This is a breakdown of the movie “Nope” and contains extensive spoilers. Viewer discretion advised.

Jordan Peele’s third and latest feature film, “Nope”, tells the story of O.J. Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya), a cowboy and man-of-few-words, and his polar opposite sister, Emerald (Keke Palmer). After their father (Keith David) is mysteriously killed by sky debris, O.J. takes over the family ranch and only Black-owned horse farm in Hollywood. Called Haywood’s Hollywood Horses, the farm supplies the animals for commercial and TV productions. 

The siblings’ tense rural lifestyle is thrown into disarray when they learn the cause of their father’s death—a giant UFO, who then starts terrorizing the ranch. Their mission is clear: O.J. and Emerald team up with a store tech expert named Angel (Brandon Perea) and an eccentric cinematographer, Antlers (Michael Wincott) to capture the UFO on film and defeat it before any more lives are lost. 

Peele’s first two movies, Get Out and Us, have much darker tones, and are more of a social commentary than “Nope”. But “Nope” has its own share of subtle and provocative themes. Namely, a) humanity’s misplaced desire for control and b) our obsession with spectacle. 

Many breakout characters represent these themes, like Antlers and the TMZ reporter, who are both so obsessed with recording the ranch’s paranormal activity that they are constantly screaming for their camera or rolling film even as their lives are threatened. These moments are haunting and sobering, but neither character is as paradoxical and fascinating as Ricky “Jupe” Park (Steven Yeun).

As a child actor, Jupe starred on a sitcom that featured a real chimpanzee named Gordy. One day, the chimp is triggered into a bloody rampage and mauls several cast members. Jupe is lucky enough to escape unharmed, but shares a terrifying and intimate moment with Gordy before the chimp is shot dead. 

The incident is a failure of humanity’s hubris, with Jupe as a casualty. However, this life lesson is flipped on its head when Jupe grows up to run a theme park near the Haywood’s home and conducts shows featuring the UFO.

Perhaps the way Gordy was “tamed” for the sitcom, plus Jupe’s success at dealing with Gordy during their primal rampage, gives Jupe the bizarre idea that he can “control” the presence of a UFO for his theme park show. Little does he know, there is an iceberg of complexity behind the ship’s capabilities and desires. Like the TMZ reporter and Antlers, Jupe’s misplaced ambition leads to his untimely death. 

Jupe comes in, shines bright, and quickly goes out. Like some other critics have said, I wish Peele gave this character a bit more of the spotlight. Not only was Stephen Yeun a powerful and endearing presence on screen, the idea of Jupe was just endlessly fascinating. I would have loved a slightly more developed arc to explore his psyche. Then again, I’m glad “Nope” is not the Jupe show, because it’s bad to have too much of a great thing.

Unfortunately, the UFO came with many inconsistencies. The UFO seems to wipe out all the electricity in the vicinity, which the characters cleverly use to their advantage in defeating it. However, it felt like this feature of the UFO was sometimes just used to drive the plot a certain way instead of making sense. The electrical outages exist as “dramatic convenience”, as critic Mark Rivers described it on the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast. Not to mention the limitless confusion I have about the shoe on the set of Gordy’s sitcom, but at least this was Peele’s intention and not a plot inconsistency. I bought into it and I love it, and I’m happy with the mystery that it is. 

Even though the workings of the UFO weren’t  as airtight as the mythology of the Tethered in “Us”,, it didn’t detract much from the movie overall since “Nope” is not heavy on the mystery plot. It does a disservice to viewers when something on the screen seems to be completely random and out there and nonsensical, but with “Nope”, it’s such a gray area—some things made no sense but still felt related, like the shoe. All in all, the plot mostly worked for me, and the fascinating premise complemented it sufficiently. 

Despite this movie being a fun thriller with horror aspects , there are layers to reasonably unpack and parts that you’re probably not supposed to dive into—things that Peele put in to trick us into overthinking, some critics have concluded. I personally love how symbolic the characters’ names are—Emerald, Jupe, Angel, Antlers, and of course, O.J. “Nope” gives little to no exposition for these characters, simply throwing them into the UFO-pocalypse, but with the little bits and pieces you have as they shine on screen, you’re able to quickly get a sense of their character. 

Emerald was pretty easy to understand and also such a star, courtesy of Keke Palmer. Jupe as well. The only character I really had trouble with was O.J. I’m a terrible judge of acting skill, and I admit that can be a huge part of characterization. But still, I didn’t know who O.J. was long after I knew the other characters. The others made reasonable choices based on their personalities, but O.J.’s choices in the climax didn’t line up with the person I thought he was supposed to be, or even the one he was supposed to become.

More than  all of this, there’s something as important—sometimes more important—than understanding the movie, and that is the parts of the story a person like me can’t understand. Critic Aisha Harris touches on it here: “It’s…significant to note how Peele playfully speaks to Black audiences and their frequent responses to horror movies through the clever title and O.J. and Emerald’s actions…”. She goes on to discuss how the characters respond intelligently to what was obviously scary, instead of in the “suspended disbelief” way you often see in horror movies. 

It’s critical to have movies that can speak to people who aren’t as often spoken to and represented; that connection between screen and life is unmatched. Other people in the theater were responding more intimately to the movie than I was, especially at O.J.’s initial reaction of “nope, nu-uh”. I’m grateful to be a young person in a time where we have these kinds of movies in theaters—movies that are universally enjoyable but also respond to a certain group’s history. 

On that note, many critics have mentioned all the references to film history Peele has sprinkled throughout the movie, how he’s pulled from and honored classic directors.I’m not of the age and do not have the film experience to appreciate those directors and those genres at such a level. I didn’t grow up on those dramatic American Westerns with the man-of-few-words cowboys, or those classic sci-fis. Because I don’t have a good frame of reference, “Nope” felt to me like a unique combination of everything, a niche and graceful intersection of Western, sci-fi, horror, thriller, and racial commentary. It felt entirely fresh, genre-defying and unplaceable, and thus, incredibly compelling and hard to look away from.

Besides the unexpected “genre”, “Nope” is making headlines for another unique aspect of film: it’s the first horror movie to be recorded on IMAX cameras. IMAX has a larger aspect ratio (screen size, essentially), so it has extra picture information and more detailed image quality. That basically means: more impressively beautiful shots. “Nope” is astoundingly cinematic, even in non-IMAX theaters. If you watch “Nope” on the big screen, go to IMAX to watch it in the format it was created for.

A powerful movie with an interesting premise, intriguing characters, and powerful themes including rich history. As a light thriller, it didn’t pack as much of a  punch as Get Out, and it didn’t have the airtight plot I wish it did, but it was engaging nonetheless. Definitely something to put on your watchlist if you haven’t already!