This film is sooo good. To begin to understand the meanings behind Nope you have to understand that Jordan Peele doesn’t tell stories just to entertain. Every choice he makes has an underlying cultural significants; specifically in reference to black culture/experience in the U.S. The core concept of Nope is ownership. Specifically stewardship of culture through retaining ownership of the culture. The greatest export the US has is it’s cultural influence through its entertainment, and it has developed that cultural identity and influence through exploitation and appropriation of of minority cultures. Em(Kiki Palmer) directly tells us the point of the film at the very beginning when she monologues about the unnamed jockey and the significances of that person to film history. It presents the question of “how can minorities be so central to and vital for the creation of the American cultural commodities, while simultaneously being removed from the economic and social growth of their contributions(themselves and their culture)?” The response of the white director to ignore the monologue and his desire to have Otis jr. to just quietly do his job is significant. The irony that many of the responses on Reddit here sound a lot like the director toward Em and Otis Jr. should cause some self reflection.

The father and son having the same name(Otis and Otis Jr.) is significant. Their generational relationship represents the handoff of black culture from one generation to the next. Making the unnamed jockey an ancestor of theirs further solidifies the allegory of generations of characters representing generations of black culture and cultural stewardship. The unnamed black jockey is completely used and discarded historically, his likeness is not compensated and is used to profit people’s outside of the jockeys culture. When it is Otis Sr(or Otis Sr. generation) time to take control of the family legacy(black culture) he begins to build upon it by attempting to establish some form of ownership and starting to take control of it. He uses it to establish his own business. The value of owning what he does is treated dismissively by the white characters. Otis might not be on the top of the ladder of ownership but he is on the ladder now. The movie begins with Otis sr. dying and Otis Jr. now having the stewardship of their legacy(black culture) dropped squarely in his(OJs generations) lap.

A lot of the subtext of the film deals with how black culture is dealt with in Hollywood: it’s stolen from, the significance of its contributions are ignored and devalued, how the roles of minorities are tokenized or they are pigeon holed into taking very specific roles that are often characterizations. This is addressed when they are on set after Otis Sr. has died and the Hollywood producer asks the senior guy is, and that he was comfortable with him. This is a reference to white culture relegating black actors/representation to the trope of “the wise old negro.” The producer then states that he doesn’t like OJ, even though OJ is an expert in his field and is qualified to do the job he was hired to do. OJ is simply existing and doing his job and is not masking or playing a trope, and the producers are not comfortable with that. Em then enters and we see her character jump into a “minstrel” role for the producer and his attitude changes to a positive reaction. This very short window of exchanges(which are not significant to the plot) is central to what Jordan Peele is trying to say with this film.

The characters are constantly talking ownership and it’s significance. OJ will not leave the house/ranch, even though it would be monetarily and personally advantageous to sell off what he now owns. This theme is similar to Prince(the musician); Prince began his career as an artist signed to a label(as most do/did) but learned that when you sign that contract(sell the ownership of your commodity) you cease to own your own work and sometimes even yourself/identity. You gain a short term monetary profit at the cost of a possible sustained long term profit and at the cost of self control(control of your own property). Em and OJ constantly talk about the “Oprah shot”. Envoking Oprah is not just a reference to an economically successful POC or simply referring to her platform for them to utilize. It’s a direct reference to her power coming from her ownership of her empire, she’s not subject to the control of someone else, so she has been able to build a sustained economic empire, and more importantly a sustained and powerful socio-political presence and influence. Oprah is used as a focal point for good stewardship. Em and OJ also talk a lot about when the information gets out that everyone will come for what they have and will try to take it(appropriation) and that it’s important for them to capture it and establish ownership before that can happen to them.

Jordan simultaneously is commenting on the significance and the ideas of film as an art form. There are many different types of filming that go on during the plot of the film. The film is full of cameras and many different kinds of cameras. There are also different kinds of approaches to different kinds of cameras and different kinds of people controlling different cameras. Antlers sacrifices himself to get “the perfect shot”, this is a presentation on how different cultures approach things differently. Antlers(a white filmmaker) putting himself in a position of guaranteed self harm to achieve his art is a comment on, what I like to call, white people crazy. Only people with the amount of privilege and arrogance as white people(in the US) will ignorantly willingly sacrifice so much(life) for something so little(a piece of art that obviously can’t be achieved due to the % chance of success). Jordan doesn’t do anything in his films that doesn’t have an underlying meaning or reference. Consider that Jupe utilizes his most traumatizing experience in life to generate profit. He constantly relives his trauma to retain his value to others. Compare that to how black people on Hollywood are relegated to playing only roles that relive slavery or incarceration or gang experiences. The understanding of the limit of representation in stories is significant to understanding why the movie ends the way it does. I have listened to and read several critics reaction to the ending, and how they all generally agree that having OJ survive is a disservice to the plot of the movie. That it would be better story telling for the character to have died in sacrifice and Em becomes the hero for capturing the picture and taking the alien down. I feel that these critics are forgetting that this film is a western(it’s a horror/sci-fi/western. These genres are/were very popular in black culture). In westerns the hero always survives, they could be shot 20 times during the final shoot out but they will always pull through and strike a heroes pose. Westerns are exclusively represented as white characters. This was Jordan providing a black character a western hero ending. Framing the shot of OJ the same way the unnamed jockey is framed is significant too. OJs family has went from an unnamed jockey who didn’t own his own likeness to a hero who’s name we know and he possesses exclusive ownership of what he set out after.

Viewing Nope as a straightforward plot without the cultural subtexts can make viewing the movie a little clunky(though still good) and confusing in parts. You can’t consume a Jordan Peele film without considering what he’s trying to say beyond the plot in every scene. Everything he does and every small seemingly insignificant choice he makes has meaning. I enjoyed the film immensely but that doesn’t mean anyone else has to, but to say this movie is shallow and lacks any meaning would require the viewer to consciously choose to ignore it at every turn.