Keke Palmer Redefines the Final Girl Trope in 'Nope'

*Spoilers ahead*

Jordan Peele’s long-awaited third film, Nope, finally hit theaters on July 22, delivering a cinematic spectacle from one of the industry’s most excitingly sinister minds. Daniel Kaluuya helms the movie as OJ Haywood, who is pretty much exactly what you’d want from a horror hero; he’s the kind of stone-jawed, steady leader you’d want to follow into a quasi-alien altercation. The same can’t be said about his sister, Emerald, played by Keke Palmer. Em is unreliable, shortsighted, and more likely to cut and run than face danger. And yet, Palmer’s Emerald has tiptoed her way into the top ranks of horror’s greatest final girls for the very reason that she’s nothing like one.

The “final girl” is a genre trope that is essentially the last remaining female character at the end of a horror movie. Think of Ellen Ripley in Alien, Laurie Strode in Halloween, Nancy Thompson in Nightmare on Elm Street, or Sidney Prescott in Scream. Despite their foibles, the typical final girl relies on some level of cunning or wherewithal that’s needed to outsmart the antagonist.

Few “final girls,” however, have even come close to Emerald’s level of assumed incompetence regarding the movie’s monster. That is what makes her heroism so important: She shows that even the most misguided and apprehensive among us can still save the day.

When viewers meet Emerald, she’s barrelling into a job opportunity well behind schedule. She and OJ work as animal wranglers for the entertainment industry, specifically working with horses. The pair ultimately lose the job, but not before Emerald takes the opportunity to promote all her side businesses. After losing their gig, OJ wants to return to work to keep growing the business, whereas Emerald wants to smoke weed and break into the liquor cabinet.

It’s Emerald’s lackadaisical and thoughtless nature, however, that propels Nope’s action. When OJ and Emerald realize a massive flying alien entity is terrorizing their property, Emerald gets the bright idea to try to document the massive object to get rich; she wants to get, as she calls it, “the Oprah shot.” The siblings enlist the help of a video and tech support worker by the name of Angel (Brandon Perea) and, together, deck out the ranch with cameras in the hopes of capturing a high-quality glimpse of the alien.

Though brave in theory, Emerald attempts to cut and run at the first sign of retaliation from the alien monster. It’s hard to blame Emerald for wanting to back out after the giant alien drops a rainstorm full of blood and debris down upon their ranch, but her desire to end their endeavors is a full reversal from her initial motivation. In the beginning, the thought of the alien flying overhead was a money-making opportunity that prompted her to enlist the help of others, including cinematographer Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott). But once the true danger presents itself, she’s the first to try to call off their plans. To her credit, she doesn’t ultimately back out, but the quickness with which she’s ready to abandon their scheme points to a readiness to quit.

Throughout most of the climax, Emerald removes herself from the action, opting to watch the cameras from afar while OJ lures the alien into view. She does so to coordinate and direct her brother — an integral, albeit passive, role in the plan. Needless to say, nearly everything goes wrong: the cinematographer gets eaten, and Angel gets trapped under a tarp. We’re left with OJ on one side of the creature and Emerald on the other. The siblings silently attempt to decide who will distract it so the other has time to escape. In most horror movies, this is where the hero would attempt to attack the creature head-on, but in Nope, Emerald quite literally runs away. She uses the time OJ buys her to jump on a dirt bike and speed away, trying to outrun the alien in the sky.

Her desire to save the day seems, at best, equal to her lust for fame. Emerald can escape the alien’s vicinity, though the massive entity is still on her trail. She’s able to reach a nearby and recently abandoned rodeo show, where she puts her final plan into action. The entertainment ranch houses a massive inflatable cowboy tied down by flags and ropes. Emerald sprints through the complex, undoing the ropes and sending the helium-filled cowboy into the sky. She then runs to a crank-operated well that’s been retrofitted to take pictures of anything above it. Even though near-certain death is hovering in the sky above her, she begins cranking the well, taking picture after picture. She knows the alien will be drawn to the giant cowboy, and thus, even at her most perilous moment, she’s worried not only about survival but about the “Oprah shot.”

In the film’s final moments, she snags a photo of the alien, just as its massive maw ingests the cowboy. However, unable to get the massive inflatable down its gullet, the alien chokes and explodes, dying in midair. The entire sequence flies in the face of the final girl archetype and proves that heroism doesn’t have to be one’s sole motivation. Our heroes can be selfish, misguided, and hell, even outright ludicrous in a crisis. This proves that even the most fallible among us can be heroic, and even among our foibles, we can find our success.