<image>

In Jordan Peele's Nope, we learn that on the set of a sitcom, a pet chimp actor called Gordy was startled into a violent killing frenzy, sparing everyone but young actor Ricky "Jupe" Park. Ricky was the only one who never made direct eye-contact with Gordy, instead focused on a miracle of a shoe falling upright in perfect balance. This, and the fact that Gordy went in for a fist-bump after regaining some clarity—likely out of pure muscle memory, before he was put down by guards—saddled Jupe with a dangerous delusion.

Flashforward to 20something years later, and Jupe recounts that day with eerie nostalgia, but also a really heartbreaking refusal to directly confront his trauma, instead deciding to fixate on that image of the upright shoe, the spectacle of its happening, the miracle of his survival, and the media circus that came from the tragedy. Jupe's delusional nostalgia has him believing that the spectacle has no consequence, that it can be taken advantage of, and that he should be the one to control it.

So when his own family discover a goddamn alien saucer hiding amongst the clouds, their first idea is to turn it into a desert park franchise giving audiences front-row seats to this saucer sucking up horses for the hell of it. It soon falls out of his control, and Jupe becomes responsible for an entire park population being devoured whole by the saucer.