I can only admire the way the mystery behind Jordan Peele's latest film, Nope, was revealed over the past year. It started with a very enigmatic teaser poster that got everyone guessing what it could be about, immediately generating interest in the movie. It wasn't until the second trailer that we got an idea that the movie was going to be a Sci-Fi thriller about UFOs but even then there is more to it than it appears.
Otis "OJ" Haywood, Jr (played by Daniel Kaluuya) runs a small horse ranch outside Los Angeles with his sister Em (played by Keke Palmer) that they inherited when their father, Otis Sr. (played by Keith David) died suddenly. On the ranch, they train and loan out horses for movie productions. When they are fired from a production after an onset accident that wasn't their fault, the ranch's financial woes become even more dire, forcing OJ to start selling some of the horses to a nearby tourist attraction, an old west town called Jupiter's Claim, run by former child star Ricky "Jupe" Park (played by Steven Yeun). They soon begin to notice strange electrical fluctuations around the ranch as well as their horses are starting to disappear or react violently to an unknown presence. One night, while out searching for one of the horses, OJ catches a glimpse of what appears to be a UFO in the night sky. OJ and Em sense a chance to make some money and turn to local tech installer Angel Torres (played by Brandon Perea) to set up cameras around the property to try and get a great shot of the UFO with hopes of selling the photos to raise enough money to save the family ranch.
The film was written and directed by Jordan Peele, who has a lot of fun with this film as he plays with the mythos of UFOs and their effect on his characters. I appreciated the limited scope the film has, focusing on the Haywood ranch as well as the nearby Jupiter Claim where this particular UFO has an interest in, especially the horses on the ranch. In fact, it is an interesting touch that the film is broken up into chapters, with each one named after one of the ranch's horses. I appreciated the way Peele crafts his tale, as the story unfolds as the film goes on and the mystery of this UFO is revealed, including why it's there and what it wants. Of course, any thriller like this has to create a compelling reason for our characters to not just throw in the towel and get out (pun intended), and Peele give his characters a good one. But as the film goes on, figuring out what the UFO is and capturing proof of it quickly becomes an obsession for them, giving us shades of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
The film has a fantastic cast led by Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer as OJ and Em Haywood. The two of them play off one another wonderfully and have a strong sibling dynamic, with OJ more determined to keeping the family ranch going and Em being a bit more of a free spirit who feels they should take the deal to sell the ranch to Ricky Park. This naturally leads to a bit of conflict between the two which Kaluuya and Palmer portray quite well, as well as the strong bond the lies beneath and comes to the forefront once they decide to try and capture photographic proof of the UFO they've both seen. Brandon Perea has a lot of fun with his role as Angel Torres, who enters the story initially as the installer for the security cameras OJ and Em have installed around the property, but gets more and more involved in their plans to capture proof of the UFO, becoming just as obsessed as they are. Michael Wincott rounds out the main cast as a famed cinematographer Antlers Holst that OJ and Em turn to for help capture irrefutable evidence of the UFO hanging around the valley their ranch is. Wincott has a lot of fun with the role of the fussy and pretentious cinematographer. Steven Yeun is great as Ricky "Jupe" Park, a former child star who is trading on his best remember role in an old T.V show with his roadside theme park, Jupiter's Claim. There is a shadier side to the character too, as he also has a hidden display to another show he was on as a kid with a far more tragic history that he is only too happy to exploit, provided a guest knows to ask about it. Steven Yeun plays both sides of this character quite well.
Of course, with this review I am dancing around a lot of potential spoilers as I want to maintain as many of the film's surprises as possible and there are several. As with his previous films, Jordan Peele works in several themes into his films, including themes involving the history of filmmaking and minorities within that industry and the public's need for spectacle. As always, there is more than what initially appears to be with this film. I thought I knew what I was getting into going into this one, but there was still plenty to be revealed. I enjoyed the hell out of this one and look forward to seeing it again because there were certain things even I missed the first time through.
