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The whole central theme of the movie isn't really particularly subtle: it's about animals on film, and specifically their relationship with show business. Showbiz treats them as marketable props, and promotes unrealistic ideas about them. People project a lot onto them and think they know and understand a lot more about them than they actually do, while neglecting their needs and keeping them in environments ultimately unsuited for them. The movie even directly and indirectly references several famous incidents of trained performing animals attacking humans. Also I think I found a fun way to summarise the movie: Jaws, but they try to monetise the shark. The whole Gordy sequence is absolutely meant to be foreshadowing, and draws comparisons between Gordy and Jean Jacket- both are ultimately animals, which were trained for a public performance that went horribly wrong. Jupe unfortunately basically ended up recreating the Gordy tragedy on a much larger scale, trying to overcome his trauma and ultimately recreating it in the most horrific possible way- an upset, confused and spooked animal goes on a rampage, brutally killing multiple people, in what was supposed to be cheap entertainment. Also some interesting conversation on Reddit including a marine biologist's impressions of the movie- they figured out that Jean Jacket was an animal, not a vehicle piloted by sentient beings, before the characters did, based on the way it acts- its body language seems based on aquatic life, squids and octopuses in particular. Incidentally, they also theorise that Jean Jacket's species seems possibly more suited to ocean life, feeding on schools of fish most of the time. Incidentally, came to mind myself that given its behaviour, body language and response to others- seeing eye contact as a threat like apes do and responding with aggression- seems to imply that it has some level of social behaviours, and the eye contact thing would make particular sense considering that despite apparently having very good eyesight- heck, it can tell that much smaller animals are looking directly at it- its 'eye' is only visible when it makes a threat display. Considering everything it can do, I imagine one of the only natural predators it might have are larger members of its own species, and given its immense appetite it probably has to claim a large amount of territory to sustain itself. Which of course, makes for another scary thought- it's not a one-off, there are others out there, and they might be even bigger. ...of course, given all it really took to kill it was a relatively cheap prop, it ironically isn't that big of a threat once you understand it... much like even the largest and most dangerous animals. Heck, Romans would probably be able to kill one, with decent siege weapons and knowledge of its traits to lure it into a trap, and they wouldn't even notice the EMP thing. If they are native to Earth, the invention of powered flight may have been a mass extinction event for them that humanity didn't even notice. ...also, apparently on an interview, Peele confirmed 'Nope' means Not Of Planet Earth Ghost Leviathan fucked around with this message at 15:08 on Jul 26, 2022 |
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Jul 26, 2022 15:06
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Pachylad posted:Is this the Reddit thread you're talking about? That be the one! Particular answer from that I liked: quote:I can’t remember when exactly the scene happened, but an early sighting where it kicks up a little dust cloud and then glides behind the mountains to hide. That wouldn’t make sense for an alien space ship - they’d be smart enough to know speed and distance is a much better defense than staying low to the ground. Something else I picked up from the reddit: the understated use of barn owls as a motif in the movie. They have a long association with UFO lore and being mistaken for aliens by scared folks in the dark. The alien toys at the park even have a resemblance to them. And Jean Jacket is a predator that hunts at night, flies silently, swallows its prey whole and regurgitates the parts it can't digest... Terrifying Effigies posted:Origin thoughts - if Jean Jacket's species is actually extraterrestrial it would make a lot of sense for it to have come from one of the gas giants. A big flying jellyfish that hides in clouds would fit right in - and wouldn't even necessarily be the apex predator in that sort of environment. And that environment would map oddly well to an aquatic one. Of course, I figured with the cloud thing that like, clouds are pretty common phenomena on any moist enough planet, I imagine. I feel like its incongruity on Earth, and how it dies in a way that could very easily happen on accident, points to it being of extraterrestrial origin... and also plays perfectly well into the themes. It's a displaced animal, far outside of its natural habitat, in an ecosystem it didn't evolve for, and the most common animals that match its prey profile are humans...
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Jul 27, 2022 00:38
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Opopanax posted:I honest to God thought it was shaped like a hat during the rodeo scene and thought it was going to be some kind of meta commentary on domestication or something It absolutely is.
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Jul 28, 2022 09:58
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IIRC, Gordy's rampage killed two people and maimed a third, the woman whose lips got bitten off. Everybody else ran and/or hid.
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Jul 29, 2022 02:25
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The Gordy's Home video is kinda lol for a few reasons. That it looks like a corny, gimmicky 80s sitcom despite being 90s at least is... probably the point. All the expense, effort, risk and ultimately tragedy going into what was already a dated disposable piece of mostly forgotten pop culture detritus kinda underscores the point of the treatment of animals in showbiz being such a mess. Also, the particular theme song for the intro... You're A Strange Animal indeed.Jack B Nimble posted:are the deaths the two parents? I think that'd account for all the actors in the scene? I'm not sure it's stated, but that seems very likely, given they'd be the closest to him when he went on his rampage. ...also the extra tragedy and irony that Jean Jacket finished what Gordy started in wiping out the show's entire main cast.
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Jul 29, 2022 18:24
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The poster before saying about how the arrival of the flash and fancy news cameraman being when the Men in Black would usually arrive in a movie actually had about the same point. That's the point where the secret IS going to come out, people are aware that some weird poo poo is going down at Jupiter's Claim, and it's only a matter of time now until the authorities- and the media big names- are aware of the people-eating UFO. From there, motivations get an interesting mix of altruistic and selfish- they know more about Jean Jacket now than anyone else still alive, and are the only people in the position to do anything about it before there's further loss of life- and also in the position to actually document the creature and be primary sources for it.
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Jul 30, 2022 11:03
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Depends on how much remains of it and gets studied, I'd bet. Heh, imagine the mass hysteria. The more thought on it, the more likely that Jean Jacket is indeed an extraterrestrial creature. A lot of its behaviour is like, it's clearly not at all adapted to modern Earth, and given its death is by something that could easily have happened by accident, if they were at all common I think people would have noticed, especially with the EMP field. Now it is possible that it's indeed a living fossil that hatched or awakened long after humanity became a thing, but still unlikely. Its behaviour does seem to suggest it has social instincts for interacting with similar creatures and its own species, they aren't super-solitary. Maybe its fully grown forms are capable of space travel, and one came from Jupiter and deposited offspring on Earth. Maybe some aliens left a pet/pest/specimen behind. I do feel it really drives home the story for it to be an animal absolutely out of its natural habitat- like Gordy.
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Jul 30, 2022 15:33
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African-Americans literally have to deal with an entire tradition of white people dressing up in silly costumes specifically to attack and intimidate them.
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Jul 30, 2022 17:27
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Phy posted:Saw it again yesterday and picked up a few things that I missed the first time (or didn't quite get the dialog) I loooove when movies do this poo poo. Anything, really. It's the best kind of rewatch bonus.
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Jul 31, 2022 13:54
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The pig on the roof is like the shoe.
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Aug 3, 2022 08:06
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Wonder if Jean Jacket will qualify as Peele's iconic horror movie monster.
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Aug 3, 2022 09:04
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Basically Jupe thought he'd tamed a monster that he'd merely fed. That's kinda the main theme.
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Aug 3, 2022 15:46
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Animals in the wild tend to avoid actual fights they aren't entirely sure of easily winning, and confrontation tends to be settled with threats and posturing if at all possible. After all, for most animals an actual fight is like a knife fight for humans- the winner just bleeds out later.
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Aug 4, 2022 06:43
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SlimGoodbody posted:I remember seeing that skit as a kid and knowing it all felt kind of weird to watch, but not having the emotional maturity to process or explain why. Heaven's Gate, OJ Simpson, Jonbenet Ramsey; the 90s sure had a lot of grotesque tabloid media spectacle emerge around some outright tragic carnage. What a gross, cheap loving country this is! The 90s was very 'History is over, we beat the commies and the nazis and there's no more problems anymore, sexism and racism have gone away, so we can point and laugh at anyone!'
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Aug 6, 2022 11:10
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Baron von Eevl posted:It would probably if it hit you in the eyeball edge-on and at an angle to go into your brain. There's a reason the trailer cuts right from him dead in the hospital bed to OJ asking "Is there such a thing as a bad miracle?"
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Aug 7, 2022 03:01
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feedmyleg posted:I'm not so sure. When OJ asks about getting the horses back, Jupe's reaction seemed to me to imply that he knew they were dead and not coming back. He thought the audience would be safe because he was never taken either, assuming that JJ was satiated by the horse meal. Which makes it even more clear how he didn't learn his lesson from Gordy, because the audience was hosed there, too. He could also just be thinking the 'Viewers' probably aren't giving the horses back for whatever reason- maybe he thinks they ARE eating them. Or taking them back to their home planet or whatever. Either way though, he's clearly assuming far more sentience and nuance to what the UFO is doing than what it actually has- much like he might assume as a child, much like the audience, that Gordy really is a sentient being or close enough to it rather than a trained animal made to perform and presented in specific ways to create the illusion of it. Though either way it's clear he really isn't thinking rationally about things, and both his preconceptions and his trauma are colouring his thought processes.
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Aug 7, 2022 04:10
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Came up before that a lot of Jean Jacket's behaviour and mannerisms as well as its physical form are clearly based on aquatic life; jellyfish, squids and octopuses as well as sharks and rays.
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Aug 8, 2022 06:45
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1997, definitely the most 90s year of the 90s. Also sounds right, guessing Gordy's Home would probably be lucky to last a season or two even if there hadn't been tragedy on the set.
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Aug 8, 2022 14:55
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War and Pieces posted:the irl monkey sitcom only lasted two seasons because it was outrageously expensive, costing seven figures in 1970. I was gonna say that expense would probably be a factor but I wasn't sure. Yeah, that explains a lot. Wouldn't be surprised if Gordy's Home even took forever in production because of the difficulty and expense until it finally got funded and secured some performing animals (and clearly didn't do enough due diligence) to the point where by the time it was being filmed it was already extremely dated in style and themes. CelticPredator posted:I choose to see that moment as a victory and he’s fine. Peele did film the “realistic” ending where he does get arrested but that was too much of a downer. I'm reminded of the ending of Attack the Block, where the surviving protags all get arrested but it's still framed as their triumph.
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Aug 9, 2022 04:52
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Grandpa Palpatine posted:So that's why its "final form" sucked so badly See the conversation that it's specifically a threat display, designed to make itself look bigger and threatening in a way that will hopefully startle another animal into fleeing. The point is that it's not actually making itself more dangerous or having strength and power in reserve like an intelligent being might- once OJ realises it's an animal, not a spaceship, all its behaviour falls into place and he has context for how it acts and what it does. Basically the whole premise of the movie is misunderstanding- the characters think they're in Close Encounters until they realise they're in Jaws.
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Aug 10, 2022 06:34
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Astrochicken posted:Id like to be the latest person to say that digestion scene stayed with me for a while. It kinda feels like something out of a Junji Ito manga. Just real unsettling. I do feel like it's one of those images that the whole movie is basically built around. Of all the wonder and terror of alien abduction scenes it's just the most horrifying subversion.
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Aug 11, 2022 14:19
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This movie absolutely goes all-in on its themes and symbology to a ridiculous degree. I do wonder how much they might have been inspired by seeing one of those weird looking cameras and realising it looked like eyes.
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Aug 13, 2022 07:54
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Jupe strikes me as having a bit of dissonance with what he's actually doing and what he thinks he's doing. I think on some level he's treating JJ as an animal, luring it and making it comfortable with regular offerings at set times and locations until he's sure he can do it on command, but he's still got his preconceptions of the flying saucer he hasn't rethought.
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Aug 15, 2022 04:52
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There's a good chance larger members of its own species can be threats to it.
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Aug 18, 2022 02:23
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Tekopo posted:I wonder if there is a link between the phrase "don't look a gift horse in the mouth" and the whole concept of not looking at JJ. Probably not, the point is not looking them in the eye. Granted, given how JJ's sight seems to work that doesn't help.
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Aug 19, 2022 13:37
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Considering JJ's eye is only visible in its threat display mode iirc, though it seems to have no problems with seeing anything when folded up, it's possible it reacts violently to being looked at because its own kind absolutely don't do that unless they're being explicitly threatening.
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Aug 19, 2022 16:33
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There was a recent 1-900-HOTDOG article (basically where a bunch of the best former Cracked writers went after giving up on the place) about a show that immediately gave me Gordy's Home vibes and I'm apparently not the only one. https://1900hotdog.com/2022/08/nerding-day-going-bananas-%f0%9f%8c%ad/ Someone should ask Jordan Peele if he ever saw this show.
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Aug 23, 2022 08:36
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The international trailer is a lot different from the reveal ones, a LOT more focus on Emerald and OJ and a brief rather spoilery shot, but barely anything of Jupe and nothing of Gordy or the aliens.
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Aug 26, 2022 11:44
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Given it doesn't seem to have any real control over the EMP effect, a member of the species probably couldn't hide for long anywhere but remote areas of Earth because there's no way it wouldn't get noticed.
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Aug 28, 2022 00:42
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Pretty much all of JJ's behaviour is up to speculation, though you can connect a few dots. I remember reading earlier about a zoo worker talking about one of the gorillas being especially gentle and calm when sick, which stands out because most animals go kinda nuts when sick or injured, becoming very aggressive and unpredictable. Alligators will eat a mate they've lived with for years. Predators avoid prey that acts erratically because it might be sick with something they could catch, or otherwise simply doesn't act like prey is supposed to. And makes sense, because animals have very little context of what's happening to them, and an illness or injury could very well be fatal to them, leading to a slow horrible death by starvation. (which to be fair is the fate for most wild animals eventually if they don't get eaten first) Aside from maybe seeking out plants it knows have medicinal qualities, or throwing up, an animal doesn't have much recourse when sick except to eat well and hope it can tough it out. JJ probably is acting erratically because what it thought was perfectly good food turned out to be an inedible, and likely painful stomach blockage. Combine that with the feeding habits it's been used to being disrupted, and being led to a whole bunch of prey that are all staring at it- well, it goes apeshit. (Pun semi-intended) Now, ejecting the remains over the Haywood house is very much ambiguous- maybe it happened to be returning to its lair after gorging itself and needed to hock up some extra, maybe it's territorial marking, maybe it's making a mess because it's in a bad mood. Jean Jacket isn't just an alien animal, but a large predator, like a wolf, a lion or a chimp, and thus its behaviour, while recognisably animal, is just complex enough to be especially dangerous, it's not like a jellyfish. Though like aquatic animals, it only has a limited number of ways it can interact with the world- hide, eat, regurgitate, and threat display.
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Aug 28, 2022 03:25
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Has there been a TF2 parody?
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Aug 28, 2022 04:39
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Steve Yun posted:Interview with phd marine biologist who consulted on Nope: They even gave it a full on scientific name and classification, ha. Love it. The cuttlefish inspiration is interesting, especially given the idea that it dazzles its prey in similar fashion- more themes of spectacle. Weren't some HD TVs inspired by cuttlefish cells?
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Aug 30, 2022 03:51
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Gravitas Shortfall posted:What's crazy is that he got something completely different to what he initially wanted out of Brandon Perea. Angel was originally written as more comedic and offbeat, Perea auditioned him as acting like every person that's ever worked a lovely retail job and it made Peele laugh so hard he changed the character and some of the events that happened to him in the film. Good directors like any other artistic and management role work with what they've got. Even Kubrick basically promoted R Lee Ermey from consultant to near co-star for Full Metal Jacket simply because he owned the role.
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Sep 1, 2022 09:35
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Can see that as a concession to gameplay, since as has been discussed, even a decently armed adventuring party would probably figure out how to kill JJ with conventional weapons pretty easily. Cuttlefish also do the mesmerising display thing. Reminds me a bit back of the fanmade autopsy document- which specifically notes that they didn't recover the 'eye'. And reminded of how one of the crew mentioned they were inspired by the immortal jellyfish...
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Sep 5, 2022 02:25
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JJ's body is very malleable, does make sense that it can open small holes to see through... heh. Like a sheet, or a tablecloth. (or a camera obscura, as mentioned)Tibalt posted:One thing that I thought was interesting but hadn't been mentioned is that Jupe's is lying about his first encounter with Jean Jacket. It wasn't just a horse that was eaten, it was also a woman. We hear her screaming before Otis Sr. is killed by the falling coin in her pocket and her keys land on Ghost. Maybe Jupe truly did believe that Jean Jacket was a spaceship, but I think the more likely answer is that Jupe had seen it attack a person before and still believed he could train and handle it. Ehh, I think reading too much into it. The missing hikers being mentioned so early on seems like it's meant to be a point you pay attention to, and Jupe might be dangerously mistaken but I don't think he'd dismiss the 'UFO' sucking up a human being before his eyes rather than an animal. It's that he's only seen Jean Jacket suck up animals thus far, and actively induces that behaviour, that leads him to mistakenly believe that it distinguishes between humans and animals firmly. The same misconception a lot of people have about animals, leading to things like the Gordy tragedy.
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Sep 5, 2022 07:16
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Jupe's implied relationship with Em and OJ is interesting, he's a Hollywood hanger-on who clearly wants some measure of approval and to impress the people who are actually involved in big name Hollywood productions, as failing as they may be. They probably know about him before they ever met- the Gordy incident has to be infamous, especially among Hollywood animal trainers, if nothing else as a story of what not to do. The whole thing is probably pretty macabre at best.
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Sep 5, 2022 18:31
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Scissorfighter posted:That's how I read it. He had a lot going on and most of what we see/hear from him is him swallowing his trauma or practicing for the show. He probably has less than 10 minutes of screentime but his character made a big impact on me. If he's meant to parallel the mayor from Jaws, he is a huge subversion of that trope. Motivated by base desires still (fame this time instead of money,) but he seeks to control/exploit the phenomenon, rather than convince people it doesn't exist. Also, since we see he's repeating the tragedy brought onto him as a child, and likely wouldn't intentionally endanger anyone's life, he becomes far more layered and sympathetic. I've said before that one way to describe the movie is 'Jaws, but they try to monetise the shark'. Speleothing posted:It's implied to be why Nobody works with chimps anymore. And now I can only wonder what the Speed Racer movie does in the Nope universe.
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Sep 6, 2022 14:31
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Young Freud posted:Newsflash everyone! God I hate these guys so much. Also kinda lol they're literally just barn owls. Also they literally put the Akira bike slide in this, didn't they?
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Sep 7, 2022 04:55
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Those too! But the brown around the eyes really is just a barn owl. They do show up in the movie, we've been over this itt.
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Sep 7, 2022 06:41
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davidspackage posted:I love how he closes the door very gently. Makes perfect sense. Don't wanna make noise and attract attention.
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Sep 8, 2022 14:49
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