How Nope Relates To Us And Get Out

Warning: This article contains major spoilers for Jordan Peele's "Nope."

Jordan Peele is the kind of filmmaker who loves melding ambitious ideas into a full-blown spectacle. When the first trailer for "Nope" dropped, critics and fans excitedly speculated which horror subgenre he'd be tackling next. To his credit, Peele makes it a point in his work to examine why audiences are so intrigued to watch his films that, for the most part, center on trauma as entertainment. Sure, there are harrowingly fun set-pieces — like a house dripping in blood or the hauntingly endless Sunken Place or serial-killing body doubles. But these horror elements are used to confront and voice socio-cultural concerns. 

When Rod Williams stepped out of a cop car at the end of "Get Out," audiences sighed with relief, confronting the often under-discussed assumption that police officers commit anti-Black violence. Adelaide's escape to freedom by murdering Red in "Us" was an allegory to the sweeping brutality of capitalism, a system where only some humans live well thanks to others' suffering. Semester-length college classes revolve around Peele's work, so it's no easy task for one essay to dissect the connective tissues at the heart of Peele's filmography. However, there are some resonant themes in "Nope" that Peele fans will recognize. Similar to his prior films, Peele's sci-fi-Western "Nope" explores many tough questions, including: Whose histories do people choose to forget and why? And, as importantly, who pays the cost for that ignorance?

Jordan Peele's three films center on undervalued Black artists using their work to save themselves. In "Us," the only thing that saved Red from the Tethered was her ability to dance, awakening life in them and herself. To escape the Armitage family in "Get Out," Chris uses his camera to stun the sunken individuals from attacking him. In "Nope," the only reason OJ survives the territorial UFO is by applying his animal training knowledge to the predator's hunting patterns. OJ, Chris, and Red go through horrific experiences that they never asked to happen nor did they directly cause. But time and time again, art saves Peele's characters from a more tragic fate.

His films don't shy away from showing others' exploiting Blackness and disrespecting Black creators, like how Chris' eyes were supposed to go to the blind Jim Hudson so he could create art in "Get Out," or how the fictional directors in "Nope" want OJ's trained horse but not his advice. OJ Haywood gets fired from a film set for doing his job correctly; by the end of "Nope," he's the only one who can outrun an alien. Peele's horror films highlight art's life-saving potential for his Black characters who always deserved more than the abuse they received.

There are plenty of interpretations out there on what the alien in Jordan Peele's "Nope" represents. If a viewer believes this alien is a new arrival to Earth, then there's a lot of meat to the idea that it represents the all-consuming evil of American colonialism. In certain shots, the alien balloons in a way that looks like white European sails on the high seas. Historically, American colonizers have taken up resources, destroyed lands, and valued their survival over Indigenous cultures. Throughout "Nope," the alien discards what it can't use and feeds on anyone who threatens it. In that light, there's certainly a settler-colonizer relationship with the Haywood family. (For those curious to dig more into this theme, Dr. Kali Simmons has a fantastic lecture on how Indigenous-created horror has tackled similar stories.)

"Get Out" explored a similar concept through a sci-fi lens. Peele's 2017 film revolves around a white and wealthy family enslaving Black people by suppressing their minds. They do this so they can live longer, even if it sacrifices Black lives. Peele used "Get Out" to illustrate the remaining roots of America's slave-based economy that are exposed in the film as microaggressions and problematic thought patterns that eventually lead to a new form of slavery. Despite being about 200 years since slavery ended in the U.S., "Get Out" warns that racist thoughts — like seeing Black people as tools for entertainment or labor — need to be eradicated before they grow into harmful systems.

Jordan Peele's "Nope" had a $68 million budget, far out-weighing the $4.5 million budget of "Get Out" and the $20 million budget for "Us." Given those resources, Peele invested a lot into the film's cinematic scale. He hired cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, of "Dunkirk" and "Interstellar" fame, to capture the film's cosmic skyscape. "The beauty of the sky is enthralling — the first movies, in a way," Peele told AP. "Every now and then you'll see a cloud that sits alone and is too low, and it gives me this vertigo and this sense of Presence."

Peele used the film's lush visuals to examine humans' attraction to spectacle. "Attention can be a violent thing and our addiction to spectacle can have negative consequences," he said, also adding: "I think sometimes if we give the wrong spectacle too much attention, it can give it too much power." The hungrier the Haywoods get to capture the alien's image, the closer to danger they become. By the end of "Nope," the alien consumes all of OJ and Emerald's time. Characters consistently look up in the film, presenting a compelling visual metaphor for aspirational wealth. People want the notoriety of capturing the alien's image regardless of the cost. Like "Us," Peele uses the dramatic "monster" reveal to draw people's attention to what they value and why. Those obsessed with obtaining more are consumed (literally) by it.

Like most horror films, the characters in Jordan Peele's films never have it easy. They've narrowly escaped a Stepford Wives-like experiment, murderous clones, and a carnivorous alien. When asked about the characters' fates in "Nope," Peele dug into his view of why audiences watch films with harrowing stakes to IndieWire: "When you're on a road, and there's an accident, [and people stop to watch], what you're talking about [is] trauma as entertainment. It's intrinsic enough in our DNA that traffic slows down when there's a spectacle to be seen, a bad spectacle ... Everyone likes some form of horror or darkness."

"We need it," Peele added. "We need to contend with these things, whether it's coming to see my movies or your procedural television that just goes to the darkest place of all time every night, but somehow you go to sleep OK. We need this. Horror [films] and the people who try to capture their nightmares and show it, I have to think and hope that it provides some catharsis for some people."

Jordan Peele's films love to focus on work, specifically digging into the division and equity of labor. In "Get Out," the inequity is very clear as the Armitage family enslaved Black individuals to do their domestic work. Within "Us," the Tethered technically experience the work their counterparts do, but without seeing any benefits. "Nope" also examines who is doing the most work and why on so many intriguing levels. There's Jupe's tourist-trap ranch that makes money off of Haywood's horses that OJ trained. There are the horses who, for the most part, are treated fairly — until they're left at the ranch to be alien fodder. But the film's best representation of unfair labor practices is found in Gordy's heartbreaking storyline. 

In the film's fictional sitcom, "Gordy's Home," a trained chimpanzee named Gordy goes on a massacre due to a popped balloon. Gordy had no idea the alarming sound wasn't something sinister and kills and maims his co-stars, thinking he needs to defend himself. Despite being a commercial asset for years, the set had no safety measures in place for Gordy's triggering event. Gordy is soon killed after the massacre. Hauntingly, this scene asks a lot of questions about what use a company has for workers. What happens when a worker is no longer of use to a company? What measures are in place to support a worker's health, including that of a young and traumatized Jupe who survived the events?