Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and
Speaker 1: this is the Monster Fact, a short form series from
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing in on mythical creatures, ideas,
Speaker 1: and monsters in time. If you haven't caught Jordan's Peel's
Speaker 1: new sci fi horror film Nope yet, I recommend you
Speaker 1: go watch it right now, at least if you're a
Speaker 1: fan of Peel's previous films, as well as that feeling
Speaker 1: of being utterly creeped out in a movie theater and
Speaker 1: even more creeped out when you leave that movie theater.
Speaker 1: It's not for the faint of heart, but I think
Speaker 1: it's must see viewing for sci fi and horror fans.
Speaker 1: But don't worry, I'm going to make sure that there's
Speaker 1: a clear line in this episode between non spoiler and
Speaker 1: spoiler content as we proceed here, because this is one
Speaker 1: you really want to go in fresh on if you
Speaker 1: choose to see it. First of all, generally speaking, I
Speaker 1: really enjoyed this film. Peel is one of the most
Speaker 1: interesting directors working today, and Nope is the sort of
Speaker 1: picture that would generally captivate me if it had come
Speaker 1: out in any previous decade, though the social nuances would
Speaker 1: have been different for sure. For instance, I can imagine
Speaker 1: someone like Larry Cohen having done a picture like this
Speaker 1: in the nineteen seventies. One can easily imagine the nineteen
Speaker 1: fifties variation as well, And of course our two version
Speaker 1: is perfectly poignant as well skeletally. It is a B
Speaker 1: movie sci fi feature with a great twist, but there
Speaker 1: is some great flesh on those bones as well, in
Speaker 1: the form of Peel's social commentary, a top notch cast,
Speaker 1: and exceptional cinematography. Okay, now let's get to the spoilery stuff.
Speaker 1: You've been warned. Here we go three two one. It's
Speaker 1: various reviewers have already pointed out Nope is a movie
Speaker 1: of society's relationship to spectacle. All the main characters have
Speaker 1: film industry connections, and Steve Young's character Ricky is the
Speaker 1: one I found the most poignant. As a child actor,
Speaker 1: it's revealed the character experienced a terrifying and traumatic experience
Speaker 1: on the set of a nineties sitcom. The show's central
Speaker 1: chimpanzee actor snapped and killed or mutilated all of Ricky's
Speaker 1: co stars before security finally moved in and put the
Speaker 1: creature down right in front of young Ricky. As an adult,
Speaker 1: Ricky has found ways to profit off of that event,
Speaker 1: but clearly hasn't fully dealt with all the underlying trauma.
Speaker 1: But now he has a new obsession. A UFO is
Speaker 1: abducting horses on his California ranch, and he's decided to
Speaker 1: spend this phenomenon off into a live, kicketed spectacle, the
Speaker 1: star Lasso Experience. In the film's great twist, the UFO
Speaker 1: descends early during one of these live events, and a
Speaker 1: startling revelation occurs. It is not a ship but a
Speaker 1: single predatory organism. It proceeds to suck Ricky, his family,
Speaker 1: and all of the audience members up into itself and
Speaker 1: consume them in a horrifying sequence that I found and
Speaker 1: still find particularly unsettling. This plot twist reminds me a
Speaker 1: lot of the twist in the nineteen sixty eight Jeffrey
Speaker 1: Household novel Dance of the Dwarves, in which an anthropologist
Speaker 1: in South America thinks he is attempting to communicate with
Speaker 1: a tribe of pygmies in the jungle, only to realize
Speaker 1: far too late that the beings are in fact a
Speaker 1: species of predatory giant otter with a taste for human blood.
Speaker 1: In both Nope and Dance of the Dwarfs, protagonists set
Speaker 1: out under the assumption that the spectacle they chase is
Speaker 1: something that can be if not communicated with, then at
Speaker 1: least controlled or even exploited to some degree. The anthropologist
Speaker 1: character thinks he can offer beads to the mysterious dwarves
Speaker 1: in the forest. Ricky thinks he can keep the UFO
Speaker 1: at arms length and pacified with horses. Notes. Central characters
Speaker 1: O J and Emerald Haywood played by Daniel Kaluya and
Speaker 1: Kiki Palmer likewise see the UFO is something they can
Speaker 1: capture or film for profit. They all finally realize, and
Speaker 1: again so much too late, that their theory of mind
Speaker 1: is incorrect in this matter, and that they face a
Speaker 1: predatory animal intellect that only sees them as food chilling stuff.
Speaker 1: Now that we're discussing note purely as a monster film,
Speaker 1: and it is a very memorable monster film, let's talk
Speaker 1: about the monster itself. We see more and more of
Speaker 1: the monsters. The movie progresses, as is, of course, the
Speaker 1: law concerning these things and it's revealed at last to
Speaker 1: be some manner of billowy air creature that brings to
Speaker 1: mind some of the alien art of Wayne Barlow and
Speaker 1: concepts of the sorts of sky jellies that might conceivably
Speaker 1: live within the clouds of gas giants. And while this
Speaker 1: is entirely speculative biology here for an aerial creature, it's
Speaker 1: anatomy does bring to mind various creatures that thrive in
Speaker 1: aquatic capitats of the natural world. Plus, its method of
Speaker 1: inhaling its prey through a vortex brings to mind the
Speaker 1: suction feeding method of many fish. They rapidly expand the
Speaker 1: inside of their mouths to create a pressure gradient to
Speaker 1: draw water and prey directly into their gaping maws. The
Speaker 1: speed at which some fish performed this feat is incredible.
Speaker 1: Consider the bay pipe fish, which can inhale small crustaceans
Speaker 1: and other prey in as little as two milliseconds so
Speaker 1: in a sci fi horror film like Nope, in a
Speaker 1: scenario that involves the surface world, this feeding method is
Speaker 1: entirely horrific. In Earth socians, lakes and rivers, however, it's
Speaker 1: just business as usual. Tune in for additional episdisodes of
Speaker 1: the monster fact or the artifact each week. As always,
Speaker 1: you can email us at contact. It's Stuff to Blow
Speaker 1: your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is
Speaker 1: a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts for
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
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