Warning: this article contains major spoilers for Nope.
Jordan Peele's Nope hit theaters worldwide on July 22, 2022. Fans flocked to see his third film as writer-director, one which explores themes of the extra-terrestrial as well as the nature of man. Its opening scenes may be cryptic at first, but the film comes full circle and makes a powerful revelation about its first moments.
Nope employs an age-old tactic in film, which is the use of title cards. Dating back to the silent film era, title cards are a tangible way of separating acts and storylines in movies. Peele uses title cards for a number of reasons, all of which deserve an explanation.
A Verse Taken From The Bible
"I will cast abominable filth upon you, make you vile, and make you a spectacle. —Nahum 3:6"
The first sign of Jordan Peele's return after three long years is a verse taken from the Bible. Out of the Old Testament book called Nahum, the verse in this title card sets a dark tone for the rest of the film. It is also the first time the word "spectacle" appears, which is one of its many uses over the next two hours.
Fans of Peele's work will remember he used a Bible verse in Us, too. He continues this motif with Nope, alluding to the abomination (or eventual death) of Jupe, the TMZ influencer, and Antlers while also capturing its main premise. The film is about something you can't take your eyes off of—a spectacle.
The Movie's Confusing Opening Scene
Gordy and the Horse Movie
As the Bible verse fades away, the film opens to a particularly unsettling scene, which is a chimpanzee on the set of a TV show, wearing a birthday hat covered in blood. The chimp, with blood on his hands and mouth, looks around at the damage he's supposedly done, then looks directly at the camera. The opening credits roll inside an odd square, curtain-like structure. Fans soon find out this is inside the spectacle.
The birthday scene with Gordy has major implications for the rest of the film. Not only is it the most gruesome part of the movie, but it also foreshadows both Jupe and the Haywoods' outcomes. Jupe, surviving the massacre, attempts to harness the spectacle to make money off the spectacle. The same fate arrives when the spectacle massacres the attendees at Jupe's carnival.
Four Letters That Make A Difference
"NOPE"
Another motif that Jordan Peele resurrects is the bookended movie title cards. At the beginning and end of the movie, the word "Nope" appears. This might seem meaningless at first, but the word, repeated throughout the film, carries a different meaning before it appears again.
At first, "Nope" means little to the viewer. Until this point, fans didn't know much about the movie's premise at all. The cast of Nope has been in shows like Rick and Morty in the past, but no one has met them in this movie yet. Two words carry the weight of meaning in this film, "spectacle," which has already been seen on-screen, and "Nope."
The First Horse To Go
"Ghost"
After an introductory scene with a horse named Ghost, the death of Otis Haywood, and former Nickelodeon star Keke Palmer's iconic scene, a new title card appears. OJ has seen the spectacle but doesn't know what to make of it. This is the first title card with one of the Haywood ranch's horses in the name.
In the same way that Ghost disappears and reappears, so the spectacle is largely ghostlike throughout this portion of the movie. They will later see the spectacle in full, but for now, it is unknown, untraceable. This adds double meaning to the first title card within the story.
The Spectacle Becomes Less Cryptic
"Clover"
After "Ghost," the Haywoods try to set up for the "Oprah shot," the perfect filming of an alien specimen that could make them rich, and possibly end up on Oprah. In the development under "Clover," the brother-sister duo finds that the horse of the same name runs wild. When they chase it, they get the next big sighting of the spectacle, one the cameras couldn't catch.
Clover was the first horse Emerald was supposed to train, but she couldn't because it was given to OJ, who regrets that he didn't speak up for her. In the same way, Clover is another first for Emerald, that gets taken away by a bug covering the camera during the spectacle's appearance.
A Tragic Cautionary Tale
"Gordy"
Until this point in the film, the story of Gordy, hinted at in the opening, has largely been untouched, save for Jupe's collection of Gordy's House memorabilia. Under this title card, the real story of Gordy comes to light, and it is horrifying.
The story of a TV set massacre becomes a cautionary tale about trying to tame and make money off of the territorial, the untamable. Under the "Gordy" title, most of the characters (except OJ, Emerald, and Angel) look to the sky for the spectacle and pay the price for it. This card connects the stories seamlessly, reminding the viewer of Peele's insinuation that not all that is grand is worth containing.
The One Horse Left
"Lucky"
It is no coincidence that Jordan Peele wrote the last horse standing to be named Lucky. While this is a hint of his genius in screenwriting, some Redditors have unpopular opinions about Jordan Peele films. Nevertheless, this is stellar writing and makes the title card of the horse's name more powerful.
Within "Lucky," the OJ and Emerald's arc is summarized as just that: luck. Separated from each other (Emerald and Angel in the house and OJ retrieving Lucky), they manage to escape the jaws of the spectacle—by not looking at it. Whether as an instinct from OJ's horse training or sheer luck, they survive the closest encounters of the spectacle.
Everything Comes To Light
"Jean Jacket"
After theorizing that the spectacle is, in fact, an extra-terrestrial animal, the Haywoods, Antlers, and Angel strategize a plan to capture it on film and evade its hungry pursuits. Jean Jacket was the first horse that bucked against the Haywoods—the one that Otis called "territorial"—and could not be tamed.
Relating Jean Jacket to the spectacle, the Haywoods know how to capture it on camera while amidst its own territory. In the final act of the film, Emerald becomes the one to capture it on camera, bringing her sad childhood story some otherworldly redemption. Ultimately, they treat the spectacle as a territorial animal which proves its defeat.
The End Is The Beginning
"NOPE"
The film comes to a close—after OJ and Emerald save each other from either side of the spectacle, with the Haywoods alive, a carnival polaroid of the spectacle developing, and news stations speeding up to capture the sky. Overall, the film satisfies some things Redditors wanted to see in Nope.
As the screen fades to black, a familiar word centers the screen, "Nope." Now, that word has a world of meaning, which is fear of the spectacle, avoiding the temptation to wonder at the risk of losing life, and the all-around attitude the last half of the film had. Once they learned how to know the spectacle, they said "nope" to its terrorizing threats on their ranch. Avoiding the spectacle to save their lives, the Haywoods became two rebels in a town of enthralled sky-gazers.