‘NOP!’ (Nope, 2022) has arrived in theaters as a summer horror and science fiction show, but in the end its fate has led to conversations and debates about its content as if it were an independently produced film, like the rest of Jordan’s films. peel, whose subtextual metaphorical power always gives rise to heated discussions thanks to the director’s ability to scatter clues and possible hidden meanings.
This capacity, which in this case is confused with an important dispersion of ideas, leaves us with at least one very curious work full of enigmas, which reminds us that despite not reaching its full potential, what also makes a film have depth is, precisely, dissent and criticism.
SPOILERS throughout the text
Emerald’s Wishing Well
For this reason, it is surprising that much of the brainy debate has remained on the “social” aspect of the power of the show, which plays on a classic EC comic book morality, and not on the emotional one, the conflict of the characters, with few comments on the enigmatic and ambivalent final shot, in which it seems that the two protagonists look at each other in the distance after the adventure. Peele focuses the strength of the film on the emotional pulse of the story and gives us a bittersweet coda that, against all odds, has been given a happy ending.
The idea that leaves loose is whether or not OJ, Daniel Kaluuya’s character, has really survived the confrontation with the monster, baptized by the brothers as Jean Jacket. Em spends most of the movie trying to get the “impossible shot”, but however, the movie doesn’t end with her looking at the photo the well takes as it is revealed. When the monster dies, she realizes that she is alone and stares at the camera with teary eyes, while some elegiac music plays.
When you close your eyes and open them again we are shown to be looking at his brother OJ riding a horse like a western hero, a shot very similar to the end of ‘Django unchained’ (Django unchained, 2012) by Quentin Tarantino. OJ had stayed at the ranch to distract Jean Jacket, allowing Em to get away on the motorcycle, and while this ending implies that OJ survived, there could be a darker feeling behind it as Em’s traumatized look seems seeing his brother as he would like to remember him.
The scorpion king
Of course, the image is there and it is possible that we give it too much thought. reunion is a note of hope towards two characters towards whom you have affection. On the one hand it would make sense that OJ, who has lived in the shadow of his father, without the charisma and confidence to maintain the ranch, managed to rise to that pose by right. While Em has her father’s showmanship, her life lacks direction, and it may be because she never earned her father’s respect.
At first, OJ and Em want to film the UFO to make a splash…and earn an interview with Oprah, but in the end, the search for “Oprah’s shot” turns into something much deeper for the brothers. Usually when danger looms, OJ turns around and says: “Nope!“, just as people might behave in the movies, instead of wandering off to certain death, but when OJ confronts Jean Jacket head on, on top of the horse, emerges as the cowboy everyone doubted he could be.
But Em also redeems himself by using his wits to make the creature explode. The final look OJ gives Em seems approving, and the fact that Em is more focused on her brother than in the photo also speaks to the fact that he doesn’t care anymore about the monetization of the show like her brother is. have saved. ‘NOP!’ begins with the quote from Nahum 3:6, which reads: “I will throw filth at you, treat you with contempt, and make a spectacle of you“OJ and Em’s great-great-grandfather became a spectacle with the image.”The moving horse“.
The forging of a hero
However, the identity of the rider was lost to time. Jupe also tries to turn the UFO into a spectacle, reminding ‘King Kong’ what it costs him, his family and his viewers’ lives, so the idea of OJ and Em looking for a photo of Jean Jacket seems like something inconsequential at the end, and when they manage to beat her, seeing her brother on the horse is the real “impossible shot” in Em’s eyes, which brings things full circle as he resembles his great-great-grandfather on the horsewhich somehow heals their relationship.
There are some details that make us think that OJ is really alive. He ties the colored flag around the horse’s tail, so he shows great confidence looking at the creature, as it with the lure he could not catch it in the previous skirmish. This loosely connects to Antlers’ dialogue, reciting the people-eater saying “I won’t eat you…. Because you are too strong.” Since OJ stares at the monster and is undeterred, he adheres to the maxim of never letting a wild horse know you’re afraid of it.
Its survival would have a poetic meaning, because it leads to the horse “Lucky” (luck), which would make that appearance be interpreted as a heroic coda that reminds Em of his father and you could get excited about that bittersweet gesture when thinking about that relationship, but then again it’s also thinking too many possibilities to justify a version. The most logical thing is that the clues that Peele has been leaving lead to think that there really is something more than what seems at first glance and there are many possible indications that the rancher does not survive.
Under the “beyond”
The first horse to escape in the film is named ‘Ghost’ and the presence of OJ and Em’s deceased father looms over the ranch as one. The idea is that the OJ we see on the horse in the final shot is similar to a ghost, or at least for Em. We never see what actually happens to him, so Jean Jacket will most likely eat him if we follow the rules we’ve seen, and the decision not to show the precise moment indicates that the director wants to either cast doubt or show respect for the character and not show us the way he dies.
But the most obvious key is that your image is shown below a sign that says “Out Yonder” (beyond), which could be read symbolically as OJ is in heaven. If we think about time, it is questionable that OJ rides from the ranch to the attraction so fast and we add that we do not hear him say or do anything, not even give a warning to his sister. The way the frontal plane shows us how she closes and opens her eyes is as if it’s a wish, as if she wants it to appear there, as it happens, but only from her point of view?
Em stares at him through the mist, and his silhouette is blurred, but it’s not just a matter of how he presents us with the image and the music he decides to accompany it with, but also there is an implication within the themes of ‘NOP’, which talks all the time about the cost of the show. Emerald achieves her dream, but we must not forget that Antlers warned her that he was still one she would not wake up from, the death of her brother could be the cost of having entered the show at the expense of an animal, like Ricky when he tries to tame.
monkey’s paw
Nor should we forget that Jordan Peele’s production company is called ‘MonkeyPaw productions’, the monkey’s paw, in relation to the story of the amulet that turns wishes into reality but always poisoned. Gordy’s fist bump is literally a monkey’s paw and is the moment when Jupe thinks he is the “chosen one”, but it doesn’t work out. Emerald also makes a Faustian deal that gives her Oprah’s chance. but he takes away his brother. It is her cost and that is why she cries, she knows what she has lost because of her picture, and for a moment she forgets her, seeking to recover her family.
The way the rider appears on top of Lucky at the end is also a throwback to movie magic fantasy, the first shot of a man on a horse. The legacy of the Heywood family is unreal, in addition, the first and last image is the same. That is, a black man on horseback, within a frame. Peele may give us the ultimate clue in that credits image, where a black man on horseback… is inside the mouth of the monster.
Other clues that indicate this theory can be supported in the soundtrack, where there are a cut called “A Hero Falls” (a hero falls), sounds in his last confrontation —Let’s not forget that this would be his fourth time escaping from the monster— and in the farewell with his sister, in which he makes the gesture of the look. Of course, this is still a possibility, but it would be strange if Peele left so many random notes, what do you think? Does OJ survive his last look into the creature’s eyes?