New Street Fighter Movie Ends With It’s Raining Men

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The soundtrack to Capcom and Legendary’s new Street Fighter movie is eclectic. The music leans heavily on the ’90s, the decade in which the film is set. Songs include Tupac’s “Ambitionz Az A Ridah,” Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” and Meredith Brooks’ “Bitch.” The film also dips into other decades. 50 Cent’s “Many Men (Wish Death)” plays during a fight featuring the boxer Balrog, who is played by 50 Cent. The song feels out of place in time, but the choice makes sense.

Another ’90s earworm, “What’s Up?” by 4 Non Blondes, is surprisingly central to the plot of Ken and Ryu’s journey. The final song of the movie feels like a random pick. It is “It’s Raining Men” by one-hit wonder The Weather Girls, and it sends viewers out on a confusing but high-spirited note.

What’s up with “It’s Raining Men,” Street Fighter?

Director Kitao Sakurai says the random, unexpected needle drop was the whole point. The decision came late in the filmmaking process, he told me, and it fit the film’s tone.

In a video interview with Polygon, Sakurai explained why Street Fighter ends with “It’s Raining Men.” It may be one of the film’s least controversial choices, but it is still a baffling one.

Sakurai described the search for a song for the scene after the climax. “It was pretty late into the editorial process where [we were] trying to find the right song, but nothing was really clicking,” he said. “We had a take where [the cast] just started singing ‘It’s Raining Men’ as a joke just to try something and as a fun thing to do. I looked at it, and we set it to music, and I was like, This is kind of incredible. [laughs] Like, it just works. Also, the interaction between Ken and Ryu in that moment is just so sincere and so real, it’s such a perfectly weird and stupid choice to end the movie on that it felt just right.”

“The thesis of our style of the movie is just being like, ‘Fuck it, man,'” Sakurai added. “The Weather Girls? Why not? But it emotionally works, you know?”

Street Fighter is now playing in movie theaters.