Profound Truths Highlighted in New Thriller “Nope” – Movie Review

Jordan, half of the Key & Peele sketch team, cut his teeth in comedy before he made a surprising turn to horror (Get Out, Us). His latest entry is his most accomplished, mature outing yet.

In Nope, two horse ranchers, OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald (Keke Palmer), struggle to keep their father’s ranch alive after his mysterious death.

OJ  is a soft-spoken stoic whose father started the first black-owned horse ranch that served the Hollywood film community for years. Their business was a source of great family pride.

The younger Haywood never says much, nor does he care to be seen; it’s not in his nature. His only desire is to honor his father’s legacy.

On the other hand, Emerald is OJ’s charismatic salesman sister. Her appetite for the spotlight proves more liability than asset, as Emerald brings charisma to spare for this brother-and-sister team.

One day as they bicker about the ranch’s future, they discover something lurking behind the clouds, watching their every move.

Does this mysterious visitor spell opportunity or doom?

Peele masterfully blends several genres, leveraging horror, sci-fi, and comedy in thriller Nope.

He is a student of Steven Spielberg, paying homage to Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Peele also puts character first, which gives themes time to fully mature.

Cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema (Dunkirk) utilises stunning night-time visuals and haunting wide-lens shots to bring the mountains to life, intentionally hiding the mysterious predator.

Composer Michael Abels draws the audience into the mystery with a melancholy, haunting soundtrack. However, it is Kaluuya and Palmer who capture our hearts as they wrestle through the unknown together.

The best horror is always a story that taps into the fears of our everyday, real lives. What sets Peele apart from his contemporaries is his ability to use familiar horror tropes to tell a more meaningful message.

Nope is no different, yet it is more complex than his previous two outings. The Academy Award-winner’s third entry begins with a quote from the Old Testament book of Nahum (from chapter 3, verse 6) about God’s coming judgment upon the city of Nineveh.

The warning in Nahum is that as Nineveh has made a spectacle of itself at the expense of others, God will make a horrific spectacle of Nineveh in judgment.

On the surface, if you view Nope as nothing more than a UFO western, the Bible verse and opening scene with an unhinged chimp will probably seem disconnected and unnecessary. Yet, these thematic breadcrumbs are left along the way by Peele, for his audience to discover his ultimate message: our self-destructive obsession with seeing and being seen.

The Bible uses different terminology for this obsession: glory.

Reel Dialogue: The God of all glory

Peele illustrates a profoundly crucial theological point, central to the message of the gospel… we are all glory seekers.

You don’t have to be religious to know that. We want to see glorious, awe-inspiring visions.

Humanity also wants to display its own glory (value, worth) for the world to see. We post selfies of our carefully manicured lives while hiding our struggles, so that we can up our value and our glory in the eyes of others.

When everyone seeks their own glory, our obsession with seeing and being seen turns destructive.

Peele, knowingly or unknowingly, brings this into sharp focus. His characters must live with the trauma caused by others who sought their own glory at the expense of others.

Isaiah 42:8 – I will not share my glory with another.

God made us for glory, to see and experience it, not our own, but His.

When we behold His glory, we recognise who we really are, why we are here, and what this life is all about. When we behold His glory, we cease the vicious cycle of self-serving glory hogging.

Mankind stops taking and starts giving.

While Peele may not have found the answer to this theological riddle, he certainly put his finger on real, human horror.

Thankfully, the Bible points us to real solutions. You can read about Jesus’ glory in the gospel of John.

Nope is rated M. See IMDb Parents Guide for more information.