On the surface, Jordan Peele’s Nope may look like another alien movie, but Nope is more introspective than it seems. After the success of Get Out and Us, fans were eager to see Peele’s new film when it was released in the summer of 2022. However, despite generally gaining positive reviews from critics, audiences were split on Peele’s first sci-fi film. While Nope may not be as polished as Get Out, it continues Peele’s social commentary trend with a horrific metaphor for the predatory world of show business.

Nope follows OJ Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya) and his sister Emerald (Keke Palmer) as they discover a strange entity lurking in the clouds. At first, OJ and Emerlad seek to exploit the anomaly, believing a UFO ship to be responsible for the disappearance of their horses. In two fantastic performances from Kaluuya and Palmer, the siblings slowly realize how dangerous their discovery is. Academy Award-winning director and screenwriter Jordan Peele can use the alien/creature feature template to create a compelling take on Hollywood.

Nope's Haywood Family & The Mistreatment Of Black-Owned Businesses In Hollywood

The Haywood siblings with their horse

At the beginning of Nope, Emerald explains that she and OJ are descendants of the first actor and animal wrangler captured on film, Alistair E. Haywood. Haywood created the first and only family of Black-owned horse trainers in Hollywood. Emerald questions the director and the crew if anyone knows the name of the Black jockey who rode the horse in the first motion picture ever. To which the crew is clueless, Emerald continues that they know the grandfather of motion pictures Eadweard Muybridge who shot the clip, but there is no record of the first man captured on film.

The Haywood Hollywood Horses family history is an example of how Hollywood profited off the backs of Black people and took all the credit for it. While the first motion picture was about a Black man riding a horse, Alistair E. Haywood is a fictional character, and the name of the real Black man is unknown. Peele’s fictional Haywood family reflects the reality in Hollywood, where Black-owned businesses in Hollywood are taken advantage of and not given the credit they deserve. The erasure of the Black people who helped make Hollywood what it is today is a topic seldom explored in films, so it’s refreshing to see it reflected in a studio picture.

Related: Nope's Oscar Snub Makes The Movies Plot Mirror A Real-Life Issue

How Nope Proved Spectacles Could Lead To Exploitation

Screenshot of a man in a cowboy hat looking up in Nope

One of Nope’s strongest themes is how spectacles lead to exploitation. Nope opens with a sitcom scene gone wrong. After a balloon pops, one of the chimpanzees who plays Gordy violently attacks the crew. Jupe is one of the surviving members of the cast who exploits his past as a child actor. He calls the event a “spectacle” and shows the OJ and Emerald his secret room full of Gordy memorabilia which he usually charges guests to visit.

While exploiting his childhood past may be a way for Jupe to process his trauma, this scene also shows how many others flocked to this spectacle. Despite the event being a brutal crime scene, there is a Mad magazine with Gordy’s birthday massacre on the cover as well as a Saturday Night Live sketch which Jupe joyfully recites part of. These details show how spectacles fascinate people and exploit these events without thinking of the victims.

This spectacle theme is explored further with Jupe and how he exploits Jean Jacket. Before Jupe is sucked up into Jean Jacket with the audience, he explains to the crowd how the spectacle they are about to see will change them forever. Jupe calls the spectacle the “Star Lasso Experience” and is right that it changes them forever. While Jupe foolishly tells the audience that “the viewers,” as he calls them, “trust” him, he is proved wrong and suffers the consequences. Jupe’s death is ironic because he survived the Gordy birthday massacre and saw firsthand how dangerous wild animals are, yet he still tried to tame a wild animal.

Why Nope Showed That Wild Animals Shouldn’t Be Tamed

Young Jupe in Nope cowering under a table while his chimpanzee co-star Gordy rages on the TV set

While Nope suggests that Jupe believed Jean Jacket was a UFO, he still was playing with unknown forces of nature and profiting off its back. The theme that wild animals shouldn’t be tamed is present consistently throughout Nope. Gordy’s birthday massacre is depicted twice in Nope, once in the opening scene and later in the film, where the audience witnesses Gordy’s fate. Peele highlights the danger of wild animals by depicting not only the vicious attack but the chimpanzee’s confused demeanor after the incident. When the chimpanzee playing Gordy tries to fist-bump young Jupe, who is terrified, it is implied that the chimpanzee wasn’t intentionally violent but spooked by the sudden noise.

Early in Nope, OJ warns the cast and crew to be careful around the horse, but Lucky is spooked by his reflection in a handheld mirror. This results in OJ and Emerald being fired from the commercial. However, OJ’s warning is present throughout the entire film. OJ’s same approach to wild animals is what he uses with Jean Jacket, to the point where he can survive using these tactics. OJ says that Jupe made a mistake by trying to tame a predator, citing that one must agree with a predator. OJ’s caution pays off, and he can keep himself, Lucky, and his sister safe.

Nope’s “Bad Miracles” Explained

OJ with a horse looking up at a cloud in Nope

After Ghost is sucked up by Jean Jacket, OJ asks Emerald what you call “bad miracles.” OJ continues to discuss their father’s strange death. Their father, Otis Haywood (Keith David), is killed at the film's beginning after a nickel falls out of the sky and hits him in the eye. OJ explains that he doesn’t believe it fell from a plane like others. Instead, he thinks something more sinister happened six months ago.

A miracle is usually considered positive, but sometimes there are terrible events that can’t be explained. The terrible event of some poor woman being sucked up to her death and the remnants of her pocket falling out to kill a man on the ground is too insane to be explained away by logic. OJ’s discussion of “bad miracles” illustrates how terrible events sometimes happen, but as Nope depicts, sometimes these “bad miracles” are provoked.

What Nope’s UFOs Really Represented

Jean Jacket chasing OJ in Nope

While Jean Jacket may appear to be a UFO, the alien is an otherworldly being that logic cannot explain. At first, OJ and Emerald want to take a picture of the UFO to cash in. UFOs represent the unknown, and in Nope, Peele depicts how people are fascinated by the unknown. Angel, an electronics employee who helps install cameras around the Haywood ranch, is similarly fascinated by UFOs, their existence, and the profit from their discovery. Like OJ and Em, Angel soon becomes horrified by Jean Jacket’s existence and wants to survive more than turn a profit.

UFO imagery is also used on Jupe’s cowboy jacket for his Star Lasso Experience show, representing how he markets the unknown. At his Star Lasso Experience show, Jupe tells the audience he saw a real flying saucer. He uses the UFO image for marketing as well as selling alien toys and masks at the park. Jupe blinds himself with money and fame and puts himself and his family in danger as a result.

Nope's Other Religious Themes Explained

Nope nighttime

Nope opens with a Bible quote: “I will cast abominable filth at you, make you vile, and make you a spectacle.” Nahum 3:6 is a passage that warns that exploitation only leads to death and destruction. Nope uses Gordy and Jean Jacket to illustrate this quote brought to life. The spectacle of the Star Lasso Experience leads to the death of Jupe and the audience. After the show, their regurgitated remains rain down on the Haywood house. Jean Jacket is used as a metaphor for how Hollywood eats people up and spits them back out.

In Nope, the spectacles have dire consequences. Each person in Nope who tries to exploit Jean Jacket suffers horrific consequences, including director Antlers Holst and a paparazzi photographer who hilariously called out for his camera until his death. Jordan Peele’s Nope is an ambitious alien movie full of social commentary like his other two films. While Nope may not have been as universally loved as Get Out or Us, Nope is yet another film that proves Jordan Peele is one of the most talented directors working in Hollywood today.