The Monstrefact: The SPOILER from “NOPE”

and monsters in time. If you haven't caught Jordan's Peel's new sci fi horror film Nope yet, I recommend you go watch it right now, at least if you're a fan of Peel's previous films, as well as that feeling of being utterly creeped out in a movie theater and even more creeped out when you leave that movie theater. It's not for the faint of heart, but I think it's must see viewing for sci fi and horror fans.

But don't worry, I'm going to make sure that there's a clear line in this episode between non spoiler and spoiler content as we proceed here, because this is one you really want to go in fresh on if you choose to see it. First of all, generally speaking, I really enjoyed this film. Peel is one of the most interesting directors working today, and Nope is the sort of picture that would generally captivate me if it had come out in any previous decade, though the social nuances would

have been different for sure. For instance, I can imagine someone like Larry Cohen having done a picture like this in the nineteen seventies. One can easily imagine the nineteen fifties variation as well, And of course our two version is perfectly poignant as well skeletally. It is a B movie sci fi feature with a great twist, but there is some great flesh on those bones as well, in the form of Peel's social commentary, a top notch cast,

and exceptional cinematography. Okay, now let's get to the spoilery stuff. You've been warned. Here we go three two one. It's various reviewers have already pointed out Nope is a movie of society's relationship to spectacle. All the main characters have film industry connections, and Steve Young's character Ricky is the one I found the most poignant. As a child actor, it's revealed the character experienced a terrifying and traumatic experience

on the set of a nineties sitcom. The show's central chimpanzee actor snapped and killed or mutilated all of Ricky's co stars before security finally moved in and put the creature down right in front of young Ricky. As an adult, Ricky has found ways to profit off of that event, but clearly hasn't fully dealt with all the underlying trauma.

But now he has a new obsession. A UFO is abducting horses on his California ranch, and he's decided to spend this phenomenon off into a live, kicketed spectacle, the star Lasso Experience. In the film's great twist, the UFO descends early during one of these live events, and a startling revelation occurs. It is not a ship but a

single predatory organism. It proceeds to suck Ricky, his family, and all of the audience members up into itself and consume them in a horrifying sequence that I found and

still find particularly unsettling. This plot twist reminds me a lot of the twist in the nineteen sixty eight Jeffrey Household novel Dance of the Dwarves, in which an anthropologist in South America thinks he is attempting to communicate with a tribe of pygmies in the jungle, only to realize far too late that the beings are in fact a species of predatory giant otter with a taste for human blood.

In both Nope and Dance of the Dwarfs, protagonists set out under the assumption that the spectacle they chase is something that can be if not communicated with, then at least controlled or even exploited to some degree. The anthropologist character thinks he can offer beads to the mysterious dwarves in the forest. Ricky thinks he can keep the UFO

at arms length and pacified with horses. Notes. Central characters O J and Emerald Haywood played by Daniel Kaluya and Kiki Palmer likewise see the UFO is something they can capture or film for profit. They all finally realize, and again so much too late, that their theory of mind is incorrect in this matter, and that they face a predatory animal intellect that only sees them as food chilling stuff.

Now that we're discussing note purely as a monster film, and it is a very memorable monster film, let's talk about the monster itself. We see more and more of the monsters. The movie progresses, as is, of course, the law concerning these things and it's revealed at last to be some manner of billowy air creature that brings to mind some of the alien art of Wayne Barlow and concepts of the sorts of sky jellies that might conceivably

live within the clouds of gas giants. And while this is entirely speculative biology here for an aerial creature, it's anatomy does bring to mind various creatures that thrive in aquatic capitats of the natural world. Plus, its method of inhaling its prey through a vortex brings to mind the suction feeding method of many fish. They rapidly expand the inside of their mouths to create a pressure gradient to

draw water and prey directly into their gaping maws. The speed at which some fish performed this feat is incredible. Consider the bay pipe fish, which can inhale small crustaceans and other prey in as little as two milliseconds so in a sci fi horror film like Nope, in a scenario that involves the surface world, this feeding method is entirely horrific. In Earth socians, lakes and rivers, however, it's just business as usual. Tune in for additional episdisodes of

the monster fact or the artifact each week. As always, you can email us at contact. It's Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.