Eagle-eyed fans of horror auteur Jordan Peele have tracked down a tweet that he wrote way back in 2014, that appears to explain the inspiration for a significant sub-plot in his latest horror movie Nope. And like some of the best (harrowing) ideas, it looks as though it came from a nightmare.
[If you want to remain entirely spoiler-free regarding any plot points from Nope, you may not want to read any further.] Although the main storyline of Nope centres around a UFO visiting a horse ranch in California, there is a sub-plot involving the childhood of Steven Yeun’s character. As a kid, he was the child star of a sitcom that also starred a chimpanzee. In true Peele fashion, the sub-plot has a horrifying twist – which is revealed in the movie’s cold open.
Peele’s tweet, which someone unearthed from November 2014 [via Uproxx], reads; “Dreamt that a baby chimp attacked some people then ran to me and hugged me all scared. I woke up with tears streaming down my face.”
The connection between the Gordy’s Home (the name of the sitcom starring the chimpanzee) sections of Nope and its main plot are already causing much speculation amongst those in the US who have seen the movie. Unfortunately, there is a gap of some weeks before it is released internationally.
Jordan Peele was best-known for being a comedian and comedic actor before making the significant shift to writing and directing horror movies, with his astonishing debut Get Out in 2017. He followed this up with Us in 2019 and Nope is the best-performing original movie (not part of a franchise or based on existing IP) to be released since Peele’s last movie. Both of his previous movies made $255 million each, and this could be a challenge in the pandemic climate, but Nope could reach these same heights.
Check out our guide to the best Netflix horror movies.