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Jordan Peele’s New Movie Contains A Fan-Favorite Anime Sequence

Jordan Peele has already proved himself as a great director, but that does not stop him from paying homage to the best.

By Matthew Creith | Published

jordan peele

Since its debut in theaters in July, Jordan Peele’s newest hit film Nope has become the go-to movie of the summer for many audiences. The third directorial effort in Peele’s filmography, Nope boasts a cast that includes Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, and Steven Yeun. With much-discussed moments that surround the movie’s overall themes of monetizing spectacles, Nope reveals a lot of sequences that seem to matter to Peele the most. One of those sequences encompasses very famous scenes from a fan-favorite Japanese anime movie, Akira, that apparently Peele was once thought of to direct a live-action version of. Part of a scene from Akira has now made its way onto social media with a split-screen of Peele discussing the scene on Twitter, laughing about how he ended up using some of Akira’s elements into the mix of Nope.

In the video clip that made its way onto Twitter, Jordan Peele details how even though he was no longer in consideration to direct a live-action version of Akira, he still incorporated the famous motorcycle slide into Nope. As reported by IndieWire in 2017, Peele was in talks to direct Akira but decided against adapting it for American audiences because he wanted to focus on original content rather than appealing to a pre-existing fanbase. Nevertheless, the director still incorporated some of Akira’s elements into Nope, seeing as Akira is apparently one of Peele’s favorite movies of all time.

Akira is a 1988 anime film that has become a cult classic among many of its loyal fans since its debut. The Telegraph notes that Akira is one of the best action movies of all time, praising its stylistic approach, futuristic animation, and post-apocalyptic overtones. Akira takes place in 2019 where a biker obtains telekinetic powers which threaten the dystopian nature of an antagonistic military force surrounding a growing rebellion among Tokyo’s futuristic population. Contrastly in Nope, Jordan Peele takes audiences into a world full of unidentified flying objects set against a backdrop of Hollywood and desert ranch life.

Nope has been a success for Jordan Peele, adding to his ongoing presence as an original creator in the directing and writing film space. Rotten Tomatoes currently ranks Nope with an 82% on its Tomatometer based on 307 critic reviews, along with a 69% Audience Score from users to the site. Metacritic lists the movie with a 77 on its Metascore and a 6.8 rating for its User Score. All of this typically denotes generally favorable reviews from critics and audiences alike, which is in line with Peele’s other projects, Get Out and Us. Since it looks like the director won’t be helming a live-action adaptation of Akira anytime soon, fans of the horror genre will probably be on pins and needles to see what Peele comes up with for his next film.