Well, Nope is now available to rent on demand, and to celebrate I've decided to do a deeper dive into the film, it's many themes, as well as the Gordy's Home scene and why it is vital to Nope as a whole. This is going to be more free-form and ramble-y, so please bear with me. MAJOR spoilers follow.
THEMES
Let's start with one of the other themes in the film that doesn't have to do with spectacle or exploitation of animals. Nope deals with characters that are fighting to not be forgotten. The Haywoods are at the forefront. They are a family of horse wranglers whose lineage comes from "Hollywood royalty" as their great-great-great granddad was the "man on a horse" in the famous Muybridge Experiment aka the first ever moving picture. With their patriarch 'Pops' recently deceased, the family business has fallen on hard times and they've resorted to selling their horses to a nearby wild west theme park owned by former child star Ricky "Jupe" Park. The Haywoods are in danger of being forgotten, their important legacy to film erased.
Antler Holst (Who's last name is a nod to Gustav Holst, a famous composer. He is most well known for orchestrating several pieces that are collectively known as 'The Planets'. Each piece is named after a planet, including Jupiter.) is introduced as a "world famous cinematographer"...yet the first time we see him, he is working on a commercial. This does not bode well for Antlers. Why would a "world famous" cinematographer be reduced to doing commericals unless his work (and prospects) have dried up? He and his work are in danger of being forgotten. Later on, Antlers uses an IMAX camera to capture footage of the UAP. This is clever, as every scene involving the UAP was shot using IMAX cameras. Angel is a lowly tech service agent at Fry's Electronics who is very interested in Aliens and UAPs. He has just recently been dumped by his girlfriend for a role on a CW show. He has also been discarded and forgotten about.
Ricky "Jupe" Park is a former child star who's status as a minority was exploited as a youth to put butts-in-seats. He starred in a famous film franchise called 'Kid Sherriff' and in an ill-fated tv sitcom called 'Gordy's Home' that centered around a chimp. As an adult, Jupe uses his former child-stardom to coast by and earn bucks. Now discarded by the system that exploited him as a youth, he has resorted to continuing to exploit himself and the shows he starred in for monetary gain out of the fear of being forgotten.
As you can see the commentary on Hollywood is rich and fairly savage. The movie-making industry is painted as a thoughtless, careless, exploitative industry that uses people and animals for it's own profit. It uses them up, spits them out, and discards them when they are no longer of use. Also interesting to note that 'Jupiter's Claim' revolves around the use and sharing of 'Jupe Jangles', the form of currency used to purchase different experiences and items in 'Jupiter's Claim'. 'Jupe Jangles' are fake gold coins that are ultimately of no value, yet people are encouraged to collect as many as possible and use them to "purchase" stuff and experiences.
Nope was advertised as a spectacle, and it's commenting on and critiquing spectacles. We, the audience, have bought tickets to view a spectacle. The film asks audiences to consider what role they play in paying to watch a spectacle. By buying tickets, are we perpetuating the cycle of spectacle? Are we encouraging more spectacles to be created?
There's a cool scene at a restaurant later on where OJ, Emerald, and Angel are sitting around, eating, and discussing what to do next. Meanwhile, outside the restaurant a fight has broken out. I can't speak for everyone, but my eyes were inevitably drawn to the fight in the background. This is yet another commentary on spectacle. We should be watching and paying attention to the important conversation going on right in front of us, but the spectacle of the fight distracts us and draws our attention away.
Another thing to note is that whenever the UAP is around, all electronics fail, meaning our protagonists have to resort to more conventional means to capture footage of it. They start with fancy digital recorders, progress on to a hand-cranked IMAX camera utilizing film, and finally on to polaroid pictures. In a weird way, it's almost like a journey into the past of movie-making, progressively traveling deeper and deeper back in time. It's kind of perfect our heroes capture "The Oprah Shot" on polaroid seeing as this kind of stuff is incredibly hard to fake using that method. By choosing to highlight older methods of capturing moving images as well as the use of film reels, Peele is also advocating for a return to the old style of filmmaking. This makes Nope both a critique of the Hollywood system as well as a love letter to old movies (not to mention, Nope might as well be a classic western).
The script in Nope is possibly Jordan Peele's most subtle yet. It's incredibly intelligent, and there are lines that reference future events in the film that are impossible to pick up on until repeated viewings. There are constant 'nopes' and 'yeps' throughout ( a memorable example is when OJ asks his sister Emerald if there's a word for a bad miracle and she responds with "nope".) and many reference to looking up and looking at people and things (After Angel lets out a frustrated scream upon first entering the Haywood property, OJ tells him "Hey, look at me".). There are many close-ups of eyes in the B-Roll footage that Antlers Holst is inspecting later on. When Emerald is recalling the loss of her chance to train her beloved horse named Jean Jacket she says something along the lines of "He (Pops) never looked up at me...but you (OJ) did". There's also a hand gesture that OJ and Emerald share that symbolizes the phrase "I see you".
Early in the film, Emerald states she rides motorcycles which comes into play in a big way later on when she rides a motorcycle to evade the UAP. The design of the fake aliens Jupe has his three boys play are similar to monkeys. It's very likely Jupe drew upon his traumatic childhood experience on the set of 'Gordy's Home' to aid in the design of these "aliens". Another cool aspect of Nope is the the original title of the film was "Little Green Men", in reference to the collective societal image of aliens as well as money (which has literal little green men featured on the front of bills). When OJ has his sit-down with Jupe about buying back some of his horses, Jupe pivots to discussion about 'Gordy's Home' when Emerald notices a framed Mad Magazine cover (in reference to Peele's start on Mad TV). It's quite likely Jupe saw her interest as a way to change the topic of conversation, as he probably didn't want to discuss selling back the horses as most if not all had likely been fed to the UAP at that point. Jupe also states his interest in buying the Haywood property and all the horses on it. This is so he would have a larger food supply for the UAP and wouldn't have to keep forking out money for individual horses.
There is speculation as to whether or not OJ was eaten by the UAP at the end. One piece of evidence pointing to OJ surviving is the lyric from "Purple People Eater" Antlers Holst chooses to sing: "Well he came down to Earth and laid in a tree, I said Mr. Purple People Eater, don't eat me. I heard him say in a voice so gruff, I wouldn't eat you 'cause you're so tough." The last we see of OJ before the final scene, he is locked in an intense stare-down with the UAP. It's possible that it decided not to eat OJ because he refused to back down and came across as "tough".
At the end of the final scene after the UAP has been vanquished, Jupe's recorded farewell to guests at 'Jupiter's Claim' can also be seen as a farewell to audiences watching Nope. "Ok cowboys and cowgirls, it's time to ride off into the sunset. That's right, happy trails. It's closing time. You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here. Till then, we wish you well. Hasta la vista, adios."
This doesn't have much to do with themes or motifs, but I still can't overstate how incredibly impressed I am with the "twist" this time around. The choice to have the flying saucer/UAP be a living extraterrestrial animal is simple but brilliant. It blows my mind no one had come up with this take/concept before. Really....why COULDN'T the flying saucer be an alien itself?
THE STAR LASSO EXPERIENCE
In the infamous 'Star Lasso Experience' scene, Jupe says to the gathered crowd something along the lines of: "In around an hour, you will leave here changed" and "As I said before, in a little less than an hour, you will leave here different". He utters these lines 1 hour and 6 minutes and then 1 hour 8 minutes into the film. Nope itself is 2 hours and 3 minutes long, making this line applicable to Nope itself.
When Jupe first describes the 'Gordy's Home' incident he says it lasted for 6 minutes and 13 seconds, during the 'Star Lasso Experience' scene he says the UAP first appeared to him at 6:13 pm. It's stated early on that Pops died around 6 months before the time of the events seen in the majority of Nope. When it's revealed the UAP has been hiding in an unmoving cloud, OJ muses "Come to think of it, I've probably been staring at the same cloud for the past 6 months". Jupe states that the UAP first appeared to him 6 months ago. All this points to the scene of Pops death likely being quite close to the first time the UAP appeared in the Agua Dulce Canyon (the setting for the entirety of Nope).
Right before The UAP eats everyone at the 'Star Lasso Experience', Jupe's wife says "Bear with us, wild animals can be unpredictable". She says this in reference to the horse Jupe plans on feeding to the UAP refusing to leave it's stable (which could be seen as the reason why the UAP decides to hover over the 'Star Lasso Experience' and eat everyone there). This line, in larger context, is directly referring to the UAP which is a wild, unpredictable animal (hence why it eats everyone there).
GORDY'S HOME
And now, we get to one of the most argued about and disputed segments of the film...the 'Gordy's Home' incident. Many are claiming this portion should have been cut completely as it doesn't add anything to the film. I couldn't disagree more as this portion is vital and integral to the numerous themes within Nope, and directly relates and informs events (as well a foreshadowing future events) during the present day parts of Nope.
Gordy's home follows a family that works at NASA in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The mother is an astronaut, and the father is a NASA scientist/engineer. They have their own daughter, chose to adopt a young Asian male (Jupe), and have a chimp that was a part of the flight program named Gordy. During a recording of an episode of the second season titled "Gordy's Birthday" one of the chimps (named Eli) playing Gordy is startled by one of the birthday balloons popping and goes into a savage and terrifying homicidal rage. It's very possible no one was killed during the rampage (Reports claim the mother lost three fingers, the father and daughter were savagely beaten with the daughter's face being eaten, and Jupe was left untouched but with severe psychological trauma. Gordy was killed while distracted by the discovery of Jupe hiding).
Gordy is a wild animal that people attempted to tame with the goal of exploitation for entertainment, "spectacle", and profit. The efforts fail as one of the chimps goes bananas and assaults the actors on set. The chimp is ultimately killed. The UAP is a wild extra-terrestrial animal that people (OJ, Emerald, Angel, Antlers Holst, and Jupe) try to tame for entertainment, "Spectacle", and monetary gain. The efforts fail as the UAP goes ballistic and starts eating and killing many innocent people. The UAP is ultimately killed/vanquished. See any similarities?
The balloon popping is what set Eli the Chimp off, and the Jupe inflatable popping at the end is what kills the UAP. Jupe is saved from Eli's wrath because he is unable to make direct eye contact with the chimp due to a green table cloth which partially shields the boys eyes. When the UAP is attempting to stare down the Jupe inflatable/balloon at the end, we get a point of view from the UAP's perspective where a part of the UAP colored green is partially concealing it's view, mimicking that same shot from 'Gordy's Home'. When the UAP eats the Jupe inflatable, the last thing we see before it "pops" is the fist of the Jupe inflatable reaching out towards the camera similar to a fist-bump. During the 'Gordy's Home' incident, Jupe and Eli are reaching out to fist bump each other right before Eli has his brains blown out by a gun (An "exploding fist-bump", much like Jupe references earlier).
This scene doesn't necessarily move the plot forward, but it informs the Jupe character, the decisions he makes, the many themes found within the film, as well as foreshadowing many future events later on. Without the 'Gordy's Home' incident included, Nope as a whole would be much weaker. It's stronger for it's inclusion.
CONCLUSION
As mentioned in my main review of Nope, this is Jordan Peele's Jaws. it follows the efforts of a small group and their efforts involving a territorial, hungry animal. Except instead of the ocean, it's the sky. Instead of a shark, it's an extraterrestrial animal. Instead of the group trying to stop the animal's eating frenzy, they try to exploit it. I've seen Nope a total of four times, and this is still only a fraction of the things I've picked up on in the film. Is there anything I missed you'd like to point out? Are there any theories you would like to share? If so, sound off below. Till next time, I wish you well.
