From the World of John Wick: Ballerina

The fifth film in the John Wick franchise explores the story of Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas), a ballerina-turned-assassin seeking revenge. Musically, the trailer cleverly juxtaposes scenes of violence on screen with the light-hearted sounds of Elton John and Bernie Taupin’s 1971 soft rock hit “Tiny Dancer.” Now, if you don’t know the song, check out its 2017 music video, featuring scenes of everyday life in Los Angeles (and say a prayer for the people of L.A.).

If the heroine of this film is a ballerina, then, yes, the lyrics of “Tiny Dancer” are on topic. But when a pop song is remixed for a trailer (we sometimes call this process “trailerizing”), not all the lyrics get included, and the song gets reimagined in new ways to fit the story.

The trailer begins, and a young girl with a bloodied face is holding a spinning ballerina music box in her hand. There’s a chiming melody–listen closely–it’s a slowed-down instrumental melody from the verse of “Tiny Dancer.” In the first 18 seconds of the trailer, we hear this 4-note descending melody twice. The young girl is being invited to join a dance school, but by a sinister-looking man.

After a cut to silence at 0:18, the Lionsgate title card appears and a wistful music box version of “Tiny Dancer” plays again, now with melody and accompanying chords. By 0:24 we pivot to a training montage, and our tiny dancer is now a young woman. The images on screen are more intense and hard-hitting, so the music brings in big drums. The punching bag hits and kicks are synched to the pulse of the music at 0:30. So are the sounds of a gun being fired twice at 0:36. [sidebar - as a percussionist, I really do love how trailers in recent years have made us so accustomed to hearing the sounds of action visuals on screen as if they are part of the rhythm section of the band!]

At 0:46 as we see a wide shot of a city skyline, a gritty bass synthesizer comes in. Listen closely because here too, the synth is playing that 4-note melody from the verse of “Tiny Dancer.” At 0:55, electronic risers and big drums set up the arrival of Elton John’s voice for the first time in the trailer. But we don’t start at the beginning of the song. Instead, we jump 5 phrases into verse 1, with the line “Ballerina, you must’ve seen her.” And as we hear this line, at 1:04 Eve is in a theatre watching a ballet.

Her training’s complete by this point in the trailer, so at 1:08 there are clips of Eve on violent missions capably incapacitating the bad guys. At 1:14, with the intertitle VENGEANCE in block capitals on the screen, we jump ahead to the chorus of “Tiny Dancer.”

To keep with the dancing theme, from 1:15 to 1:21 Eve is in a shootout in a nightclub where people are dancing all around her.

We’re cutting back and forth now between the Elton John chorus and lines of dialogue that give us important backstory information. But notice that we’re in a full-blown remix of “Tiny Dancer” now - the big cinematic drums have replaced the original song’s light drum groove, and the orchestral strings now are much more rhythmic and agitated than the original song. For the action sequence climax of the trailer (flamethrower vs. firehose) from 1:37-1:50, even Elton John’s vocals get a cinematic treatment, with the words “hold me closer” repeated and drowning in reverb.

After this visual climax, as a train pulls up at night in the snow from 1:52-2:02, the music switches to a gnarly distorted synthesizer to maintain the trailer’s intensity. Then we have a mechanical power-down tone at 2:08 to grab our attention as we see the arrival of John Wick himself (Keanu Reeves). The trailer ends with one more snippet of “Tiny Dancer” vocals and a steady pounding on big drums.

Less is more. This trailer is a masterclass in getting the most out of your musical material. It only uses 19 select words from “Tiny Dancer,” and it finds ways to take a melodic hook from the verse and subtly apply it.

From the World of John Wick: Ballerina is in theatres June 6.

— Jack Hui Litster