Jupe is the biggest tragedy in Nope, a movie full of tragedies

polygon.com:

Jordan Peele’s Nope is arguably about a lot of different things. The primary characters are all obsessed with fame, whether they have it and don’t want it, are seeking it as a means to an unrelated end, or crave it for its own sake. They’re all chasing a mystery with little thought for the consequences — haunted by a UFO that’s clearly abducting animals and people, they work to bring evidence of its existence to other people, but without considering the possible costs. As critics have pointed out, that serves as a handy metaphor for everything from irresponsible journalism to click-hungry social media stars trying to commodify every aspect of life. There are a number of running themes in Nope, from the burden of the unknowable to the way the obsession with spectacle dominates modern culture.

But yet another running theme throughout the movie is the different ways people cope with and process tragedy. The main characters are all struggling with tragedies that have come to define them. OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) is dealing with the slow financial ruin of his family’s farm and the death of his beloved father. His sister, Emerald (Keke Palmer), is navigating her estrangement from their father, and her own failure to show him up by forging a successful, independent Hollywood career.

Angel (Brandon Perea) isn’t as clearly defined, but he’s obviously hungry for some kind of meaning or direction, and sees his dead-end job in a rural big-box electronics store as a failure he needs to escape. And cinematographer Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott) has all the fame he wants, but it’s left him unsatisfied and bitter. In Nope, life has disappointed everybody, to the point where they see a menacing alien predator as an opportunity for change