By: NATHANIEL ROBINSON
I recently got around to finally watching writer/director/producer Jordan Peele’s third directed movie Nope released back in 2022. Since I was a huge fan of his previous two films, Us and Get Out, I was really excited to see what he’d have in store for his audience this time. His last two films are largely known for their social commentaries on whatever topic the movie touches on, despite being horror films on a surface level. Needless to say, I was expecting nothing less from Nope. What I wasn’t expecting, however, was this to be his best film yet.
Get Out was Peele’s debut film and is still seen by many to be his best. While Get Out is an excellent film speaking on social class and the horror of white people abusing their position of power at the expense of people of color, Nope manages to speak on another African American issue while also touching on other important ones. Jordan Peele’s most used word when talking about this movie was “spectacle.” The movie focuses on a small town that’s recently experiencing odd phenomena. It’s revealed that a “UFO” is responsible and our characters in their different positions are all attempting to create a “spectacle” of it. Nearly all of their attempts appear to be futile, as the UFO is almost impossible to tame or capture on film. People lose their lives trying to profit off of something they don’t understand. Which is something that Peele tries to make the audience aware of. There are things that we as humans are morbidly curious about, but are they worth learning more about? What happens when we take things too far? When we let our minds fill in the blanks to things we don’t have the full picture of? This is an issue, particularly in the film industry. Many films kill or harm animals for the sake of a “spectacle” for the audience to witness. It’s never morally okay, but we as consumers seem to be entertained regardless. So is that possibly what the UFO signifies? The wrath and revenge of these animals that are being exploited for the sake of shock or “realism”?
Another more apparent and less cryptic message Peele speaks on in this film is the overshadowing of black representation in older films. Westerns that originated from old stories, stories that often had an African American as its main character, cast white men to portray them. This not only removes the representation of people of color in the film but also takes away from the importance of those original stories to begin with.
Nope seems to be Jordan Peele’s first film where it successfully speaks on multiple topics while remaining a great and entertaining horror film at the same time. I wouldn’t be surprised if his future films carry this same type of style of having multiple messages hidden beneath the surface. I give this film a 9/10.