Church Spire Topples & Swan Escapes In Town Where Hot Fuzz Was Filmed
A church spire has suddenly fallen over in Wells, Somerset. Is this the work of natural forces? A sign of the end of the times? Or could it be the work of the NWA? No, not that NWA, but the bad guys from Edgar Wright's 2007 buddy-cop comedy "Hot Fuzz."
In "Hot Fuzz," a seemingly peaceful English village is plagued by a series of freak accidents ... but they're not accidents at all. They're murders orchestrated by the town's sinister Neighborhood Watch Alliance (N.W.A.). The film was primarily shot in Wells, the same town that was recently impacted by Storm Eunice, which is allegedly responsible for the recent toppling of the St. Thomas's Church spire. Interestingly, however, "Hot Fuzz" features a scene in which a different Wells church (St. Cuthbert's, to be exact) experiences an architectural mishap that results in a gruesome death. Fans were quick to point out the coincidence on social media, making multiple references to the film alongside footage of the falling church spire.
— Paul Klein 👾 (@paulkleinyoo) February 18, 2022
"Hot Fuzz" director Edgar Wright himself even joined in on the fun and commentary:
I would like to point out that the spire in ‘Hot Fuzz’ was St Cuthbert’s Church in Wells Somerset and not the nearby St Thomas’s Church. That’s not to say it was all Storm Eunice and not the work of the NWA however… https://t.co/zihgLM3YtY
— edgarwright (@edgarwright) February 18, 2022
And some social media users even went as far as to masterfully edit footage of the church spire toppling into scenes from the movie. (Warning for those who've never seen "Hot Fuzz" — this clip is somewhat gory!)
well if no one else is going to do the edit... pic.twitter.com/DHhv4ngVEr
— Frankosonic (@frankosonic) February 18, 2022
Thankfully, while the real-life incident bears some amusing similarity to the scene from the comedy, nobody was killed or seriously injured.
No luck catching them swans, then?
In addition to the crumbling church architecture, Wells also experienced yet another bizarre "Hot Fuzz" related coincidence during Storm Eunice. In this case, a local man happened upon and rescued a young swan — harkening back to a "Hot Fuzz" subplot in which the village swan goes missing (and later plays an essential role in apprehending one of the criminals). After Wright acknowledged the allegedly "accidental" toppling church spire on Twitter, a fan revealed that it wasn't the only "Hot Fuzz" phenomenon to happen in Wells that day.
Weirdly YES , Wells has gone Peak HotFuzz today pic.twitter.com/jDkXxeEBer
— emma biggs💙 (@easteremma) February 18, 2022
This double-dose of film-related coincidences begs the question: does art imitate life, or is it the other way around? I don't have a definitive answer, but I can tell you that if all this talk of "Hot Fuzz" has you hungry for laughs, the movie is currently streaming over on Netflix.