{"id":421690,"date":"2026-01-20T15:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T15:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/421690\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T15:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T15:50:10","slug":"release-the-beast-how-iron-maiden-and-a-naked-ralph-fiennes-created-the-ultimate-big-screen-needle-drop-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/421690\/","title":{"rendered":"Release the beast! How Iron Maiden and a naked Ralph Fiennes created the ultimate big-screen needle drop | Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

There were laughs of surprise around me in screen three of the Everyman in Muswell Hill, north London, as 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple drew to its conclusion. Without giving too much away for those who haven\u2019t seen it, Ralph Fiennes dancing semi-naked among piles of human bones to Iron Maiden\u2019s The Number of the Beast is not how you expect one of our greatest thespians to deport himself on screen.<\/p>\n

28 Days Later: The Bone Temple director Nia DaCosta. Photograph: Jeff Spicer\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cAlex Garland chose that song,\u201d says the film\u2019s director, Nia DaCosta. \u201cHe wrote it into the script. And you can\u2019t get better than that in a film about satanists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed you can\u2019t. From the track\u2019s spoken intro by actor Barry Clayton \u2013 \u201cLet him who hath understanding reckon the number of the beast, for it is a human number. Its number is six hundred and sixty six\u201d \u2013 to Bruce Dickinson concluding with \u201cI have the fire, I have the force \/ I have the power to make my evil take its course\u201d, it is a shade under five minutes of nothing but the dark lord.<\/p>\n

The song was the title track of Maiden\u2019s 1982 album, their third, and first with singer Bruce Dickinson, and it moved them to the peaks of the metal world \u2013 their first UK No 1 album and first US top 40 album. Released as a single in 1982, the track reached No 3 in the UK in 2005, and that remains the highest ever UK chart position for a song about Satan (in the US, that honour belongs to the Charlie Daniels Band\u2019s The Devil Went Down to Georgia, also a No 3 single).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a far from usual track: Clive Burr\u2019s drum patterns judder awkwardly and, as Maiden are wont to do, they put multiple sections in. \u201cThat makes it so fun,\u201d DaCosta says, \u201cand gives you so many options in terms of when and how to cut.\u201d The scene had to contrast the world of the Jimmys \u2013 a Satanist gang \u2013 with that of the warm, humanist Fiennes character. \u201cWe wanted it to feel as erratic and crazy as it was when we shot the Jimmys being violent in their scenes, but also having the romance of Ralph\u2019s character\u2019s world \u2013 which is why there is fire and warm tones. And that song gave us a lot to work with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iron Maiden in 1983: from left, Dave Murray, Steve Harris, Bruce Dickinson, Nicko McBrain and Adrian Smith. Photograph: Paul Natkin\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Iron Maiden seldom license their music for use in film and TV. \u201cThe biggest thing to consider,\u201d says Dave Shack, one of the trio who run the band\u2019s team Phantom Music Management, \u201cis: are we going to be made fun of?\u201d Given popular culture\u2019s propensity for mocking metalheads, that rules out a huge number of proposals off the bat. He still regrets the band allowing one character in Hot Tub Time Machine to wear an Iron Maiden<\/a> shirt throughout. \u201cThat was a litmus test of what happens if you grant the licence and take the fee. We\u2019re not bloody Spinal Tap or Steel Panther.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even with a great script, fantastic cast and crew, and amazing director, it can all go wrong, he says. \u201cWhat happens on the day can completely kibosh it \u2013 we all accept that risk.\u201d This time, though, everything went perfectly to plan. After the BFI Imax screening, DaCosta approached Shack and asked if he was happy. \u201cAm I happy? Are you kidding me? People stood up in the cinema and clapped for it!\u201d The scene itself might be startling, but Maiden don\u2019t come out of it looking at all silly.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the second time in weeks that Maiden have been at the centre of a pop-culture moment on screen. Their 1983 track The Trooper featured in the Stranger Things finale, and within seven days its streaming numbers across all platforms rose by 252%.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that both 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple and Stranger Things were big budget, prestige productions, both of which used music as an integral part of plotting and character. Maiden, a band who were refusing to do things \u201cfor the exposure\u201d long before the internet made it commonplace, have always maintained a sense of their own worth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe music budget is usually the ass end of everything,\u201d Shack says. \u201cThat\u2019s a big part of the reason why, historically, Maiden have said no. If you make a $10m film, why don\u2019t you put half a million aside for music and licensing? They\u2019ll tell you it\u2019s crucial to the scene, that it\u2019s the only song the director wants. Then pay some money for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

DaCosta quickly realised this scene would have an impact. It was shot over three nights, and within a couple of days her editor had prepared a cut of it. \u201cIt was so amazing, and in that moment I felt: Oh, we did it. I couldn\u2019t have predicted people would be cheering or getting out of their seats and dancing. But I felt the impact from the first cut. If you have a needle drop in a movie it had better be great, because sometimes it\u2019s used to blast over a scene that\u2019s not so good. But when you use it right, it can be amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s another semi-naked snake-hipped showstopper for Fiennes after his dance to the Rolling Stones\u2019 Emotional Rescue in Luca Guadagnino\u2019s A Bigger Splash, and it\u2019s all worked out very well for Maiden, too, albeit inadvertently. The band are currently in the midst of their 50th anniversary world tour. Both Stranger Things and 28 Years Later were under way long before that. Shack knows it was chance, but still he says, \u201cMaybe they were vindications. But the big picture is that you\u2019re always looking for validation from a new audience. And Iron Maiden are no different in that.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was amended on 20 January 2026. An earlier version incorrectly said Iron Maiden had not released any greatest hits compilations. This reference has been removed. Also, The Number of the Beast reached No 3 in the UK singles chart in 2005, not 1990. Its 1990 release was part of a box set that reached the same position in the albums chart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There were laughs of surprise around me in screen three of the Everyman in Muswell Hill, north London,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75],"class_list":["post-421690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}