When I encountered Sherrie Jackson in the comments section on my essay about incels and how we can approach them with compassion because they too have been harmed by the stories we tell about love in our culture, I knew I’d just met someone very special.
Sherrie saw and understood what I was trying to communicate at a core level. Not only that, she asked me how she could support me.
From behind her double-infinity ouroboros icon, Sherrie gave me the fuel I needed to believe in myself during a period of my life when I was afraid I would have to give up.
This summer we got to meet in person for the first time, in Portland, on a stopover during my overland journey from Los Angeles, California to the Sunshine Coast, British Columbia. We spent three glorious days and nights exploring the city of roses and during one of our long walks I mentioned that I had recently watched the film NOPE and was feeling haunted by its meaning.
Unlike Get Out, Jordan Peele’s first feature film, NOPE didn’t have a clear message. Or, at least I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, though I’d find my brain crunching the numbers as I’d drift off to sleep.
Sherrie gave me her signature smirk as I explained what I felt like I was close to figuring it out… and then she blew my damn mind. As she pointed out clue after clue, I literally jumped for joy. Not only did it make complete sense, all the proof existed to back her theory up. The popping noises! The cowboy hat! 6:13!
It turns out that the most confusing movie of 2022 isn’t that confusing after all. Actually, it’s dead simple. NOPE is about the consequences of suppressed trauma. The UFO in the film is a tulpa, born out of Jupe’s suppressed trauma from the Gordy’s Home massacre incident and manifested outside of him as a monstrous entity out for blood.
“Jupe would have to do something with the experience and the emotions [of the Gordy’s Home massacre], but he was incapable of dealing with them. He did not know how to tame them. They were a wild animal threatening to consume him if they got loose. Lucky for him, his desire to hide from the beast was just that much greater than the beast itself and, in this fictional world, all of that incredible psychic energy that built up was projected outward literally as a tulpa, in the form of the cowboy hat UFO. That would explain why it had characteristics that were specific only to him, like the popping sound heralding violence.”
“Spectacle,” Jordan Peele said. “Spectacle,” the reviews and the critics said.
Spectacle: something exhibited to view as unusual, notable, or entertaining, especially: an eye-catching or dramatic public display; an object of curiosity or contempt. Spectacle, a distraction from the truth?
With the tulpa theory, NOPE comes into clear view. Suddenly the film is as simple and straightforward as Get Out while maintaining all the biblical and other-worldly weight of Us, Peele’s second feature.
Search the internet for “Nope Explained” and you won’t find any one who identifies the Gordy’s Home massacre as the inciting incident for the UFO / as a manifestation of Jupe / Little Ricky’s consciousness. But rewatch the film with this in mind, and we’ll see if you tell us otherwise…
I truly think NOPE is one of the most genius stories of our time, and that we will look back in shock that we didn’t understand it right away. As Sherrie and I went back and forth over the film, we found endless layers of theme and meaning — to the point of overwhelm. That’s the beauty of film: a picture is worth a thousand words and on screen we get 24 pictures a second.
There are so many ways to approach this film. Lucky for us, Sherrie dug in deep for her newly launched publication The Foolio. Read her essay on NOPE and follow her there for in-depth analysis on some of the most symbolically packed and potent films of our time.
If you have any questions about our podcast, Sherrie’s essay, how tulpas work, what the heck “Jupiter’s Claim” has to do with monodaddy mythology, or anything else at all, comment below or in Sherrie’s Substack chat! We’re super curious to hear your thoughts, especially if you rewatch the film with the tulpa theory in mind.
Happy listening / reading and remember… Your suppressed trauma can live on outside of you so it’s your responsibility to dissolve that shit! Sit with your pain, babies, because consciousness creates reality.
"NOPE" Explained (No, like, Really, Really Explained) with Sherrie Jackson