There is already a lot going on in Jordan Peele's Nope, but there could have been even more to the story had one character from the script not been cut from the final version of the movie. Nope follows a group of characters in their attempt to record video evidence of a UFO. The sci-fi horror movie also involves flashbacks to another story, and it's here that the missing character would have added more layers to the overall plot.
In Nope, OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) and Em Haywood (Keke Palmer), the owners of Haywood Hollywood Horses, are subjected to a series of mysterious events, including one that kills their father. Eventually, OJ figures out that it can all be explained by a UFO, later nicknamed "Jean Jacket," that is hiding in the sky. With their horse handling business failing, OJ and Em enlist the help of an electronics salesman and an acclaimed documentarian to film the UFO and get rich and famous. Also trying to exploit Jean Jacket for financial gain is Ricky "Jupe" Park (Steven Yeun), the owner of a theme park neighboring the Haywoods' ranch.
SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY
While the Haywoods' pursuit of Jean Jacket is at the center of Nope, Jupe's backstory also gets a significant amount of screen time. Jupe was a child actor who starred in the 1990s sitcom Gordy's Home. One day on set, Gordy, the chimpanzee actor who played the show's titular character, was spooked by popping balloons and started to attack the cast and crew. While Jupe came away from the incident unharmed, his teenage co-star Mary Jo (Sophia Coto) was maimed and disfigured by Gordy before the chimpanzee was shot dead. The Gordy's Home subplot of Nope is a shocking spectacle, but it would have been even more distressing if Jordan Peele had kept in a character called "Nobody," who was ultimately cut from the movie.
Nope Cut A Character Called "Nobody" – Theory Explained
The trailer for Nope features shots of a character who did not make the movie's final cut. Played by Michael Busch, this character is credited on IMDb as "Nobody," a middle-aged man who would have been part of Nope's strange Gordy's Home subplot. In the early cuts of Nope that were shown at test screenings, Nobody had a disturbing obsession with Mary Jo and planned to kidnap the child actor.
According to online theories, Nobody opportunistically walks toward the set of Gordy's Home during the chimpanzee's attack so that he could get to Mary Jo undetected while everyone runs away. When Nobody gets to the set and sees the aftermath of the violent rampage, he shoots Gordy down. There are plenty of interesting questions that the theory opens up, like why Nobody would have had a gun, and what happened to him afterward. Given Nope's two-hour-plus run time, cutting Nobody's storyline makes sense and gives writer-director Jordan Peele a reason to revisit the Nope world in the future.
How "Nobody" Would Have Changed Nope's Story
The inclusion of Nobody would not have impacted Nope's main storyline, but the character would have added another layer of creepiness to the movie. The clip of Nobody in Nope's trailer shows him walking toward the studio during Gordy's attack, so if he did feature in Nope, he would not have prevented the chimpanzee's onslaught. If Nobody was the one to shoot and kill Gordy, then it would have been interesting to see how he reacted to seeing a disfigured Mary Jo, given that he had previously planned to kidnap the child star. Gordy's attack on Mary Jo could have played into Nope's theme of bad miracles by having her disfigurement save her from Nobody's kidnapping plans.
Could A Nope 2 Confirm The "Nobody" Theory?
Commenting on the character's exclusion from the final cut of Nope, Jordan Peele revealed that Nobody's story just hasn't been told yet and hinted that he will appear in a sequel. Nope 2 could cover Nobody's backstory, confirm that he was the one who killed Gordy, and show what happened to him next. But given that Jupe and Mary were seemingly killed by Jean Jacket in Nope, it is unclear how Nobody's story would fit into a potential sequel. That said, the Gordy's Home subplot is not directly connected to the alien events in Nope, so the inclusion of Nobody in a future sequel does not need to be directly related to the main storyline.