The 10 best musical moments in Edgar Wright movies, from Shaun to Soho

“That’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna have a good time. We’re gonna have a party!” Peter Fonda delivered those iconic words in Roger Corman’s The Wild Angels, but they’re likely better known as the chill-inducing introduction to Primal Scream’s acid house classic “Loaded,” a groovy tribute to getting high and having fun on the dance floor. The song takes on a sinister new edge over the opening credits of The World’s End, because it captures the self-destructive mindset of fortysomething alcoholic Gary King (Simon Pegg). The credits montage showcases his estranged boyhood pals, all of whom have comfortably settled into adult life. But Gary is about to reenter their lives and change them forever. Because he wants to, well, get loaded and reconnect with his drinking buddies, all of whom are much better off without him.

Anya Taylor-Joy has had a few “movie star” moments over the course of her short career, but Last Night In Soho is the first movie to deliver a full string of them, one after the other. The best are the musical sequences. While the film’s big early dance number will receive plenty of acclaim, the moment that really steals the show is the one that arrives mid-film, after Taylor-Joy’s Sandie—the glamorous wannabe ’60s singer who lives in the dreams of young Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie)—has lost her innocence. Set to the Walker Brothers’ “Land Of 1000 Dances,” the scene finds Sandie passed around by men in a club as she desperately drinks the night away, changing her name whenever she’s prompted. The song literally references many popular dance routines, metaphorically commenting upon Sandy’s dances with danger, but it also subtly hints at how quickly time slips away while you futilely wait for something greater to come along. As the scene turns twisted and surreal, it becomes harder and harder to believe in that possibility of deliverance.

Scott Pilgrim’s musical bona fides are numerous. Longtime Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich composed the score, Beck devised the music for our hero’s band Sex Bob-Omb, and other Canadian indie rockers (including members of Sloan and Broken Social Scene) contributed their talents to the music of the fictional Toronto bands seen throughout. The film’s best music sequence, however, involves Japanese experimental pop artist Cornelius, who created the music of the Katayanagi Twins, an electronic duo whose two members happened to both date Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), the love interest of Scott Pilgrim. Sex Bob-Omb and the Katayanagi Twins face off in the Battle Of The Bands, which doubles for a battle for Ramona’s heart, and the walls of their respective noise eventually take on dueling avatars (a gorilla versus twin snakes). It’s assaultive and triumphant.

The most accomplished fight scene in Wright’s career juggles multiple different skirmishes across a confined space as Gary King’s crew takes on a swarm of androids in a hometown pub. Andy (Nick Frost) takes out his stewing resentment on every robot that crosses his path, Steven (Paddy Considine) and Sam (Rosamund Pike) keep each other safe, Peter (Eddie Marsan) hides from the brawl, and Gary just wants to finish his pint but keeps getting pulled into battle. It’s perfectly chaotic, and Wright deserves credit for keeping the sequence thrilling and spatially coherent—but also for setting it to Silver Bullet’s “20 Seconds To Comply,” a 1989 hip-hop classic whose aggressive style proved influential across multiple U.K. music scenes. The rapper’s hyper-fast delivery and the song’s breakbeat production prove the perfect soundtrack to Gary becoming his own version of the Drunken Master.

No matter how great the song, there’s an unabashed dorkiness to loudly “rocking out” alone in your car. You might think you look cool, but if anyone was to catch a glimpse of you, the embarrassment would be overwhelming. Baby Driver channels this idea into its opening scene, in which Baby (Ansel Elgort) goes all out listening to “Bellbottoms” by The Jon Spencer Blue Explosion, furiously singing along and miming every instrument. The difference between him and a working stiff in traffic is that he’s waiting for a robbery crew to exit a bank so he can whisk them away from the cops. As soon as Baby takes off, Wright imbues the car chase with clever humor and a frenetic energy that engages the entire frame, with every move Baby makes edited in time to Jon Spencer’s bluesy track. In short, it kicks the movie off with a bang.

Anyone who watched Spaced, Edgar Wright’s cult sitcom, already knew he was interested in bravado musical sequences. But this Shaun Of The Dead scene was the first time that international audiences caught wind of his abilities. Just as Shaun (Simon Pegg) and his misfit pals realize that their beloved bar, the Winchester, has been surrounded by the undead, they also discover that they forgot to account for the pub’s beloved bartender, John, who wants to feast on them. Suddenly, the jukebox randomly starts playing Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” and everyone springs into action, beating John with pool cues to the beat of the song, and later, switching the fuses on and off in time. It’s a fun sequence that neither skimps on the violence or the chaos. Plus, it features one of Wright’s very best wordplay gags: “Kill the Queen.” “What?” “The jukebox!”