The Hilarious (and Convincing) Argument That Every Movie Ends Better with ‘Born to Run’

"Born to Run" isn't just one of the best songs from Bruce Springsteen; it's one of the best songs in music history, period. In fact, Instagram user @Jev2DaMaximum argues that every film ends better with this Boss classic.

Since June 3, @Jev2DaMaximum has been sharing clips of various film endings where he inserts "Born to Run" to prove "every movie ends better with 'Born to Run'." As of publishing, his very niche series has featured over 50 films, from classics like Casablanca (which was the first clip he shared), to family favorites like Mary Poppins, and even horror masterpieces like Psycho.

Throughout this summer, these clips kept popping up in my Instagram feed and never failed to stop me in my tracks. More importantly, they would often make me laugh, because absurdity has always fed my strange soul.

Eventually, these clips were so present in my Instagram feed that I just had to reach out to @Jev2DaMaximum to ask him my burning questions. Here are my questions and his answers edited for length and clarity.

A: The idea actually came from trolling my oldest daughter. I have four kids, and my oldest daughter is 12. She's a big Boss fan as well, and I was fortunate enough to take her to see him last year at The Chase Center in San Francisco.

Anyway, we always listen to Spotify in the car. My music tastes are extremely diverse, and then add to that the songs my kids ask to listen to, and the Spotify DJ algorithm is kind of all over the place. Whenever "Born to Run" comes on in the car, the kids always do the first pumping "whoa!"s throughout the song, so it's very obvious when that one comes on. But I started noticing the sometimes incongruity between what we had just listened to and "Born to Run" being the very next song.

So my 4-year-old, for some reason, got obsessed with Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know." And one day "Born to Run" popped up right after it, and it low-key kinda slapped as a transition. So I told my daughter as a joke, "Did you know every song transitions perfectly into 'Born to Run'?!"

Then I trolled her by secretly cueing up "Born to Run" after random songs, no matter the genre. "They Not Like Us", "Ohio is for Lovers", "B.Y.O.B"... We both became convinced. Some time after that, she asked me what my favorite movie is, and I said Casablanca, and the two ideas of classic movies and transitioning the end of a song to Born to Run just merged.

I should also mention that about 10 years ago, someone did this same thing, but with Dire Straits' "Walk of Life" ... It's called the Walk of Life Project, and he ends every movie with that song ... They're pretty funny. But I didn't become familiar with that until after I started this series. I'd be remiss to not mention it, because I guess it's considered by many to be the OG meme of re-soundtracking final scenes.

A: "Born to Run" is a perfect song. Born to Run is a perfect album. Bruce has many perfect songs, and I think that is really what the series is about. It's not so much about the movies or the final edits (even though that's the joke) as much as it is saying this piece of art - "Born to Run" - can hang, you know? It's great art. It's emotional. It's epic. It's an end and it's a beginning. Plus, it f-cking slaps!

A: In my mind, nothing is sacred. But that doesn't mean I'll release anything out into the world. I'm having fun, and more importantly, I want others to see these and get a kick out of them and have fun.

I'm not trying to piss people off. So I won't be making ones where I know the movie transcends beyond being just pop culture, and I know would piss people off, or be used by others deliberately to troll and piss people off. I won't do Passion of Christ, for example, or any earnestly made biblical movie. I wouldn't do All Dogs Go to Heaven because of the story behind that. A lot of documentaries are off the table. American History X, I probably wouldn't do - just as examples.

A: I was born in 1983 and grew up listening to Springsteen. My first favorite song ever as a kid was "Promised Land." "The River" was the first song I took time to learn all the lyrics to. When I was in high school, I listened to "Backstreets" every morning while getting ready for school. Like a lot of people, I listened to "The Rising" on repeat in the aftermath of 9/11 to kind of get over that whole time period.

As I've grown up, my attachment to certain songs and their meanings has changed. When I was a kid, I just thought they slapped. But there's a different reason 10-year-old me loved "The River" and 34-year-old me loved it, and now 41-year-old me loves it, you know?

My all-time favorite Bruce song is probably "Darkness on the Edge of Town." I think it has the most truth in it behind why people get bogged down and stuck in a miserable life. It's a good cautionary tale. You gotta let those secrets go.

A: I think having a comment section at all is the most surprising! I was only going to make one of these. Now I just give the people what they want! I've been on the internet for a long time, so, honestly, nothing in the comments surprises me anymore. Though someone did DM me after the Harry Potter one to go F myself. That was pretty hilarious.