Movie review
July 20, 2022 · 130 min · R
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
Nope follows a brother and sister who run a horse ranch in rural California and spot a dangerous, UFO-like creature in the sky. They try to capture clear video of it to save their business while dealing with the threat it poses to them and their animals. The story mixes sci-fi horror with ideas about spectacle, fame, and exploitation in entertainment, and it includes a Black family with a long history supplying horses to Hollywood productions.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Nope.
Woke representation / casting
The film stars Black actors Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer as the central siblings running the horse ranch. Their family backstory directly links to an uncredited Black jockey in early cinema history. This makes the casting and identity elements audience-visible and tied to the story's visibility themes, though the characters' horse skills fit the setting without obvious mismatch or unearned dominance.
Woke political dialogue
No explicit activist speeches, lectures, or identity-focused arguments in the dialogue; conversations stay grounded in plot, survival, and reactions to the events.
Identity-driven story themes
Core focus is horror and the dangers of spectacle and exploitation in entertainment; includes subtle background nods to Black family history in early Hollywood and perseverance, but these do not drive the main narrative or character arcs.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Critiques Hollywood's commodification of spectacle, trauma, and animals through the alien metaphor and theme-park neighbor storyline; stays at a general cultural level without modern activist framing of patriarchy, systemic racism, or anti-Western institutions.
Production
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant. This is an original story with no established characters, canon, or historical figures altered for identity or DEI reasons.
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Scattered online comments criticize it as pushing social commentary or feeling like a diversity project disguised as horror; complaints exist but remain limited and not part of any major public backlash.
Creator track record context
Jordan Peele has a clear pattern of horror films that incorporate social and racial commentary, including Get Out's focus on race and class. He has said his race informs his work and specifically tied Nope to fixing the erasure of Black figures from cinema history and exploring spectacle through that lens.
