Thursday, July 23, 2015

Cure in 'Ant-Man'

From A.V. Club: "Though some viewers may find themselves playing spot-the-author with the patchy script (e.g., a fight scene gag involving The Cure’s Disintegration, which smacks of Wright), it still makes for an enjoyable, intermittently inspired effects-driven comedy and a welcome antidote to the over-burdened world-saving that seems to define big-screen superhero stories.:

Anyone seen it yet? Anyone going tonight? If so can you give me some details about the scene? (Thanks Kimberly)

Update: And here it is! Thanks to JakeBradProductions.

"The protagonist of the film, Ant-Man, was fighting with the antagonist, Yellowjacket, in a briefcase on a plane. The briefcase fell out of the plane, and as the contents of the briefcase were being tossed around, Ant-Man accidentally activates Siri on an iPhone, and Yellowjacket yells, "I am going to disintegrate you!" as Siri resonds "Playing Disintegration by The Cure." "Plainsong" begins playing as the two proceed to fight. Really caught me and my dad off-guard as Marvel and Cure fans. "

Update (07/23/15): Director Peyton Reed tells Film School Rejects how and why this scene happened.

Reed also would’ve been upset if Marvel couldn’t secure the rights for a song from The Cure’s finest album, Disintegration. Ant-Man may be the first movie in history to have a song by The Cure playing during one of its big set pieces. At one point Ant-Man and Yellow Jacket fight in a briefcase to the amazing sound of ‘Plainsong’. “In the briefcase battle, we knew we wanted to have an iPhone joke,” Reed says. “We had all these different versions of jokes, like, Yellow Jacket saying, ‘You’re going to end up dead!’ and then you’d hear ‘Searching for the nearest Panera Bread.’ There were some funny jokes and some not-so-funny jokes, but, at the end of the day, they were just jokes. What if he activated the music feature? What would it be? I’m a massive Cure fan. We came up with a bunch of things, but we thought we could find a joke for ‘disintegration.’ The first song on Disinigration, which is the second CD I ever bought, was ‘Plainsong’. It’s such an epic song that it transcended the joke — scoring this whole battle in a briefcase. There was this weird, cold wave goth vibe, changing the character of that action scene. You have all these action scenes you want to have a different flavor. Then it became a question of, ‘Will [The Cure frontman] Robert Smith let us use his music?’ He ended up loving it, so he did.” (Thanks fmjews)

9 comments:

  1. The protagonist of the film, Ant-Man, was fighting with the antagonist, Yellowjacket, in a briefcase on a plane. The briefcase fell out of the plane, and as the contents of the briefcase were being tossed around, Ant-Man accidentally activates Siri on an iPhone, and Yellowjacket yells, "I am going to disintegrate you!" as Siri resonds "Playing Disintegration by The Cure." "Plainsong" begins playing as the two proceed to fight. Really caught me and my dad off-guard as Marvel and Cure fans.

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    1. Thank you so much! That's great!

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    2. Agreed, thanks for sharing!

      Can't help but think the writer had the video for "Close to Me" in mind when writing this scene (cramped closet, basically), but couldn't figure out the right words to make Siri play it. "'I'm going to put your Head on the Door, Ant-Man!'...no, nobody says that, and besides, Inbetween Days would start playing. What about 'Stop running away, Ant-Man, I want you Close to Me so we can fight!' No, that just sounds so weird. Gah! That's it, I want off this project!"

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  2. It's a fun little (hehe) moment in the film. It only lasts about 20 seconds and it cuts out way before the vocals. There is also a nice shot of the album artwork on the phone. Would have been cool to have had the song play at some point over the end credits, but no, sadly not.

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  3. I could not stop smiling from that point forward. It's such a great tribute to Disintegration. And the movie is pretty great too. Really fun. I'm not a big super hero movie guy but I went because of Paul Rudd and loved it. :-)

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  4. Great movie, and this scene was an unexpected thrill. Took me by complete surprise. Definitely an Edgar Wright carry over.

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  5. "Ant-Man may be the first movie in history to have a song by The Cure playing during one of its big set pieces."
    How about Plainsong in Marie Antoinette? Doesn't the wedding scene qualify as a "big set piece"?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dbm5gIhcMjs

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