Nope (2022)

TOPICS:

Posted By: brian@brianschell.com September 1, 2022

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

It’s a slow burn. It’s surreal. It’s unsettling and low-key horror. There are those who rave about Jordan Peele’s work, including this movie. It’s got cool effects, a story, and a strong cast.

The Horror Guys are of a split opinion. Kevin ended up not hating it, warming to it more as it went along, but would give it about a six. Brian thought much less of it.

Synopsis

At the TV station, something has gone wrong, and only the monkey is left alive.

At the horse ranch, OJ Haywood talks to his father Otis, Sr. Suddenly, stuff starts falling from the sky. Hail? Rocks? Otis gets hit by a falling thing, and OJ rushes him to the hospital. X-Rays show that Otis has a nickel embedded in his skull, and he dies. There’s a key and keychain stuck in the back of the horse. Credits roll.

Six months pass, and OJ is now horse wrangling for a Hollywood project. His sister Emerald, is way better with people than he is. She’s really into the Hollywood stuff, but OJ looks pretty unimpressed with everything. Things go badly, and they’re soon unemployed from their gig.

Next, they go to a western-themed theme park. They are there to sell Lucky the horse to Ricky ‘Jupe’ Park, a former child star. Emerald is more interested in talking about old movies and memorabilia rather than business. Ricky talks about working on the TV show “Gordy’s World” with a trained monkey. One of the chimps snapped and wrecked the show; it’s kind of a legend now. It was even a sketch on SNL.

Turns out, Ricky wants to buy their whole ranch. OJ wants to keep the ranch, but Emerald would prefer cash. They talk about old times and notice that one of their horses is out when it shouldn’t be. The horse runs off, and OJ goes looking for it. The power starts fluctuating, and OJ thinks he might have seen something in the sky; a UFO.

Emerald wants to get pictures of the UFO to sell to websites for cash. They go and buy some video equipment. Angel, the guy who comes out to install the cameras, is into UFOs, ancient aliens, and conspiracy stuff.

That night, OJ runs into something strange in the barn. He “Nopes” right out of there as the things crawl all around the barn in the dark. It turns out to be several kids in costumes and masks. (I paused the movie at this point, and when Kevin saw how much time was left in the film, he groaned out “Oh my God.” He wasn’t alone with that thought.)

A little later, things get strange again; There’s something in the clouds. We see that there is some kind of flying saucer up there. Angel shows up the next day; lhe was watching on their cameras last night. There’s a cloud that doesn’t move– ever. That cloud may have been there in that same spot for the past six months. OJ thinks it may not be a ship inside that cloud.

We flash back to the old Gordy TV show that went so badly. We don’t see much, but the ape goes berserk, just as we were told. Little Ricky hides under a table as Gordy beats his TV mother and father. Eventually, Gordy gets his head blown off.

Ricky Park gives a sparsely-attended show. He’s dressed like a cowboy and tells a story about seeing a flying saucer. He calls them “The Viewers.” Behind the show, one of the clouds starts getting frisky. We don’t see it, but they all do. Something abducts all the audience, Ricky, and the staff from the park, about forty people.

OJ comes to the park, but the place is completely deserted. He finds the horse he came for, but all the people are gone, even Ricky and his wife. He does see the flying saucer, as it lands right in front of him. OJ calls Emerald and Angel and says “It ate them all! It’s territorial, and it thinks this is its home!”

The thing stops above the farmhouse. Emerald and Angel hear screams coming from above. Junk and blood starts falling from the sky. OJ parks his car directly under it and listens to the sounds it makes. He picks up everyone and they go to Angel’s house.

Antlers Holst, the famous director, shows up to film the whole thing. He wants to use a horse as bait to get the sky creature to come after it. They have to hurry; 40 people disappearing tends to attract investigators. OJ thinks the thing can be “wrangled” just like a horse.

A blogger rides in on a motorcycle, he goes right into the trap; he’s way better bait than what they had. He gets knocked off his bike, and OJ tries to save him. The thing swoops down and gets the motorcycle guy. OJ realizes that if he doesn’t look at the thing, it won’t pay attention to him either. The saucer chases OJ, but he gets away.

Holst goes out alone to get his impossible shot, knowing full well that the thing is going to eat him. It does; it sucks him right up, and it almost gets Angel too. Emerald runs away, but OJ stays behind to get a good look at it and maybe tame the thing. Emerald releases a giant inflatable balloon and finally gets a good photo as the alien eats the balloon. It binds up the creature’s digestion, the big balloon pops, killing the alien.

Commentary

First half hour: Boring pretentious stuff that Hollywood people just eat up and the rest of us kinda tolerate.

Second half hour: Same thing only with a couple of hazy saucers in the clouds between boring crap.

Third half hour: Interesting stuff starts to happen, but we actually get to see very little of it.

Fourth half hour: Stuff happens, but I was too sleepy to get excited.

OK, so the flying saucer is alive, not a spaceship. It eats people and poops out jewelry and trinkets that it can’t digest. The creature design toward the end was pretty unique, but for most of the film, it just looks like a flying saucer.

Overall, I found it incredibly boring. Do I regret watching it? Nope– I mean, yes, yes I do.

Kevin pipes in and says he ended up finding it interesting and watchable, more so as it went along and we figured out what was going on. He liked it more than disliked it. He’s still baffled over the gushing adoration that Jordan Peele gets for his directing work though.