Jordan Peele’s Nope was hurt creatively, especially in its climax, because the UFO got shown to viewers in the film’s final trailer.
The following contains spoilers for Nope, now playing in theaters.
In Jordan Peele's filmmaking career, the trailers for his movies have usually been cryptic. Get Out and Us teased issues such as race, class and elitism before release, but few could have predicted the possession angle in the former and the clones ravaging society in the latter. That's why it felt odd when Nope's final trailer revealed the Haywoods getting stalked by a UFO.
Still, many gave Nope the benefit of the doubt, thinking there'd be something deeper to the drama at hand once the movie unfolded. Some thought it could have been imaginary, shaping a psychological thriller, or maybe it was a monster manifesting in different forms. Unfortunately, given what it was, the trailer and its premature reveal hurt the movie.
As OJ and his sister, Emerald, battled with the UFO, trying to capture it on film and sell the footage, it turned out to be an alien hunting around their Agua Dulce farm. If one didn't look at it, they wouldn't get eaten, but horses, patrons at the theme park Jupe ran, and intrepid reporters were still among the entities that got devoured. It was the film's take on capitalism, how people do stupid stuff in the name of spectacle and how Hollywood eats the work of POC without compensating them.
But while these are nuanced layers, they could have been predicted from the trailer. It's why folks expected a big twist with the UFO later, but the cerebral edge and overall mystery got lost when nothing shocking came to light. Even when the alien turned into its final monstrous form, it didn't have any intimidation to it. Sure, it was a beautiful ribbon-esque monster, but fans expected much more.
For this to have truly resonated as the crowning point in the climax, the trailer should have cut the shot of the white flying saucer pursuing OJ, which would have kept the story so vague and allowed fans to be in awe over how the monster was evolving its form. It also would have initially allowed fans to wonder if OJ and Emerald were delusional and suffering PTSD due to their dad's death from falling debris, if Antlers and Angel got drawn up in mass hysteria due to conspiracy theories and the need for the "money shot" and if Jupe was seeing "a wild animal" in the sky that didn't really exist due to his bloody childhood past where Gordy, the chimp, killed folks on the set of his sitcom.
It would have created a thrilling guessing game, leaving people wondering if the alien was mystical or biblical. Instead, by giving away the UFO, as good as Nope was, it lacked any payoff and failed to create suspense and tension over the villain. These kinds of bombshells made Peele's previous movies pop, but Nope got left feeling a bit more straightforward.
See why the UFO reveal in the trailer hurt Nope, which is now in theaters.
I’m a former Chemical Engineer. It was boring so I decided to write about things I love. On the geek side of things, I write about comics, cartoons, video games, television, movies and basically, all things nerdy. I also write about music in terms of punk, indie, hardcore and emo because well, they rock! If you’re bored by now, then you also don’t want to hear that I write for ESPN on the PR side of things. And yes, I’ve written sports for them too! Not bad for someone from the Caribbean, eh? To top all this off, I’ve scribed short films and documentaries, conceptualizing stories and scripts from a human interest and social justice perspective. Business-wise, I make big cheddar (not really) as a copywriter and digital strategist working with some of the top brands in the Latin America region. In closing, let me remind you that the geek shall inherit the Earth. Oh, FYI, I’d love to write the Gargoyles movie for Disney. YOLO. That said, I’m on Twitter @RenaldoMatadeen. So holler.
Nope: How the Trailer's UFO Reveal Hurt the Movie – CBR – Comic Book Resources
