"Nope": Mares and Nightmares

Horses appear throughout Jordan Peele's latest horror-thriller Nope, but the first animal we see is in a flashback to a chimpanzee covered in blood on the set of a TV sitcom of the 1990s. The connection between that incident and the main story is never made explicit. That's part of what makes Peele's work stick: in the night and morning since I saw Nope, I've been seeing it in my head, thinking, shuddering, and smiling. [UPDATE: two more days of same.]

[Much of what I wrote about Jordan Peele's previous movie could be said about this one, too. See Is Jordan Peele's Us US?]

About the chimp, we have a clear connection to a child actor Ricky "Jupe" Park on the set of the doomed show. Jupe (Steven Yeun), now a grownup, runs a cheesy Western-theme park close to the ranch where most of the action takes place. He puts on a show for live audiences that he calls "Star Lasso." But why is he even in the movie? My friend Susan has a theory: trained animals go rogue in both stories. There's a principle reiterated by horse-trainer OJ Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya), "Don't look them in the eye." Also, she observed, balloons are involved.

(The day after I posted this, I suddenly understood why Ricky calls his show "Star Lasso." Peele only implies the answer. Wise choice. Had I known, I wouldn't have gone to see the movie.)

Comments in the media have centered on the themes of film and fame. Haywood and his sister Emerald (Keke Palmer) train horses for film studios. When they become aware that a hill overlooking their ranch has become HQ for a UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon, a.k.a. UFO), their first thought is to monetize it. Every other character has the same idea. Peele's epigraph is from the Old Testament, Nahum's prophecy that the destruction of the Assyrian capital Nineveh will be "a spectacle."

The image that made me laugh and clutch my armrest at the same time, every time, was the split-second glimpse of a UAP as it darts from one cloud to another like Bugs Bunny ducking from tree to tree to evade Elmer Fudd. But when it dives in for its close-up, it's just scary.

Another image I won't forget is the view from inside the ranch house during a downpour, when the rain mixes with blood. Then there's the heart-stopping moment in flashback when the chimp, paused in his rampage, turns towards the young Jupe's hiding place.

Other images I list just for my own future reference. To explain would give too much away. There's a motorcyclist in a full-head reflective helmet with only a cyclops lens for a visor, and there's what happens when an alien force suddenly saps all the power from his bike. There's a giant inflatable cowboy. There are the air-blown "dancing men" that wriggle up and down at roadside attractions, and the moment that we suddenly understand why OJ and his team have stolen dozens of them to scatter all over their ranch. There's a fiberglass horse attached to a string of multi-colored pennants, and there's the use OJ makes of it.

I wasn't sure how much I was enjoying the movie before OJ and Em brought in allies -- a whacked-out technician from a big box store, and a raspy-voiced cinematographer. It took a while for me to appreciate the siblings' comic banter, i.e., she banters, he grunts. When we see the team enacting their plan to capture their visitor on film -- and, by the way, save humanity -- I was roped in.