One of the biggest box office hits and critically-acclaimed films of the year, Jordan Peele’s mysterious UFO horror thriller “Nope” is finally coming to home video. While the Digital Collector’s Edition of “Nope” was released in September, the 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD arrives on October 25, 2022, from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. To boot, Peacock announced today that the film will be available on its streaming service on November 18.
“Nope” centers on the residents of a lonely gulch in inland California who bear witness to an uncanny and chilling discovery and then try to capture it and exploit it for potential fame and fortune. The film stars Daniel Kaluuya as Otis “OJ” Haywood Jr. and Keke Palmer as his sister Emerald, the two of them inheritors of the Haywood Ranch following the mysterious death of their father. Once they start becoming in contact with “Jean Jacket,” the mysterious UFO/entity that’s haunting the valley they live in, the pair soon recruit help from Angel Torres (Brandon Perea), a conspiracy theory-minded tech salesman for Fry’s Electronics and Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott), a renowned cinematographer, in hopes of capturing the creature on film.
READ MORE: ‘Nope’ Review: Jordan Peele’s Sci-Fi Thrill Ride Floats With Superlative Craft
We spoke to Peele, Palmer, and 27-year-old newcomer Perea recently, and one of the unifying themes of the interviews was that Peele didn’t overexplain much of the plot, the themes, and what he was really trying to say in the deeper meaning of his film to his actors.
“He does keep an aspect of mystery to it,” Perea said. “His main point was spectacle and kind of leaving it at that. ‘Look, spectacle, the dangers of that, how other people deal with it,’ and you kind of just depict your own description of how it all comes together.”
Palmer took it one step further and said Peele avoids spoiling the true nature of the film for his actors.
“I love that you never even ruined the movie for your actors, though. That’s really like classy, and I don’t know how you do it,” she turned and said to Peele.
“How do you mean?” he responded.
“You don’t ruin the movies for us,” she said, commenting on the way he didn’t overstate the film in their conversation. “Like you tell us just what we need to know in terms of your directing. Like you direct the entirety of it, but you only let us know what we need to know to get the performance we need to get. So, when I watch the movie, I get to watch it like an audience member because I don’t really know what everything meant because you didn’t tell me. You just told me what I needed to know. It’s really crazy. Like, so when I’m hearing you say that, I’m like, I appreciate that you didn’t ruin the movie for me.”
For his part, Peele pushed back a little bit on the idea that he was keeping his actors in the dark about the deeper meaning. “You know, I don’t even think of it as being sort of withholding or anything with my actors,” he explained. “But when I’m working with one of my actors, I’m really thinking of it as a process where we’re both learning together, and I hold the keys to some of the answers, and she holds the keys to the rest of it.”
In various “Nope” interviews, Peele has been super tight-lipped about what he’s doing next, even calling out some journalists playfully for trying to dig up info. But in my interview, he did suggest something was in the works, and it could involve Palmer again.
“It’s hard to get across what it’s going to feel like to be in the presence of something from another world,” Peele said. “But I’ve had the great fortune throughout my directing career to have access to top-of-the-line actors. I always say no matter how good your visual effects, no matter how good your cinematography is, all of that, it doesn’t actually matter in the end if the acting isn’t amazing. And so, I really think of the performances and Kiki’s performance as the real cannon fire that we have to support.”
“It was just was just one of those things—and obviously, we’re talking about how we’re going to work together again,” Peele continued, to which Palmer responded with a big enthusiastic “Okay!” “Directing is hard, but there are times when it becomes very easy, and so that’s what I was able to pull together with these actors, and it was so much fun what we were able to pull together Emerald was just crazy. Classic, really.”
“Nope” is available to own for the first time on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD on October 25, 2022, from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. And today, Peacock announced the film will be on its streaming service on November 18.
