What Jordan Peele’s ‘Nope’ Gets Wrong About ‘The Horse in Motion,’ the So-Called ‘First Motion Picture’

The story behind The Horse in Motion—the so-called “first motion picture”—has almost as many twists and turns as Nope, Jordan Peele’s latest horror romp that references the series of cabinet cards showing a man riding a horse.

Nope stars Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer as OJ and Emerald Haywood, two siblings who rent out horses for Hollywood productions. During a pitch to a crew, Emerald reveals she and her brother are descendants of one “Alistair E. Haywood,” the Black jockey who appears in what Emerald calls the very first movie.

This backstory comes full circle when the Haywoods take it upon themselves to capture another fast and unwieldy subject: a voracious UFO. Theirs is a mythical course-correction, with Peele giving kudos to the unidentified Black jockey whose likeness is immortalized as part of the early history of motion pictures. In the movie, his great-great-great grandchildren are struggling to keep the family business afloat despite being part of what should be Hollywood royalty.

Read more at The Daily Beast.