Best Rock, Pop Songs in Non-Musical Movies

If you love movies, you’re probably an aficionado of films using rock or pop hits in their stories as well. You can put this mental connection to good use if you run playlists on Alexa/Google Home/cell phone/whatever, loading it up to play songs evoking your favorite films. Use the lists all day long, to wake you up, get you ready for the day’s work, psych you for a workout, or keep you going through a long night of studying.

For example: you can make morning playlists to wake you softly…and then more insistently, by starting with Deadpool’s Angel in the Morning, and moving on to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2’s Mr. Blue Sky.

Some films have a soundtrack with either 1. a piece of music tonally inappropriate to the scene at hand, and it is glorious (Again, see Angel in the Morning), or 2. a rockin’ Earth track to underscore how cool a scene is (as in Thor’s Immigrant Song). I’m not going to include music like ABBA from Mamma Mia 1 & 2, since those movies are clearly musicals. Let’s also leave out dance movies like Footloose, Flash Dance, Dirty Dancing, etc.

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I made a notation where the music is Diegetic (a case where the music is played within the storyline, where characters actually hear the music themselves).

I’m going to get a list started here. Enjoy the videos, and good luck getting these awesome earworms out of your head.

• Angel of the Morning – Deadpool (Total earworm bait)
  • • • Immigrant Song – Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers Infinity War (The lyrics from Led Zeppelin are so perfect, they reprised it thrice! Here is each scene, in order)

• Sabotage – Star Trek 2009 (Young Kirk, stealing his dad’s car — Diegetic — I can’t believe I missed adding this one yesterday,as it’s the best character introduction EVER)
• Sabotage is even reprised in Star Trek Beyond (Diegetic)
• And Star Trek Beyond goes even further with Fight the Power (yes, Diegetic too)
  • Dreamweaver – Wayne’s World (Inappropriate perfection)
  • Bohemian Rhapsody – Wayne’s World (Diegetic)

• • • • The entire playlists of Guardians of the Galaxy, Vols 1 & 2 (Diegetic)
    • • Avengers Infinity War – The Rubber Band Man (Diegetic, and used for the introduction of the aforementioned Guardians)

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    • Come Together – Justice League ( think this was only used in the trailer, but it works)
    • The entire playlist of Pulp Fiction (Some of it is Diegetic)
    • Back in the Saddle Again – RED (Perfect choice)
  • Radioactive – The Host (End credits)
  • Avengers 1 – Shoot to Thrill (Diegetic, when Iron Man hijacks the speakers of the Quinjet)

• • • • Iron Man 1 – Back In Black (Diegetic in the cold open Army Hummer)

  • Iron Man 1  – Iron Man, (Closing credits)

• • Iron Man 2 – Shoot to Thrill, complete song (Diegetic, at Iron Man’s Expo)

• Iron Man  3 – Can You Dig It? (End credits sequence) 
• Don’t Stop Me Now – Shaun of the Dead (Diegetic, on the jukebox: “Kill the Queen!”)

• X-Men: Days of Future’s Past – Time in a Bottle  (Quicksilver’s Sequence)
  • X-Men: Apocalypse – Sweet Dreams are Made of This (Quicksilver, again)

• • • • Oh Yeah Great uses in two songs! – Risky Business and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

  • Risky Business also has Old Time Rock and Roll (Diegetic)

• • Don’t You Forget About Me – The Breakfast Club

• • Ghostbusters  -In the original Ghostbusters
  • AXL F  – Beverly Hills Cop

• • • Ruthless People  – Opening credits of Ruthless People
  • Caddyshack – I’m All Right (Gopher opening sequence)

I’m going to wrap this  up and work on other things now. This list could probably go on for the length of a book. So…tell me what egregious misses I made. I’ll add to the list and give you the credit.

Jill Florio

Co-Creator of RunPee, Chief of Operations, Content Director, and Managing Editor. RunPee Jilly likes galaxy-spanning sci fi, superhero sagas, fantasy films, YA dystopians, action thrillers, chick flicks, and zany comedies, in that order…and possesses an inspiringly small bladder. In fact, that little bladder sparked the creation of RunPee. (Good thing she’s learned to hold it.)