Have you ever been in a situation where your first thought was, "Nope, I'm not dealing with that today." OJ Haywood (played by Daniel Kaluuya) said it best when he was almost swept away not once, but twice by a UFO in the new horror/sci-fi film Nope.
If you told me as a pre-teen that I’d live to see the day that the character development of Keke Palmer would include fighting and defeating extra-terrestrial objects, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. She has come a far way from her teenage years acting as the young Vice President on True Jackson: VP or as a spelling bee champion in Akeelah and the Bee. Emerald Haywood (played by Keke Palmer) and her brother OJ Haywood are left to run their father’s horse ranch after he died 6 months prior for unknown reasons. However, this isn’t a regular, run-of-the-mill ranch as they’re met with disturbing and alarming experiences.
Aliens must exist––that’s the only way you can explain what’s happening at the Haywood Hollywood Horse Ranch, right? Right. The brother-and-sister duo set out to catch whatever it is that’s wreaking havoc on their ranch––well, not catch it, just get the “Oprah shot” (that perfect shot or picture that will make you famous) of the object that kills everything around it.
I can’t choose one favorite part of the movie. But, one of my favorite parts is a storyline that isn’t saturated with love stories and anti-climatic scenes. We came here to defeat a UFO, and that’s all we’re focused on.
It’s like Don’t Look Up or Bird Box, but this time, if you look into the mysterious object, it sweeps you away, squeezes you through a balloon and dumps your body later. The energy that surrounds this UFO and how it affects animals is still a mystery, and maybe if Jordan Peele writes a Nope 2, it’ll explain where it came from. But for now, we have to accept that when you’re trying to defeat a UFO, you make it eat plastic.
By Khadejra Golding, Staff Writer