Nope Director Offers More Insight Into One of the Film’s Biggest Mysteries

Ahead of the release of Nope, audiences had a number of questions about what could really be going on in Jordan Peele’s latest film, only for Nope‘s release to ignite even more questions about what the narrative meant. One scene, in particular, saw a shoe seemingly defying gravity, with this memory sticking with Steven Yeun’s Jupe for the rest of his life. Fans have speculated about the significance of this moment, and while Peele might not have offered some otherwordly origins for the “impossible” event, he did explain why this moment stuck with Jupe for so long.

“The shoe represents a moment where we check out of a trauma,” Peele shared with the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “And Jupe, he zones in on this little shoe, that’s Mary Jo’s shoe, that has landed in a precarious, odd situation. And this is the moment he disassociates.”

He went on to add, “In one way, it’s the impossible shot. It’s the impossible moment.”

The moment occurs when, while filming the sitcom Gordy’s Home!, a chimpanzee goes into a violent rage, causing Jupe to hide under a table. He spots his young costar’s show standing on end, with the adult Jupe going on to track down the artifact and similarly display it in this position in his office. Given the sci-fi nature of the premise, some fans have speculated an otherworldly explanation for this anomaly, with Peele instead noting how it was a “bad miracle.”

Peele also went on to address another mystery about the film, which is the character referred to as “Nobody,” who only appears in one of the film’s trailers but was absent from the actual release. While Peele didn’t explicitly explain the importance of the character, he confirmed that this figure will factor into something in the future.

“There’s a character that people are growing more and more interested in, you’ve seen briefly in the trailer, in one of the trailers for Nope, but he’s not in the film, and I would imagine there will be some discovery about this character,” the filmmaker teased. 

Peele similarly addressed the character last summer, hinting that there’s more of them to come. 

“People are doing a lot of interesting detective work, is what’s going on,” Peele shared with The New York Times. “The story of that character has yet to be told, I can tell you that. Which is another frustrating way of saying, I’m glad people are paying attention. I do think they will get more answers on some of these things in the future. We’re not over telling all of these stories.”

Stay tuned for details on Peele’s future projects.

What did you think of the filmmaker’s explanation? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!