Carpenters heard in "The Wolverine"

[Actorman]

Saw "The Wolverine" last night and was totally taken by surprise by a very tiny snippet of Carpenters' "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" (of all songs!!) featured in one scene. It's only a second or two of the song, but I really got a kick out of it. It was so completely random and out of the blue.

The majority of the movie is set in Japan and this particular scene takes place on a bullet train. As Wolverine is battling some bad guys on the top of the moving train, the scene periodically cuts to the inside of the train where the passengers are calmly riding with no clue that all this action is going on above their heads. In one of these quick cuts, you hear Karen sing just the words "calling occupants of" and then it cuts right back to the battle on top of the train.

Not sure why they used that particular track (it has no connection to the plot or characters or anything), but just the fact that a Carpenters tune would pop up in a 2013 action/super-hero movie was pretty cool.

 

[Harry]

If what I'm reading is correct (and I haven't seen the movie), then I feel that the appearance of a few seconds of "Calling Occupants..." in the film is likely a tongue-in-cheek disparagement of both Carpenters and the Japanese for their appreciation of the duo. The fact that someone is blithely listening to Carpenters seems like a "statement" that the duo is un-cool and the people who listen to such stuff are oblivious to the real world around them.

It's nice that it was used I guess, but it seems like it was not in a good way.

Harry

 

[Nikifor Blavatsky]

I certainly don't see it that way, in fact I'm for the opposite opinion, I would figure the Carpenters music is so widely appreciated at Japan that to pick one of their songs to be played on the bullet train would be a predictable ambience-making element.

 

[Harry]

Like I said, I didn't see it - it just came across that way in the description.

Harry

 

[Nikifor Blavatsky]

Besides, it would be too a quick scene to match your take. And it's an X-Man flick, lol, so "oblivion to the real world" would not be the case.

 

[Must Hear This Album]

This thread got me to thinking...I remember “Superstar” being prominently featured in Ghost Rider and the classic car scene in Tommy Boy, where neither Farley or Spade want to admit they actually like Carpenters, but do others know of films / television shows where the duo’s music was featured, either in the background or as part of the plot line (Dark Shadows) and/or part of character development (above mentioned films)?

 

[Mark-T]

Heard "We've Only Just Begun" in a Village Inn.

 

[Nikifor Blavatsky]

This thread got me to thinking...I remember “Superstar” being prominently featured in Ghost Rider and the classic car scene in Tommy Boy, where neither Farley or Spade want to admit they actually like Carpenters, but do others know of films / television shows where the duo’s music was featured, either in the background or as part of the plot line (Dark Shadows) and/or part of character development (above mentioned films)?

Yes, 1408.

https://www.google.com.br/#fp=afad099fdd8ea46b&q="john cusack" "stephen king" carpenters

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1408_(film)

Once inside the room, Mike records on his mini-cassettethe room's dull appearance and its unimpressive lack of supernatural phenomena. During his examination, the clock radio suddenly starts playing "We've Only Just Begun", but Mike assumes this is a trick of Olin's.

 

[Graeme]

Top of the World featured in Shrek Forever After ().

I have a vague recollection of Helen Slater's character in a TV movie called 12.01 confessing that the Carpenters were her favourite band (she was mocked initially). Don't think they played any of their music though.

 

[A&M Retro]

'We've Only Just Begun' (Carpenters version) in the 'Starsky and Hutch' movie.

 

[ullalume]

"We've Only Just Begun" in John Carpenters 1995 film "In the Mouth of Madness"(1995). As lead actor Sam Neill sits incarcerated in a padded cell in straight jacket a MOR version of "Begun" gets pumped into his room. Neill responds "Carpenters. . . .why'd it have to be Carpenters?"

It's a double joke. On the one hand the director's taking a jibe at their perceived bland/brain-dead image (full marks for originality there, John). On the other, he's a "Carpenter" himself so a bit of self-deprication is involved