The Reel Rejects - NOPE (2022) IS OUT OF THIS WORLD!! MOVIE REVIEW!!

Episode Date: October 19, 2025

WHAT'S A BAD MIRACLE?! Nope Full Movie Reaction Watch Along:   / thereelrejects   Save & Invest In Your Future Today, visit: https://www.acorns.com/rejects GET OUT (2017) Movie Reaction:    • GET OUT (2017) IS MASTERFUL HORROR!! MOVIE...   US (2019) Movie Reaction:    • US (2019) IS A SURREAL NIGHTMARE!! MOVIE R...   NOPE Reaction, Recap, Commentary, Analysis, Ending Explained & Spoiler Review! Tara Erickson & Andrew Gordon dive into Jordan Peele’s sci-fi horror spectacle NOPE (2022), starring Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out, Black Panther), Keke Palmer (Good Fortune), Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead, Minari), Brandon Perea (The OA), and Michael Wincott (The Crow, Westworld). We break down the mysterious UFO (Jean Jacket), the Gordy’s Home chimp attack, the shoe standing upright, the themes of spectacle addiction, Hollywood exploitation, animal symbolism, and the legacy of trauma. We react to iconic scenes like “What’s a bad miracle?”, OJ staring down the alien without eye contact, Jupe’s Star Lasso Experience massacre, the final balloon showdown, and Keke Palmer yelling “Let’s go!” We discuss Jordan Peele’s influences from Spielberg’s Jaws & Close Encounters, Akira motorcycle slide homage, religious undertones, animal control metaphors, and the commentary on fame consumption. We talk about how NOPE connects to Get Out and Us, Steven Yeun’s tragic backstory, and whether Jean Jacket is a monster or a god. Join us as we analyze deeper meanings, hidden details, visual metaphors, UFO design secrets, and give our full review of one of the most unique horror films ever made. Follow Andrew Gordon on Socials:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MovieSource Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/agor711/?hl=en Twitter:  https://twitter.com/Agor711 Follow Tara Erickson: Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TaraErickson Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/taraerickson/ Twitter:  https://twitter.com/thetaraerickson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you're with Amex Platinum, you get access to exclusive dining experiences and an annual travel credit. So the best tapas in town might be in a new town altogether. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Terms and conditions apply. Learn more at Amex.ca. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here.

Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ, built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move. Lift with confidence, while Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton cross-draining tread plus at one peloton.ca. Is it the matcha or am I this energized from scoring three Sephora holiday gift sets? Definitely the sets. Full size and minis bundled together, what a steal.

And that packaging, so cute, it practically wraps itself. And I know I should be giving them away, but I'm keeping the summer Fridays and rare beauty by Selena Gomez. I don't blame you. The best holiday beauty sets are only at Sephora. Gift sets from Summer Fridays, Rare Beauty, Way, and more are going fast. Get full-sized favorites and must-have minis bundled for more value. Shop before they're gone. In store online at Sephora.ca.

This week's video is sponsored by Acorns, the money app that makes it simple and cheap to make small yet significant investments. Three, two, one, I clicked it. All right, guys, we just got done watching a Nope. If you're listening to us on Apple or Spotify, Give us a five-star rating. Leave us a comment.

If you're on YouTube, like, comment, subscribe when you do. Ring the bell. Ring the bell. So you're notified of all the videos we are dropping. Like I said before, if you're a patron, you get to ask this question. So we're going to go straight to it.

Oh, and also, thank you so much for to paper. We appreciate you guys. Yes, proper is the best. So we're going to head to the questions. Malik Curry. How did you guys feel about the chemistry of the main cast. I personally feel like this was Peel's best casting. Daniel and Kiki bounced off each other. So, well, it's definitely a great cast. I really liked Daniel a lot in this.

I liked his, uh, this quiet intensity he had, especially when you contrast that with the rest of the chaotic craziness going on around the film. I thought it was a nice blend, uh, just again to contrast what else was going on. And also to, to contrast with his sister, she was very charismatic. She was very energetic. She was very energetic. She was very, very she stole a lot of the scenes as well just with her uh her ambition and her her energy and i just i really loved emerald a lot too so i think they were both great and also too i just like i said in real time i didn't think angel was gonna be such a prevalent character the story when we met him was like this guy's kind of a doucheed a dick and then i was like the more we started to get to know

him i was like actually like it was just he was just having a really bad day and just taking it a little bit out on the customer because he was dealing with some personal problems. I get it. Not saying that justifies, but I get it. So I'm like, but I like that character a lot too. So he's, he was pretty layered as well. And also, I thought there was a great level of charm to, with Jube as well, Stephen Eun, I think his name was. I know it wasn't in the film a ton, but also there was a, as we found out in the pack story with Gordy and all that. There was a great level of complexity I felt as well with that character. So I really enjoyed the cast. a great deal and yeah what about you uh yeah i agree with you i think it's great chemistry there's not

much more i can say about that except uh i do think that daniel and kiki also bounced off each other really well um and yeah not much more to say on that let's move on the next question from resonance z thank you for so much for being a royal reject and for asking a question we appreciate hope you two enjoyed the movie question answer what was actually scarier the alien or the flashback the camera work for the flashback was amazing and built so much tension what do you got terra what do you got for us i actually think that the alien when we first see it and that built up tension was really scary especially when it was not a flashback like in the very beginning when the kids were the aliens that scared the i was going to say that living shit

out of me dude like that was so so scared it really creeped me like that that freak me out and i know that's not the real aliens but then of course of course when we see it finally like coming through the clouds and like moving so quick that was really spooky yeah no totally i was going to think that you know what it also felt like a little bit those kids like pulling a prank on and i know they worked with jube or for jubb whatever kind of reminded me of one of my all-time favorite horror films which i know this film was homageing and doing references uh to other films as well but it kind of felt a little bit like jaws where which erin and tera just reacted go check it out if you haven't where those kids were playing a prank in the water with the shark fin i was like it kind of gave me

a little bit of the vibes of that yeah in regards to what i thought was scarier the actual I mean, I guess from a grounded reality, I would say the monkey, Gordy, because like, yeah, because that could really happen. You'd never know, you know what I mean? If you're on set with a, with a monkey like that. It was very scary. And if it was real and this, like, living hybrid saucer thing that could evolve and change shapes and shit, like, and you didn't have this good year blimp or jube looking thing that could fly up into and you had this elaborate. plan where you know you're a lot smarter than me that is probably just scary in scope and all that shit so i they're both really scary and i thought they both uh built tension i thought this movie

again we were uh tara and i were both discussing it in real time as well i thought this film did a great job because to me it's all about balance you know when it comes to especially if you're going to have different types of of tones and genres in your film yeah so like the fact that you had you had action you had sci-fi you had horror and you had a western vibe like like combining all that, that's a lot to do in one single film. And I thought the film did a great job, just blending it all to, and executed on all them to get one really good film. Yeah, I absolutely agree.

All right. Next question. Michael Medina Catheria. This is absolutely my favorite UFO-themed movie because it took such a different approach to the alien genre. I also loved how much they made sure to compare the UFO to animals by showing us with the horse and the monkey, that even trained animals are still wild at heart and prone to outbursts, if not respected and properly treated. Not looking at in the eyes was another animal reference.

Did you guys catch this connection? And what did you think about comparing aliens to wild animals as a theme? Yeah. I mean, I definitely caught the part of not looking at the eye for sure. I mean, they made a point to for sure, like, let us know. I thought there was an interesting theme, too, in the film just about, like, you know, not being able, you know, controlling. you know chaos and and all that like can we like are we able to control and tame the forces of nature and like sometimes that's just really completely out of our hands you know what i mean we have to

bend to it to its will sort of thing so i thought like that was like jordan peel did an excellent job of using that metaphorically and actually as a physical thing here yeah so i thought that was like really done well um and it was very subtle never felt forced and very organic. What about you? Yeah, I definitely caught the connection. I think in general, like back to give you an example, like when I was dolphin training in Hawaii,

sometimes when we would have, when people would buy an experience with the dolphins and they would walk into a pool, sometimes a dolphin would turn on its side and kind of open its mouth and just like slowly, like they're not going to do anything. But the people would go like,

oh, what is it doing? And it wouldn't hit its mark. And that was a way that we would go, okay, McCona Nice's time will go into the other tank and deal with the other dolphin, meaning that was their cue of like, they might have reached our threshold, not in the mood today, maybe they already had an interaction before and they just want to chill. But they would be smart enough to know, like, I'll just do this and they'll give them a break. So I do find it the connection between the wild animal thing and the aliens as like, I love loved it. But I've also seen

the same thing of like with as you're saying like that even trained animals they have a threshold they're prone to outburst and I've seen that before as I think we've all seen even on TV. I'm just saying like up close and personal and I like that also the howling

of a dog was very prevalent in order to get the alien that's what they played on the roof and a wolf especially is like don't look that fucker in the eye so yeah I like I liked it a lot. All right.

All right, Jaden Rhodes. My favorite thing about the movie was the brother and sister dynamic. Do y'all like the alien at the end? I remember the first time I watched it. I was a little disappointed with how it was portrayed and the way it looks, but it grew on me with rewatching it. Yeah. I mean, I didn't have any issues with it.

The biggest surprising thing was how it turns kind of into a flag and then it has that weird kaleidoscope thing. and I was like wait how did we get here because we didn't get to see it morph until the end to where it becomes that flag and comes and falls back into the saucer again which I thought yeah I needed that because I was like what in the actual F what the is this thing now so I get you with that like it's it was a it was a different kind of like vibe but it didn't bug me in a way that I think maybe it disappointed you Jaden um I sort of was like yeah I guess like who knows what it actually looks like except the atypical saucer that they gave us was what it yeah what we have seen and like what they were talking about the navy um videos and whatnot some of those yeah released uh videos classified videos that they've released it's similar to that um so I would agree yeah I think it would it it would grow on me as well I think the reason it did is because it showed us um going back into

the saucer, which I very much like. For sure. Well, I'm glad it did grow on you, Jaden, as you were rewatching it. I've had films do that, too, where I didn't like a specific thing, whether it was storyline or a character, character's arc, or just a character in general, or a look of something. And then as I rewatch, I'm like,

I actually do like that. It is growing on me, so I can totally resonate with what you are saying about that. But I personally, I like the look of it. I mean, granted, it was the typical, you know, saucer look, but I also thought it was not typical in terms of the top was, but I felt the bottom, like I said, during the reaction, it felt like an actual underbelly of an actual

alien or whatever it was. Like it felt alive. It felt like a hybrid being or something. So I thought that was like a really cool way to give it a general familiar feeling, but also like differing from normal things we would associate with UFOs or whatever saucers. You know what I mean? And then when it evolved in the end was like, holy shit, this is definitely different too. Like it could really evolved like this so I liked it and when it came to the the brother and sister dynamic I agree that was definitely my favorite part of the film as well and I really Tara I love this theme in the film about legacy versus visibility and how like you know OJ was not willing to let go of this place even though it probably wasn't his true love but he wanted to do it for in honor of his father and to you know what obviously happened to his father was so unexpected because of the you know the ship that or the alien that was flying around dropped the coin and all of that, but he wanted to make his father proud and to honor him by keeping the business that he spent so much of his time building up into something that was great in the movie and TV industry. So I could really appreciate that. And I thought that was like a beautiful

theme and again, very well executed by Jordan Beale. Yeah, I agree. All right, from Awesome, Joe, what kind of movie would you like for Jordan Peel to make next? Get Out was focused on the psychic horror than us, which is my favorite, by the way, explored doppelganger horror. Okay. And Nope was with alien monster horror. For me, I would like to see what he could do with a time travel horror movie. Okay, well, you said Get Out was focused on psychic horror. Yep, I just did watch that with the Greg.

And then Nope was Alien Monster Horror, correct. And Us is, as I'm reading now, doppelganger horror. Well, now I have an idea what that is because I'm probably going to react to that at some point soon with Greg. honestly i don't care what he does i'll watch anything he does he's a very thought-provoking a director he's one of those directors too and when i say thought-provoking when the film's over you're still gonna be thinking about the movie and you're gonna have questions but not questions that like in my in my opinion at least that questions where like it's bothering you but questions that are going to make you really think about long and hard and make you want to re-watch the

film and make you pick up on things the second, third, fourth, fifth time. And those are my favorite kind of directors, honestly, when you can rewatch stuff and like, holy crap, they really set that up. I did not catch that. Even the first three times I watched it, that is great stuff. But I know him as a filmmaker. He was assuming that on the third or fourth watch, I was going to pick that up and catch that this time.

So I like directors who like really take the time. That shows that they have such a love for what they do and they have such a care. and they're so attentive in their profession. So I don't have a specific thing that I'm like, I need him to do this. Whatever he does, I will be there whether not most likely the theater because I don't go to the theater obviously that much. I think Tara and I are the ones who are here the most.

But whether it's the theater here, I'll be there. Yeah. Yeah, I think that it would be fun to see kind of a smash up of like a cabin in the woods where it has a lot of those characters, real things are happening. it's not all psychic horror mixed with saw because like what in the actual f it's not like there's a ton of gore in his right so could be fun to kind of like push the the limits of like is there a psychopath on the loose killing all these people in weird ways yeah we'll see all right captain fernandez thank you so much for being a royal reject and for asking a question we really appreciate you I and many others think the central idea of the film is that our obsession with spectacle eventually consumes us

and that the only answer is to not participate what do you guys think the movie was about that's a special movie our obsession with spectacle I mean I guess you could kind of see especially like towards the end with the film director like he is like the central point of that because like he had to be there with a big spectacle

and then he kind of ran off on his own doing that and then like it can literally consumed him uh but i would say like that that is being more practical in in regards to this uh and symbolic but yeah i be i would say that that is definitely i i think a big thing too is just like uh being able to control the forces of nature like how much do control do we have is a very big thing too um i think like also too like when shit goes awry how resourceful and observant can we be as well is definitely a very important thing to be in situations like this. But I would agree that this is probably, you know,

the main theme of the film is what you put, or rather the central idea of the film. I would agree. What about you? Friends, family, I wasn't raised what you would call financially literate. At the young age, we did lose her house. I have what you might call money trauma, I guess. So when it came to running a business here,

I take that very serious. and I know how to run this business, but when it comes to investing outside of that, I've always felt scared. And that's why Acorns has been absolutely amazing. For you guys who don't know what Acorns is, it's a financial wellness app that helps you invest for your future,

save for tomorrow, and spend smarter today all in one place. Favorite part, you really don't need to be like a finance whiz. I use words like whiz now. With just your spare change, Acorns automatically invest into an expert built portfolio, and they even have a checking account that invests as you spend and an emergency fund that grows your money over time. Before we signed up with them, I remember distinctly. One of our hosts, Roxy Stryer, tell me once how her investment in Acorns once really helped get her out of a very bad financial spot.

And that, of course, stuck with me, so I went on the journey with them, and it is nice opening up that app. And I really love that you don't need like a big chunk of change. You could start with such a small amount. First month, I started like with $20. Now I go with $100 because fortunate enough, we can't. So Reject Nation, you can sign up now at acorns.com slash real rejects. And Acorns will boost your new account with a $5 bonus investment. Because we're talking about money, I do have to say.

Payne on client endorsement, tier two compensation provided. Investing involves. Risk. Acorn advisors. I will see an FCC registered investment advisor. View, you and Acorns for being part of my financial wellness life. It's interesting because Angel chooses obviously to very much participate in the spectacle, but he ends up okay and kind of like a part of the family, right? So, I mean, I also, in thinking about it, I do also agree with you.

There's, there's just some things that's like, oh, yeah, I hadn't really thought about it that way. I felt more pulled towards the family dynamic of them sticking to their name and being like, this is what you get when you mess with Haywood. When a family dynamic sticks together, they can sort of fight through anything. Meaning there's a sacrifice that is very obviously made with the brother for his sister to get away, knowing full well he could be in the belly of an alien. And then she gets away and, yay, it's a happy ending. We do see that he survived. But we also see, you know, in the beginning that a lot of people, what they tried to do is set up that anybody they encountered had zero faith in them. said like you can't you're not going to figure this out or like you probably shouldn't do this

and then in the end they're actually the ones who get the picture of the alien and kill it right right so um i think maybe it has to do with underestimating people um and uh yeah just showing them that like hey i'm underestimated in a lot of ways um in regards to probably race because a lot of the times that they were being underestimated was by white people in this film. But it could be any, any race wherever for any of us if you feel underestimated. And then you get to the point that they're at where they kind of save the day as well as possibly the world if the alien decided to move from that cloud, which is a cool way to look at it. I love what you just said, though, like no matter what the adversity is, if you stick together

as a family you can accomplish or get through anything together. I do like that. I think that's a various suit point on top of this other thing here too though. Yeah. Really well said, Tara. All right. Jay Rushden. What up, Jay? This film is based Jaws there. The song

Where My Sunglasses at Night is muted for effect. Question the monkey story's random, creepy. Does it affect the pacing of the movie? I don't think it affects the pacing of the movie in a negative way at all. I actually think it fits just right. I like the way they showed it at first

as a way of being ambiguous and mysterious and then let's leave that up we don't want to see those I like that it showed like the very beginning Tara when we see that the whole Gordy scene it's very again it's it's eerie it's mysterious it's horrifying

and yet we don't know what the hell it's going on because we don't know we're in an alien film so but it just kind of just reinvigorates the whole thing about like how much can you control

you know things that are out of your control right so but I do like the nonlinear storytelling and they did get back to that scene a little bit later on in the film and think about close to halfway and it was pretty quick it was like five six minutes scene so I don't think

it affected the pacing at all in fact I think it filled in a little bit of the backstory when it comes to to jube when it comes to jube and it also just how long, right, these aliens possibly been on Earth if they were able to possibly... I still would maybe need to watch this movie

another time or two to really get a total read on that scene a little bit more, but I think it just fits into that theme more about, you know, can you control the forces of nature? Can we tame it type of thing? I know I've said that a few times already here, but I think that is such a prevalent theme to this film. Yeah. Yeah, I don't...

I actually really wanted to see it. Like finally, when we saw, you know, we're starting at the top with the sitcom dialogue and then we we cut to it sort of mid. And then finally when we get to the scene, I was like, I want to see the aftermath. I don't know. I just have like, I was pulled towards it to see like, how did we get here? And why is this animal being shown to us as like a savage? Like something really terrible happened. And I think it just feeds into the connection of that there's weird forces out there

And that every animal, which again, someone earlier said, you know, comparing the wild animals to aliens, right? That they all have a threshold that can be passed and it can be scary. Like they even said in here, Sig Friedem Roy. True. And other circumstances like that that have happened. You know what I was also thinking about? at SeaWorld. Yeah, I was going to say Tiki at SeaWorld,

how he freaked out. There's, there's, you know, a lot of that where they can reach a point where it's like, no, you've got to get me out of here. I do think for Orcas, like, obviously for that, they were never really given enough room. Yeah, no, they should not be at SeaWorld. Right. They're born under domestic care. So a lot of them wouldn't be able to actually survive in the wild, especially when they're

born under domestic care they're not like and it's not though that they're treated badly it's just that yes every animal whether they're born under domestic care but they still have it's an argument of nature versus nurture right so we're talking nature it is

still a wild animal nurture can change the way it behaves in certain ways so that's just like something that it gave us to think about for this film with yes comparing it comparing the animals aliens reaching a threshold what's going to happen yeah kev b did you

understand what jupe's sitcom ape attack flashback meant because not many people do that's a great question um i mean i was obviously i was completely wrong when we were talking about it i thought like the aliens were like consuming things and then putting them back down and controlling them so I was off my rockers with that prediction. But what was your interpretation of the scene? I mean, I feel like I just like kind of touched on it where it's like this film is showing us a lot of that has to do with comparison between aliens, wild animals,

what's going on here, what spooks them, what can set them off? Because we go from the ape, it's the popping of a balloon that obviously can be all of, those animals that are on set. You train them to deal with lights in their faces, loud sounds, lights falling, action, camera, an actor moving, an actor petting them, an actor running, healing beside them. It's like you have to deal with all of that. And then we do show lucky being trained to deal with the flags so that it can, you know, ride through that in order to get this alien so

that we can trap it. Yeah. And I think it sort of keeps you on your toes in thinking, oh, we did see Lucky before buck that lady, right? Yeah, yeah. In the beginning. And then we move further with Lucky, which is great. But I think it's just a way to kind of keep you on your toes of like,

you're never quite sure what's got to happen with the wild animals or the freaking aliens. True. No, that's a great point here because I think we saw in that scene with Gold. when we were on set, like right when the balloon started popping and going out, like, it freaked out. So that's where it's like again, this whole idea of like nature versus nurture

and what can we control again, you know? That's where it is out of our control in that sense. And so that's where OJ came to the discovery as long as I don't look at this thing and like I stay and, you know, that's where I appreciated the resourcefulness

in his character because he deals with animals and he deals with horses. he understands, like, treating it as such. And I thought that was such an interesting way to go about the film and execute on that. So I love that. But, yeah, I think that was a great point. Absolutely.

All right. Last question from Mark Leach. How do you feel about the reveal of the alien? What happens to everyone? I remember watching it feeling genuinely disturbed by the idea of people being digested alive. And but some people, I know, found it to be silly, didn't enjoy the film after the reveal of what was actually... going. Yeah, I didn't personally find that to be silly at all. I think I can speak for Tara

and I. We were grossed out as, uh, that was, I was still under the impression that they were consuming them to pot. I don't know why I was on this theory of they were, I think maybe I had it in my mind that they were mind controlling people because the way that girl was reacting at the fries. Her thing was so weird. Her delivery was so creepy. Maybe that was intentional to throw us the audience and to get me into thinking. that but that's where my mind was so i was in hope even though i still would think like you know you're just a vessel at that point you're not even human anymore so but still that's better than being crunched up into little pieces and then you know whatever's left of you is thrown uh you know

near the hayward farm or whatever uh but uh yeah i was very disturbed by it was disgusting to see the intestines of the inside of an alien belly what it was gross what about you yeah I think it was gnarly. I think I understand why people may say that it was silly. There's sort of an aspect of comedy when it picks up the people and it disappears, but then it loops back around and all we hear is, ah, ah, like, and then it's revealed that it's eating them in its belly. It's digesting. It's basically like it's a claustrophobic esophagus that they are stuck in, which to me is terrifying. don't want it not at all you know capture of the woman in there i do think was was wildly disturbing

but i do understand if some people were like i was kind of silly when we hear like when the alien flies over it's it's the distance of the scream cries of the people in this belly screaming um could be mixed with that but i i do think that the image of it was disturbing enough for a horror film for sure and like you said with uh i think your name was mary joe the one who was beaten by gordian still survive to have to live a life of like after that experience and then you can consumed by the into the intestine of the alien oh god that's awful last thing before we close out here rotten tomatoes terra what do you got for critics first just start one night time critics i'm going to say 62 audience audience i'll say 76

Okay, so you said 62 for critics. It was 83. Oh, lovely. You said 76 for... Yeah. It was 69. Okay, so I was closer with the agreeing with the audience. Oh, that's cool.

I always do lower with the critics because sometimes they can be so weird and harsh on films that I really enjoy. They can be. So I always aim lower, but that's great. I'm glad they liked it. No, I agree with you. I remember there was one movie I really disagreed with them on. It was called Grandma's Boy. They give it a 19%.

I was like, how wrong they were on that one. Love it. Yeah. We appreciate you guys joining us. Make sure you leave all the likes, all the comments. Tell us how cool we are. We love you. We'll see you on the next one.