An almost-30-year-old grunge song has made its way back onto the charts, thanks to Matt Reeves’ The Batman. During the long gestation of the latest iteration of the Caped Crusader, Reeves has always said that Robert Pattinson’s version of Bruce Wayne was heavily influenced by Kurt Cobain. When the first trailer was released way back in August 2020, the use of Nirvana’s “Something in the Way” led to a spike in popularity. And now that the movie is finally out, it’s gone back up the charts once more.
Reeves uses the song twice in the movie, as the backdrop to Bats’ monologues, and it has since seen a massive spike in streams. “Something in the Way” was streamed three million times in the first four days since the movie’s release, an increase of 734%. Nirvana have made it onto the Billboard Streaming Songs chart for this first time as a result.
Speaking to Esquire in January, Reeves said that he wasn’t just influenced by Cobain, but also Gus Van Sant’s Last Days, the 2005 fictionalised version of Kurt Cobain’s sad, slow demise (just like that film, we see amps stacked up in a storage room).
Reeves also said; “Early on, when I was writing, I started listening to Nirvana, and there was something about ‘Something in the Way’, which is in the first trailer, which is part of the voice of that character.”
“When I considered, ‘How do you do Bruce Wayne in a way that hasn’t been seen before?’ I started thinking, ‘What if some tragedy happened (Wayne sees his parents murdered) and this guy becomes so reclusive, we don’t know what he’s doing? Is this guy some kind of wayward, reckless, drug addict?’ And the truth is that he is a kind of drug addict. His drug is his addiction to this drive for revenge. He’s like a Batman Kurt Cobain.”
If The Batman has you hankering for all things dark and sinister, check out our guide to the best thriller movies.