Very little is known about what will actually transpire in the upcoming horror film Nope, the newest feature by the multitalented director Jordan Peele (Key & Peele, The Twilight Zone). Previously, Peele directed back-to-back horror hits in the form of 2017’s Get Out, which explores how surface-level progressives often stir the insidious pot of systemic racism, and 2019’s Us, which features murderous doppelgängers and metaphorical stand-ins for oft-ignored marginalized communities. Jordan Peele has a way of making his films both terrifying and morally salient, and hopefully, Nope will continue this trend.
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Fans of the director and his previous ventures into the horror genre are incredibly excited about the upcoming Nope, despite, or perhaps due to, the ambiguity that surrounds the film. Recent trailers have given prospective audiences a slightly better sense of what the film could entail. The official (and simple) plot synopsis is:
It seems as if Nope will explore the more supernatural elements of the horror genre, which includes an entire subgroup of potential antagonists that Jordan Peele has yet to tackle in his film work. And, of course, fans of the director likely hope that the film will still carry with it the moral weight of Peele’s previous films.
Underlying themes aside, who or what will be the primary antagonist in Nope? Here are a few speculations.
Is Nope’s Villain an Army of Aliens?
Only the most recently released trailer for Nope allowed audiences to see more hints regarding the film’s plot. At one point in the trailer, one of the film’s protagonists is frantically galloping away on horseback from an unidentified flying object. Though no aliens have been shown in the film’s promotional materials, the classic silver saucer is more than enough to make moviegoers speculate that the film will involve aliens.
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If aliens are the primary antagonists in Nope, it opens up a whole world of exciting symbolism that Jordan Peele could have explored. In countless films, from 1982’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial to 2016’s Arrival, filmmakers have used alien life as a stand-in for the other. It is possible that Peele was drawing upon this storied tradition when he created Nope.
Is Nope’s Villain an Interdimensional Spectre?
Though the most obvious choice for what supernatural entity might plague the antagonists of Nope is, at the current juncture, aliens, it is possible that the flying saucer shown in the recently released trailer is simply a form of misdirection. In one trailer for the upcoming film, a woman, pictured above, looks to the heavens, and her face is seemingly skeletal. While it’s unclear exactly what this could mean, the image is undoubtedly ghastly.
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Given that the film revolves around a strange collection of random objects that fall from the sky, some kind of interdimensional interloper would make for an obvious antagonist. An alternate dimension would be a possible explanation for the strange assortment of objects that begin falling onto the horse ranch owned by the film’s protagonists. This could also explain the inexplicable breaches of the laws of physics shown in the film’s several trailers.
Is Nope’s Villain One of Us?
However, the villain in Nope doesn’t have to be supernatural in nature. If Jordan Peele’s previous horror films are any indication of what is to come, it could be that the real villain of the upcoming film is you, the moviegoer. In 2017’s Get Out, the villain is liberal racism. In 2019’s Us, the “villain” is marginalized individuals who, at the conclusion of the film, are killed for attempting to increase their visibility.
It’s unclear what message the plot of Nope will be attempting to address. Maybe the crazy wind and random falling objects shown in Nope’s trailers represent humankind’s relationship with the Earth. Or, perhaps the encroachment of the as-of-yet unseen aliens onto the protagonist’s family ranch will be fodder for a discussion of property rights and the ways in which ownership and capitalism can create chaos.
The exact plot of Nope is still deeply ambiguous, and that’s exactly what Jordan Peele intended. In an interview with Empire, Peele explained that the film was about “Our addiction to spectacle and the insidious nature of attention.” Obviously, this doesn’t give potential audiences very much information. Nope is, in all likelihood, going to be very cerebral. It’s possible that audiences will still lack a clear understanding of the film’s true villain even after they exit the theater. Regardless, film fans can certainly trust Jordan Peele to craft a morally complex antagonist, be it alien, spectral, or humanistic in nature.
Nope arrives in theaters on July 22, 2022.
