Jordan Peele’s ‘Nope’ Gets a Mysterious VR Experience in Meta’s Horizon Worlds
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Fans of Jordan Peele’s films can hop on board a virtual train to explore a creepy VR version of the ranch from his upcoming Western-set thriller “Nope.”
The new “Nope” experience is available for free in Meta’s Horizon Worlds app on the Quest 2 virtual-reality headset. It’s produced under a partnership among Meta (Facebook’s new corporate name), Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions and Universal Pictures.
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The multi-world VR experience begins with “Monkeypaw Productions: All Aboard,” in which you find yourself as a passenger on the Monkeypaw train — featuring Easter eggs from Peele’s “Nope,” “Get Out” and “Us.”
From there, you can teleport to the “Nope World,” where you will arrive at a VR replica of Haywood Ranch from the film. There, visitors can interact with other fans and play several minigames and engage with other interactive elements, including playing records, riding a motorcycle and a getting sucked up into the sky by an ominous-looking storm cloud.
A maximum of 11 people are able to enter a single instance of the “Nope” world, and the Horizon Worlds app will launch additional instantiations as needed. Two additional Horizon Worlds VR experiences — “Get Out World” and “Us World” — are coming later this summer.
“Nope World: by Monkeypaw Productions” in Horizon Worlds
The Horizon Worlds “Nope” VR experience is designed to promote Universal’s July 22 theatrical release of the film. In “Nope,” Keke Palmer and Daniel Kaluuya star as the duo behind the horse-training ranch for Hollywood productions. Per the most recent trailer, they discover that aliens are hovering over their property — and hatch a scheme to record and sell the first authentic footage of UFOs.
“It was important to create a unique audience experience for ‘Nope’ that celebrates Jordan Peele’s innovative filmmaking and ethos,” said Alex Sanger, Universal Pictures’ EVP of global digital marketing. “Partnering with Meta and Monkeypaw enabled us to create a one-of-a-kind virtual reality experience in Horizon Worlds.”
The virtual worlds are a joint collaboration between Monkeypaw and a team of four creators from the Horizon Worlds community: Ashley Briley, Matt Torres, Sammy Nu and Kevin Dixon. The VR creators weren’t given any information about the plot or themes in “Nope” — aside from publicly released trailers — so they were able to build the Horizon Worlds experience without any spoilers.
“We’ve watched the [‘Nope’] trailers so many times and got to bring in elements that we loved,” Torres said. “It’s a great place to hang out and experience what it’s like being at Haywood Ranch.”
Meta and the VR creators credited the Monkeypaw team with providing invaluable guidance and feedback, calling out Keisha Senter, VP of culture and impact, and Sophia Williams, culture and impact manager.
“Through this VR experience we’ve developed with Universal and Monkeypaw, people can fully immerse themselves in Jordan Peele’s cinematic artistry,” said Katie Jones, North America studio partnerships lead at Meta. “This is a unique opportunity for moviegoers to explore this world with fellow fans, and for our partners to connect with their audiences in innovative ways.”
Meta’s Horizon Worlds app is available on the Quest 2 VR headset to users 18 and older in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.
Quest 2 users can access “Nope World: by Monkeypaw Productions” via this link and “Monkeypaw Productions: All Aboard” via this link where they can click “save later” so that it shows up for them in Horizon Worlds.
“Monkeypaw Productions: All Aboard” in Horizon Worlds
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