Written by Aidan McGuire
I’m not quite ready to turn the page from Thanksgiving to Christmas. In fact, I’m still reflecting in the spirit of Halloween as to what scared me most this year. For me, Jordan Peele’s science fiction horror neo-western “Nope” stands out above the rest. Spoilers ahead.
The film primarily follows OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald (Keke Palmer) Haywood’s hunt for proof of the giant flying saucer stalking the outskirts of Hollywood. The siblings learn the UFO is actually an organism feeding on the local population. They name it Jean Jacket after a horse their father couldn’t tame.
Their neighbor Ricky “Jupe” Park (Steven Yeun) is a child star from the fictional sit-com “Gordy’s Home.” The show ended tragically when the titular chimp beat his TV parents to death and maimed an actress’ face beyond recognition. Jupe considers his chance of survival of the massacre to be attributed to his personal connection with Gordy. When we see his memory of the incident, a shoe miraculously stands upright in the living room. The narrative intention behind this confused me, but online theories I read considered the shoe to be an example of “a bad miracle,” a prominent theme throughout the film. Although I wouldn’t dismiss that idea entirely, now I think the shoe is a profound moment of characterization for Jupe.
As an adult, Jupe shows the Haywoods a hidden room dedicated to the Gordy incident. His TV sister’s shoe is positioned upright in a display case. Jupe didn’t arrange the shoe how he remembered it; he remembers it as it appears in the case. His childhood trauma caused severe psychological damage, so he approaches his memories through the phony display version of the events. The siblings ask for details. He tells them to watch the Saturday Night Live skit about the attack. Jupe copes by hiding inside the wholesome sit-com reality with Gordy and his fans.
Horror monsters represent ideas that terrify us. The Xenomorph in “Alien” (1979), for example, articulates the fear of our creations (like the artificial intelligence aboard the spaceship) becoming the agents of our demise. So what kinds of terror does “Nope” associate with Jean Jacket? The saucer design obviously draws from classics like “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1951), but Peele wanted Jean Jacket’s final form to evoke the sci-fi anime “Neon Genesis Evangelion.” The show is heavily influenced by Freudian psychology and the Judeo-Christian canon. The etymology of the title literally means “a new retelling of the gospel.” Each episode, teenage mech pilots defend earth from “angels,” entities that Jean Jacket clearly resembles.
The saucer is supposed to explain years of UFO conspiracy theories, but the biblical ties suggest more. Since Jean Jacket isn’t explicitly alien. It may be native to earth, predating history. Its angelic design and cloud camouflage could suggest humanity-projected religious ideas onto a predator. Maybe something else guided the Israelites through the wilderness. Along with existential religious questions, Jean Jacket embodies the violence of the entertainment industry. Nahum 3:6 appears at the beginning of “Nope,” which implies Hollywood is modern-day Nineveh. The saucer’s appetite for horses reflects Hollywood’s historically poor treatment of them. Classic westerns infamously forced horses to be tripped or run off of cliffs. While filming “Ben-Hur” (1959), one hundred were shot dead.
Peele uses Jupe’s attempt to commodify Jean Jacket to depict our nationwide spectacle edition. Our captor has been invited into the living room; we worship the untamed television screen. Jupe assumes the saucer sees something special in him, but he mistakes for an eyeball what is actually a gaping mouth. It isn’t a “viewer,” like he says, but a predator. You think you’re the consumer, but you just might be the main course.
