Nope is a film still in the cultural zeitgeist, with many bemoaning its lack of awards nominations, particularly at this year's Academy Awards. Jordan Peele's third film is layered and nuanced, meaning there's plenty of impetus to watch it again and again to try and answer the questions posed.
And there are many: whether you're left wondering about the elephant chimp in the room, the mystery of the standing shoe or the ambiguous final shot, there's something to ponder everywhere you look.
And for those frustrated by this lack of clarity... well, too bad! It's exactly what Peele had in mind for Nope. "I think I made a film that has a very clear sequence of events as to what happened. I think it is very clear, and I will leave that at that," he told The New York Times.
"What I find interesting is what did you first think? I know what I thought, but what you thought is what's more important to me." With this ultimate question posed, here's what we thought about the major mysteries of Nope.
Nope ending explained
Compared to Peele's previous movies, the central plot of Nope is actually fairly straightforward and you can enjoy it without delving into any deeper meaning.
Following the shock death of their father by a falling coin from the sky, OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald (Keke Palmer) start to suspect that it might have been the result of a UFO in the sky above their ranch. They decide to try and land the "Oprah shot", definite proof of the UFO that they can sell to make them rich and famous.
Little do they know that former child star Ricky 'Jupe' Park (Steven Yeun), who now runs Old West-themed attraction Jupiter's Claim, has also spotted the unusual activity in the sky. Ricky has been using the horses that OJ has been selling him to lure the UFO to Jupiter's Claim, intending to make it the star of his new show.
But the first performance of this show ends in bloody disaster as Ricky, his entire family and everybody watching are killed by the UFO. OJ works out that it's not actually a UFO, but a predatory alien creature: "It's alive, it's territorial, and it wants to eat us."
It's why everybody was hoovered up by the alien at the show as they were looking right at it. Despite the obvious danger, OJ and Emerald plough on with their plan to get their "Oprah shot" with the help of tech salesman Angel Torres (Brandon Perea) and cinematographer Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott).
OJ thinks he can use his knowledge of breaking and training horses to control the alien, allowing them to capture the shot. Even the death of a TMZ reporter during their plan doesn't stop them, and just when it looks like they'll get the shot, Holst decides to break cover and sacrifice himself to the alien, saying they don't deserve "the impossible".
The alien – christened Jean Jacket by OJ after a former horse they owned – reveals its true form as a sort-of biblical angel/jellyfish and OJ continues to lure it away. Without a camera, Emerald decides to use the coin-operated camera in a well at Jupiter's Claim to capture the "Oprah shot".
She releases the park's balloon mascot above the well as bait for Jean Jacket, which works a treat. As Jean Jacket feeds on the balloon, Emerald captures the shot and as a bonus, the balloon explodes inside of Jean Jacket, seemingly killing it. OJ and Angel are revealed to have survived, so all's well that ends well.
But why exactly were they all so obsessed with capturing the "Oprah shot" when it was clear they were in serious danger? Peele has said that of the various themes that Nope explores, it's spectacle – and our relationship to it – that is the focus of a lot of the movie.
"When we're driving, we're in traffic and there's an accident, that traffic slows down," he told TODAY. "It's because everybody's sneaking a peek at that awful spectacle and it's slowing everybody down. And so I latched onto that and said let's make a movie about that."
Capturing this spectacle is what drives every main character in Nope, but there's also an extra meaning for both OJ and Emerald. Early on in the movie, we see Emerald give a safety presentation where she reveals her family is connected to the Black jockey in Eadweard Muybridge's The Horse in Motion.
Muybridge was called the "forefather of cinema" for the two-second clip, but the jockey remains unnamed to this day. "We've got the first movie star of all time. And it's a black man we don't know. We haven't looked," Peele told GQ. "In a lot of ways, the movie became a response to that first film."
It's a fate that OJ and Emerald don't want to befall them when it comes to the UFO – they want to make their mark on history and not be erased by it. It's telling that even though a white cinematographer is hired by OJ and Emerald to capture the shot, it ends up being Emerald who actually gets the shot.
"We got to do that big original blockbuster movie, and that in itself is part of what the movie's about," Peele added to GQ. "It's about taking up that space. It's about existing. It's about acknowledging the people who were erased in the journey to get here."
So that's the ending wrapped up, but there's one other major thing looming over Nope: what about the chimp?
Nope explained: What is Gordy's Home connection about?
The chilling opening sequence of Nope isn't actually one that involves OJ and Emerald, but of the bloody aftermath of a chimpanzee attack on a TV show called Gordy's Home in 1998.
It's later revealed that Ricky was the child star of the show and was on set when one of the chimps who played Gordy was startled by a helium balloon popping. The chimp mauled some of its human co-stars, but Ricky was hiding under a table and survived the attack.
In the present day, Ricky has started to make money out of his traumatic childhood. As a side hustle at Jupiter's Claim, he has a room of memorabilia of the incident which people can pay to visit (or stay overnight in). When he's talking to OJ and Emerald about it, he even seems happy with a Saturday Night Live sketch mocking the horrific events.
It might not make sense how this Gordy's Home incident and Jean Jacket are connected beyond the fact that Ricky is involved in both. The answer becomes clear in an extended flashback to the events of 1998.
We realise that the opening sequence of Nope was all from Ricky's perspective underneath the table. The chimp turns to Ricky and comes to meet him under the table, but instead of attacking him, the chimp extends a hand towards Ricky to do their fist bump that appears to be their signature move on the show.
The chimp is shot dead right in front of Ricky before they complete it, to add to Ricky's trauma. However, it appears to be this moment that leads Ricky, two decades later, to attempt to connect with Jean Jacket and make it the star of his new show.
(The sequence also features a mysterious standing-up shoe, and Peele has finally confirmed what that's all about.)
Ricky is trying to recapture the fame of his youth and, like OJ and Emerald, make himself famous with the spectacle of Jean Jacket. He mistakenly believes that his childhood incident means he could have a bond with dangerous creatures, something he can exploit to make money.
Unlike OJ who sees Jean Jacket as a dangerous creature and one to be respected, Ricky sees a potential route back to the big time – and it's an error that leads to his death and those of everybody he loves. Bleak.
"It's about exploitation. It's about feelings of rage. At the industry. We fear Gordy, but we don't hate Gordy. I think there's an interesting thing happening for the audience there," Peele has said about the sequence.
And if you're wondering whether the Gordy's Home incident has any real-life parallels, it's entirely fictional.
Some have speculated though that Peele was inspired by the story of a chimpanzee named Travis who had acted in TV shows. In 2009, Travis attacked his owner's friend, Charla Nash, when she picked up his Elmo doll. Charla was left disfigured by the attack, which ended when police saved her life by fatally shooting Travis.
There are certainly parallels with this real-life story in Nope, especially when we see Ricky's Gordy's Home co-star Mary Jo is at his Jupiter's Claim show. She was left disfigured by the attack and her appearance at the show evokes the appearance of Charla on an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2009.
Nope is available from Prime Video, iTunes, Microsoft Store and other digital retailers.
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