Director Jordan Peele finally dropped a trailer for his next horror film, Nope, and it has left a lot of people scratching their heads. Not much is revealed about the plot, but there are still enough details laid out in this mind-boggling trailer that hint at what the film will present upon release.
Starring Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out, Black Panther), Keke Palmer (Hustlers, Scream) and Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead, Minari), the synopsis for Nope reads: "The residents of a lonely gulch in inland California bear witness to an uncanny and chilling discovery." It's a fairly vague description, but the trailer tells the audience so much about the film while revealing so little about it.
Nope Is an Alien Movie
Now that the trailer is out, it has been confirmed that Nope is indeed an alien film, and it's one that pays homage to Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind. This tribute occurs with the alien presence causing the Haywoods' power to go out, otherworldly lights appearing at night, and the aliens themselves being small in stature. There is even a shot of Kaluuya's James looking up at the alien "spacecraft" from his car that's very similar to a shot of Richard Dreyfuss' Roy looking at a UFO in Close Encounters.
Since the trailer's release, some people have even come to the conclusion that Nope's unusual title is an acronym referring to the aliens: Not Of Planet Earth. It is worth mentioning that the line "From Jordan Peele," which descends the top of the screen onto the Haywoods' house, resembles a UFO. This text frame is also a clever homage to the trailer of Stanley Kubrick's horror classic, The Shining (of which Peele is an outspoken fan).
Nope May Be Set in the Past
Nope's trailer gives some small hints that the film is actually set during the 2000s. For instance, Kaluuya's character is shown holding a flip phone when he encounters one of the aliens. He also wears an orange hoodie for Dwayne Johnson's 2002 film, The Scorpion King, which may have acquired the services of Haywood Ranch for its production in Peele's film. There is even a truck for Fry's Electronics, a now-closed chain of big-box stores that had most of its locations in California.
The question is: why would Peele choose to set Nope in this time period? The reason has to be more than to create a mere sense of nostalgia. Perhaps his movie will start in the past and later jump to the present day, revealing that aliens have had a significant part in the planet's history and have become a normal part of everyday life.
Nope Spotlights Its Social Commentary
The trailer begins with a lesson in Black history, showing that the first motion picture was actually a two-second video of a Black man riding a horse. This educational scene shouldn't come as a surprise since Jordan Peele famously integrated social commentary regarding race relations in America with his groundbreaking directorial debut Get Out. The trailer then introduces James and Jill Haywood, the latter advertising themselves as the only Black horse trainers in Hollywood, calling attention to their small but important contribution to the film industry that has been sorely overlooked.
Much like the deer in Get Out, the horses presented in Nope could act as a symbol for African Americans, as they are strongly associated with the film's two Black leads. If this is true, then the part in which a horse is seemingly offered to the aliens (who have white skin) would act as a metaphor for the African slave trade. This allegory is made more explicit when Jill is pulled into the sky by an invisible force, most likely by the aliens.
What's A Bad Miracle?
Kaluuya's character asks what a bad miracle is once the alien activity has begun. Based on Nope's trailer, the people in the Haywoods' town have taken interest in the aliens and their extraordinary power. Steven Yuen's character, Brian, seems to have capitalized on this by setting up his own show where people can see the aliens appear. There is a stand selling a stack of alien dolls, people in chairs looking up at the sky, and Brian presenting a horse in a glass cage (possibly as a sacrifice to the aliens).
The people at Brian's show could be there to have the aliens perform miracles on them. For instance, a disfigured woman is seen in the audience, and she is possibly there because she wants the aliens to make her look "normal." In fact, the trailer's song lyrics, "Say yeah," might represent the people accepting the aliens and the miracles they offer to humanity.
This premise harkens back to the classic Twilight Zone episode, "To Serve Man," in which tall, big-headed aliens appear on Earth, promising to aid humanity and share their advanced technology. This episode could've inspired Peele into making this new movie, just as the episode "Mirror Image" inspired his 2019 film, Us.
What Are the Aliens' Intentions in Nope?
If the aliens are performing "bad miracles," then one has to wonder what their plans really are. So far, they seem to have a special interest in horses since Brian offers one to them, and they appear to be the target of those otherworldly lights in the night. But why are they targeting these innocent stallions?
It is possible that the aliens are harvesting these horses for their skin so they can try to blend in with humanity (as the bloodied hand that a baby tries to fist-bump looks like it was mixed with a horse's hoof). But given that horses aren't the same as humans, the aliens could begin to abduct people as well, hence the reason why Jill was abducted. All this could be foreshadowed when Jill says, "We had skin in the game," about her horse training business.
To uncover the mystery, watch Jordan Peele's Nope, in theatres on July 22.