Jordan Peele has only made three feature films. But he seems to have a dozen movies’ worth of ideas packed into each one.
Inspired by blockbuster filmmakers from Spielberg to Shyamalan and drawn from sitcoms, ’80s songs and ’90s memorabilia, Peele blends decades of entertainment history to create thought-provoking We’re making a pop culture stew. And the audience was happy to accompany me. “Get Out” (2017) Earned $176 million Domestically, “Us” (2019) earned $175 million, according to Box Office Mojo.
Peele’s latest, Nope, a UFO horror thriller (grouped by category), has grossed over $115 million since its July 22nd release. It also turned out to be one of the most talked about and baffling movies of the season.
In a video chat, Peele shed light on some fan theories and hinted at the possibility of one or more stories coming out of the world of No. Below is an edited excerpt of the conversation.
This interview contains spoilers for “Nope”.
Where did the idea for “Nope” come from?
There was something about the concept of starting with “Close Encounters,” but we found ourselves drawn to “Jaws.”. The great tradition of flying saucer movies is one I admire and I haven’t seen enough attempts at it..
you said you I wanted to promote the theatrical experience with this film. Now that we’ve crossed the $100 million mark domestically, do you feel hopeful about the future of movie watching?
Well, by the time the movie came out, it felt like the industry didn’t need to be saved. It’s a connection with myself and other people that taught me to love movies. So I just wanted to make a movie that people had to go to the theater for. In a way, if I’m going to tell a story, I want to tell something that is an escape into an immersive experience.
How did you decide to use an IMAX camera? We know it’s difficult to shoot because it’s very bulky, noisy, and limits the amount of footage you can capture before reloading.
My character is trying to capture UFO evidence. hoyte van hoytemawith my production designer, Ruth de JongWe were on this ship together trying to catch this Leviathan. So I had to roll up my sleeves and let the hard do it, and let the hard be great.
So one of the first questions I asked Hoyte was, “If I come up to you and say, ‘There’s a UFO in my backyard. I have one shot to capture this on film.’ If you say, what do you use?” And he said with a charming Dutch accent, “To be honest, I’d rather use Jordan on his IMAX camera because it has the highest resolution.”
In this movie, we discover that the UFOs we see are actually aliens themselves. How did you decide on the interior after people got in?
Many factors contributed to the construction of what we call the jean jacket interior. And it was repeated several times. But the idea for me is to navigate through the most nightmarish environment possible, with the realization that being dragged into this UFO is not really a promotion to talk or negotiate with an alien species. It’s a direct hit to digestion.
So I created one that is claustrophobic yet feels like you are very out of control and is in that state with a group of people. Part isn’t just about being a victim, but one of the many victims screaming together feels particularly helpless. I made a tunnel, a road. And there is a greater sense of the interior of that space. It is like a theater in itself. And then there’s that kind of bouncy castle energy from Hell that’s going on in the way it conducts the wind and everything.
Now for more specific narrative questions. In a sequence on the set of the TV show “Gordy’s Home!”, a chimpanzee goes on a rampage and a character named Jupiter hides to witness it. A stray shoe that stands upright without anything to support it. what does that mean?
That’s the question I get the most, and that’s why it’s the one I least want to answer by defining anything, at least for now.
However, from a character-driven point of view, this scene is the moment when the character’s dissociative psychology switch is flipped. This is the moment when something changes in you.
I don’t think you can get more details than that.
not you.
Move on. chatting online About characters cut from the movie no one on IMDb. Could you tell us about this character?
People do a lot of interesting detective work.
they are. Analysis of frame grabs from trailers and more.
The character’s story has yet to be told. This is another frustrating way to put it, but I’m glad people are paying attention. I hope to have more answers for some of these things in the future. We haven’t told all these stories.
There’s also speculation as to whether OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) is alive at the end of the film or if he’s the vision Emerald (Keke Palmer) has.
I think we made a movie that had a very clear sequence of events about what happened. I think it’s very clear. Leave it alone.
Stories work because they tap into someone’s story. What I find interesting is what did you think first? I know what you were thinking, but what you think is more important to me.