Jupe is Nope’s biggest tragedy, and one of the movie’s toughest themes

Jordan Peele’s NopeThe movie is undoubtedly about many things. The primary characters are all obsessed with fame, whether they have it and don’t want it, are seeking it as a means to an unrelated end, or crave it for its own sake. They’re all chasing a mystery with little thought for the consequences — haunted by a UFO that’s clearly abducting animals and people, they work to bring evidence of its existence to other people, but without considering the possible costs. It serves as a metaphor, critics say, for irresponsible journalism or click-hungry celebrities on social media trying to devalue every facet of human life. There are many running themes within the magazine. NopeFrom the unknown to our obsession with spectacle, modern culture is dominated by the weight of uncertainty.

Another theme that runs throughout the film is how people deal with tragedy. All of the main characters have to deal with tragic events that define their lives. OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) is dealing with the slow financial ruin of his family’s farm and the death of his beloved father. Emerald Palmer, his sister, is dealing with her father’s death and trying to make a career out of it.

Angel (Brandon Perea) isn’t as clearly defined, but he’s obviously hungry for some kind of meaning or direction, and sees his dead-end job in a rural big-box electronics store as a failure he needs to escape. And cinematographer Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott) has all the fame he wants, but it’s left him unsatisfied and bitter. This is In NopeEveryone has had a disappointing life.

The greatest tragedy isNope, the one that defines the theme, is former child star Ricky “Jupe” Park (Steven Yeun). Jupe shares many things with fellow UFO-hunters. From his failed ambitions to his gamey face, his failures, and his joy at the end of it all. But he’s the only one of them who spends the movie lying to himself and to other people in ways that truly matter. And he’s the only one who turns his personal tragedy into a collective, cataclysmic one.

[Ed. note: Major spoilers ahead for Nope.]

Universal Pictures

Some viewers have been frustrated by the lack of clearly drawn connections between Jupe’s childhood trauma on the set of a 1990s family sitcom called Gordy’s HomeThe UFO and other events. In flashbacks, Peele shows how the show’s central character, a chimpanzee named Gordy, was startled by a series of popping balloons on set and viciously attacked several of his human co-stars. Jupe was not hurt but was frozen in fear when the bloodied chimp mauled others. For an added trauma, when Gordy calmed down and gently approached Jupe, offering a friendly fist bump, a late-arriving rescuer shot Gordy to death, splattering Jupe with the chimp’s blood.

The way Jupe’s past affects his present may feel obscure because he never lays out his motivations in a clear monologue. He’s too paralyzed by terror to speak in the flashback scenes, and too cool and controlled in the present to reveal much to the outside world. But it’s clear that events on the show left an indelible mark on him. In quiet moments, he stares into space and replays that trauma in his mind, while telling everyone he’s fine. His past is not important to him. He shows visitors how he takes it all lightly. Gordy’s Home Memorabilia and complementing items Saturday Night Life Sketch about the Chimp Attacks. Peele shows the audience the echoing chaos inside his head and how it contrasts with his calm surface.

Jupe is a happy, fulfilled adult. His wife, three children, and two of his kids, are avid participants in his Western-themed theme park. But we also know he’s a skillful liar, capable of smiling in OJ’s face and casually agreeing that OJ can eventually buy back the well-trained horses he’s been selling Jupe to keep his ranch financially stable — even though Jupe has been feeding those horses to the UFO. Jupe was a child actor, and he’s apparently kept his abilities for pretense alive.

He eventually uses these abilities to endanger dozens of innocent people, including his own family members and former employers. Gordy’s Home He has a crush on his co-star and several other people who are unlucky enough to visit the theme park. It’s left to the audience to decide whether Jupe’s childhood tragedy with Gordy left him feeling untouchable because he came through it safely, such that he’s willing to put out bait to attract a gigantic, mysterious monster to come eat live animals in his back yard.

It’s just as possible that the same childhood trauma left him queasily fascinated with lethal, unpredictable animals and the power they represent, and that the way he’s courting the UFO is meant to parallel his interrupted fist bump with Gordy — he’s reaching out to something capable of tremendous harm and making contact where other people wouldn’t dare to. It’s possible he sees himself as brave and daring rather than charmed. It’s even possible that both these things are true.

The ambiguity of Jupe’s relationship with the UFO, and the ways it connects with the events around Gordy, all come back to that theme of dealing with tragedy and trauma. Trauma survivors can externalize their experiences in a thousand ways, from processing it through therapy and discussion to passing it on to the next generation, but even so, it’s largely an internal process that everyone handles differently. The In NopeOJ doesn’t talk about his feelings and keeps his traumas private. He joins a dangerous expedition to photograph the UFO. Emerald opensly discusses her trauma in an attempt to transfer the responsibility for it onto OJ. Angel shoehorns his way into other people’s lives to try to steal their glory; Antlers charges out alone to seek a satisfaction he doesn’t want to share with anyone else.

Universal Pictures

But Jupe turns his into a one-sided relationship with an alien creature that doesn’t care about him and sees him only as a source of food — and eventually, as food himself. He’s so defined by a past tragedy that he walks right into a bigger one — and kills dozens of people in the process. It’s evident that he doesn’t know how to talk about his pain the way Emerald does — even in the middle of one flashback to the past, he tells his wife that he’s fine and that everything’s going smoothly. It’s evident that he doesn’t want to share it with other people, except in a form he’s reshaped and rigidly controlled into something else entirely: a tame little museum version of his past, with all the confusion and terror combed away and replaced with neat little glass boxes.

But it’s also evident that of everyone in Nope, he’s carrying around the bloodiest, most savage, and most abrupt trauma, and the one least capable of being undone. OJ may save the ranch. Emerald will never be able to reconnect with her dad, but she can reconnect with her brother, who closely resembles him, as well with the ranch which connected them all. Angel is able to find his way through his life of misery; Antlers can seem to control the situation and take over. But Jupe can’t bring Gordy back. The best he can do is control and reshape the narrative around Gordy — and reach out to another dangerous creature to show how it might be controlled and cared for, in spite of its potential for violence.

Jupe, because he makes such choices is the only one. Nope’s protagonists who cuts off all his options, spreads his trauma to the people he loves, and dies aware of how his choices all went wrong. He isn’t exactly a villain, certainly not compared to the actual killer in Nope. But he is the film’s greatest tragedy. He’s a mute witness to a moment of horror who chooses to stay mute about it — and in the process, make it far worse. Nope There are many messages in this video about fame’s price and how to avoid it. One of the most powerful messages in this book is to not deny or internalize trauma. This will never lead to a useful and positive outcome. It’s far more likely to erupt and even expand, even from people who have the best intentions in keeping it under wraps.