Nope is an American scifi horror film drama, written and directed by Jordan Peele. The film stars Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Michael Wincott, and Brandon Perea. The film has been generally well-received and has grossed over $148 million worldwide with a production cost of about $68 million.
S P O I L E R S
The premise of Nope is as follows –
After random objects falling from the sky result in the death of their father, ranch-owning siblings OJ and Emerald Haywood attempt to capture video evidence of an unidentified flying object (UFO) with the help of tech salesman Angel Torres and documentarian Antlers Holst. (Universal)
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Plot
Although set up as a movie about UFOs, Nope is really a monster story, pure and simple. OJ makes this discovery about more than halfway through the movie, based on his understanding of horses and observations of the UFO. While this is a clever twist, it only makes sense in the final act, as it is very difficult to grasp the concept based on what is initially revealed in the movie. Thus, certain amount of confusion can be expected.
In that respect, the movie most resembles Jaws – the movie about a Great White Shark terrorising an American beach town. At first, there is debate amongst the key characters about the very nature of the monster itself but when its existence is recognised, a plan is hatched to hunt down the monster. Of course, in Nope, the scheme is to catch the monster on film, though in the end its destruction becomes inevitable to save the day.
Characters
The main characters are OJ (Kaluuya) and Emerald (Palmer) who see the monster as a ticket out of their financial difficulties. Torres (Perea) and Holst (Wincott) are allies who come along for the ride. Then there is also Jupiter (Yeun) – a cowboy entertainer who attempts to tame the monster for his own gain but fails tragically. All the characters hope to exploit the monster for fame and fortune but discover that in the end, it is all only about survival and nothing else.
Nope is probably more enjoyable after the fact as the narrative is somewhat ponderous and confusing at times – a victory of form over substance that probably worth the price of admission.
Now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
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