The Meaning of Jordan Peele's NOPE

I think this movies message is: What we consume, consumes us. 

In NOPE we have Jordan Peele’s ode to cinema.It’s a movie that anchors itself in the birth of cinema. Two things that were joined together when Edward Muybridge first captured motion pictures were: horses and movement. I loved how the movie anchored its plot in that technological revolutionary event and was saturated with horses all placed in the western genre (another element from the birth of cinema). I am almost certain that Jordan Peele read the book River of Shadows about that event. Even the fact that the horses are all named seemed to be a reference to Muybridge and Stanfords work on bridging the gap between photography and cinema.

While I think this movie is a tribute to cinema I also think it’s a critique of our endless devouring of entertainment. It’s essentially about how humans consume spectacle and how their addiction to it can be destructive. The giant “one eyed monster” in the sky reminds me of how we often look at the one eyed monster of entertainment, whether that be a stage, a moment, a tv, a movie screen, a whatever. And it entirely consumes us. The love for spectacle is both a delight and a dread, something to fear and something to focus on. 

I think this is how Gordy ties in. Notice how all the animals before Gordy behaved strange when the alien showed up (Clover, and Ghost). Perhaps Gordy behaved strange because the alien showed up. Maybe not. But I do think Gordy demonstrates again this principle of the hungry eye for spectacle even when it consumes us. Steve Yeouns character saw that horrendous moment and still wanted more spectacle, grander spectacle. The documentary filmmaker got his shot but it wasn’t enough, he needed better light. TMZ shows up and wants their footage to be on top. There’s this craving for spectacle and for power and prowess. 

NOPE is a movie you can enjoy on the surface or search for deeper metaphors. It does double duty. 

I loved the book ends in the beginning and end of the movie. At the beginning and end of the movie there’s a man on a horse. He’s not an obscure character like the man on the horse from the brith of cinema, but a hero, on the biggest screen, with the biggest cameras, on the biggest stage. And in cinema there’s always room for the spectacle of a true hero.