Jordan Peele delivers another thrilling, breathtaking, fan-favorite. The Oscar winner's third film, "Nope," is a genre-bending sci-fi western buddy comedy set in the California desert under alien surveillance. After the death of their horse trainer father Otis Sr. (Keith David), siblings OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald (Keke Palmer) Haywood find that a mysterious UFO is hiding in the clouds over their ranch. Former child actor and theme park owner Ricky "Jupe" Park (open in new tab) (Steven Yeun) also shares their plan. [The film draws heavily on Hollywood's UFO and Western genres, and includes thought-provoking themes about a culture obsessed with spectacle. This is the type of film that moviegoers will look into anything they can find out about the movie they just saw. For those who do, here is a breakdown of the film's epic and ambiguous ending.

The Heywood siblings learn about the mysterious UFO at the same pace as the audience, but we still had some questions about the aliens after the movie ended. It is not (as many of us thought from its classic UFO appearance), but a giant monstrous creature that sucks up and eats animals and humans. It cannot digest non-organic matter and instead shoots out things like wood, plastic, and metal (including the falling coin that killed Otis Sr. It has an electromagnetic field that shuts off all electricity nearby; as OJ puts it, "It's alive, it's territorial, and it wants to eat us."

Basically, the aliens have a territorial claim to Agua Dulce (the Haywood family desert area). I don't know how long they have been there, but there is one cloud in the sky that has not moved since the death of Otis Sr. Jean Jacket has been hiding in plain sight for months, and it turns out that Jupe has been eating the horses the aliens were sacrificing. The showman thought he could tame the aliens (more on this here (open in new tab)), but he and everyone who goes to Jupiter's claim park are eaten by Jean Jacket. The aliens mark their territory, eject all inorganic matter, and rain blood on the Haywood family.

Despite their rational urge to get the hell out (OJ, Emerald, and Fry employee Angel (Brandon Perea) flees the house after the blood rain), the siblings get the "Oprah shot," the first undeniable image of alien life that will bring their know that it will bring them fame and fortune that will save their ranch. So they come up with a plan to take that shot, with the help of Angel and nature photographer Antlers Horst (Michael Wincott).

The plan is an ingenious setup. The group positions Skydancer (the inflatable tube guy you see at used car dealerships) in a desert valley who stops when Jean Jacket approaches; OJ dons his "Scorpion King" hoodie, puts on a fake eye, rides his horse Lucky, and lures the alien out and within Antlers' range. to put them in. The filmmaker hides on a hill with Angel, ready to shoot with a non-electric film camera. Angel supports the Antlers, and Emerald provides a second set of eyes through the surveillance cameras Angel has installed early in the film.

A stranger with a camera arrives, and plans quickly run aground. Emerald guesses that he is related to TMZ (not far off, as the news has been all over the news since his disappearance at Jupiter's Claim). She warns him to leave, but the man goes out to the valley on his motorcycle; OJ tries to help him, but he knows he has to get away quickly because the cameraman is wearing an orbit-reflective helmet (leaning over him, OJ's figure is looking up at Jean Jacket). The guy gets sucked in and Jean Jacket goes round after OJ.

Luckily, the trainer knows how to keep the aliens away. Early in the film, Emerald set up a fake horse statue decorated with rainbow-colored flags to see if Jean Jacket would suck it in. The statue stuck in JJ's throat for days (because it was made of inorganic material) and the flag marks came out of the camouflage cloud (see the film's first cryptic poster (opens in new tab)). Now OJ releases a parachute of rainbow-colored flags behind him to keep Jean Jacket from getting too close.

As OJ escapes unharmed, the Antlers get their Oprah shots. The group wins big, and by the laws of storytelling, there comes a time when something goes wrong. The Antlers slip out of their camouflage and go outdoors to shoot Jean Jacket with a hand-held film camera. He doesn't know what the cinematographer is thinking, but he is almost hypnotized, determined to get a closer shot. Jean Jacket eats him.

After Antlers' death, the rest of the group is weakened in various ways. Angel is caught in the wind that Jean Jacket creates (the entire hideout is blown away and the film containing the Antlers' Oprah shot rolls away in the sun). Before the meal can be served, the technicians quickly wrap themselves in the fallen barbed wire fence. The wire ejects the Angel as soon as Jean Jacket is sucked up, injuring the alien. After the wire is released, Jean Jacket is in full form, looking like a jellyfish flower made of balloons, its square mouth surrounded by a pulsating green streamer. (As Gene Jacket unfolds, Emerald is trying to escape from the house. She grabs the TMZ guy's bike, but JJ is too close and has no electricity. When she realizes she can't escape, OJ confronts Jean Jacket from the other side, luring the alien toward her and giving her sister a chance to escape.

This emotional sacrifice resonates strongly as OJ makes a "look at me" gesture that recalls the siblings' childhood. Emerald was nine or ten years old and was supposed to train her first horse, which she named Jean Jacket, on her birthday. Unfortunately, Otis Sr. had gotten a job training "The Scorpion King" at the time, and he needed to train Jean Jacket for that job. He and OJ ended up training the horse while Emerald looked on, and the incident became a source of resentment that grew as his sister got older. In a way, the confrontation with the alien was Emerald's second chance to tame the animal for the first time, and OJ even earned the nickname Gene Jacket (and a hoodie for the film, his first job on the set).

After escaping from Gene Jacket, Emerald heads straight for Jupiter's claim. The Wild West theme park has been abandoned since Jupe's ill-fated show, but still has an important attraction: the Winkin Well (opens in new tab). As we learn from Emerald's accidental photo early in the film, the Wishing Well is equipped with a classic film camera that can take pictures of tourists looking into the well. To get the Oprah shot, Emerald releases a giant Kid Sheriff balloon in the park to lure Jean Jacket with her fake eyes; as JJ lines up on the well, Emerald collects coins scattered on the ground and repeatedly takes pictures with the well.

Nope's final scene has three important beats. First, what happens to Gene Jacket after he sucks up the giant balloon? The Gene Jacket bursts intact, inflates, and floats away as debris, presumably to die. Second, Emerald looks into the distance and sees a figure under the "Out Yonder" sign in the park. It's a man on a horse wearing an orange hoodie: it's OJ. Finally, Emerald succeeds. The photo spit out of Winkin Well is developed and her Oprah shot is seen.

Thus the film ends, leaving several unanswered questions. We see no reunion of the siblings, no press tour, no fame after the public (hopefully) believed their impossible shot. We don't even know if the spit-up angel is alive and well. These unanswered questions and the lack of details about Jean Jacket's origins are part of what makes "Nope" so terrifying. Viewers can include as much meaning as they like; they can believe that OJ escaped alive, or they can deduce that the man on the horse might be an emerald apparition. They can even build an entire government conspiracy around the TMZ guy's statement that Google Maps showed Agua Dulce as a blur.

With Peele, we probably won't get a definitive answer. Because it is the flurry of reactions to this spectacular film that is important. Like Get Out, the filmmaker has written a story that mirrors society. (Just ask Logan Paul (opens in new tab)). All we can do is take what we've learned and let our minds go.