Nature is Metal. [SPOILERS]

What is it about tragedy, horror, and drama that draws us in, even if we should ‘Nope’ out of there?

Oscar-winning filmmaker Jordan Peele’s highly-anticipated third film hit theaters with expectations high, yet uncertain. Peele’s first two films ‘Get Out’ and ‘Us’ deliver masterful combinations of horror, suspense, comedy, and standout performances; his latest would be no different.

This movie follows siblings Otis Haywood Jr. ‘O.J.’ (Daniel Kaluuya), Emerald ‘Em’ Haywood (Keke Palmer), accompanied by anxious and practical Angel Torres (Brandon Perea), and showman Ricky ‘Jupe’ Park (Steven Yeun) as they navigate ‘bad miracles’ that bring chaos to their lives.

Synopsis

The film opens up to a quote from the Biblical book of Nahum, “I will cast abominable filth upon you, make you vile, and make you a spectacle.” Whew, okay Jordan Peele. Let’s go.

The first scene takes place on the soundstage of ‘Gordy’s Home’, a sitcom featuring Gordy, a chimpanzee animal actor and his family. While filming, Gordy is startled by a popping balloon and flies into a barbaric rage. We listen to the wince-inducing squelches and screams as he brutally attacks and kills everyone on the set, except for a young Jupe, who cowers under the table in fear.

The movie cuts to Haywood Ranch, where we are introduced to the main characters. Following Otis Haywood Sr’s peculiar demise caused by a mysterious falling nickel, Otis Haywood Jr ‘OJ’ and his sister Emerald ‘Em’ Haywood take over their father’s horse ranch. Most of their income is made by allowing the horses to be used in entertainment media.

While filming a commercial directed by Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott), the horse becomes scared and injures one of the set-up crew, resulting in their dismissal from set. With OJ and Em running short on funds, they decide to sell some of their horses to the neighbor, the now-adult showman Jupe, who has made considerable profit by exploiting the Gordy’s Home incident with a kitschy attraction park.

While negotiating the sale, Jupe shows Em and OJ his personal shrine of memorabilia from Gordy’s Home, and the audience is treated to a visual replay of the fatal incident. This scene is considerably more graphic than the initial soundstage cut from the beginning of the film, and features a shot of Gordy discovering Jupe under the table, yet instead of attacking him, he seemingly reaches out to give Jupe a fistbump, right before Gordy’s head is blown off by arriving cops.

Back at the ranch, Em and OJ reminisce about their childhood, and Em states resentment for the dismissive treatment she received growing up and attempts to pressure OJ into selling the ranch altogether.

A ruckus from the horses outside disturbs their conversation and OJ goes to investigate. While he’s outside trying to calm down the horse, their electricity goes out, the UFO makes its first appearance, and a frantic OJ rushes to get the others inside. OJ notices inorganic matter falling from the sky as he painfully deduces the UFO was the cause of his father’s death.

Fueled by grief and defiance, the siblings decide to take on the challenge of photographing this phenomenon and reaping the benefits. They go to their nearest electronic store and enlist the help of Angel Torres. The three of them go to work setting up various cameras all over the ranch. The UFO returns that afternoon, but again causes electronic interference, affecting all the cameras. While reviewing the little footage they have, Angel notices that a singular cloud in the horizon remains, revealing the hiding place of the UFO. He’s apprehensive but hooked, and decides to join the group in revealing this elusive spacecraft.

Ominous clouds approach, once again signaling the arrival of the UFO. Meanwhile, Jupe prepares an audience at his tourist trap. It is revealed that Jupe has been using the Haywood’s horses to lure out the UFO in front of spectators. The UFO arrives abruptly, devouring Jupe and all of the spectators. The audience can do nothing but watch as we follow the mass into the belly of the beast. The screams and chaos of the victims’ bodies as they’re digested alive reverberate throughout the town, alerting the Haywoods. The UFO then crosses over to the Haywood Ranch and begins hunting them, trapping Em and Angel in the house. The creature finishes digesting the mass of spectators from Jupe’s, and in an awe-inspiring shot, expels a waterfall of blood, rot, and inorganic matter onto the Haywood house.

OJ is once again trapped outside while tending to the horses. He is chased by the object, at one point almost landing face-to-face, before he averts his gaze as the predator defeatedly slinks away. OJ deduces that the ‘spaceship’ itself is the predator. He draws parallels between the predator and the trained horses, coming to the conclusion that the territorial predator only attacks what is looking directly at it.

The group reconvenes, with a solid plan on how to catch the creature, newly nicknamed ‘Jean Jacket’, on camera. They call on Antlers Holst, the renowned director from their failed commercial. He initially refuses, but relents after mulling over the intriguing opportunity.

The group, now armed with booby traps, a newfound determination, and a hand-cranked film camera to bypass Jean Jacket’s electrical interference, begin luring out the creature to their set-up. While surveying the property, a TMZ reporter trespasses onto the property and is thrown from his motorcycle when Jean Jacket emerges to begin its hunt. OJ looks on, horrified as the motorcyclist spends his last words begging him to capture his death on film.

Holst manages to capture the photographic evidence of the creature, but in a defiant manner, allows Jean Jacket to eat him while shooting his own death on the film camera. The remaining three are chased. Angel gets trapped in some barbed wire while being devoured, but swallowing the wire causes the creature to spit him back out, causing the full, majestic form of Jean Jacket to be revealed. OJ leads it in a high speed pursuit away from Em while she rushes to Jupe’s and unties his giant balloon mascot. It hovers towards the mascot while Em furiously cranks the attractions’ huge analog camera, managing to capture a picture of the fully unfurled beast before it swallows the balloon and explodes. As reporters start arriving on the scene, Em sees OJ coming around the corner.

What just happened?

With ‘NOPE’ being Peele’s debut into extraterrestrial horror and a trailer starring horses, an airborne Keke Palmer, and a wild western ranch setting, viewers undoubtedly wondered, “What will he do with this one?”

The answer is a lot. ‘NOPE’ is a horror that includes dynamic performances by supporting and lead cast, expertly crafted suspense, and a highly unsettling atmosphere sure to make viewers wince at least a couple times.

At face value, ‘NOPE’ is less propelled by Peele’s critique of the American social climate than its predecessors, nonetheless a definitive allegory still resides.

Peele stated that one of the main themes in this film includes “how we observe spectacle and our addiction to it.” Throughout the film, each character has their own way of dealing with the ‘bad miracles’ that disrupt their everyday life, with extra emphasis on those who are addicted to exploiting it.

Along with a dramatically unsettling score, cinematography that amazes and frightens the enrapt audience surrounding a stunning original take about extraterrestrials, it wouldn’t be a Peele film without his signature comedic flair. Throughout his career, he has shown his uncanny talent for coupling humor and horror, forcing them to entangle themselves in a passionate love affair, taking his films to the pinnacle of genre-bending film direction.

Keke Palmer’s character Em was a delightful, much-needed firework of comedic relief for the audience, so it’s no surprise Peele wrote the character specifically for her. He told “Complex”, “In fact, as soon as the character came to me it was Keke. We met early on and I just got a sense of her and got a sense of what she could bring to the role and I basically wrote it for her. I wrote it for her and Daniel and she is just everything you want her to be.”

One of the biggest tragedies in the film, the situation surrounding Gordy’s home and the ensuing massacre, was based on the true story of Travis the Chimpanzee. For those who aren’t familiar with the story, Travis was a male chimpanzee animal actor, starring in spots ranging from Coca-Cola ads to the Maury Povich show. In February 2009, Travis brutally attacked his owner’s friend, Charla Nash, in a blind rage. Travis nearly broke all the bones in Nash’s face, tore off her eyelids, nose, jaw, lips, and most of her scalp, ripped off one of her hands and most of the other.

That unforgettable shot at Jupe’s show where the woman in the audience, revealed to be the other survivor of Gordy’s attack, looks up and her veil slowly reveals what’s left of her face is an ode to the physical aftermath the victim was left with after the 2009 Travis incident.

Along with the phenomenon of our relationship with spectacle, ‘NOPE’ implores the audience to re-evaluate our understanding of wild animals. For both Travis and Gordy, their violence resulted in their deaths. But can we really villainize them? Nature is beautiful and wonderful, just as much as it is brutal and unforgiving. They are wild animals that react to unnatural stimuli in natural ways. You could say the same about Jean Jacket. The only way the Haywoods are able to overcome their situation is by understanding Jean Jacket’s wildish nature and using it to their advantage.

Final Rating

Jordan Peele has once again proven his spot at the top is nothing short of well-earned. ‘NOPE’ is a film whose originality and execution would rank among the works of JJ Abrams or Steven Spielberg, masterfully produced and gorgeously unsettling. I need more. 7.5/10.