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.
Community feedback
Was our 45% Woke rating accurate?
Loading review details…
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.
35%
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.
5%
Production
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.
30%
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.
25%
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.
0%
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.
20%
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.
58%
Movie · 2019
Karen, a single mother, gifts her son Andy a Buddi doll for his birthday, unaware of its more sinister nature. A contemporary re-imagining of the 1988 horror classic.
Movie · 2022
A brilliant toy company roboticist uses artificial intelligence to develop M3GAN, a life-like doll programmed to emotionally bond with her newly orphaned niece.
Movie · 2017
The six-member crew of the International Space Station is tasked with studying a sample from Mars that may be the first proof of extra-terrestrial life, which proves more…
Movie · 2026
After breaking the mysterious "One Wish Willow" to win his crush's heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires…
Movie · 2025
Special Forces commandos on a mission are abducted mid-operation by a mysterious spacecraft. Upon waking aboard, they find themselves prey to a relentless alien race in a fight…
Movie · 2024
While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe.
Movie · 2022
For more than a decade, parents Andy and Vicky have been on the run, desperate to hide their daughter Charlie from a shadowy federal agency that wants to harness her unprecedented…
Movie · 2020
Looking for an escape from her recurring nightmares, 18-year-old Sarah submits to a university sleep study, but soon realizes she's become the conduit to a frightening new…
