‘Nope’: Jean Jacket Gets Official Scientific Species Classification
Jordan Peele’s latest horror movie, Nope, introduced audiences to a new monster. Jean Jacket is the alien being hovering over Haywood Ranch and Jupiter’s Claim. Peele based Jean Jacket on real scientific creatures. Jean Jacket was so accurate that science actually gave it a real classification.
Nope is now available on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD. In the hour-long behind the scenes making of feature, Peele and real scientists explain what Jean Jacket technically is.
The real scientist who gave Jean Jacket from ‘Nope’ a scientific name
Kelsi Rutledge was the scientific consultant on Nope. Rutledge is a Ph.D candidate and researcher at UCLA. She studies taxonomy and systematics, the science of naming species.
“My main role was debuting Jean Jacket to the scientific community in the form of a scientific manuscript,” Rutledge said. “I had to describe every inch of the creature in anatomical detail as well as behavioral detail in the manuscript we’re creating.”
Jean Jacket’s scientific name
Jean Jacket whisps through the air and sucks up people into its mouth as food. That it eats a horse from the Haywood ranch also found its way into his scientific name.
“We decided to name Jean Jacket ocular nimbus itoequus,” Rutledge said. “This translates directly to hidden dark cloud stallion eater. ‘Ito’ is ‘eat’ and ‘equus’ comes from the Latin word equine which translates to horses or stallions.”
Peele and his crew were inspired by Robert Mapplethorpe photographs of orchids, Robert Morris photos, Marilyn Monroe’s Seven Year Itch dress blowing in the subway grate, jellyfish and ship sails. Rutledge explains Jean Jacket’s scientific name. Rutledge sees all those qualities and other real life bases in Jean Jacket.
“Jean Jacket is a stunning creature,” Rutledge said. “The saucer-like form is almost identical to a sand dollar right down to the little lateral notch on the side. The eye of Jean Jacket, the iris is actually square shape which can be seen in octopuses.”
Jordan Peele explains his creature
Peele himself spoke about his thought process behind Jean Jacket. Peele wanted to make a space alien movie, but had some ideas to twist the genre.
“I just had this idea of making a UFO movie, a flying saucer horror film,” Peele said. “Not only a flying saucer horror film but really the quintessential one. It’s hard to pull off because it’s got this huge canvas that is the sky you have to take into account [such as] what if it’s not a ship? What if it’s what UFO enthusiasts call a critter? What if it’s really just an eating machine?”
Once again, Peele referenced earthbound creatures to convey Jean Jacket’s base needs and why the characters can’t reason with it. If Jean Jacket is hungry, it’s going to eat.
“There’s something about the idea that is essentially a giant crab,” Peele said. “It’s something that doesn’t give a f***. It just wants to devour.”
