Warning: Spoilers for Nope contained within.
What kind of fiendish threat could make a whole town just say, “Nope”? Thanks to a Universal presentation at CinemaCo today, we might have some clues. Director Jordan Peele took to the stage to shed a little light on the premise of Nope.
The first trailer for Nope only hinted at a fiendish force threatening our main characters. In the trailer, Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer play James and Jill Haywood, folks who own and work at a Black-run horse farm. The farm in question trains horses for Hollywood productions and things are going great until something mysterious appears in the sky above the farm. The trailer then cuts to other characters also seeing something… above them. There are also shots of people that don’t seem entirely human. The poster also hinted at a potential alien threat, showing a horse and other objects floating in the night sky.
Peele addressed the many fan theories surrounding Nope on the internet. Peele confirmed today that, yep, the film is about aliens. Nope will involve some sort of alien invasion affecting those in and around the horse farm in question.
“The discovery and the surprise of it is part of the fun,” Peele added in Q&A, as noted by The Hollywood Reporter. “Trailers will give you a taste, but we want to retain some of the mystery, so you can be satisfied going to the damn movie.”
Nope is shot on 65mm and IMAX, so you can expect some amazing vistas of rural California, right before it’s all lifted into the sky. The film’s cinematographer is Hoyte van Hoytema, who previously shot Dunkirk, Tenet, Interstellar, and Her.
Like his previous films Get Out and Us, Nope was written and directed by Peele. The movie stars Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, and Steven Yeun, alongside Barbie Ferreira, Brandon Perea, and Michael Wincott. Peele is producing with Ian Cooper, his long-time partner at Monkeypaw Productions. The Universal Pictures film will debut in theaters on July 22, 2022.
Mike Williams is a freelance writer at IGN