YMMV / Nope

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• Accidental Aesop:
  • The TMZ reporter likely only survived his 60-mph crash because he wore a helmet. So yeah, wear yours, kiddos. Or don’t.
  • Don't rely too much on one type of technology, and unfortunately sometimes electricity isn't the best solution and can even be a liability. The Haywoods, Angel, and Holst eventually have to try and get the 'perfect shot' of Jean Jacket via a hand-operated IMAX camera after all their efforts with a modern camera system fail, and Em isn't able to escape on the TMZ reporter's electronic bike until OJ lures Jean Jacket far enough away.
  • It's okay if a movie uses CGI instead of real, practical effects in order to make sure everyone on set is safe. Like, say, if the scene involves a wild, untamed animal. The movie arguably does touch on this in the beginning, although in that case the safety hazard could have easily been avoided if everyone had done their due diligence and listened to OJ.
  • Conspiracy theorists and tabloid reporters need to stay out of the way of people who are trying to do actual investigations.
• Adorkable: Angel's boundless enthusiasm for catching evidence of aliens, a genuine wish to do something good for the world rather than just get rich off filming Jean Jacket, and demonstrated quick thinking in saving himself from getting eaten all come together in addition to his already traditionally attractive appearance.
• Alternate Aesop Interpretation:
  • According to Nerdist, the movie has a firm anti-capitalist message, as those who try to profit off the UFO are gruesomely killed by it because they can't conceive of the idea that it might have predatory behaviors or survival tactics that can make it dangerous. As symbolic foreshadowing of this theme, the father of the protagonists (Otis Sr.) is accidentally killed by Jean Jacket by it dropping a nickel through his skull, but the actual personifications of the theme are Ricky, who knew about the creature for months but chose to try profiting off it (resulting in his death, his family's death, and the death of the audience at the Star Lasso Experience), and the TMZ reporter, who tries to make money off of Jean Jacket, and is also killed by it. All of this can lead to Jean Jacket being seen as the personification of capitalism. How the main cast differs from those who do ultimately succumb to the 'spectacle' is that their goal in capturing its image is to preserve the family ranch, rather than profiting off it purely for the sake of fame. Or, in the case of Angel, to warn the general public about the danger that Jean Jacket presents.
  • It's notable that the final shots of the film itself show Emerald forgetting about the perfect shots that she just risked her life to get, spellbound by something else: the sight of her brother, alive and well. Perhaps the film is also arguing that putting thought and time into your craft (e.g., cinematography, camera placement, horse training) is what will save you, rather than fancy trick shots and showy effects. It's a celebration of the people who do what they do because they're good at it and they love it, rather than to make a quick buck.
  • While Jupe's story leads to a lesson about letting go of the past so you don't repeat history, there is another way to look at it. Considering how Jupe is disgusted with himself for running a private museum based on Gordy's Home, his noticeably angry tone of voice towards Saturday Night Live for mocking the tragic event, and how he's trying to deny his trauma, the lesson could also be seen as "It's vitally important that you learn to have enough self-respect to not grovel for approval from others, especially when you already know how willing they are to abandon and exploit you for personal gain".
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Is Jean Jacket truly a mindless apex predator who attacks due to perceiving humans as showing aggression, or is it malevolent? The way it regurgitates indigestible material and blood all over the Haywoods' residence, likely because it remembered not liking the horse statue from earlier would suggest that it can be vengeful. Given it recognizes aggression, it may be attempting to stake its hold on its territory the same way many animals do towards rivals.
  • Does Jean Jacket suck objects up through conventional suction, or does it actually have some sort of Tractor Beam power? The latter explanation would explain a lot of the Artistic License – Physics surrounding its eating and regurgitating. Its effect on electronics shows it has some kind of influence over electromagnetism, and it has been theorized that a real flying saucer might fly and float using magnets. But this would mean its species is far more powerful than the film shows.
  • Is Ricky attempting to buy the ranch out of fear for O.J.’s safety? He doesn’t outright tell O.J. why he can’t buy his horses back, but he does invite him to the Star Lasso Experience; that invitation means that he clearly isn’t trying to hide the existence of Jean Jacket from O.J. Given his flashbacks, it’s not unreasonable to conclude that while he thinks he will be safe, he might fear for the safety of others.
• Angst? What Angst?: While OJ is unsettled in the moment after witnessing the aftermath of the Star Lasso Experience, he seems relatively unfazed after he escapes the ranch house, although he does tend to keep his emotions to himself.
• Award Snub: Nope was completely unacknowledged by the Academy, much to the rage of the movie's supporters. In particular, the fact that the movie was not nominated for its sound design was a popular talking point, with many fans citing the scene in which the TMZ reporter is eaten while we hear his screams mixed with Jean Jacket's ambient noises as an example of why it should be nominated. That said, many viewers expected this outcome, due to the film's oblique criticism of Hollywood and the entertainment industry at large.
• Awesome Music:
  • While the score by Michael Abels (which mixes creeping dread with a sprinkle of Western) is already great, the track "The Run", which plays as the UFO chases OJ on Lucky, is genuinely thrilling.
  • Additionally, the music that plays when Em finally kills Jean Jacket, "Winkin' Well", is a nail-bitingly tense piece with a running bassy horn performance that really gets one on the edge of their seat.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: Days after the film's release, Logan Paul posted a Twitter thread about all the things in the film that didn't make sense to him, starting the thread by calling the film "one of the worst movies [he'd] seen in a long time". He was promptly called out by people who argued that he had completely missed the point of the story and its themes, and who were amazed that Paul was confused by the motivations of Ricky, Holst, and the TMZ reporter in particular, after his own infamous past exploits to garner attention and fame (albeit he did apologise and made efforts not to surround himself with enablers from that point onward).
• Delusion Conclusion: A popular theory surmises that OJ did not survive his encounter with Jean Jacket and that Em was merely imagining that he was there. The fact that he was under a sign that says "Out Yonder" further pushes the notion that the last moments of the film are Em's imagination. Though Word of God confirmed that OJ did indeed survive.
• Diagnosed by the Audience:
  • OJ seems to struggle in social settings, prefers being around his horses over people, is stubbornly set in his ways, and struggles to make eye contact in general. All of these traits have led to fans believing him to be on the autism spectrum.
  • His sister Em is often regarded as having ADHD on account of her hyperactive personality, her inability to focus very long on a given subject, and her tendency to talk more than intended.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • A particularly dark horse: Mary-Jo Elliott, Jupe's co-star in Gordy's Home, appears in one scene as a child actor and in one more as a grown woman (for about thirty seconds). She was a much-discussed part of the film before release, and it's still common for commenters to single her out, with details such as the sweater emblazoned with her child face pre-injury, and to speculate on the sadness and horror of her character and/or her significance to the larger themes.
  • To a lesser extent, the actors who played the mom and dad in Gordy's Home, who are present for much less time and only appear very briefly in a single scene, are also discussed a lot.
• Epileptic Trees: Pre-release, fans speculated that the title was an acronym, with "Not of Planet Earth" being a popular assumption. The enigmatic first trailer also spawned a good number of theories, most of which are covered in this film’s WMG page. Most of the film’s initial marketing was centered around creating mystery about the plot of the movie.
• Everyone is Jesus in Purgatory: Despite the film having a number of straightforward surface messages ("Wild animals are still wild animals no matter how well you train them, and should be treated with respect as such" and "The entertainment industry is a meat grinder which exploits horrible things by turning them into spectacle for the masses" as the most obvious), some critics went deeper and interpreted the film as an allegory for the exploitation of black artists in Hollywood, as a spoof on the "universality of racism", and having resonances with the Biblical representation of angels. In fairness to the last point, Jean Jacket does take inspiration from the Angels of Neon Genesis Evangelion and the movie opens with a biblical quote.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: While the film ends on an upbeat note with OJ, Em, and Angel surviving their encounter with Jean Jacket, killing the alien beast, and getting ironclad proof of its existence, there remains the possibility that history will repeat, and the trio will exploit the horrible tragedy for fame and fortune just like Ricky did with Gordy's rampage.
• Evil Is Cool: Jean Jacket is one of the most unique concepts of a UFO where it’s alive rather than just a craft as initially believed. Its true form is also very creative.
• Harsher in Hindsight: There are several moments that acquire a darker tone upon a rewatch, but it's a lot more painful to watch the scene where Jupe's young kids prank OJ by dressing up as aliens once you know that all three of them are going to be eaten by an alien their father deliberately drew to their home and slowly digested over the course of hours.
• It Was His Sled: The notoriety of the aftermath of the Star Lasso Experience has led many later viewers being aware of Jean Jacket's true nature before viewing the movie.
• Jerkass Woobie: While he does feed Jean Jacket several of OJ's horses, Ricky suffered immense childhood trauma brought about by seeing a chimpanzee go on a rampage leaving several people he was close to mauled or dead before the ape was shot down and coming this close to being another one of its victims. In his adulthood, Ricky still yearns to regain the spotlight that shone brightest on all that bloodshed but has no idea how to do it other than to exploit himself as he was exploited as a child actor, building a small shrine to the event for morbidly obsessed Gordy's Home fans and speaking admiringly of the SNL skit that got laughs out of his horrific trauma. He also tries to recreate the connection he (thought he) found with the chimp by commodifying Jean Jacket, but, wholly out of his depth when it comes to training wild animals, he tragically falls victim to it and is brutally killed by it. Slowly.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • A frequent joke upon the reveal of this film’s name was that Jordan Peele’s movie titles are forming a sentence, such: "Us? Nope! Get out!"
  • Angel being a crypto-mining conspiracy nut, a common stereotype of Reddit users, has fueled jokes of calling the film "Alien vs. Redditor", a meme that gained popularity due to Honest Trailers.
  • Similarly, "Jupiter Ascending", due to Jupe being abducted and swallowed by the alien.
  • The character Orgalorg from Adventure Time received joking comparisons to the UFO due to his saucer-shaped final form and his line about swallowing people until "their bones crumple and their goo spills out", a very fitting line for Nope.
  • Terry Notary, who previously played Rocket in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and Kong in Kong: Skull Island, did the motion-capture performance for Gordy in this film, leading to jokes about how Notary is always playing CGI apes or how he "returned to monke".
• Narm Charm:
  • By all accounts, "Purple People Eater" should be one of the last songs whose lyrics can be made to sound ominous, no matter how they're recited... but damn, if Michael Wincott doesn't pull it off, giving a somber recitation of the lyrics after it becomes clear that the UFO they're about to try to get footage of is actually a living creature that could easily devour them at almost any moment during the mission.
  • The idea that Jean Jacket is killed by an enormous balloon sounds ridiculous on paper. But the overall execution of it actually makes for a suspenseful spectacle, and Em's quick thinking and her use of the Winkin' Well is a win-win scenario where Jean Jacket dies, and she gets photographic evidence of it as well. It might also be one of the smartest decisions in any horror movie ever.
• Nausea Fuel:
  • The sound design and visuals during the Star Lasso Experience scene caused some viewers to leave the theatre, according to a Reddit thread.
  • Hearing the screaming of Ricky and his audience and family mixed with the crushing of bones as they are slowly being digested by Jean Jacket is immensely unsettling.
  • Jean Jacket expelling waves of blood and inedibles on the Haywood house is disgusting and further cements its alien nature.
  • The very wet, visceral sounds of Gordy killing people in only a few blows, emphasizing that this is an incredibly strong animal fueled by adrenaline, fear, and primal instinct; from the glimpses we see of him, his hands are literally dripping with blood and gore almost up to the elbow. When he sees Mary Jo Elliot is still alive, he jumps down, pounds her a couple of more times as she screams, and audibly bites deep into her flesh with his teeth, smearing his mouth with blood. The fact that the victim is a child makes it even more upsetting.
• Nightmare Retardant:
  • The third trailer is significantly less scary, expanding on the story and presenting it as a dark madcap comedy of people attempting to capture actual extraterrestrial activity on camera and angering the aliens as a result. Notably, Jordan Peele actually advised people to not watch this trailer, given how it wasn't very reflective of the actual movie.
  • Gordy's otherwise terrifying rampage loses a bit of impact with the cartoony stock ape noises used.
  • The fact that Jean Jacket gets killed by a balloon not only vastly reduces its perceived threat level, but raises quite a few questions about how it even survived this long.
• One-Scene Wonder: Terry Notary once again playing an ape through motion capture as Gordy and is utterly terrifying in his brief screentime as a once-barely controlled animal completely in the grip of fight-or-flight instincts, brutalizing Ricky's co-stars while all he can do is hide and watch. Gordy trying to reconcile with Ricky and give him another fist bump seconds before Animal Control shoots him in the head is genuinely heartbreaking while simultaneously horrifying.
• Paranoia Fuel: Good luck looking at clouds the same way again after seeing this movie.
• Realism-Induced Horror: The main story with the UFO is horrifying enough, but the other story featured in the movie is equally horrifying and parallels the main one: as a child actor, Ricky "Jupe" Park was witness to his chimpanzee co-star, Gordy, flying into a violent frenzy due to mishandling; by the time Gordy is euthanized, one adult actor is killed and the other loses part of her hand, Ricky's on-screen sister has her face torn off, and Ricky himself is severely traumatized. A UFO is scary, yes, but what makes the second story especially scary is that such incidents can happen and have happened in real life. Case in point.
• Signature Scene:
  • Many viewers have agreed that the most memorable scene, in an extremely disturbing sense, is the brief scene from within Jean Jacket's digestive tract, showing all the people from the Star Lasso Experience being ingested alive.
  • The sequence towards the end of the film in which the Haywoods try to capture footage of the UFO features stunning visuals unlike anything seen in Peele's earlier works.
  • Gordy's rampage is another oft-discussed scene, both for its disturbing lack of sound and explicit violence and for the furious debate over whether it's an unnecessary Big-Lipped Alligator Moment that served mainly to provide extra obfuscation for the plot in the trailers, or if it's an important character moment that ties into the movie's greater themes regarding the treatment of animals in Hollywood and the exploitative nature of Hollywood in general.
  • The Haywood house being drenched with a rain of bloodshed from Jean Jacket directly above it has been acclaimed for its stunning horror imagery.
• Special Effect Failure: While Terry Notary's ape acting is sublime as always, the production did not have Planet of the Apes-level VFX for Gordy, and it shows, even if it inadvertently also helps emphasize, per Peele's moral point, that they didn't use a real ape for the movie (or that they put more effort into the look of Jean Jacket than anything else). Some of Gordy’s cries are also recognizable stock audio.
• Spiritual Successor:
  • Officially, to the legendary unproduced Steven Spielberg alien film Night Skies.
  • Speaking of Spielberg, it's easy to see parallels to Jaws in this film. Ricky's ignorance to the threat at hand mirrors that of the Mayor trying to keep the beaches open for 4th of July weekend. The central antagonist is often not seen, or only glimpsed by the presence of an object stuck onto it. In the finale, the protagonists use their wits and ingenuity to lure the predator out. And ultimately, it's destroyed by an explosive (an oxygen tank for the shark, a helium balloon for Jean Jacket).
  • Not to mention it's also an easy parallel to Jurassic Park, in telling the story of a theme park manager who hubristically believes he can turn a wild animal into a tame attraction through simple conditioning.
  • To Cloverfield, another Kaiju story which plays it’s monster for horror, and in which cases the monster is ultimately just an animal lashing out at real and perceived threats. The Cloverfield Viral Marketing Campaign also reveals another parallel- Clover was also harmed by capitalism: a MegaCorp was mining his and his mother’s food source, which resulted in him being separated from her and caused his rampage.
  • To Mystery Flesh Pit National Park, sharing similar themes of spectacle, the capitalistic exploitation of large, unknown animals, and the terrible results of doing such things. Not to mention the creator of MFP did an anatomy study of Jean Jacket's final form.
  • The movie serves as a pretty good adaptation of some articles in the SCP Foundation mythos, specifically of SCP-1051 and SCP-994, both of which are animalistic organisms resembling UFOs. The fact that Jean Jacket attacks anything which looks at it is also a trait shared by one of the SCP franchise's most iconic characters, SCP-096.
  • The premise of a heavily surveilled ranch haunted by an alien that kills livestock brings to mind Skinwalker Ranch, which is itself the "star" of a reality show all about its own supposed paranormal phenomena.
  • Some Kaiju fans have joked the film is a remake of Dogora, as both films are about non-traditional vaguely jellyfish-like aliens that mindlessly suck up prey.
  • It also shares quite a few similarities with Tremors, another Weird West movie about regular people having their lives upended by the sudden appearance of an undiscovered species of giant, bizarre predator, which they at first mistake for alien activity and have to figure out exactly how the creature operates.
• Squick: Ricky mentions that a Dutch couple paid a high amount to "spend the night" inside his Gordy's Home memorabilia room. While there's no mention of what they got up to, Ricky seems uncomfortable remembering it.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Despite being The Heavy of the story, feeding Jean Jacket horses in an attempt to "train" it to show it off and profit off it, Ricky's character is left rather ambiguous. Plenty of elements about his character are given to the audience, particularly everything involving the Gordy's Home show, but very little is made explicit. On one hand, one might appreciate that the movie lets the audience put together the pieces and decide what kind of person he was, others might wish that he was more concretely and explicitly fleshed out. Also, the fact that he gets eaten about two-thirds of the way into the movie can feel disappointing.
  • There is also Mary Jo Elliot. After a lot of fan speculation of whether she had an encounter with aliens or is one herself, she is revealed to have just been a survivor of Gordy's rampage who was greatly disfigured by the chimpanzee actor. Much like her co-star, Mary seems to also crave being in the limelight again; not only does she attend his Star Lasso Experience event, but she wears a photo of her unhurt child face back during the time she was on the show. However, all that comes from it is her being one of the many fatalities brought on as a result of her looking at Jean Jacket.
• Unintentional Period Piece: A rare, very quick example: Fry's Electronics went out of business while the film was in production.
• Vanilla Protagonist: OJ is more soft-spoken and reclusive compared to his vivacious, outgoing sister, the showman Jupe, and the awkwardly enthusiastic Angel. However, some have pointed out that Nope is a tribute to classic Westerns as well as monster movies, and thus that Kaluuya is playing OJ as the classic gruff, taciturn cowboy, not unlike The Man With No Name.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The filmmakers created a revolutionary new process for shooting day-for-night that manages to properly illuminate the scene without delving into overly bluish Hollywood Darkness.
• The Woobie:
  • Mary Jo Elliott, Jupe's co-star on Gordy's Home, had her face ripped off by a chimp, goes through life horrifically disfigured, and is unceremoniously eaten by an alien and digested over several hours.
  • Gordy the chimpanzee. While he did brutally beat some of his co-stars and mutilate others, it's clear he was a mishandled animal and a victim of circumstance. After being sent into a blind rage by a combination of popping balloons and being stared down and smiled at by his co-stars and audience (eye contact and baring teeth being seen as an act of aggression by chimpanzees), he then appears to show some confusion about what he's just done, as he simply blacks out at the peak of his stress; he's seen signing "What Happen Family?" to Jupe. After collecting himself, Gordy tries to enact his training by initiating a fist bump with Ricky Park, but he’s unceremoniously shot dead by animal control. Despite what he did, it’s easy to feel sorry for the poor chimp.
  • As human beings can pack bond with anything, there is a subset of the audience who feel some sympathy for the UFO having a large plastic horse lodged in its digestive tract and interpret the Jupiter's Claim massacre as it lashing out in pain and confusion...just like Gordy did.
  • Really, everyone who attended the Star Lasso Experience and is trapped inside of Jean Jacket. It’s heartbreaking to hear them panicking and sobbing in terror. However, help never arrives, and they are ground down by the alien's innards.
  • OJ. He witnesses his father die, it’s heavily implied he lost his mother at a fairly young age, and he’s desperately trying to save the ranch which is also a huge part of the family legacy.

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