NOPE Ending Explained! UFO, Gordy, OJ's Fate & More!

In this video we take a deep dive, review, recap and explain the ending to Jordan Peele's NOPE (2022) starring Daniel Kaluuya & Keke Palmer.

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[teamjacob]

Just realized. What killed their father, is also what allowed them to get a picture of it : a coin. Full circle. Literally

[screamatam]

the most terrifying scene was when the alien was above the house spewing blood over the house and you can hear all the people inside the alien screaming for their lives

[frankieverse]

As soon as Jupe brought Lucky out to be sacrificed I understood why when OJ asked if he would be able to buy the horses back at the beginning Jupe gave a half hearted “yeah” and welcomed the distraction of talking abt the Gordy incident

[moniquehayes]

The fact that the pig survives is a nod to the myth that pigs anatomically "can't look up". Because the pig didn't look up to see the UPA, it survived. Also perhaps is a reference towards the phrase "when pigs fly", to imply the impossible. That pig certainly did fly!

[elihuhefner]

Oj survived. I didn’t even think that was a question. We have no reason to not believe what we’re seeing in this movie because the narration was straight forward. In other words, if OJ had died, it would have been very clear in this movie. Also, Jean Jacket started following Emerald as soon as she took off on the motorcycle — it wasn’t interested in OJ/Lucky with the flags attached to them.

[Chloe-hmcb]

A cool little detail that someone pointed out is that jean jackets other form is a threat display. When animals are threatened they try to look big, intimidating and scary. Oj’s definitely proven that he’s to tough to eat, the streamers that he’s tied to lucky and the other precautions taken to not be eaten. Then Oj purposely looks directly at jj in their final confrontation. Jj definitely knows it’s on the top of the food chain, so from its perspective having this tiny thing (OJ) look directly at it and not immediately run away would definitely throw jj off. So, jj puffs itself up real big, takes up as much space as it can, and starts flashing that green tassel thing at Oj. Cobras flare their hood when threatened, and squids/octopi flash different colors just to give you some examples of animals doing this in real life.Which I think is cool because it goes back to the idea that Jean jacket really is an animal that relies on instincts. Which subverts this idea we have of aliens being these intelligent and evolved beings.

[fivesilverstar]

When Gordy attacked the actors, the young Ricky hid under the table. Yes, the young Ricky was staring at the shoe, but I think the table cloth saved his life cuz it covered his eyes, so he wasn't staring at Gordy directly.

[UberAwesomeDewd]

I think OJ survived because there's more supporting this than his death
-Dead
-- Out Yonder Sign (Really strong case though)
-Alive
-- Purple Monster Poem "I wouldn't eat you cause you're so tough" foreshadowing
-- His horse is named Lucky
-- Never see his death or tornados
-- No screams, every time the monster eats the victim is heard screaming but you don't even hear the horse
-- Professional Animal tamer who's already survived 4 encounters with it
-- Jordan Peele stated the ending would be a lot more light-hearted than his other movies

[fiammacochrane]

I also noticed that at the beginning of the movie when we are on the trainer job with OJ, that when it comes time for the safety talk, he does not make eye contact with anyone. He keeps his head down and his eyes are obscured by his hat, and he talks quietly. It's only when Emerald comes into the room that he looks up and they both face the room together, loud and proud (in Emerald's case). This parallels the end of the film when OJ finally looks directly at the alien to draw it away from Emerald, who is also looking at it. I thought this was such a cool tie in to the beginning of the film. I fucking love Jordan Peele

[carterburkhart]

Notice how Peele doesn’t show the actual violence of the ship’s digestion of Jupiter’s Claim nor the Gordy’s Home massacre? I feel this adds one of the film’s message on the obsession of viewing spectacle and violence in the media.

[samuelm]

One thing I noticed was that the alien merch and costumes resemble ape suits. I think that Jupe was so convinced he had bond with ufo, he depicted them as the other thing he believed he had a bond with, Gordy.

[kfcnrpt]

I think one of the most unacknowledged things in the movie is how Gordy went crazy as the balloons popped on his birthday set. Then Jean Jacket was defeated by a giant balloon which make a distinct pop in the same way that gordys balloons did

[illusion-xiii]

I think there's a connection between the story of Gordy in the flashbacks, and what's happening with the UAP. Chimpanzees have become notorious for going from cute and adorable as babies to aggressive and disturbingly fierce when they hit adolescence. As intelligent and trainable as they are, they have powerful predatory and territorial instincts, and naive owners who try to raise chimps like human children have been violently disillusioned when their sweet, docile little baby suddenly "snaps" and starts biting off faces.

This is very much how the Gordy storyline plays out. Everything was going fine, and the cute chimp was doing all of their tricks, and the humans seemed to never suspect that one day he'd grow out of that, and something (a popping balloon) would trigger those defensive, territorial instincts, with disastrous results, and they had no safeguards or precautions in place because they underestimated the danger of working with a wild animal.

Compare this to Jupe's behavior with the UAP. For six months, it obediently appeared on command every Friday for feeding, and Jupe believed that he was taming this entity. He thought it would keep behaving this way indefinitely, but he didn't realize he was dealing with a living being that was growing and maturing, and one day, all of those eyes watching it triggered a predatory and/or territorial instinct, and it "snapped", with disastrous consequences.

I almost wonder if, in that last moment as the creature turned on him, did Jupe think, "Oh no, not again!"

[thefreshlab]

The alien changes make itself more ornate and stunning at the end, so that you're tempted to look at it.

[lisabyrne]

It never occured to me that OJ was dead and just an apparition. Framing OJ astride the horse with the Out Yonder sign, I thought Peele was alluding to the quintessential ending of a Hollywood Western. The cowboy, having saved the ranch, travels with his steed to new adventures and parts unknown. The old trope of the white cowboy is replaced by a modern portrait of a black hero.

[Andrea-nom]

I think OJ survived. He understood how to defeat/avoid the predator. He is the master trainer. Antlers sacrifice and OJ sacrifice redundant otherwise. He lured the animal away to allow her motorcycle to power on. He definitely went to see what happened to his family. Not a figment of her imagination.

[finight_bluejosh]

If I remember correctly, at the beginning of the movie the radio talks about missing hikers near the area right before OJ’s father dies. I think that was its initial hunt in its territory.
Thank you for 1k!

[riripari]

I do think the woman's disfigurement is from the chimp attack. The whole Gordy storyline reminded me of the case of Travis the chimp. Just like Gordy he was a domesticated chimpanzee who was made into an animal actor and one day he snapped and attacked the friend of his owner. Just like that woman her face was mutilated as well as her hands and Travis was shot down by a cop that arrived on the scene. The story was probably inspiration for that part of the movie. The real life woman who was attacked would later do an interview with Oprah. The characters talked about wanting to be on Oprah's show multiple times.

[isaiahbryant]

I think OJ is alive because of the quote from Sheb Wooley "The Purple People Eater" song saying, "I wouldn't eat you because you because you're so tough" and I think that was specifically meant for him because he survived all of the other encounters and he literally was the toughest one to be the decoy for the monster. he was even looking it in the eye and all it did was turn around to go look for his sister.

[sadie]

I'm sure the disfigured lady was a result of the chimp. Even when I saw her in the previews (and didn't know anything about a chimp in the film) her makeup heavily reminded me of a woman irl who was attacked by her friend's pet chimp and she literally looks like that lady now and wears veils like that. Probably inspired the look.