‘Nope’ Built Its Most Gruesome, Tragic Scene Around a Chimp
Based on promotional materials alone, it seems safe to assume that no one walked into Jordan Peele’s Nope with “rampaging chimpanzee” on their Bingo cards. And yet…
Peele’s stunning summer blockbuster celebrates the science fiction genre while also forcing its viewers to confront, as the director put it in a recent interview, our shared addiction to spectacle. Daniel Kaluuya plays OJ Haywood, a quiet but observant horse trainer who’s struggling alongside his sister, Emerald (a magnificent Keke Palmer), to save their family’s horse ranch from financial devastation. Steven Yeun plays Ricky “Jupe” Park, a neighboring theme park owner who’s itching to buy up the ranch.
OJ and Em’s golden ticket just might be a UFO (yes, you read that right) that keeps zipping around in the sky over their land. If the siblings can capture a shot good enough to land them on TV, they figure they just might make it big enough to save the ranch.