You can’t have a great movie without a great opening scene, and Baby Driver starts with a corker: a thrilling heist sequence meticulously choreographed to the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s “Bellbottoms.” With its sweeping strings and snarling guitar, the song seems to have been invented for the purpose, and in fact, it was “Bellbottoms” that gave Wright the inspiration for a movie about a getaway driver whose every move is tied to the beat of his own personal soundtrack, even if it took Wright 23 years to turn that initial idea into a feature film. Sony has now put that first scene online as a teaser for Baby Driver’s theatrical release, and even if the film as a whole leaves you somewhat cold, the opening is a pleasure to rewatch.
Before that, Wright took the notion for a spin in the 2004 video for Mint Royale’s “Blue Song,” which featured The Mighty Boosh and The Great British Bake Off’s Noel Fielding as—what else—a getaway driver getting his groove on while waiting for his fellow crooks to pull off a robbery. The video having a somewhat smaller budget than Baby Driver, the car never gets out of the parking garage, but Fielding does plenty of moving on his own.
