I thought it was that he was obsessed with capturing images of a predator devouring its prey. So obsessed, it turns out, he was willing to be the prey to catch that impossible shot, from the prey’s point of view, being devoured by the predator.
Throughout the movie, I kept wondering if it was supposed to be a commentary on how Hollywood destroys every one involved. If so, that aperture was a camera.
Sweet, I like that interpretation! But yeah, the regular rectangularity of the shape made it look not very organic to me. No right angles on the squishy bits plz, thanku.
Pffft, those corners on the goat pupil are MUCH more rounded than the ones on Jean Jacket’s aperture(s).
Just saw it. It was okay. It was too long and slow but was beautifully shot. I felt the sitcom story was more terrifying and interesting and I agree with a post above that if that had really happened there is no way Mad and SNL would make fun of it. Howard Stern, yes; those two, no.
Also, my interpretation was there weren’t “aliens” per se but the ship itself was a biological entity. Not sure if that was the intent but that was how I saw it.
It wasn’t horrible but I would call it a slight disappointment.
Yeah, that’s why OJ said it was an animal. It was like some kind of otherworldly jellyfish that swam in air instead of water.
I took that as a bit satirical. Peele has a lot of feels about our reduction of everything to a show. The child-actor’s desire to remember the central horror of his life as an SNL skit instead of as what actually happened may not reflect reality perfectly, but I found it a pretty powerful monologue that captured the movie’s theme.
I assumed it had been mostly covered up, otherwise it would be common knowledge. Chris Kattan playing an out of control monkey would have been pretty hilarious.
Yeah, I think they were trying to have you picture him doing his Mr.Peepers character.
Just saw it at the second run theater (already!?!) on a Wednesday afternoon - only three of us in the theater. The special effects in the sky would have so much better if there weren’t marks in the screen, and a little rip right where the alien thing shows up. At first I thought the marks were part of the effects. But it was only $6, and the sound was really good.
The squareness of the aperature didn’t look alien-like; nature doesn’t have right angles. I had the same reaction way back when when Brainstorm came out and the “afterworld” had so many straight lines.
Did anyone stay all the way to the end of the credits? There’s a comic-like sign saying to visit Jupiter’s Claim, the site of the film Nope, at the Universal Studios tour. It’s this a real thing? Has anyone gone?
My impression of it was that it was the true mouth/eye/face of the animal and the rest of it was a sort of exoskeleton-type cover. It reared up at the end and when it started to ribbon itself and pulse like that it was the same effect as a dog puffing its hair up or a porcupine raising its quills. It was an intimidation thing to the giant balloon that it was about to eat and it was sizing up it’s prey before it pounced.
It just wasn’t smart enough to know that its soon-to-be-prey would cause it to choke and explode
I did not think this was a very good movie. I know Jordan Peele is getting a lot of praise and attention, but this movie was just adequate at best and kind of boring for a lot of its run time. Consider me hugely surprised. I didn’t even find the final 30 minutes, which were supposed to be very exciting, to be all that engaging.
Yeah, Nope was not great.
Well, de gustibus non est disputandum. Have you read anything in the previous responses to this thread that you’re interested in responding to, or just letting us know you didn’t like it? Nothing wrong with that either way, AFAICT.
A bit late to this party, I just say the film last night. Some thoughts, starting with a followup to this point:
-
I’ve heard it theorized, a feel it’s likely bang on, that Jupe dealt with the trauma of that moment by essentially forgetting it, and subsequently externalizing the memory in the form of the famous SNL sketch. That is how he remembers it, as Chris Kattan being funny, because he couldn’t deal with it any other way.
-
Whether you like the movie or not, you have got to admit one thing; Jordan Peele doesn’t make “content.” Marvel makes content, DC makes content, Netflix makes content. He makes MOVIES. He had a story to tell, and things to say, and he presented them with meticulous details and craft and a perfectly chosen cast.
-
Holy shit Daniel Kaluuya is a great actor.
-
The connection between the Gordy’s Home disaster and the alien creature was clear, I thought, on both a storytelling and thematic level; obviously, thematically, both are about exploiting and destroying people for entertainment. They’re connected in the story by specifically thinking you can exploit wild animals for entertainment (the passing mention of Seigfried and Roy being a third example.) OJ understands animals, and that saves the heroes; Jupe doesn’t, and that kills him and his family. Jupe mentions words to the effect of being able to trust the creature, but of course you cannot trust wild animals.
-
Yeah, the creature is meant to look like a camera.
I don’t mind the creature being in many ways impossible to understand or make sense of, only telling us a few things absolutely necessary to the story, because that’s kind of the point. The counter of a chimpanzee is a cool one because they are so incredibly similar to us and yet they’re also totally alien in their psychology, which is why they’re so dangerous - you think he’s your friend, but the chimp perceives behaviour in a way humans do not, and then he pulls your arms off. As people IRL have found out the hard way, only a fool believes they are friends with a wild animal. You really cannot be; people have been ripped apart by chimps, tigers, bears, by orcas, because of that stupidity.
But on a grander level, it was about entertainment eating people, not just animals.
Even later to the party here. Watched it last night. I thought it was great, but I needed to rewatch it, because there were definitely a few points where I was consciously not looking directly at the screen (I’m a scaredy cat).
I find it interesting that a lot of analysis of the film brings up Jupe’s hubris from the Gordy attack, but OJ is just as bad. He understands animals, but he fails to understand that he can’t control everything. It’s a repeat of the shoot in the beginning. He can control the horse, but then the director wants a better shot and some jerk sticks a giant mirror ball in the horses face. What causes the plan to fail in the end? A jerk sticks a giant mirror ball (the helmet) in the alien’s face and then the director (the same guy!) wants a better shot.
OJ’s failure there is that he does not understand, and cannot control, PEOPLE. (We see that elsewhere, too - he doesn’t at all clue in to what Jupe is all about.) He’s doing fine with the horse, but when people start acting in a dangerous manner he has zero influence over them. Note that he calls out to his sister for help - she does understand people.
I’m going to be the last to show up to the party but I finally watched it last night.
I loved it–although it was like 20 minutes too long, I did find the last act absolutely exciting.
I think its true–the idea that subtextually its speaking about fame and the pursuit of it and the entertainment industry. The “TMZ” guy who shows up out of nowhere who literall doesn’t have a face except for a camera lense in a reflective helmet…that’s gotta be saying something.
I like the idea of there being a whole parrallel story going on with Jupe. I didn’t even catch that Jupe kept needing horses for bait.
I also loved the alien design–it looked actually alien. I also appreciated addressing the UFO lore aspects; the “balloon”-esque element of the creature to address the “it’s just a weather balloon” explanation, the electronic dampening to help account for lack of modern day footage and then of course the cattle mutilations/raining blood/bits from weird phenomena stories.
Also late to the party, but…
…I’d say the closer (heh) comparison is with JAWS.