METALLICA Played a Key Role in Inspiring Ryan Coogler’s New Film ‘Sinners’

The top film in the country right now, Sinners, isn’t just racking up box office numbers — it’s also tied to one of metal’s most iconic songs.

Writer-director Ryan Coogler says Metallica’s “One” helped spark the idea for the vampire-driven horror film, which is set in the Jim Crow South and stars longtime collaborator Michael B. Jordan in dual roles. The movie has topped the box office in its first two weekends and brought in over $161 million worldwide so far.

Coogler told the San Francisco Chronicle:

“I wanted the movie to feel like a song, so I used Metallica’s ‘One.’”

Coogler, who previously directed Black Panther, Creed, and Fruitvale Station, compared Sinners to a Delta blues song with the structure and emotional weight of a classic Metallica track. He explained in another interview with The Detroit News:

“It starts off with almost like an easy listening solo… and then it just goes bats— insane, in a way you could have never seen coming — and at the same time, it felt like it was going there all along. The movie’s basically that.”

The 1988 track “One”, featured on …And Justice for All, has taken on a new life thanks to the film, with lyrics like “Darkness imprisoning me / All that I see / Absolute horror…” fitting the tone of the movie’s blood-soaked setting in 1930s Mississippi. The film follows twin brothers who open a juke joint, only to find themselves facing off against a terrifying vampire threat.

Coogler, who admits he was a latecomer to Metallica, said he was first introduced to them — and other bands like Alice In Chains — while playing football in college. He also revealed that Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich contributed to the film’s score alongside Oscar-winner Ludwig Göransson (Oppenheimer, Black Panther), saying the band’s influence even “kind of changed” Göransson’s life.

Also starring Hailee Steinfeld, Delroy Lindo, Jack O’Connell, Omar Benson Miller, and Miles Caton, Sinners is in theaters now and riding a wave of strong word of mouth.

With nearly 700 million streams on Spotify and a surprise appearance during Metallica’s recent record-breaking show at the JMA Wireless Dome, “One” continues to prove its staying power — both on stage and now, on screen.

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