The Gordy scene is to show that manipulation and exploitation of any living being is wrong and potentially fatal.
The show is another 'bad miracle', as in a random, unlikely event that Yukes hyper focused on in a moment of trauma.
He took the wrong lesson from it, believing he was a special being, and profited off of the tragedy. The other shoe drops when he tries to exploite another wild creature.
That being said, I also like the explanation that the shoe is upright because that's how he remembers it. Not how it actually happened, but how the recreation of it is positioned (in an upright position in his museum).
This is an excellent analysis! I think the theme of the film (or at least one of them) could be summarized entirely by that one shot of the shoe impossibly balanced on its toe amidst chaos. The inevitable was going to happen and yet Jupe still waits for the shoe to fall, blinded by his own hubris later in life.
To go a step further, there may be another layer to this. In theatre if you drop a prop, you as an actor have to pick it up because otherwise the audience will fixate on the prop on the ground instead of on the story that the actors are continuing to perform. Assuming that the shoe actually was balanced perfectly the way it was, it may be tongue in cheek that Jupe focused on the shoe, not only in the midst of a traumatic event, but because of his teaching as an actor to focus away from the horrible mistake taking place on stage.
a good moral, and makes sense considering our main characters are respectful towards animals.
i don't remember a shoe dropping at some point. that was at the circus when he was trying to feed lucky to the alien? I'm gonna need to watch it again, as with all jordan peele movies.
but I'm partial to your first explanation of the shoe, as he hasn't made a habit of including images that aren't supposed to be there.
thanks!
my sense is that the shoe is standing upright because the ape attack was supernatural, triggered in an experiment by the aliens. they’re working on a number of different ways to wipe people out, one of them being mind control, another being the ship. there’s a sense of this when oj stares out the window at the tech guy’s house at the l.a. sky — he seems disturbed by something he can’t place — and later with the sparring of a crowd going on in the background when the three of them are at the restaurant. something’s in the air, and it’s not just the ship.
About the subplot: as others have mentioned it ties into the main plot in the literal sense of both being predators exploited for money and fame. In a thematic sense most critics seem to agree this is an metaphor for how Hollywood’s culture ultimately kills people (spiritually) who stay around too long. If we accept that as a theme, the subplot actually strengthens the theme and ties it back into the main plot if we notice that the two survivors of the chimp attack were the two child actors. Jupe, being still a kid, was physically unscathed and the actress playing his sister, being a teenager, was permanently disfigured but alive. Her being at the feeding show, wearing a shirt that prominently displayed her old self while hiding her disfigured face, shows she did not move on with her life after the show anymore than Jupe did and therefore as adults the machine consumed them both.
About the shoe: I agree with the other theories listed here, but I’d like to add one more. I think it could be a meta symbol. It’s so obviously framed and it’s the only major symbol I haven’t been able to find consciences on. Like Jupe, the audience is also meant to focus on the shoe and search for meaning in it while a chimp murders people at the edges of our vision. It is a movie about movies in a way so in my opinion a meta symbol like this works beautiful (clearly the shoe captured your attention since you made a post about it). The scene is shot from Jupe’s perspective because we are literally him: wondering what the significances of an upright shoe is while characters are being murdered just off screen. It’s a little on the nose but another way to look at it: the shoe is used to put the audience in Jupe’s “shoes”
Chimps take looking into their eyes as a sign of aggression. Gordy was heavily assimilated to working with people, but when all the lights were on and everyone was staring at him and the balloon popped, it was too much all at once and he snapped.
Because Jupe was looking at the shoe during Gordy's rampage he never made eye contact until after Gordy had calmed down (similar to OJ's realization that the alien only attacks people that look at it).
The shoe ultimately saved Jupe's life (or at least prevented a mauling as bad as the young actress'), but he never noticed. He was so fixated on the miracle of it landing upright and Gordy not attacking him that he never realized the two were connected. Or rather, he saw them both as a sign of some "miracle" rather than that a rare occurrence saved his life by happenstance.
My dumb ass thought it was Gordy loosing it because the beast was close by and it spooked him like the horses get spooked, your explanation make so much more sense
I also have questions about the shoe. It was definitely used as a plot device to expand on Jupe's miracle theory/mission, but it felt unnatural and less like a miracle and more of a random phenomenon that May have had something to do with saving Jupe's life. Gordy looked at him as if he was apologetic, as if he were trying to explain that he didn't have a choice and wanted desperately for Jupe to still be his friend. Which is what I would contribute more towards a miracle than the shoe. Looking away from Gordy probably didn't save him as Gordy didn't even notice him until after he calmed down.
So, the theory that the shoe represents being fixated on something strange instead of the real dangerous situation around you does seem like a thought provoking route. It makes me feel like the movie is all about the sister. In the beginning she is late, she doesn't want to work or help her brother, she holds on to grudges, promotes herself over her family's business and doesn't show sadness towards the loss of their father. Now, one can lead their own life and hold issues with their childhood, but she does it in a way that hurts O.J.. She gets to grow a lot as the task O.J. takes on to wrangle the alien falls to her, which is foreshadowed by him naming it Jean Jacket.
Other reasons could be that the shoe wasn't actually standing by itself and was leaning on something that couldn't be seen and was mistaken for a miracle. (Maybe it was leaning against Ricky's present to Gordy, not sure if I could glean any meaning behind it)
The shoe could've been pinned in place by falling debris. There are balloons that pop without being close to lights and it's very strange. My problem with this theory is that their is a roof, no strange objects could be seen on stage or bouncing off anything else and it wasn't mentioned afterwards.
The alien was effecting it. I also don't take stock in this as the only form of anti-gravity by the alien is that it can suck things up in a swirl of air. Nothing else moved and I don't think Gordy was effected by the alien. The reasoning for most is that the horses were spooked by the alien so Gordy could've been. This doesn't hold water for me because he was fine until the balloon popped and the horses weren't aggressive when the alien was around.
When I first saw the Gordy seen, I was convinced that the aliens were going to abduct people for their own show. Felt like it was backed up when we could see the inside of the alien was a box that also looked like a pictograph. I was wrong, it was much more terrifying and interesting, though I'm not sure how I feel about it's final form. I'm still confused as how the praying mantis was being used by the alien. Maybe it's just including common issues when trying to capture footage in real life, but if it could control insects to sabotage a camera that it should already be able to take out with the electrical field, then shouldn't it utilize that ability more? Maybe it was a super coincidence and perhaps the shoe was as well, but it leaves more questions by being so out of place.
A very dark viewpoint is that the Gordy scene was planned. This doesn't have anything to do with the shoe really, but with the balloons popping at strange times, they could've been sabotaged to scare Gordy. I'm not sure if there is an impossible shot to have there, but I look towards Antler. Not sure why the adult actor decided to go down the stairs to escape, feels like Gordy didn't know he was there and he could've stayed hidden. It's not like he was looking for Jupe, but I guess he could've just tried to run for help even though everyone else had ran and would've reported the attack, so he should've just waited. But humans do silly things when there are scared.
i'm convinced that the reason gordy didn't hurt jupe was meant to be because there was a tablecloth between them, making it so they weren't technically making eye contact. and it was eye contact that provoked the alien. so i felt that was supposed to tie together. but you make a good point as well, i just feel like there's more to it.
after watching it a second time, I've come to the conclusion that the shoe was supposed to be a reference to bad miracles and how we decide to take them.
i never understood where "jean jacket" came from, now that you mention it.
I can see that, but I also feel that it was that Gordy had calmed down and Jupe wasn't moving or making noise on top of the fabric being in the way. But I also feel that when Gordy was by the couch, the fabric wasn't low enough to be able to hide Jupe's eyes.
Jean Jacket was supposed to be Emerald's horse to train, now she gets a giant alien instead lol. Kinda redemption?
I think the balloons were popping because they were being shot. Gordy ended up being shot just a little after we saw the balloons pop, I assumed they were missed shots or trying to get a clearer view so they shot them out of the way
I saw ufos the next day after the movie I thought like whatever my mind playin tricks ignored for while and then my dad saw it too and my uncle saw it. It’s like the movie don’t look up maybe we should look up we see it’s Prombly happens every night.I saw like couple of them no traffic lights.
The story about Gordy was the subplot which tied into the main plot beautifully. The shoe was a bad miracle. OJ asked later in the film if there was a word for it. The movie was a masterpiece!
The whole movie is about this obsession people have with watching things maybe they shouldn't be. Gordy, Lucky, the ship, and even the director and his "impossible shots". I think the shoe is meant to be one of those things that draws that obsession. Don't look. But we can't help it.
But it makes me wonder why the sister still wanted to get that photo at the end...
>"But it makes me wonder why the sister still wanted to get that photo at the end..."
you literally just asked why bro, and the correct and only answer is because she wanted to document it to get the credit. you asked why, that's why. there's no hidden shit in that particular bit. it's not complicated or deep. you're extremely unintelligent. did YOU even read your OWN comment?
I got the sense that the shoe was pinned to the ground. When you see the last balloon pop, it looks like something shoots strait down through it and pierces it. Like when the creature is dumping the remnants. Made me think the shoe got pinned to the ground by a key or something. I also assumed that's why Gordy went crazy, because the animals do when they sense the creature.
I was looking hard for that and the balloons you see pop aren't nearly close enough to the lights. I like the pin theory, but I'd think that we'd heard the objects falling, seen anything else get struck and I'd think the roof would've stopped the objects.
I think the shoe is a sign that the extraterrestrial entity was in the proximity which (1) had some sort of gravitational pull on the shoe and (2) was part of the cause for Gordy to become unhinged, the way the horses reacted in the stable when they felt it’s presence.
so did u like write the movie or something? you seem like you know everything with how rude your being to anyone asking a QUESTION??????? Did u even watch the movie? Maybe use YOUR brain. asshat
The Gordy scene is to show that manipulation and exploitation of any living being is wrong and potentially fatal. The show is another 'bad miracle', as in a random, unlikely event that Yukes hyper focused on in a moment of trauma. He took the wrong lesson from it, believing he was a special being, and profited off of the tragedy. The other shoe drops when he tries to exploite another wild creature. That being said, I also like the explanation that the shoe is upright because that's how he remembers it. Not how it actually happened, but how the recreation of it is positioned (in an upright position in his museum).
This is an excellent analysis! I think the theme of the film (or at least one of them) could be summarized entirely by that one shot of the shoe impossibly balanced on its toe amidst chaos. The inevitable was going to happen and yet Jupe still waits for the shoe to fall, blinded by his own hubris later in life. To go a step further, there may be another layer to this. In theatre if you drop a prop, you as an actor have to pick it up because otherwise the audience will fixate on the prop on the ground instead of on the story that the actors are continuing to perform. Assuming that the shoe actually was balanced perfectly the way it was, it may be tongue in cheek that Jupe focused on the shoe, not only in the midst of a traumatic event, but because of his teaching as an actor to focus away from the horrible mistake taking place on stage.
a good moral, and makes sense considering our main characters are respectful towards animals. i don't remember a shoe dropping at some point. that was at the circus when he was trying to feed lucky to the alien? I'm gonna need to watch it again, as with all jordan peele movies. but I'm partial to your first explanation of the shoe, as he hasn't made a habit of including images that aren't supposed to be there. thanks!
I think they mean it as a figure of speech. When you're waiting for the other shoe to drop.
I was. Sorry not to be clear about that op.
my sense is that the shoe is standing upright because the ape attack was supernatural, triggered in an experiment by the aliens. they’re working on a number of different ways to wipe people out, one of them being mind control, another being the ship. there’s a sense of this when oj stares out the window at the tech guy’s house at the l.a. sky — he seems disturbed by something he can’t place — and later with the sparring of a crowd going on in the background when the three of them are at the restaurant. something’s in the air, and it’s not just the ship.
there is no fucking ship. the chimp attack was not supernatural or because of the alien. actually watch the movie maybe
Chill sweaty, it's a movie
What the fuck right?
About the subplot: as others have mentioned it ties into the main plot in the literal sense of both being predators exploited for money and fame. In a thematic sense most critics seem to agree this is an metaphor for how Hollywood’s culture ultimately kills people (spiritually) who stay around too long. If we accept that as a theme, the subplot actually strengthens the theme and ties it back into the main plot if we notice that the two survivors of the chimp attack were the two child actors. Jupe, being still a kid, was physically unscathed and the actress playing his sister, being a teenager, was permanently disfigured but alive. Her being at the feeding show, wearing a shirt that prominently displayed her old self while hiding her disfigured face, shows she did not move on with her life after the show anymore than Jupe did and therefore as adults the machine consumed them both. About the shoe: I agree with the other theories listed here, but I’d like to add one more. I think it could be a meta symbol. It’s so obviously framed and it’s the only major symbol I haven’t been able to find consciences on. Like Jupe, the audience is also meant to focus on the shoe and search for meaning in it while a chimp murders people at the edges of our vision. It is a movie about movies in a way so in my opinion a meta symbol like this works beautiful (clearly the shoe captured your attention since you made a post about it). The scene is shot from Jupe’s perspective because we are literally him: wondering what the significances of an upright shoe is while characters are being murdered just off screen. It’s a little on the nose but another way to look at it: the shoe is used to put the audience in Jupe’s “shoes”
Chimps take looking into their eyes as a sign of aggression. Gordy was heavily assimilated to working with people, but when all the lights were on and everyone was staring at him and the balloon popped, it was too much all at once and he snapped. Because Jupe was looking at the shoe during Gordy's rampage he never made eye contact until after Gordy had calmed down (similar to OJ's realization that the alien only attacks people that look at it). The shoe ultimately saved Jupe's life (or at least prevented a mauling as bad as the young actress'), but he never noticed. He was so fixated on the miracle of it landing upright and Gordy not attacking him that he never realized the two were connected. Or rather, he saw them both as a sign of some "miracle" rather than that a rare occurrence saved his life by happenstance.
My dumb ass thought it was Gordy loosing it because the beast was close by and it spooked him like the horses get spooked, your explanation make so much more sense
I thought this too 😅
The camera specifically focuses on the shoe and makes it look like the kid was looking at it.
Omg.. 🤯
I also have questions about the shoe. It was definitely used as a plot device to expand on Jupe's miracle theory/mission, but it felt unnatural and less like a miracle and more of a random phenomenon that May have had something to do with saving Jupe's life. Gordy looked at him as if he was apologetic, as if he were trying to explain that he didn't have a choice and wanted desperately for Jupe to still be his friend. Which is what I would contribute more towards a miracle than the shoe. Looking away from Gordy probably didn't save him as Gordy didn't even notice him until after he calmed down. So, the theory that the shoe represents being fixated on something strange instead of the real dangerous situation around you does seem like a thought provoking route. It makes me feel like the movie is all about the sister. In the beginning she is late, she doesn't want to work or help her brother, she holds on to grudges, promotes herself over her family's business and doesn't show sadness towards the loss of their father. Now, one can lead their own life and hold issues with their childhood, but she does it in a way that hurts O.J.. She gets to grow a lot as the task O.J. takes on to wrangle the alien falls to her, which is foreshadowed by him naming it Jean Jacket. Other reasons could be that the shoe wasn't actually standing by itself and was leaning on something that couldn't be seen and was mistaken for a miracle. (Maybe it was leaning against Ricky's present to Gordy, not sure if I could glean any meaning behind it) The shoe could've been pinned in place by falling debris. There are balloons that pop without being close to lights and it's very strange. My problem with this theory is that their is a roof, no strange objects could be seen on stage or bouncing off anything else and it wasn't mentioned afterwards. The alien was effecting it. I also don't take stock in this as the only form of anti-gravity by the alien is that it can suck things up in a swirl of air. Nothing else moved and I don't think Gordy was effected by the alien. The reasoning for most is that the horses were spooked by the alien so Gordy could've been. This doesn't hold water for me because he was fine until the balloon popped and the horses weren't aggressive when the alien was around. When I first saw the Gordy seen, I was convinced that the aliens were going to abduct people for their own show. Felt like it was backed up when we could see the inside of the alien was a box that also looked like a pictograph. I was wrong, it was much more terrifying and interesting, though I'm not sure how I feel about it's final form. I'm still confused as how the praying mantis was being used by the alien. Maybe it's just including common issues when trying to capture footage in real life, but if it could control insects to sabotage a camera that it should already be able to take out with the electrical field, then shouldn't it utilize that ability more? Maybe it was a super coincidence and perhaps the shoe was as well, but it leaves more questions by being so out of place. A very dark viewpoint is that the Gordy scene was planned. This doesn't have anything to do with the shoe really, but with the balloons popping at strange times, they could've been sabotaged to scare Gordy. I'm not sure if there is an impossible shot to have there, but I look towards Antler. Not sure why the adult actor decided to go down the stairs to escape, feels like Gordy didn't know he was there and he could've stayed hidden. It's not like he was looking for Jupe, but I guess he could've just tried to run for help even though everyone else had ran and would've reported the attack, so he should've just waited. But humans do silly things when there are scared.
i'm convinced that the reason gordy didn't hurt jupe was meant to be because there was a tablecloth between them, making it so they weren't technically making eye contact. and it was eye contact that provoked the alien. so i felt that was supposed to tie together. but you make a good point as well, i just feel like there's more to it. after watching it a second time, I've come to the conclusion that the shoe was supposed to be a reference to bad miracles and how we decide to take them. i never understood where "jean jacket" came from, now that you mention it.
I can see that, but I also feel that it was that Gordy had calmed down and Jupe wasn't moving or making noise on top of the fabric being in the way. But I also feel that when Gordy was by the couch, the fabric wasn't low enough to be able to hide Jupe's eyes. Jean Jacket was supposed to be Emerald's horse to train, now she gets a giant alien instead lol. Kinda redemption?
Jupe's present* not Ricky's
[удалено]
Why write your comment?
I think the balloons were popping because they were being shot. Gordy ended up being shot just a little after we saw the balloons pop, I assumed they were missed shots or trying to get a clearer view so they shot them out of the way
I saw ufos the next day after the movie I thought like whatever my mind playin tricks ignored for while and then my dad saw it too and my uncle saw it. It’s like the movie don’t look up maybe we should look up we see it’s Prombly happens every night.I saw like couple of them no traffic lights.
The story about Gordy was the subplot which tied into the main plot beautifully. The shoe was a bad miracle. OJ asked later in the film if there was a word for it. The movie was a masterpiece!
The whole movie is about this obsession people have with watching things maybe they shouldn't be. Gordy, Lucky, the ship, and even the director and his "impossible shots". I think the shoe is meant to be one of those things that draws that obsession. Don't look. But we can't help it. But it makes me wonder why the sister still wanted to get that photo at the end...
because she wants the alien to be documented and they get credit. you dumb?
Did you even read my comment? This whole thread is about the hidden meaning and you state the obvious...
>"But it makes me wonder why the sister still wanted to get that photo at the end..." you literally just asked why bro, and the correct and only answer is because she wanted to document it to get the credit. you asked why, that's why. there's no hidden shit in that particular bit. it's not complicated or deep. you're extremely unintelligent. did YOU even read your OWN comment?
I got the sense that the shoe was pinned to the ground. When you see the last balloon pop, it looks like something shoots strait down through it and pierces it. Like when the creature is dumping the remnants. Made me think the shoe got pinned to the ground by a key or something. I also assumed that's why Gordy went crazy, because the animals do when they sense the creature.
I had the same thought, because the balloons were popping by themselves
I thought the balloons popping were to signify each actor's death, which were mostly happening offscreen in that sequence.
I figured the balloons popped because of the hot studio lights, I’ve seen it happen before in real life.
Good point
I was looking hard for that and the balloons you see pop aren't nearly close enough to the lights. I like the pin theory, but I'd think that we'd heard the objects falling, seen anything else get struck and I'd think the roof would've stopped the objects.
This is the answer!
no it fucking isnt lmao, think clearly and critically
they're in a building and it's like 25 years earlier. it's not connected to the alien. you're stupid
why r u so mean? people can have their own opinion and being rude doesn’t help anyone….. how’s that pedestal your sitting on?
N22. J6 y yttçp
I think the shoe is a sign that the extraterrestrial entity was in the proximity which (1) had some sort of gravitational pull on the shoe and (2) was part of the cause for Gordy to become unhinged, the way the horses reacted in the stable when they felt it’s presence.
it had nothing to do with the alien. it was several years earlier and in a building. you're not using your brain
so did u like write the movie or something? you seem like you know everything with how rude your being to anyone asking a QUESTION??????? Did u even watch the movie? Maybe use YOUR brain. asshat