Based solely on the promotional materials, it seems safe to assume that no one entered jordan peele Nope with “rampant chimpanzee” on their bingo cards. And yet…
Peele’s stunning summer blockbuster celebrates the sci-fi genre while forcing its viewers to confront, as the director said in a recent interview, our shared addiction to the show. Daniel Kaluuya plays OJ Haywood, a quiet but observant horse trainer who fights alongside his sister, Emerald (a magnificent Keke Palmer), to save his family’s horse ranch from financial devastation. Steven Yeun plays Ricky “Jupe” Park, the owner of a neighboring theme park who is eager to buy the ranch.
OJ and Em’s golden ticket could be a UFO (yes, you read that right) that keeps flying in the sky above their land. If the brothers can capture a shot good enough to make it on TV, they think they could make it big enough to save the ranch.
However, none of this explains why the film opens with a chimpanzee sitting next to what appears to be a corpse, or why that chimpanzee turns out to be the most tragic figure in the film.
From the run over deer at the start of Salt to the army of bunnies that live among those tied up in U.S-and now this chimpanzee: animals are a recurring motif in Peele’s work. When he was asked about these touches in a recent interview with Fox 5 from Washington, DCthe director noted that animals can be “a reminder of how we treat anything that doesn’t qualify as human.”
“There is a horror in the real world that animals are trapped in,” Peele said. “In a way, they symbolize something very bad about us. That’s what my movies are about. It’s about how bad we are.”
That thematic thread felt pretty subtle in Peele’s first two films, but Nope makes it brutally raw.
As a child actor, Ricky aka “Jupe” appeared on a short-lived sitcom called Gordon’s house. (To think: Full house However, “Gordy” was not a human child, but a living chimpanzee. During a birthday party scene, a popped balloon sends the furry primate into a violent, murderous fit. In his darkened office, Ricky tells OJ and Em a version of the story, the one that aired on saturday night livestarring an “undeniable” Chris Kattan, with haunting playfulness.
But like the sanitized vision of the Wild West that Ricky sells outside, the SNL version of the Gordon’s house massacre leaves out the really dark part of the story. We see it in a wordless flashback: After bloodying two of 8-year-old Ricky’s co-stars in front of him, the chimpanzee approaches the child star. Instead of attacking, though, Gordy performs the human gesture of affection he’s been taught for a recurring part of the show: an explosive first strike.
As a terrified Ricky raises his own fist to meet Gordy’s, someone shoots the ape, spattering his blood in the young man’s face.
Despite what our horror movie monsters so often tell us, the close proximity of humans and animals is often more dangerous for so-called “beasts.” stories about dolphins and other sea creatures dying at the hands of selfie-hungry tourists who pull them out of the water are too common, and that excludes all the animals we hunt for sport. Even with our best intentions, humanity tends to anthropomorphize animals at your own risk.
The chimpanzee, a creature that has captivated scientists and audiences alike with its capacity for “human” behavior, is the perfect vehicle for that message.
When I saw Gordy reach for Ricky’s hand only to be shot, I found myself in tears, a reaction I must admit I didn’t expect from a movie that, based on the trailers, seemed like a lighter UFO adventure. But that scene is devastating: the chimpanzee, who has been captive of his habitat, isolated from his species and trained to behave like a human for entertainment throughout his life, approaches with one last gesture that he has been trained to think like. “friendly” but doesn’t really understand. Then they shot him.
“What gave us the right to put it on that soundstage in the first place?”
What gave us the right to put it on that soundstage in the first place? the moment is filled NopeThe complete indictment of humanity in a tragic plane.
Universal Pictures/Everett Collection
There is some irony in the fact that Nope– a film that actively criticizes humanity’s assumption that our interests are superior to those of animals – has been compared to Jaws. Valerie Taylor, a scuba diver who worked alongside her husband to film the shark scenes in that film, has since expressed regret over the panic the film caused among beachgoers. (The reality, in fact, is that human-shark contact is, statistically, worse for sharks than it is for us; are still more in danger than humans thanks to fishing activity.)
Beyond the actual death of “Gordy” the chimpanzee, the real tragedy of his fate is Jupe’s complete inability to process it. As a theme park owner, the former child actor remains totally dependent on the show for money. And of course, surviving a chimpanzee attack on set has only convinced him that he can similarly charm an alien species, bend it to his will, and milk all the effort for profit.
Even Jupe’s former co-star, who wears a scarf over her face to hide her disfigurement from the chimpanzee attack, can’t help but attend the show. As the sheer fabric billows in the wind, revealing his scarred face and milky eyes as they gaze skyward in a mix of fear and awe, viewers must come face to face with one of humanity’s darkest realities: we just never know when to say “enough”.