Movies can work in so many different ways.

Jordan Peele’s Nope is one of those movies. So many ideas here. I love the characters of Nope being “descendants of the jockey” (the first stuntman in cinematic history). Because this film within itself feels like a descendant of cinema as a whole. Nope centralizes around the obsession of the “Oprah shot” and in so doing is like a celebration of cinema all around—and the spectacle that filmmaking is. As an homage to Spielberg’s Jaws, Nope acts as a marker in the progression of cinema (and the technology related to it). From the first ever blockbuster ever following a shark in the depths of the water, we are here with a summer blockbuster following a UFO up the heights of the sky. It’s like the horse and the horse-wrangling crew being replaced by the CGI and the visual effects crew in the beginning of the film.

I like how even with this Peele brings everything back to the rawness that is film—all the digital cameras don’t work when the spectacle comes by and only film can actually capture it. Oh the irony. 

[⚠️ Spoilers:] I love how the twist of this film being a UFO movie is that the UFO is the alien. The design of the animal is like something that could’ve only been pulled out by a dream. 

In high ambition Jordan Peele dares the audience to look into the eye of the beast, or not. Sometimes the spectacle is so big you just can’t look away.