Nope is a 2022 American science fiction film directed by Jordan Peele and stars Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Michael Wincott, and Brandon Perea
In 1998 , on the soundstage for the sitcom Gordy’s Home, the titular chimpanzee animal actor attacks and kills its human co-stars after being startled by the pop of a balloon. Child actor Ricky “Jupe” Park hides under the table and is unharmed, though scared. The chimp finds Jupe and extends a hand before being shot dead by authorites.
In the present day, ranch owner Otis Haywood Sr. trains and handles horses for film productions. When he is killed by a nickel through the eye that falls unexplainably, his children Otis Jr. and Emerald inherit the ranch. O.J. tries to keep the business going and to uphold his father’s legacy, while Em looks for fame and fortune in Hollywood. The Haywoods claim that unnamed jockey in “Plate 626” from Eadweard Muybridge’s Animal Locomotion series of photographs was their ancestor.
Six months later while, while filming a commercial with well known cinematographer Antlers Holst, a horse reacts violently when the crew startles it and the Haywoods are fired from the project. The ranch’s financial problems have forced OJ to sell horses to a grown up Jupe, who owns and operates the nearby Jupiter’s Claim, a smal western theme park, where he uses the story of Gordy’s Home killing for profit. Jupe offers to buy the Haywoods’ ranch, which Em encourages OJ to accept. That night Haywoods notice their electricity flickering and their horses disappearing and reacting brutally to an unknown presence. They discover that a UFO shaped like flying saucer has been sucking up their horses and spitting out any unwanted debris, which caused their father’s death.
Seeking wealth and fame, OJ and Em decide to document the evidence of the UFO’s existence and they obtain Fry’s Electronics employee Angel Torresto set up surveillance cameras as they bait it with a pretend horse. Jupe introduces a live show at Jupiter’s Claim and plans to have a horse as bait to coax the UFO to come out, having fed it the horses he bought from the Haywoods, in front of a paying audience. This UFO is not a spaceship but predatory creature that eats anthing that looks directly at it.
This film has a Spielbergian feel too it, much like his film Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but not nearly as good. To me this is one of Peele’s weaker films. Most of the movie is spent on the creature in the sky, waiting for it, watching it, escaping from it and only a portion is actually spent on the horses and the human characters. The creature goes from looking like a giant UFO, to a giant kite, to a ginormous kaleioscope, which is neat, but entire scenes of it, is a waste of time. We get it, we’re amazed, move on.
The acting is great from Daniel Kaluuya (OJ) and Steve Yeun (Jupe), Keke Palmer was given a bad role, as she is really good actress and deserves better, but her character Emerald was nothing more than an annoying stereotype of a young African American tomboy wanting fame and fortune.
This film had little flow and made little sense and you never learn why the sky creature was after that town. It is very intense but also focuses way too much on the creature and very little on the human characters, although a good bit is focused on the horses. I like science fiction and thriller films but they both must have what films need a begining, middle and end. This one has a begining, but the middle and end are combined. Had the middle and end been seperated, I would have enjoyed it more. This took Spielberg style sci-fi and just made it worse. The last about hlaf the film was spent trying to get away from this UFO looking alien creature thing and not about learning anything about it and why it wants to destroy that town eat certain living things.They just want it come out and then run from it, which makes no sense and they are just wanting it to suck them up.
This movie is really fast paced and keeps you on the edge of your seat and because of these things, it is better to see it in theater. The intensity, violence and language in this movie are not appropiate for yound kids. Just the creature alone would give them nightmares.
I am disappointed I spent over two hours of my life watching this movie that had very little story to it other than horses, but the alien thing is never explained about at all, not why they’re on earth, where they came from, why that town? Nothing. Jordan Peele has said that the creature represents Hollywood and the main (human) characters are Hollywood stars and the alien going after the Haywoods and Jupe represents how Hollywood mistreats African Americans and Asians. Which upon learning that, it made me like this movie a little bit more, but still not a whole lot more.
The cinematography, scenery and special effects are amazing, i just wish there had been less alien or whatever that thing is more about the characters and their lives. It might as well have been callled Jordan Peele’s Alien. But all of those good qualities dont make the film that much better, just more entertaining. 18+ 3.5/5