David Bowie is one of the bestselling musical artists of all time. When he passed away in 2016, the grief was felt around the world. Bowie has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, included on countless lists of the best musicians who ever lived, and declared the greatest rock star in history by Rolling Stone magazine.
Since Bowie’s music is so popular — he has five platinum certifications in America and 10 in the UK — it’s expensive to license his tracks to use in movies. But the handful of filmmakers who could afford to use his songs have used them brilliantly.
“Moonage Daydream” In Guardians Of The Galaxy
One of the ways that James Gunn made Guardians of the Galaxy stand out from the rest of the Marvel crowd was giving it a diegetic soundtrack full of ‘60s and ‘70s pop hits playing through Peter Quill’s Walkman.
David Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream” plays when the Guardians arrive at a planet located inside the severed head of a Celestial. Gunn originally wanted Bowie to cameo in Vol. 2 before he passed away.
“Something In The Air” In Memento
The nonlinear psychological thriller Memento is the movie that put Christopher Nolan on the map. David Bowie’s “Something in the Air” plays over the film’s end credits.
Nolan would later cast Bowie as Nikola Tesla in The Prestige. There was a fun irony in the famously celibate inventor being played by a sex symbol.
“Changes” In Shrek 2
When Shrek worries about Fiona’s parents’ disapproval of the fact he’s an ogre, he tracks down a love potion created by the Fairy Godmother in the hopes it’ll turn him into a human.
After Shrek and Donkey take the potion and transform into a handsome human being and a stallion overnight, respectively, they ride through Far Far Away set to David Bowie’s “Changes.”
“Starman” In The Martian
Ridley Scott’s The Martian is a testament to the human spirit. A lot of survival stories have a bleak, pessimistic, harrowing tone, but The Martian has a terrific sense of humor, mostly owing to Matt Damon’s lead performance as Mark Watney, who remains optimistic that he’ll make it if he can “science the sh*t” out of his predicament.
In telling the story of Watney getting stranded on Mars and trying to figure out a way home, Scott used the Bowie classic “Starman” throughout the movie.
“Heroes” (German Version) In Jojo Rabbit
While Jojo and his mother are harboring teenage Jewish refugee Elsa in their home, she says that the first thing she’ll do when Nazi Germany is liberated is dance.
When she finds out Jojo lied about the end of the war to keep her around and that the Allies have won World War II and Hitler’s regime has been toppled, she goes out into the street and starts dancing to the German-language version of “Heroes.”
“Queen B*tch” In The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
One of Wes Anderson’s most underrated movies (along with The Darjeeling Limited), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou stars Bill Murray as an eccentric oceanographer — a thinly veiled parody of Jacques Cousteau — who sets out to find the freakishly large tiger shark that ate his friend.
Anderson’s soundtracks have featured such legendary artists as the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, and the Beach Boys. David Bowie’s “Queen B*tch” plays over the end credits of The Life Aquatic.
“I’m Deranged” In Lost Highway
David Lynch’s surreal neo-noir Lost Highway is an underrated gem starring Bill Pullman as a jazz musician who’s accused of murder and then turns into a completely different person in his prison cell on death row.
David Bowie’s “I’m Deranged” plays over both the opening credits, with the road racing past the camera and the titles zooming into view, and the closing credits, with Fred Madison fleeing from the cops into the night.
“Magic Dance” In Labyrinth
David Bowie appeared in a bunch of different movies throughout his career, from the war drama Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence to the cult classic The Man Who Fell to Earth. Arguably his most iconic role is in Labyrinth, for which he contributed five songs.
The best of the bunch is “Magic Dance,” also known as “Dance Magic,” which was a hit single on its own and still has the ability to reinvigorate a dying party more than 30 years later.
“Cat People (Putting Out Fire)” In Inglourious Basterds
As Shoshanna Dreyfus is putting on makeup like warpaint, preparing to burn Hitler and his top brass alive at a propaganda premiere at her movie theater, David Bowie’s “Cat People (Putting Out Fire)” beautifully sets the stage for the action-packed final act.
The song is used better in Inglourious Basterds than the movie it was actually written for, Paul Schrader’s erotic horror movie Cat People, which just played it over the end credits instead of incorporating it into the actual movie.
“Modern Love” In Frances Ha
Directed by Noah Baumbach, starring Greta Gerwig, and written by both, the black-and-white masterpiece Frances Ha tells the story of a twentysomething ballerina’s quest to grow up.
Naturally, with this being a story about a ballerina, there’s a dancing-in-the-street scene. As Frances dances through the streets of New York, David Bowie’s “Modern Love” plays on the soundtrack.