Jordan Peele Talks About The AKIRA-Inspired Motorcycle Shot in His New Film NOPE

There’s a great shot in Jordan Peele’s new film Nope involving a motorcycle that was clearly inspired by the iconic motorcycle shot in Akira. It was a fun little Easter egg and it’s pretty clear that Peele is a huge Akira fan. He was actually working on a live-action adaptation of Akira at one point in his career.

In Nope, star Keke Palmer is seen riding a motorcycle across her ranch before pulling off the badass Akira bike slide. It’s a great shot and Jordan Peele recently addressed it in an interview with CinemaBlend and explains the meaning behind it:

"I mean, that movie meant so much to me. And yeah, there's a moment where we do the famous motorcycle, the Kaneda motorcycle slide.

"It felt so good, and it felt so — it's a moment that's been paid homage many times in animation, and I hadn't seen it done like this. And so to have, something about having a Black woman on a white motorcycle with, you know, having broken police tape do that 'Akira slide,' just felt like, ‘You know what Jordan? Go for it.’" 

So there are definitely some added layers to what Peele was trying to do with this shot. I watched Nope over the weekend one night while I was at Comic-Con, but I didn’t like it. Maybe it was because I was so damn tired when I watched it. I may have to give it a second viewing, but my reaction to the first viewing was that this was not Peele’s best movie and I walked out of the theater feeling disappointed.

Did you watch Nope? What did you think about the movie? What are your thoughts on the Akira shot?