Nope

Hi,

This is part of my ongoing Fright Fest 2026 coverage. You can find all my previous reviews here and the full list of upcoming films here.

As usual, I'll be writing with the assumption that you've seen the film, which means I'll be discussing spoilers and won't be devoting space to a detailed plot recap. Even more than usual, I'm primarily interested in what this film is doing (or failing to do) and the ideas it is trying to explore.

• Longtime readers probably won't be surprised to learn that I'm fascinated by films that are about the act of filmmaking itself. Nope is very much that. Yes, it's a monster movie and a western and kind of a sci-fi flick. But the central conflict isn't really about surviving, escaping or even killing the saucer-shaped alien that haunts the film, though all of that does happen. OJ (played by Daniel Kaluuya) and Em (Keke Palmer's character) are primarily trying to capture images of the creature. At first, the endeavor is a dubious get-rich/get-famous scheme: Capture proof of aliens, broadcast it on Oprah, and (somehow) profit. But that aspect of the plan fades away and by the end, it's clear that everyone involved in chasing the alien (nicknamed Jean Jacket by OJ) is more invested in the movie-making experience than any potential payday.
• The character who really embodies this is Michael Wincott's gravely voiced cinematographer Antlers Holst, who rolls up to the Haywood family horse ranch with a hand-cranked IMAX camera and throws his life away in pursuit of the "impossible shot." He's so dedicated to getting the perfect image on film that he allows himself to be swallowed up by Jean Jacket. The POV shot we get from his camera as he's being pulled up is such a bleak moment: The image dissolves into noise and (for a brief moment) the physical film stock itself flashes on screen. He's shooting a film about the annihilation of cinema itself, one that can never actually be seen by another human being.
• I'm actually obsessed with the minor characters, including Holst, but also the ill-fated electric-motorcycle-riding TMZ reporter whose name turns out to be Ryder Muybridge (lol). This guy is only on screen for about five minutes. Yet he's a really interesting foil for Holst specifically because he's equally committed to filmmaking (of a sort). As he's about to be swallowed up by Jean Jacket, he begs OJ to grab his camera and just take a picture! Please just take a picture!! Instead of pursuing beautiful cinematic images, Ryder is clearly a cynical, exploitative operator in pursuit of a salacious story. But he and Holst still end up in the same place, transformed into pink mush in the bowels of an alien lifeform.
• Both characters embody the idea of filmmaking as death drive — fitting for a horror film. Honestly their fanatical devotion to capturing images that will kill them is possibly the most unnerving part of Nope, apart from the scenes with Gordy.

• Nope falls short for me as a science fiction film and especially as an "encounter with aliens" film. What's interesting to me about aliens, as a narrative device, is their strangeness, their alterity. A really good sci-fi story about an encounter with creatures from another worlds should, in my opinion, force the audience into an experience that feels radically different and other — distinctly unlike things that we know and recognize about Earth. But Nope isn't really interested in that. I'm frustrated by OJ's realization that Jean Jacket can be handled like any other animal: It's a territorial predator; don't look it in the eye if you don't want to provoke it. It's a development that makes perfect sense for his character; his arc revolves mostly around his relationship with animals and whether he can prove himself as a capable horse wrangler on his own terms. But it makes for bad science fiction (or at least it makes for science fiction I don't personally care for). I've watched this film twice now and every time I find myself wishing Jean Jacket was a little more unknowable and a little more, well, alien.
• A possible counterpoint to my complaint is Jupe (Steven Yeun's character). It's very clear that Jupe thinks he understands Jean Jacket but doesn't. He tries to tame the alien and transform it into part of a cheap variety show but gets eaten instead. One could argue that this is proof of Jean Jacket's fundamental strangeness and unknowability. But in context, Jupe's misunderstanding feels more like one piece of his larger fucked up relationship to animals in general. As Letterboxd critic Cookie Estés astutely points out, his motivations revolve around his unresolved traumatic experiences with Gordy, the murderous chimpanzee; he failed to control to Gordy but maybe he can conquer Jean Jacket instead.
• What I'm trying to say is that men would rather construct a kitschy Old West style amusement park and feed horses to an alien monster than go to therapy.
• Ultimately, I think this is a film I enjoy talking and writing about more than actually watching, if that makes sense. There are individual parts of it that I really like, but it never fully coheres as a complete whole. I can pick out those elements (like the exploration of filmmaking) that interest me. But even on a rewatch, it didn't grip or emotionally move me in the way that my favorite movies do.
• Fright level: 2/10
• Enjoyment level: 5/10

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