Disclosure Day is the hotly anticipated sci-fi film of 2026, with many expecting it to be a genre-defining film for the decade. Yet, Jordan Peele’s Nope is already one of the greatest sci-fi films of the past 10 years.
While the writer-director became a household name among horror fans with his immensely impressive early films, Get Out and Us, this highly accomplished and elevated third feature further elevated his career. Truly, this alien flick is out of this world.
Jordan Peele’s Nope Is A Soaring Achievement
Few filmmakers established themselves as quickly and readily as Jordan Peele. With his Blumhouse-produced directorial debut, Get Out, the former comedian made it clear that he had the chops needed to create a steady career for himself behind the camera. Sure enough, while his first feature remains his biggest critical success, the novice filmmaker continued to challenge and distinguish himself. Peele’s sophomore film, Us, showcased even greater skill in balancing tone, exploring complex themes, and delivering chilling action-packed thrills.
Naturally, expectations were sky-high for his third feature, Nope. But Peele stayed earthbound and did not stray from his lofty aspirations. The Oscar-winning filmmaker broadened his creative scope by incorporating Western and sci-fi elements into his signature blend of horror and satirical storytelling. However, he kept a grounded, unified fixation: an absorbing obsession with spectacle, be it human, alien, animal, or otherwise.
The fact that it comes together as smoothly and soundly as it does became yet another testament to Peele’s well-distinguished talents as a filmmaker, even with only two other features under his belt. Even when the movie seemingly detours to explore the poor plight of Gordy, it all remains aligned with its core messaging. Everyone is looking for something they shouldn’t be exploring or examining; it’s human nature. But sometimes, people need to let the wild remain both literally and psychologically free.
While Nope is undeniably a blockbuster-heavy heightening for Peele as a filmmaker, it also showcases a desire to expand what can be expected (and arguably what should be expected) from a Hollywood spectacle-driven film. Indeed, this human-versus-predator sci-fi picture has undeniable similarities to Jaws, which it doesn’t shy away from. In many respects, Nope plays as an inverted, contemporary evolution of Steven Spielberg’s cinematic classic. Jaws explored the ocean, while Nope studied the recesses of space. Both movies dive into the same deep thematic territory.
Nope Deserves More Praise
With its exceptional 98% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes, Get Out is, and will likely remain, Jordan Peele’s biggest critical darling. This is the movie that announced him as a filmmaker, and a major one at that. It comes with his cleanest, most self-contained script, resulting in an easy Best Original Screenplay Oscar win.
However, in the years since his first feature, Peele has thankfully broadened his scope and become even more adventurous, as a screenwriter and especially as a director. In many respects, his films have only gotten better, but they’ve also become more divisive, critically and commercially. Us is a scarier, more thought-provoking movie than Get Out, at least in this writer’s opinion. It’s filled with richer cinematography, a sharper balance of horror and comedy, and the clear desire to play with more symbolism, unflinching social commentary, and other provocative ideas. It’s a follow-up film that shows its award-winning director going bigger and bolder in his second feature, but the reactions, while by and large positive, were more muted and mixed than Get Out.
Sure, it’s fair to make complaints about Us. It generally works better as a metaphorical concept than as a fully realized movie, and the twist ending, in particular, doesn’t fully add up, particularly on repeat viewings. But Us is better at maintaining its heightened tension, features more ambitious, impressively vast world-building, and holds a surreal atmosphere that shows how Peele can continue to play with mood and feeling in his films and expand as a visual storyteller. Particularly with sharper iconography and way more visceral action, Us is a more daring and captivating movie than Get Out. With that said, it’s also less of a conventional crowd-pleaser.
Likewise, Nope, while not as universally acclaimed as Get Out, maintains Peele’s exciting advancement as an increasingly masterful filmmaker. It’s subversive and substantial while never sacrificing its inherent popcorn-friendly entertainment value. It is character-focused and filled to the brim with stunning IMAX photography, but is also character-focused with outstanding performances from Daniel Kaluuya, Michael Wincott, Steven Yeun, and most especially Keke Palmer, who arguably steals the show. And its impressively centralized focus on Black Hollywood horse trainers is a gorgeous, moving way to honor the forgotten pioneers of early cinema.
In short, Nope is a movie from a filmmaker who continues to push not only himself but audience expectations, while also paying tribute to film history and elevating the medium and what it can do and say in the process. This is a rich text, especially for a summer blockbuster, and becomes increasingly more significant as years go on. As a result, it’s a frustrating shame that Nope remains Peele’s least critically praised feature. While Peele’s latest movie is by no means a critical disappointment, it doesn’t get the recognition that it rightfully deserves.
Jordan Peele is Still One of the Best Modern Filmmakers
At the time of this writing, it’s unclear when Jordan Peele’s fourth film will come to pass. While it was once set to come out in October 2026, Universal has pulled the movie from its schedule as Peele continues to work on the script. And details remain increasingly slim. But there’s no denying that, while several movies from Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions proved disappointing, including last year’s critically reviled Him, the next movie that Peele directs will be a massive cinematic event. A spectacle, one could say. That is all thanks to films like Nope and Peele’s continued elevation as a filmmaker, with the hype rising for what the beloved director does next.
Recently, Nope climbed Netflix’s streaming charts and soared in newfound popularity. Hopefully, that means that Peele’s still-undervalued blockbuster is continuing to find an audience, many of whom should hopefully recognize what an accomplishment this third film proved to be. Even though Peele is a director who came out of the gate swinging, he continues to rise as a filmmaker. His latest audacious movie is still a wonder to behold.