When people hear the word ‘alien’, typically they think of the little green guys with a big head, big eyes, and a small body. If not them, then the next is usually a bipedal creature with a similar visual resemblance to the human body: two arms, two legs, mouth, torso, etcetera.
Movies tend to reflect this with the aliens they create. They’re usually bipedal, and if they’re quadrupeds the ‘arms’ act like a second pair of legs, have an identifiably human-esque torso, a head, and other details that can comparably be similar to humans.
Nope by Jordan Peele is chalked full of hidden messages and amazing cinematography that pulls the audience in and makes the audience feel the fear and fight-or-flight induced adrenaline. However, I want to focus on Jean Jacket, the main antagonist, an alien, that the movie itself revolves around.
Jean Jacket’s concept is one I have not seen before in the alien movies I have seen before. Being a flying saucer shape, the characters in the movie thought it was just that until OJ figured out that it was a living organism. By all means, it was a very easy thing to mistake as well. The widely recognizable saucer shape, coupled with how it consumed its prey by pulling them off of the ground, is extremely reminiscent of a stereotypical UFO.
Not even mentioning Jean Jacket’s second look that comes from it ‘unfurling’ that genuinely looks like something otherworldly.
Although there are debates about the origins of Jean Jacket and if it could have been from another planet or have already been living on Earth, I feel like it offers a new angle on how we think of aliens. I began wondering if our laws of physics and science in general could be applicable to other planets, let alone universes and galaxies.
What if the laws of nature did not apply somewhere else in space like it does for Earth? Could living creatures come to be without the same necessities that we currently need? What if our whole concept of science and what we have discovered over centuries is not relevant outside of our planet?
The whole idea of other lifeforms existing out there can already be a mixture of confusing and exciting, but then looking at the potential of our understanding of science, evolution, or even what we need for life to form on our planet potentially being non applicable for life to happen somewhere else is mind boggling.
NOPE is not the only movie that does it either. Arrival’s ‘heptapod’ species have a very inhuman lower half and while the top half of their forms can resemble a human somewhat, it is still a silhouette that I have never seen before, and even their form of communication is fascinating.
When directors and creatives can come up with alien concepts that don’t resemble humans, or even visually resemble anything from the animal kingdom for that matter, my interest is sparked. I wonder what their planet is like, what environments they have to live in, the food they eat, and more. In movies where these creatures are new and don’t follow the bipedal look that we have seen for decades, it adds more interest on the audience’s end and makes them more invested in the aliens of the story.