While it’s typical to wonder what you’re in for with a Jordan Peele horror, NOPE is a more traditional experience from the horror-mystery director. Yet, it by some means still makes for the puzzling watch resulting in open-ended discussion that the comedian-turned-filmmaker has change into known for. 

This sci-fi monster romp identifies the threat early on, without wasting much time marveling at it or working to clarify it. The issue, though mysterious, is clear and the characters quickly leap into solution mode, making for an adventure thrill ride without much in the way in which of a grand revelation or thematic reveal at its nonplussing end. Spielberg fans, think Jaws meets Super 8. 

Peele’s more straightforward sci-fi creature feature finds Keke Palmer giving a standout performance as Emerald Haywood, an aspiring Hollywood actress, singer, model, producer, motorcyclist, craft services chef, you name it whose overwhelmingly outgoing nature makes her a little bit of an expert liability. Reluctantly on-hand to assist her introverted brother Otis “O.J.” Jr. [Daniel Kaluuya] take over the family show horse-training business after their father [Keith David] passes from a freak accident (or was it?) on the family ranch, Emerald hatches a plan to prove the unbelievable when an otherworldly threat begins stalking the world.

Within the periphery is Ricky ‘Jupe’ Park (Steven Yeun), a former child star and current wild-west theme park owner in search of to capitalize on each his own declining profile within the entertainment industry and the brand new mystery from the skies. His ambition is on each ends is informed by a traumatic turning-point moment in his childhood that gives an interesting, yet ultimately fruitless side-plot within the film’s motion. 

As is a typical problem in Hollywood, the film’s trailer gives away much of what’s at play here, long before you cross the theater’s threshold. Whereas audiences have been trained to expect greater than meets the attention with a Peele flick, you’ll need to squint hard to seek out a much bigger picture on this interplanetary rodeo.

But that’s to not say there isn’t some nuance here. Though metaphor is less apparent on this wild-western motion than in Peele’s 2017 horror classic Get Out, allegorical themes coping with modern surveillance, the constant spectacle of social media and the entertainment industry, man’s futile attempts at controlling nature, and the urge to catch all the pieces on camera were each running throughlines. 

Ultimately, nevertheless, much of the general “point” audiences are apt to look for stays open to the viewer’s interpretation, a fact which is bound to depart some viewers dissatisfied once the film’s orange-tinted credits begin to roll. But starting with 2019’s Us and continuing here, Peele has clearly stamped himself as a purveyor of mystery and ambiguity. Very similar to its predecessor, NOPE is just not a movie you may simply let wash over you. An honest chunk of the work lies with the viewer to fill in narrative gaps. You’ll be left locked in discussion together with your friends and yourself about what all of it means. 

I personally drew parallels between the characters’ burden of proof and plight to catch “the unimaginable shot” and our current need-based trend of catching everyone from Karens, to cops, to costumed characters within the act of maliciously racialized actions on our phones to be fully believed and motion to happen. But there’s a robust likelihood you’ll walk away with something else altogether. 

But the general message likely lies within the obscure Bible scripture that opens the film: Nahum 3:6. “I’ll solid abominable filth upon you, make you vile, and make you a spectacle.” 

Just because the force that stalks the valley the Haywood family occupies is a spectacle for them, they’re a spectacle for it; continuously watching, evaluating, and looking out to devour. The Haywoods and their team of assistants, local electronics clerk and AV expert Angel Torres (Brandon Perea) and famed Hollywood cinematographer Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott), are locked in a cat and mouse game of watching it while it’s not watching back, and vice-versa. But while you meet its gaze head-on, you’re primed to be swallowed whole and digested into oblivion. But what does all of it mean? 

That’s for you to determine.