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Dive into the wild and inventive world behind “Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie” as we uncover fascinating secrets from its production. From guerrilla filmmaking at the CN Tower to clever parodies of blockbuster hits like “Back to the Future,” discover how Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol crafted this cult favorite. Whether it’s improvised dialogue, real concert footage, or copyright gambits, these behind-the-scenes facts reveal the movie’s unique charm and creativity.
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00:00What you're about to see is something you've never seen before.
00:02We are Nirvana the Band, and you are about to be sent to the moon!
00:08Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today, we're counting down our picks for the most interesting behind-the-scenes details
00:14about Nirvana the Band, the show, the movie.
00:17You want to see a movie?
00:20You like that?
00:21Yeah!
00:22As we'll be discussing key scenes from the film, beware of spoilers.
00:27Number 10. Using archived footage.
00:29The specific footage?
00:30Yes.
00:31No, again, that's Kurt and Bobby, who watched everything that we'd shot, which was on tape.
00:35It was on mini-DV tape.
00:36They watched all of it, and they themselves wrote those 2008 sequences.
00:41So we basically were told by them, you're going to do this, you're going to do this, you've got to
00:45say this, you've got to do this.
00:46It's going to be the four of you in a room, Matt sleeping on the couch.
00:49When Matt Johnson and Jay McCarroll, who wrote Nirvana the Band, the show, the movie, were brainstorming ideas for it,
00:54the latter suggested making it a send-up.
00:57You should do this plan again.
01:03Jay, I got a feeling things are going to work out okay for us.
01:06As for their subject, they targeted iconic blockbusters, including Back to the Future.
01:12Now, a Back to the Future parody wouldn't be complete without time travel,
01:16which worked perfectly because they actually had unused footage of their younger selves from Nirvana the Band, the show.
01:22Do you think that guy looks like me?
01:24That guy?
01:26Looks like me.
01:29This has got that hat.
01:33Sick guy looks like you.
01:36Okay, okay, it's your chance.
01:38The web series ran from 2007 to 2009, and the 2025 film transports our guys back to 2008.
01:45As a neat nod to the past, Matt even wore the same jeans he donned at the start of the
01:50OG web series.
01:51The pants were in tatters, but clearly meant a lot to him.
01:55I'm just curious, like, why you have them.
01:57Oh, they're just cutting things off in my pants and things like that.
02:00Number 9. Parodying Marty Supreme.
02:03You're probably wondering why we skydived here. Skydove here.
02:06You're probably wondering why we skydove here.
02:09Skydiving.
02:09I don't think so.
02:11Skydived?
02:11Yeah.
02:12It skydived, right?
02:13You're probably wondering why we skydived here.
02:15The Timothee Chalamet film generated quite the buzz with its viral marketing.
02:19This hype ended up working in Johnson and McCarroll's favor.
02:22That's just the tagline that it says on it.
02:24A bolt of lightning in every bottle.
02:25That bolt of lightning in every bottle.
02:27No, no, no, that's just marketing.
02:29Yeah, but what if it's not?
02:29Their movie's production team happened upon the Josh Safdie film's IMAX poster,
02:34after being cc'd in an A24 email.
02:37In no time, they designed an almost identical Nirvana the Band to show the movie poster,
02:42riffing on the original's Dream Big tagline by urging viewers to dream bigger.
02:46I'm trapped in some kind of hell. Maybe it's a dream?
02:49Possible, right?
02:50Ideally, both posters should have been out at the same time,
02:53but because of a time zone error, the spoof was released three hours later than the real deal.
02:58Nevertheless, it had the desired effect and got people talking.
03:03Mr. Hollywood, Hollywood, Mr. Hollywood, Mr. Arnold, Mr. Rocky, Mr. Jennifer Lopez, that will be awesome, Jay.
03:14Yeah.
03:15Number 8. Watching The Hangover.
03:17Let's go see a movie.
03:19See a movie.
03:19Let's see a movie together. Look, we're right here.
03:21When was the last time you and I saw a movie together, like friends?
03:24One of the funniest moments in Nirvana the Band to show the movie is when our central duo arrives in
03:292008,
03:30and Jay suggests they catch a screening of The Hangover.
03:32Matt's thrilled, even though Jay abandons him at the theater.
03:36I don't know you. You do not exist.
03:39S***.
03:41Nice car.
03:42I'm just gonna go to that bathroom.
03:45What do you mean? We'll just start it.
03:49Goodbye, Matt.
03:50However, his enthusiasm wanes when he realizes the audience is way too comfortable being problematic.
03:56That's how he figures out it's 2008, because certain jokes and terms were the norm back then.
04:01Oh, God.
04:03I can explain this, okay?
04:11Actually, Matt...
04:14I need to tell you something.
04:14It's 2008.
04:15The scene was filmed at the Paradise Theater,
04:17and the stars revealed at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival
04:21that the background actors were actually their fans.
04:24Who figured out the gag, proving its effectiveness?
04:27We knew it was great when we were in the Paradise screening it,
04:30and the audience that we brought, which were fans.
04:33Were any of those people here?
04:34Yeah, so some of those people were actually in the audience at the time,
04:37and they thought it was funny.
04:39Like, they figured out what the trick was.
04:42Number 7.
04:43The Back to the Future score.
04:44Hey, Scott!
04:46This is really all coming together.
04:47Right.
04:48This is just like Back to the Future.
04:49This is insane.
04:50There would be all the...
04:51Oh, you can't...
04:53No, you can't do...
04:53That's very copyright.
04:54Well, if you could just go...
04:59Music plays a huge part in Robert Zemeckis' science fiction hit,
05:03so naturally, a parody of the film would require a nod to Alan Silvestri's score in some form.
05:08I, Dr. Emmett Brown...
05:12I'm about to embark on an historic journey.
05:17July...
05:18I'm setting the time machine!
05:21July 10th.
05:2223rd.
05:23No, no, we went back on the 12th.
05:24The 12th?
05:25We're going back two days earlier.
05:27Well, the form it took for Nirvana the Band to show the movie was that of a commendable sound-alike
05:32by Jay McCarroll.
05:33I'm really only kind of using the Back to the Future toolkit of, like, certain tricks, like the octatonic scale
05:40stuff.
05:42And from then on, I was not really looking at the parody stuff, and I was just kind of doing
05:46an original score.
05:47The original music wasn't usable even under U.S. fair use law, but Jay made sure to incorporate recognizable motifs
05:53from the film into his creation.
05:55Rather than producing a total imitation, he added his own touches to the piece, hoping it would reflect his love
06:01and respect for the original.
06:02Hi. Matt. I, uh, I just wanted to come and apologize.
06:10You're alive.
06:21Loveproof vest.
06:22Number 6. The Alternate Ending.
06:24So we're going to go forwards, back to 2025, but this will be a new 2025 if we change anything
06:34here.
06:34Wait, wait, wait, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
06:36It was an Ashton Kutcher movie.
06:39Butterfly Effect.
06:40Nirvana the Band to show the movie was such a hit that fans couldn't help but wish for a sequel.
06:45Luckily, there might be one in the works.
06:47The original black-and-white ending of the film shows Jay fixing a darkly altered version of 2025 by returning
06:53to 2008.
06:55With a small change, he keeps the boys' dream and their friendship alive.
06:59A post-credits scene was added upon re-release,
07:16showing the same ending in color and from a different angle.
07:20Matt later revealed during a Q&A session with fans that the new ending turns the movie upside down.
07:25And he was like, should we put this at the end of the movie?
07:27Jay and I watched it.
07:29It changes the entire movie.
07:32I'm not underselling this.
07:33More interestingly, it's supposed to be the origin of an antagonist.
07:37The man sure knows how to leave fans wanting more.
07:45Number 5.
07:46The Drake Connection.
07:48We drove to Drake's house?
07:49You get there to the whole, um, thing, there's a police line.
07:53A barricade.
07:54It's like a barricade and they're like, guys, what do you think you're doing?
07:56Get out of here.
07:57And we're like, we're oppressed.
07:59And they're like, well, show us your credentials.
08:01Johnson and McCarroll's filmmaking style for Nirvana the Band to show the movie involved a lot of acting first and
08:06thinking later.
08:07In 2024, a security guard was shot outside Drake's Park Lane Circle mansion amid the rapper's feud with Kendrick Lamar.
08:14Matt and Jay heard of the unfortunate incident and decided to check out the crime scene, where an investigation was
08:20underway.
08:20As you say, still a lot of questions.
08:22We don't know if Drake was home.
08:24We also don't know the motive.
08:25Officers saying they're treating this like any other investigation right now.
08:28Not only did they film there, but they also incorporated the location into their storyline by turning the new 2025
08:34version of Jay into a criminal on the run.
08:37Police updates about the actual shooting were stripped of their original context and used in the film, too.
08:43This is as close to the scene as we can get.
08:45And as you reported, there is a source confirming a man, an adult, was rushed to hospital with serious injuries.
08:51Number four, Never Come Down is a real song.
08:54To bring you this idea for a song to play with the band.
08:59And this is, and I'm a spirit, and I am a Dickensian spirit, to bring you the melody of this
09:05song.
09:06In the first alternate version of 2025 created by Jay and Matt, the former is a rock star, while the
09:11latter fails to make it big.
09:13In one scene, Jay is seen holding a packed concert, where he performs the song Never Come Down to massive
09:18cheers from the audience.
09:32At this point, if you found yourself thinking it could totally be a real song, you'd be delighted to know
09:38that it is.
09:39So high up, got my chin up, I don't care if I ever come down.
09:46McCarroll released it in 2014, and performed it during a real Arkells concert for the film.
09:52The Blackberry composer pulled it off, thanks to their cinematographer, Jared Rabb,
09:56who had previously worked with Arkells on their music videos, and pulled some strings to get a slot at their
10:01show.
10:01And they asked, like, can you just, like, take over your show for three minutes and get the shot?
10:06And I like a good idea.
10:09It was hard to resist their pitch.
10:11Number three, Guerrilla Filmmaking.
10:13What happens if we're not even allowed in the security with these?
10:16You will be actually caught.
10:18I'm going to say that I need these for...
10:19There's some drywall compound here?
10:20I'm sorry?
10:21Drywall compound.
10:22Drywall compound 243.
10:24There are moments in this film that make you wonder if Matt and Jay were just making stuff up as
10:28they went.
10:29This isn't far from the truth.
10:31A good chunk of the movie is unscripted, and more often than not, our main twosome's lines were improvised.
10:37Trying to get touched with me?
10:38Uh, yeah, my friend is just, uh, up there.
10:41You're trying to screw up there?
10:42Yeah.
10:43With the shot?
10:44Yes.
10:45As for the footage, the team largely employed guerrilla filmmaking, which meant real, unsuspecting people at real locations made it
10:52into the film.
10:54I have a wireless mic here.
10:57Permits?
10:58Never heard of them.
10:59The crew consisted of four to a maximum of eight people, which probably made it possible for them to go
11:04unnoticed.
11:05As their environment was uncontrolled, their story was constantly evolving.
11:09Additionally, hidden cameras were used for the CN Tower sequences.
11:14Number two, the copyright nightmare.
11:16This is going to be a copyright nightmare.
11:19Like, if you're watching this in theaters, thank your lucky stars, because this is going to be the only screening
11:24of this ever.
11:26With how liberally Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie uses clips from other films like The Hangover and Back
11:31to the Future, you'd think they must have gotten all the media cleared.
11:35In an interview with The Wrap, Matt revealed that, quote, nothing is cleared.
11:39Instead, the team relied heavily on the United States' fair use doctrine.
11:43If you have a strong narrative reason for using the licenses that you're using, then there is a way, through
11:51fair use, that you can use that stuff without informing the copyright holder and without paying anything.
11:57The director brought in a lawyer and prepared essays defending their use of copyrighted material, then hoped for the best.
12:03If you build it, they will come. It's if you build it, they will come. Right? Are you sure this
12:09is going to work?
12:09Obviously, this isn't an ideal way to make a movie. Matt even calls it a copyright nightmare.
12:15But it is the Nirvana way. That's Nirvana with two N's, by the way, lest you confuse it with Kurt
12:20Cobain's legendary rock band and get Matt and Jay into trouble.
12:23I said Nirvana, the band, and then he said, he said, Nirvana? Like that.
12:27And what did you say? I said, yeah.
12:31I felt, I f***ed it up.
12:37Before we continue, check out this single from Sound Mojo's album Balance, classical music reimagined as rock, hard rock, and
12:44metal.
12:45Check out the full track and album below.
12:47Gold by silence, guilt by his prayer
12:52I am the echo, you can't outrun the jokes on you
12:57The blade's begun
13:01Number 1. The CN Tower Scene
13:18Toronto's iconic CN Tower was filmed guerrilla style and featured heavily in the film.
13:23We thought we were going to get turned away by security and that would be the end of it.
13:26And then we would write a story about another way to get in, but instead the movie now is that
13:31we just went right in.
13:32At first, in an attempt to shoot their band to fame, Matt and Jay skydive from the structure, hoping to
13:38land right in the middle of a Toronto Blue Jays baseball game at the Rogers Centre.
13:41A lot of the scenes here were unwittingly shot by a tour guide, who had a GoPro attached to his
13:47helmet.
13:47Oh my God, guys! That is a long way down!
13:51An alternative for the sequence involved Jay impersonating the Blue Jays mascot inside the stadium, which got the team, except
13:58for Matt, arrested.
13:59And got arrested for it!
14:03It was the only time we've ever been arrested.
14:05I technically escaped, but everybody else...
14:09I was in the mascot costume.
14:11The scene where Matt jumps off the tower again near the end was filmed while Taylor Swift was in Toronto
14:16for one of her heiress tour shows, thus distracting from their shenanigans.
14:20Oh, God!
14:24Oh!
14:26Yeah!
14:28Oh, my God!
14:33Yeah!
14:36Yeah!
14:36What was your favorite scene in Nirvana The Band The Show The Movie?
14:40Tell us in the comments.
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