‘Nope’ First Reactions: Jordan Peele’s ‘Epic’ Third Horror Outing Belongs on the ‘Biggest Screen You Can Find’

Christian Zilko
·5 min read
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Three years have gone by since “Us” hit theaters, but the wait for a new Jordan Peele movie is almost over. Expectations could not be higher as “Nope,” Peele’s latest piece of thought-provoking genre cinema, opens in theaters this weekend. And if fans of Jordan Peele know one thing, it’s that you should always expect the unexpected from him. First reactions have been largely favorable.

Anticipation for “Nope” has been building for months, as the film’s cryptic trailers have ensured that the thriller stayed on everyone’s minds without revealing much about the plot. It’s been known that the film involves aliens and Hollywood history, and also features a Gold Rush-themed amusement park known as Jupiter’s Claim. But now that film critics are free to speak their minds about the movie, more information is beginning to flow in about the secretive film. If waiting 72 hours to see the movie sounds absolutely agonizing to you, film Twitter has you covered tonight.

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“Nope” is written and directed by Jordan Peele, and stars Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer as siblings who operate Hollywood’s only Black-owned horse ranch. Brandon Perea, Michael Wincott, Steven Yeun, Wrenn Schmidt, Keith David, Donna Mills, Barbie Ferreira, Devon Graye, and Oz Perkins also star.

In a recent interview, Peele said that the film’s UFO subject matter was conceived as an attempt to lure audiences back to the multiplexes with spectacle.

“The first thing I knew is I wanted to create a spectacle. I wanted to create something that the audience would have to come see,” Peele said. “So I set my sights on the great American UFO story.”

While it may be decidedly more sci-fi than Peele’s previous efforts, “Nope” still contains plenty of his signature brand of horror. In fact, Peele says that the title came from his hope that audiences will yell out “nope!”

“The movie itself deals with spectacle, and the good and bad that come from this idea of attention,” he said. “It’s a horror epic, but it has some points in it that are meant to elicit a very audible reaction in the theater.”

“Nope” will be released in theaters on July 22. Keep reading for a roundup of early social media reactions to the film.

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