Sinners have opened in theaters this weekend, and director Ryan Coogler has revealed that the movie has a surprising metal tie drawing inspiration from the iconic metal band Metallica.
The director, who got his start telling the story of Bay Area native Oscar Grant’s tragic 2009 death in Fruitvale Station, has once again found a tie to his Oakland home base through Metallica.
How Metallica Inspired Sinners
In speaking with the San Francisco Chronicle, Coogler shared that one particular song inspired his vision for the movie. He shouted out the ...And Justice for All track “One” as being that song, particularly the lyric, “Darkness imprisoning me / All that I see / Absolute horror / I cannot live / I cannot die / Trapped in myself / Body my holding cell.”
“I wanted the movie to feel like a song, so I used Metallica’s ‘One,’” the director explained.
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“It starts off intense, then gets melodic,” Coogler said of both Sinners and “One,” “and going somewhere just fucking crazy. But by the time you’re finished, it was clear you were always going to get there.”
When asked if he was a Metallica fan, Coogler said that he was, but added that he was late to discovering them. However, he now has a working connection to the group as he confirmed that drummer Lars Ulrich contributed to the movie’s score.
Metallica, “One”
About Sinners
The movie stars Michael B. Jordan in dual roles as twins Smoke and Stack. The siblings return from Chicago back to a small Mississippi town where they plan to open a juke joint. Facing obstacles from the white population but uniting both the Black and Asian cultures, they open their club only to face a standoff with a group of vampires.
The film also stars Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton, Jack O’Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Omar Benson Miller and Delroy Lindo. The trailer can be seen below.
Sinners Trailer
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Gallery Credit: Chad Bowar, Joe DiVita