It’s easy to be drawn in by the opening credits of Deadpool & Wolverine. Director Shawn Levy and company crafted a cacophony of carnage unrivaled in Marvel movies. Then, by setting it to a perfect pop song from decades past, it hits just the right balance of joy, nostalgia, or cynicism, depending on the viewer. However, watching the film again, we prefer another moment just that’s as brutal and set to an ever-weirder, even older, more surprising song. And it deserves some love too.
Deadpool & Wolverine opens with Wade using the adamantium skeleton of Logan to kill a bunch of TVA members. The scene is set to the song “Bye Bye Bye” by NSync, a Grammy-nominated, chart-topping hit that was a staple of the early 2000s. Basically, if you grew up in that time, you knew the song. It was everywhere. And setting a violent action scene to it is just inherently fun.
In the days since the film’s release, social media has been ablaze with people rediscovering “Bye Bye Bye.” NSync’s members themselves were at the premiere and their official YouTube updated the song’s description to include “Deadpool & Wolverine.” SEO comes for us all, even boy bands.
And yet, for our money, the “Bye Bye Bye” scene pales in comparison to what happens later. After an emotional rant by Wolverine, Deadpool attacks him inside their borrowed Honda Odyssey. They hit the radio and on pops “You’re the One That I Want” from the musical film, Grease. Sung by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, the moment is not only a nod to Jackman’s musical roots (a point hammered home by a quick station change and the notes from Jackman’s The Greatest Showman coming on before changing back), but also a much funnier, yet poignant juxtaposition.
There are a few things at play here. Grease was released over 20 years before “Bye Bye Bye.” It’s much less likely modern audiences will know it so throwing it in there feels like a much bigger swing. Plus the song, about polar opposites who fall in love, is thematically in line with the movies. Deadpool could be Sandy and Wolverine could be Danny, at odds for a while, but ending up together in the end. The song also hits differently with its very 1978 vibes. You get less “breezy boy band,” and more “genuine WTF.” And, just as an aside, technically “You’re the One That I Want” did something “Bye Bye Bye” never did: it hit #1 on the Billboard charts when it was released. (“Bye Bye Bye” peaked at #4.)
So you’ve got this uptempo, dated but delightful musical mega-hit song playing as Wolverine and Deadpool tear each other to pieces. Blood and bodies are flying everywhere. It’s quite similar to the opening and yet, where’s the Grease love? Why hasn’t the official upload of that added “Deadpool & Wolverine” to its description?
Let’s start it now. Deadpool & Wolverine’s use of Grease in the film is just as satisfying, if not more so, then NSync. What do you think?
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