From Blade Runner to Casino: the Weeknd's 15 best movie references

A noted cinephile, the Weeknd's love of movies has played a big part in his songs and visual works. 

"Before I ever thought of making music, I wanted to make films. I was writing screenplays and short stories before I ever wrote a full song," he once told V Man. "David Lynch, alongside David Cronenberg, Stanley Kubrick, and Martin Scorsese play a huge part in my brand, my looks, my sound, and my aesthetic."

The Weeknd made his film debut with a cameo in 2019's Uncut Gems, and now he's starring as another fictionalized version of himself in the new film Hurry Up Tomorrow, a thriller he co-wrote and co-produced.

To celebrate the film's release, we're revisiting some of the Weeknd's best movie references that have appeared across his songs and music videos.

Blade Runner

Horror auteurs such as John Carpenter and David Cronenberg had a large influence on the Weeknd's 2013 debut album, Kiss Land, and he stated in Complex that they, along with sci-fi director Ridley Scott, inspired him "because they know how to capture fear." 

The most specific movie nod appears on the album closer Tears in the Rain, which references Scott's 1982 film Blade Runner by taking inspiration from the character Ray's famous last lines about the fickleness of time: "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe: attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die," he says, before perishing.

On the track, the Weeknd sings, "It's pointless/ like tears in the rain," incorporating the phrase to describe how empty he feels about a lost love.

The Hills Have Eyes

On the track The Hills, from the Weeknd's second album, Beauty Behind the Madness, the song's lyrics allude to Wes Craven's 1977 horror film The Hills Have Eyes. In the movie, a family of cannibals attacks a family of travellers passing through a remote, rocky area while on a road trip. On the song, the Weeknd sings, "Hills have eyes, the hills have eyes/ who are you to judge?" to convey how he feels picked apart and surveilled by the public. 

Carrie

The music video for Can't Feel My Face features a glittering backdrop similar to the one in Brian De Palma's 1976 horror film Carrie. The Weeknd is set on fire by Rick Wilder of the Mau-Maus, somewhat similarly to the famed prom scene in the movie, where Carrie is pushed too far by her bullies and unleashes her telekinetic powers to lock the doors and set the school aflame.

Taxi Driver

The colourful music video for In the Night follows a sex worker (portrayed by model Bella Hadid) who violently fights back against a crime boss, and the seedy narrative and bloody aesthetic were nods to Martin Scorsese's 1976 film Taxi Driver.

"We are always inspired by directors who know how to create a distinct aesthetic and vibe," the music video's director, BRTHR, told Dazed. "The film Taxi Driver was a huge inspiration in terms of the bloodshed and prostitution narrative, but also the New York feel that the film has."

"Other directors we are always inspired by are Wong Kar-wai, Harmony Korine, Guy Ritchie, Gaspar Noé and Quentin Tarantino," he added. "Weirdly, after we shot everything, things started reminding us more of Blade Runner, so that became an inspiration too. Last but not least, we were obviously inspired by Prince and Michael Jackson vids. We wanted to bring back the feel of those grand-scale music videos."

Clash of the Titans

The futuristic theme in the music video for I Feel It Coming sees the Weeknd and his love interest turn to stone, which is a nod to how Medusa kills her victims in the 1981 movie Clash of the Titans. According to Billboard, the music video's director, Warren Fu, watched the film as a child, and incorporated the idea into the plotline.

Terminator 2

Fu also told Billboard the final scene in the I Feel It Coming music video, which shows Daft Punk cleaning away ash and dust, references the nuclear apocalypse scene in James Cameron's 1991 film Terminator 2. 

"It's almost like a fable, something in a storybook you'd read as a kid, so I tried to think of a darker ending, and that image popped into my head," he said.

Mulholland Drive

The music video for Starboy and the track Ordinary Life (both from the Weeknd's Starboy album) each reference David Lynch's 2001 thriller Mulholland Drive. At the end of the Starboy video, the Weeknd drives down the dangerous, twisty road in a sports car, which is where a deadly car crash occurs in the film after the opening credits.

On Ordinary Life he references the mountainous road on the second verse with the lyrics "Mulholland's where all the damned will be kept" and "Over 45, Imma drift on a bend/ do a buck 20, Imma fly off the edge."

After Hours

The Weeknd's 2020 album, After Hours, shares its title with Martin Scorsese's 1985 thriller movie, which unfolds over the course of one chaotic evening, just like in the Weeknd's short film that accompanies the album. 

While Scorsese's one of the more obvious references, the Weeknd explained to Variety that he went "full-on film geek" with the After Hours short, which contains seven cinematic nods: "There's the Chinatown reference with the broken nose, the Jacob's Ladder reference with the subway, King of Comedy for Jimmy Kimmel, Trouble Every Day, Possession, Dressed to Kill with the elevator — and of course After Hours, Martin Scorsese's [1985] film, is the obvious inspiration, with all this madness taking place in one night," he said.

Casino

The red blazer the Weeknd wore in the music videos for Blinding Lights, Heartless and more while promoting After Hours is another Scorsese reference, acting as a nod to the film Casino. The crimson jacket he sported is reminiscent of the one donned by Robert De Niro's character, Ace, in Scorsese's 1995 movie that tackles gambling, betrayal and greed.

Terminator

The music video for In Your Eyes is packed with nods to slasher films, and portrays the Weeknd as a knife-wielding killer. The video references "almost every thriller film you can think of in the '70s and '80s," he told GQ. 

The music video's director, Anton Tammi, revealed that the video has a reference to a 1984 James Cameron sci-fi film, stating that the After Hours nightclub "uses the exact same font and lightbulb texture as the one from Terminator."

Lost in Translation 

Many of the scenes in the music video for the Dawn FM track Out of Time are nods to Sofia Coppola's 2003 romantic drama Lost in Translation. When the Weeknd and actress HoYeon Jung sing karaoke in the video, it echoes the scene in the film where Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray's characters sing Brass in Pocket at a karaoke bar. Additionally, the music video's elevator scene parallels a similar one in the movie where the characters look at each other wistfully while riding the elevator.

The Mask

Things take a sinister turn at the end of the Out of Time video when Jim Carrey (who poses as a radio host narrating the journey to the underworld on the album) appears as a doctor, placing a mask on the Weeknd to give him a jarringly sculpted face. The use of the mask is likely a wink to Chuck Russell's 1994 Carrey-starring film The Mask, which the Weeknd stated is the first film he ever saw in theatres.

Scarface

Wake Me Up, the opening track on Hurry Up Tomorrow, samples the main theme music from Brian De Palma's 1983 thriller Scarface. The eerie, pulsating synths that appear on the title music from the film show up at the beginning of the track where the Weeknd sings: "All I have is my legacy/ I been losing my memory."

Giorgio Moroder, who composed the Scarface score, also served as an inspiration for the album: "His DNA has always been in all of my music, but I'm really honing in on it here, especially the operatic synths in Scarface," the Weeknd told Variety. 

Midnight Express

The Weeknd teamed up with Moroder to co-write and co-produce on Hurry Up Tomorrow's track Big Sleep, which contains Moroder's theme music from Alan Parker's 1978 film Midnight Express.

The vocals at the beginning of the track, where the Weeknd sings "la la la la la la," are an interpolation of the theme music.

Eraserhead

The title track from Hurry Up Tomorrow interpolates In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song) from another David Lynch film, the 1977 horror movie Eraserhead. The Weeknd had previously covered the song while performing live along with producer Mike Dean, who is currently opening for him on the After Hours til Dawn tour.

The Weeknd's love for the film also extended beyond his music to his personal aesthetic, as he told V Man in 2016 that "at one point, my hair looked like Eraserhead."