Westworld: Kanye West’s “Runaway” Huge Missed Opportunity

Published June 30, 2018 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hey guys. Love the show and all your personalities.

I’d like to share with you what I think is a huge missed opportunity by the show: Kayne West’s “Runaway” began to play while Dolores was having flashbacks of Arnold taking her into to the city. In the show, instead of following the poignant intro with the captivating drums in the original song, an unsatisfying piano fill transitions us into the low-energy scene where William is literally yawning. I was extremely disappointed at this point.

Here’s what should have happened:

The plunking piano intro begins, and Dolores flashes back to walking the city for the first time. Arnold is beside her, leading her somewhere. She looks a little uncomfortable in an unknown place, but excited nonetheless. “Kayne West” is in big bright lights outside. The two get tickets and head towards the entrance to the concert venue.

The intro transitions into the moving drums coming in, and we see Dolores walking through the concert, wide-eyed and innocent, smiling and looking around curiously. Then, as the chorus hits, the shot zooms out from her face to a wide angle of the entire crowd: people singing, cheering, and dancing. Just normal people. There’s still a world outside the park. These people have come together and celebrate art. There’s still good in the world – a stark contrast to the myriad of villainous hosts and humans in the park. Slow-motions clips of cold-blooded murders in the park follow as the vocals “Let’s have a toast for the douche bags, Let’s have a toast for the assholes…” play. Afterwards, cut to Dr. Ford uploading the rebellious code to Dolores. As he shifts his gaze from his tablet to her eyes, we hear “Baby, I got a plan: run away fast as you can.” End scene.

This would have made me feel much more attached to the show’s world. It’s too easy to be distant when Westworld is just a park that will never exist in our lifetime, and we almost never really get to see any “normal” people.

Max

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