Filmmaker Jordan Peele’s latest film Nope delivered audiences a number of compelling and unsettling elements, with one of the most intriguing being the Gordy’s Home! subplot involving a tragedy on the set of a ’90s sitcom. With the film out now in theaters, Peele took to Twitter to share the fictional opening for the TV show, which captures the era-appropriate video quality and all of the tropes of quirky family sitcoms of the time. Audiences who know the real backstory of the sitcom in regards to Nope will surely be all the more uncomfortable to watch such innocuous footage. Nope is in theaters now.
The film reunites Peele with Oscar winner Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out, Judas and the Black Messiah), who is joined byย Keke Palmerย (Hustlers, Alice) and Oscar nominee Steven Yeun (Minari, Okja) as residents in a lonely gulch of inland California who bear witness to an uncanny and chilling discovery.ย Nope, which co-stars Michael Wincott (Hitchcock, Westworld) and Brandon Perea (The OA, American Insurrection), is written and directed byย Jordan Peeleย and is produced by Ian Cooper (Us, Candyman) and Jordan Peele for Monkeypaw Productions.
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Like most of Peele’s films, Nope has ignited intense discourse about its themes and metaphors, with Gordy’s Home! being one of the most talked-about elements of the experience. What initially appears as a standard sci-fi thriller about UFOs leads to even more disturbing allegories.
WARNING: Spoilers below for Nope
In Nope, Yeun plays Ricky “Jupe” Park, the child star of Gordy’s Home!, who goes on to open the Western-themed attraction Jupiter’s Landing. During one tragic incident while filming the sitcom as a boy, his costar — the titular Gordy, played by a real chimp — mysteriously went on a violent rampage, brutally attacking his costars. While the full details of the incident aren’t revealed, at least one member of the cast is left horribly disfigured, though Gordy briefly calms down when he sees Jupe hiding under a table. As the pair had an on-screen friendship, Gordy approached Jupe to performer their signature fist bump, only for authorities to arrive in time to shoot Gordy in the head.
The significance of the scene has multiple layers. As an adult, when Jupe discovers his theme park is being visited by an intergalactic visitor, he attempts to train the creature over the course of six months. However, the training ultimately goes wrong and kills dozens of spectators, along with Jupe, drawing similarities to the fact that, no matter how well trained any creature might be, they might one day surprise you with a demonstration of violence.
Another important element is that, in the years following the Gordy’s Home!ย incident, the encounter earned a cult following, despite it being a tragic event. Peele has expressed that he wanted to explore the darker side of spectacle with the story, with him using Jupe’s connection to the horrifying spectacle and how he would use that notoriety to earn fame and money later in life being a reflection of that.
Nope is in theaters now.
What did you think of the Gordy’s Home! segments? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaughย directly on Twitterย to talk all things Star Wars and horror!
