Intro to Film 2025 • Professor Gregory Zinman • Emory University

Do You Think OJ died?

Written by

Brendan Deparra

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When discussing with a friend after class, there was a little bit of a debate on whether OJ was consumed by Jean Jacket or he miraculously got away in time. There was belief that OJ appearing at the end of the film in the hazy white smoke could be symbolic of his death, with the sine “out yonder” contributing to the belief of him being gone.

However, I believe that he is still alive mainly because of the trope “if you don’t see them die on screen, they are still alive”. This suggests not seeing any clips of OJ actually getting sucked up by Jean Jacket supports my claim that he is still alive. 

Do you think he is dead or alive?

Comments

2 responses to “Do You Think OJ died?”

  1. Monique Thompson Avatar
    Monique Thompson

    Yes! A friend and I were also discussing this! I was led to believe that it is all left to interpretation and that Peele did it purposefully. Usually, it seems when someone passes and comes back, they have this glorified filtering and soft lighting, which is what is happening here. Then there is also the contradiction of the phenomenon, “If you didn’t see them die, they are still alive. This movie is all about perspective and interpretation, so I believe it was intentional, and Peele doesn’t want us to know if this was truly a good ending.

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  2. Yuen Lin Avatar
    Yuen Lin

    When I first saw that ending scene, the haziness and framing of the shot made me believe that he was dead, especially because since the scenes leading up to his “sacrifice,” with Emerald and OJ refusing to sacrifice the other to escape, was extremely meaningful. However, I believe Emerald’s reaction to seeing OJ was too real, which made me think that he was truly alive. I agree with your point that “If they didn’t die on-screen, they are not dead,” and I think I will go along with it for my own sake of mind because I thought OJ was the character that deserved to live the most out of our cast. He understood and respected the wild animals the most and it would be tragic if it was that understanding that led to his death.

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