The last act in the film doesn’t stand as strong to me as the first two. It’s very entertaining, don’t get me wrong. Think Tremors meets Jaws, it’s just a lot more action orientated than his other movies. That’s not a bad thing overall, but when you build a movie that is so strong up till a point, and then goes full batshit action, it feels like it’s gone off the rails.
I loved Nope. I actually wanted to walk right back in and watch it again. It’s got so much happening in it that it warrants a few rewatches!
I give Peele’s third film a solid
8.5/10
All the series and all the movies couldn't put society back together again.