For his third film in the director’s chair, master moviemaker Jordan Peele has decided to go large. Gargantuan, in fact. A fantastical sci-fi that deals with UFOs, Hollywood heritage, and harrowing on-set sitcom murders, Nope was shot on IMAX cameras – every promotional poster for the film will proudly tell you so – which boost it from traditional blockbuster status to that of a sensational summer spectacle. With super high-res cameras and a flashy sound system at his disposal, the clever horror movie vision Peele set out on 2019’s Us and 2017’s Get Out is only getting grander.
We start by mooning over the stunning vistas of a fictional Californian desert town where siblings OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald (Keke Palmer) now run the family horse ranch following the death of their father due to sinister shrapnel raining from the sky. When these suspicious goings on transpire to be due to malicious spacecraft, the film’s epic IMAX visuals truly come into their own. And it’s not just how things look – it’s how they sound. OJ and Emerald are intent on getting the camera shy UFO committed to film, but until they do we get an array of ultra creepy, super immersive noises – from whistling wind to whinnying horses – that drill their way into your head clearer and louder than your bog standard Dolby could ever manage.
