Release the monster! How Iron Maiden and a naked Ralph Fiennes created the ultimate needle drop on the big screen | music

TThere were gasps of surprise around me at the third screen of Everyman in Muswell Hill, north London, 28 years on: the Temple of Bones has come to an end. Without giving too much away to those who haven’t seen it, Ralph Fiennes dances semi-naked among piles of human bones to Iron Maiden’s “The Number of the Beast,” and it’s not the way you’d expect one of our greatest thespians to take to the screen.

“Alex Garland chose that song,” says the film’s director, Nia DaCosta. “He wrote that into the script. You can’t get better than that in a movie about Satanists.”

Actually you can’t. From actor Barry Clayton’s spoken introduction to the track – “Let him who has understanding count the number of the beast, for it is a human number. His number is six hundred and sixty-six” – to Bruce Dickinson concluding with “I have the fire, I have the power / I have the power to make my evil take its course,” it’s a less-than-five-minute shadow of nothing but the Dark Lord.

The song was the title track of Maiden’s 1982 album, their third album and first with singer Bruce Dickinson, and it catapulted them to the heights of the metal world – their first UK top 10 and top 40 album in the US. Released as a single in 1982, it reached No. 3 in the UK in 2005, and remains the highest UK chart position ever for a song about the Devil (in the US, that honor belongs to Charlie Daniels’ band, The Devil Went Down to Georgia, also their No. 3 single).

It’s a far cry from the norm: Clive Burr’s drum patterns vibrate strangely, and as Maiden are wont to do, they put multiple sections in. “This makes it a lot of fun,” says DaCosta, “and gives you a lot of options as to when and how to cut.” The scene had to contrast the world of the Jimmys – a satanic gang – with the world of Finneas’s warm and humane character. “We wanted it to feel as weird and crazy as it did when we filmed the Jimmys being violent in their scenes, but also have the romance of Ralph’s character’s world – which is why there are fiery, warm tones. This song gave us a lot to work with.”

Iron Maiden rarely licenses their music for use in films and television. “The biggest thing to consider is: ‘Are we going to be ridiculed?'” says Dave Schack, one of the trio that runs the band’s Phantom Music Management team. Given popular culture’s tendency to mock metalheads, this rules out a large number of proposals to begin with. He still regrets that the band allowed one character in Hot Tub Time Machine to wear an Iron Maiden shirt all the time. “That was a real test of what happens if you grant the license and get the royalties. We’re not Spinal Tap or Steel Panther.”

He says that even with a great script, a great cast and crew, and an amazing director, everything can go wrong. “What happens that day could totally mess it up – we all accept that risk.” But this time everything went perfectly as planned. After the BFI Imax screening, DaCosta approached Shack and asked him if he was happy. “Am I happy? Are you kidding me? People stood up in the cinema and applauded!” The scene itself may have been amazing, but Maiden didn’t come out of it looking silly at all.

It’s the second time in weeks that Maiden has been at the center of an on-screen pop culture moment. Their 1983 song The Trooper was featured in the Stranger Things finale, and within seven days streaming numbers across all platforms had risen by 252%.

It’s worth noting that both 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple and Stranger Things were high-profile, big-budget productions, and both used music as an integral part of plot and character. Maiden, who refused to do things “for exposure” long before the Internet made them popular, have always maintained a sense of their own worth.

“The music budget is usually the be-all and end-all,” Shaq says. “That’s a big part of why Maiden has historically been rejected. If you make a $10 million movie, why not set aside half a million for music and licensing? They’ll tell you it’s important for the scene, and it’s the only song the director wants. So pay some money for it.”

DaCosta quickly realized that this scene would have an impact. The film was shot over three nights, and within two days her editor had part of it prepared. “It was so amazing, and in that moment I felt: Oh, we did it. I wasn’t expecting people to cheer or get out of their seats and dance. But I felt the impact from the first cut. If you have a needle drop in a movie, it better be great, because sometimes it’s used to blow up a scene that’s not so good. But when you use it right, it can be amazing.”

It’s another semi-naked snake show for Fiennes after his dancing to the Rolling Stones’ Emotional Rescue in Luca Guadagnino’s A Bigger Splash, and it all worked very well for Maiden too, albeit unintentionally. The band is currently in the middle of its world tour celebrating its 50th anniversary. Both Stranger Things and 28 Years Later were in the works long before that. Shaq knows it was just a coincidence, but he still says, “Maybe it was vindication. But the big picture is you’re always looking for validation from a new audience. And Iron Maiden is no different.”