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| “ | What if I told you that today you'll leave here different? I'm talking to you. Right here, you are going to witness an absolute spectacle. | „ |
| ~ Jupe leading the crowd to their demise. |
Ricky "Jupe" Park is the secondary antagonist of Jordan Peele's 2022 science fiction horror film Nope. He is a former child actor and the entrepreneurial carnival owner of Jupiter's Claim who has made a living curating his tragic past. He mistakenly believes he can use Jean Jacket for the sake of rejuvenating his fame and making profit.
He was portrayed by Steven Yeun, who also played Derek Cho in Mayhem, Danny Cho in Beef and A. Traveler in The Twilight Zone, while Jacob Kim portrayed him as a child.
Biography[]
| “ | We're not the reason it settled down here. That was Jupe. He got caught up trying to tame a predator, you can't do that. You gotta enter an agreement with one. | „ |
| ~ Otis Haywood Jr. |
When he was a child, Ricky Park was a popular cherubic child actor, renowned for starring as Jupiter in the western show Kid Sheriff, where he earned his nickname "Jupe". In 1996, he also played Mikey Houston in a live-action sitcom called Gordy's Home, revolving around a titular chimpanzee named Gordy who lives with an American family, the Houstons.
In 1998, during the filming of an episode in the second season called "Gordy's Birthday", the chimpanzee went feral after some balloons popped and frightened him. As Gordy proceeded to brutally maul the cast and crew, killing Tom Bogan and brutally beating up Jupe's crush Mary Jo Elliot, Jupe hid underneath a table, seeking refuge from the chaos. Eventually, Gordy calmed down and realized what he had done. He then noticed Jupe and tried to initiate their usual fistbump, a signature gag on the show, but was promptly shot down by animal control. The incident left Jupe deeply traumatized as a survivor.
After the show's limited run, Jupe fell into a lack of notoriety, losing his claim to fame due to the incident that marred his reputation, thus losing his status as a child actor. Despite this, Jupe's hunger for the limelight persisted, so he opened an amusement park dubbed "Jupiter's Claim" (themed in lieu of Kid Sheriff). In order to supplement his income, Jupe also curated a hidden museum showcasing memorabilia from the Gordy's Home incident, at one point being offered $50,000 by a Dutch couple to visit. He eventually settled in Agua Dulce, California, where he lived comfortably with his wife Amber, and their three children.
Years later, he realizes the existence of an unidentified aerial phenomena lurking in the sky, which he automatically deduces is of extraterrestrial origin. Drawing from his experience with Gordy, Jupe was convinced he had some power over animals since Gordy did not attack him like the other cast members. Realizing the money-making potential, Jupe begins abducting horses from a local ranch owned by Haywood Hollywood Horses and feeds them to the alien in hopes of taming it. The ranch owners Otis Jr. and Emerald, who have fallen into a financial dispute, are forced to sell their horses to Jupe when he offers to buy them for Jupiter's Claim in order to save their ranch. Jupe does not tell them that he has contributed to the deliberate abduction of their horses.
Rounding up the horses as alien bait, Jupe throws a live-action event at Jupiter's Claim termed the Star Lasso Experience, which he believes will catapult him back to stardom and be his most spectacular exhibit yet. Roughly 40 visitors arrive to witness the spectacle including his wife and children, and Mary Jo Elliot. He unveils Lucky, one of the many horses that belonged to the Haywood Ranch, offering it to the alien ("Jean Jacket") as a sacrifice in an attempt to domesticate it. Since Jean Jacket is a territorial predator which only kills those who look at it, it does not kill Lucky and instead begins to suck up the star-struck audience in huge gusts of wind.
Looking upon Jean Jacket in pure shock, Ricky only has moments to notice what he has done before the alien swoops down and devours him too.
Personality[]
| “ | You haven't seen the bad Gordy sketch on SNL? I mean, that pretty much nailed it better than I could. No? Saturday Night Live? Darrell Hammond as Tom. Ana Gasteyer as Phyllis. Cheri Oteri is Mary-Jo Elliot. Scott Wolf is the host, he's me. But, of course, the star of the sketch is Chris goddamn Kattan as Gordy, and he is... undeniable, 'kay? Bit goes like this: Everyone's trying to celebrate Gordy's birthday, but every time Gordy hears something about the jungle... Gordy -- Kattan -- goes off, and it's-- It's Kattan. He's just crushing it, he is a force of nature, he is killing on that stage. Yeah. It's legendary. Legendary shit. | „ |
| ~ Ricky "Jupe" Park talking about his trauma through the Saturday Night Live parody. This is reflective of how he has been struggling to overcome and properly process the tragedy of the Gordy's Home incident in 1998. |
Despite his charismatic façade as a carnival barker, Ricky "Jupe" Park is actually a greedy, overconfident, and naive businessman driven by ambition, constantly chasing the next money-making spectacle. Since the Gordy's Home incident, Jupe is clearly traumatized, shown when he struggles to articulate his memories of the event, often referencing the Saturday Night Live parody sketch as a coping mechanism. He denies and internalizes his trauma from his close friends, including his wife, while continuing to exploit the incident for profit by glorifying it and collecting mementos.
The memory of Gordy's attack had since guided Jupe to make his decisions in adulthood. Unfortunately for Jupe, he took away all the wrong lessons from the incident. Instead of learning about the proper treatment of a potentially dangerous animal, Jupe instead began believing that he could exert dominance over nature and control the untameable. Jupe's manipulative tendencies are evident in his lies to Otis Jr. and Emerald Haywood, scamming them into selling him their horses to keep their ranch financially stable, despite having stolen from them for some time and feeding them to the alien.
In a desperate attempt to prove he has overcome his trauma, Jupe recklessly tries to domesticate the alien dubbed "Jean Jacket" in the Star Lasso Experience, neglecting the safety of his audience and displaying irresponsibility. Blinded by his pursuit of fame and underestimating the temperament of the alien creature, Jupe gets himself, his whole family, and his audience killed in a bloodbath at Jupiter's Claim, ironically meeting the same fate as he had inflicted upon the Haywood's horses.
Trivia[]
- Ricky "Jupe" Park is similar to Mayor Larry Vaughn from Jaws. Both are greedy businessmen whose motivations, albeit not insincere, were at the expense of many innocent lives due to a need to satisfy their own personal desires. Jupe decided to open a carnival attraction to bait a carnivorous alien, while the Mayor allowed the beaches of Amity Island to remain open knowing sharks were terrorizing the beaches and killing people. They are contributing villains due to their inability to realize that their actions have been placing people in jeopardy of the main predatory threat (Jean Jacket and the Great White Sharks). They also both showed remorse for their actions after a great loss. (Jupe losing his family and his life, Vaughn losing his son.)
- Additionally, Jordan Peele cited Jaws as an inspiration for Nope.
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