Every Song We Heard In Peacemaker Episodes 1-3
(This article contains SPOILERS for "Peacemaker" episodes 1-3. Proceed with caution.)
Whether you've been a long-time fan or you just recently found his work, you know that James Gunn is a master needle-dropper. His entire filmography touts incredible soundtracks that not only crawl into your ear and get stuck in your head for days, weeks, and months, but they basically act as another character in his stories. While most filmmakers will use music to simply set the tone for a scene, Gunn can deconstruct a song and inject its DNA into a scene. It's as if the chords and lyrics are another layer of dialogue that is just as integral as the words coming out of the performers' mouths.
Yeah, that's a pretty ornate way to say that Gunn is really freakin' good at mixing music into his narrative, but the nuances in his filmmaking and his seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of music deserves slightly more decorative language than I'd regularly use. With "The Suicide Squad" spin-off series "Peacemaker," he's at it again, but this time with quite the ensemble of hair metal. If you've watched the first three episodes (available on HBO Max today) and wondered what songs you just heard, then you've come to the right place. We've broken down every song in the first three episodes, so you can add them all to your playlist.
Episode 1: A Whole New Whirled
Track 1:"Welcome to the Church of Rock and Roll" by Foxy Shazam
At 16:25 in the episode, Christopher Smith, AKA Peacemaker, pays his father a visit for the first time since getting out of prison and joining Task Force X. As the song alludes to, his father's home was where Peacemaker first learned about the music that would shape him into the man he is today. Of course, that's also where his father raised him with a warped sense of right and wrong, but more on that later.
Track 2: "Come On Come On" by Nashville Pussy
Peacemaker and Eagly are cruising down an Evergreen street around 31:08. When they see Agent Harcourt walking along the same street and into a bar, they pull a U-turn and follow her in.
Track 3: "Summertime Girls" by Y&T
Once inside the local watering hole at 31:56, Harcourt orders a beer. Shortly after brushing off some unwanted attention from an unknown bar patron, she soon gets some from Peacemaker.
Track 4: "Night of Passion" by The Poodles
The previous track fades into this one at 34:52 when Peacemaker proposes "genital-to -genital contact" with Harcourt. Once she puts him in his place, he sets his sights on a different blonde woman, who also looks like she has an affinity for hair metal.
Track 5: "I Don't Love You Anymore" by London Quireboys
Following his night of passion (or rather a few minutes of passion), Peacemaker looks through his date's records and picks this track at 38:33. Not only is it an opportunity for John Cena to show off more of his comedic chops, but the song act as foreshadowing for what's about to happen.
Track 6: "Love Bomb Baby" by Tigertailz
By 44:22, Peacemaker has used his sonic boom helmet to save himself from his attacker, which is identified as a Butterfly. In fact, she got blown up with the most satisfying and disgusting squish noise you could imagine. Almost like a love bomb, baby.
Episode 2: Best Friends, For Never
Track 1: "7 O'Clock" by The Quireboys
Peacemaker returns to the scene of the crime at 3:11 to grab his gear. He also decides to take a few "high priority items" from around his ex-lover's apartment.
Track 2: "Borderline Crazy" by The Cruel Intentions
As Peacemaker makes a less-than-graceful exit from the building, he jumps into the backseat of Adebayo and Harcourt's car with Eagly, Chris' best friend and pet bald eagle. Once they drive away at 17:10, we hear this track whose title is the perfect way to describe what just happened.
Track 3: "Don't Treat Me Bad" by FireHouse
Somehow, the records that Peacemaker stole survived being tossed off of multiple balconies. I understand that you should often suspend disbelief with film and television, but those records should be broken in a million little pieces. Anyway, once he's back in the comforts of his own home at 25:52, our "hero" has a good cry about recent events with the help of this song. That is, until Vigilante shows up.
Track 4: "Drag Me Down" by Santa Cruz
After Vigilante is informed how terrible a person that comedian Louis CK turned out to be, he has the perfect thing to cheer up his pal Peacemaker. Then, at 32:34, this track blares over an epic montage of these masked "superheroes" blowing up appliances in the middle of the woods.
Track 5: "Boots On Rocks off" by Dust Bowl Jokies
A series of serious events kicks off at 34:17 with this song. Peacemaker's father, August "Auggie" Smith, gets arrested by the Evergreen Police. Then, Adebayo has an important discussion with her wife about her safety while the team is off on a mission. Finally, the song comes to a crescendo as Peacemaker and Vigilante are visited by Amber, who has apparently (and hilariously) gone from hostage to houseguest.
Track 6: "Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster The People, covered by John Murphy (ft. Ralph Saenz)
The episode ends with a cover of "Pumped Up Kicks" playing over the credits. Previously, when Amber mentions the song to her husband, she says, "It's about murder! You are murdering my spirit!" This time, it has just been confirmed that Auggie Smith is the white supremacist/supervillain known as White Dragon, who is an actual murderer.
Episode 3: Better Goff Dead
Track 1: "Powertrain" by Enemies SWE
At 3:48, we join Agent Murn's task force as they load up in a truck to carry out their mission of assassinating a senator, who is also a Butterfly. Every road trip needs road trip jams, right?
Track 2: "Would You Love A Creature" by Sister
After Peacemaker balks at taking the shot necessary to accomplish their mission, the team needs to remain on the stakeout until morning. At 13:32, this song plays as he attempts to get to know Harcourt a little better. To his surprise, she actually opens up a little bit.
Track 3: "Six Feet Under" by Kissin' Dynamite
Senator Goff and Judomaster are just about ready to start torturing Peacemaker and Vigilante at 25:55. Simultaneously, the rest of the team break into Goff's house to save their companions. But just like in the first episode before the big fight at the end, this song foreshadows an important detail. In this case, it's that the captives are being held underground.
Track 4: "Choose Me" by Band-Maid
By 33:10, Judomaster tries to leave the senator's house. He probably ran out of Flaming Hot Cheetos. But his snack run is interrupted at 33:10 when John Economos rams into Judomaster's car.
Track 5: "Push Push (Lady Lightning)" by Bang Camaro
As Peacemaker and Vigilante prepare to make their exit after dispatching their captor, they learn why the mission is called Project Butterfly while the credits roll at 36:19 with this track.
You can find the official "Peacemaker" playlist on Spotify, where all these songs are currently available. It will be updated every week with the songs from new episodes that debut Thursdays on HBO Max.