I love Jordan Peele’s Nope, everything about it. The thematic layers to unpick from every given strand is endless, and in terms of sheer visceral impact there’s so many sequences I could talk all day about. One of them is what I like to refer as ‘OJ Haywood’s Bad Night Out’, a sequence that builds up suspense, humour, and horror into a cathartic moment of breakthrough. All anchored by one of the very best actors working today, the one and only Daniel Kaluuya. The sequence takes place in the aftermath of the Star Lasso Experience where OJ arrives at Jupiter’s Claim to find it completely eviscerated by the UFO he soon comes to identify as ‘Jean Jacket’. Rushing back to the Haywood residence to warn his sister Em and new acquaintance Angel, OJ finds himself trapped in his truck en route, while Em and Angel take refuge in the house, Jean Jacket having vomited blood and debris from Jupiter’s Claim onto it. Jean Jacket proceeds to hover around OJ, who unable to drive his truck because of Jean Jacket’s electrical interference.
At its basic premise, this sequence takes the prey and predator template and executes it to perfection. You feel the claustrophobia, the tension, the ratcheting pressure of knowing Jean Jacket is there. At any given point, you feel that Jean Jacket could strike. What makes this sequence remarkable is how contained Peele keeps it, largely keeping us within the truck with OJ. Kaluuya is mesmerising throughout. OJ’s quiet stoicism is pushed to the test here as he does everything in his power to, in effect, do nothing. Kaluuya silently articulates everything going through OJ’s mind as he analyses the situation, before capping it off with a brilliant moment where, opening the door to see a flash of Jean Jacket, he closes it, drops the lock, and mutters Nope to himself, to hilarious deadpan effect. Hoyte van Hoytema’s camerawork and Nicholas Monsour’s editing keep us honed in on OJ so intently, before the explosive jump scare of the decoy horse Em and OJ had earlier ‘fed’ to Jean Jacket jamming itself into the truck window, upon which he decides to, in darkly hilarious fashion, to sleep it off until the next day.
On the ‘morning after’, so to speak, OJ slowly drives his truck towards the Haywood residence, the car working seemingly a sign that Jean Jacket seems to have gone. The tension doesn’t relent however, as OJ frantically signals to Em and Angel to come out and flee the premises. The image of OJ’s silhouette moving across the grounds keeps us in this state of constant anxiety, alongside the unnerving ‘Sunglasses At Night’ rendition that plays out of as Angel’s van. The distortion of the music as Jean Jacket arrives back is chilling, using sound to install horror into our hearts. On OJ’s face we see a fear, a break in his stoic demeanour, that this really might be it, before his mind is drawn back to earlier memories of not looking directly at a horse to avoid triggering it.
OJ’s realisation of this before trying it on Jean Jacket is more brilliant acting by Kaluuya. The stoic Western hero of this tale tries a very different tactic to counteract, by looking away, not maintaining eye contact, and fighting the overwhelming urge to be enveloped by the spectacle of horror like Jupe did earlier. An ingenious cathartic release to a brilliant scene, and one of many that makes Nope a masterpiece.