10 Ingenious Uses Of End Credits Songs In Movies

2. You’re My Best Friend – Shaun Of The Dead

Jojo Rabbit Taika Waititi
Universal Pictures

Edgar Wright is a big fan of Queen. The proof is immortalised on screen in Shaun of the Dead's now iconic scene of Shaun and his mates beating up zombies to Don't Stop Me Now. More recently in Baby Driver, the more obscure Queen number Brighton Rock serves as the battle song when Ansel Elgort and Jon Hamm face off in the car park finale.

However, Wright also managed to slip another Queen song into Shaun of the Dead. In the film's final few minutes Shaun slinks off to his shed where its revealed zombie Ed is locked up. After initially trying to bite his friend, Ed and Shaun play a video game instead as that familiar intro to You're My Best Friend begins. As the world's first Romantic Zombie Comedy (a RomZomCom, if you will) it is truly Shaun's relationship with best friend Ed that packs the emotional punch, and this Queen classic playing over the end credits summarises it best.

Not only does the song encapsulate the friendship between Shaun and Ed, like most of the film it contains foreshadowing and subtle Easter eggs within its first line. As Freddie Mercury begins crooning "ooh, you make me live", there is a certain amount of irony in the lyrics considering Ed is literally the opposite of alive, having been transformed into a member of the living dead.

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An avid cinephile, love Trainspotting (the film, not the hobby), like watching bad films ironically (The Room, Cats) and hate my over-reliance on brackets (they’re handy for a quick aside though).