In a key action sequence in the forthcoming spy thriller, Atomic Blonde, the MI6 agent played by Charlize Theron proceeds to beat the hell out of several armed men who burst into her apartment. But before the ass-kicking begins, she pauses to do something crucial: pop in a cassette tape of George Michael’s “Father Figure,” the ’80s pop ballad that blares from old-school speakers as she uses ropes, refrigerator doors, and the heels of her boots to violently show these guys who’s boss.
The cassette tape has been showing up lately in a lot of major motion pictures and TV shows, and not just in films like Atomic Blonde or series like Snowfall that are set in the 1980s, the heyday for TDK. What’s unusual is how often they’re appearing in stories about the present as well.
In 13 Reasons Why, the contemporary Netflix teen drama that made headlines and dominated social media last spring, Hannah Baker leaves a suicide note in the form of multiple, dual-sided cassettes, just as she does in the book that inspired the series. On the third seasons of both The Leftovers and Better Call Saul, audio tapes become key to the plot. (Two of the year’s buzziest shows — Twin Peaks and The Handmaid’s Tale — also happen to feature tapes in their original source material even though the new incarnations haven’t touched on that element … yet.)
Meanwhile, at the movies this summer, Star Lord continues to demonstrate his cassette fixation in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. The music-obsessed getaway master played by Ansel Elgort in Baby Driver maintains his own significant collection of mixtapes, in addition to plenty of vinyl and iPod playlists. Even in Despicable Me 3, the villainous Balthazar Bratt (Trey Parker), a former ’80s child star who never mentally graduated from that decade, uses cassettes to provide the soundtrack to his dastardly behavior.
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