Now You See Me: Now You Don’t

Scored by trailer music house Alloy Tracks, the latest instalment in the Now You See Me heist film franchise (2013, 2016, 2025) sees an AAA ensemble cast including Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Isla Fisher, and Morgan Freeman return alongside newcomers Justice Smith, Dominic Sessa, Ariana Greenblatt, and Rosamund Pike. Brian Tyler returns as composer and Ruben Fleischer directs.

The trailer starts with a recap of sorts, an offscreen narrator quipping “you used to be the horsemen” as the upbeat, jazz-funk soundtrack is synched to a brief set of mid-shots of each of the ensemble cast on stage. (The key conceit here for the franchise is that they carry out heists through the use of magic and illusions.) The jazz-funk rolls on until 0:15, when we reach a one-liner (“a bummer? I love the way your generation sums things up so eloquently”). A funky guitar vamp on a single chord largely holds it down while we’re introduced to more of the cast, until the next stop at 0:40—so far, deferring to the conventions of a modern comedy trailer rather than action or drama.

At 0:44 we see Morgan Freeman’s character (who, it’s worth mentioning, looks to be doing quite well at a youthful 88), and at 0:48 we get a particularly showy audiovisual synch, as the camera jumps ahead to various points of a roll upside down to a syncopated beat—for what turns out to literally be an upside-down room.

Fittingly, this reveal leads to a change in tone at 0:57 with a much more aggressive, synth-laden soundtrack, a three-note motif in the bass complemented by ticking eighth notes. Only at 1:06 so we realize, through the introduction of the vocal, that we’re dealing with a trailerized cover of Run DMC’s classic 1987 track “Tricky”. Extra sound effects cued to the action on the beat at 1:10 help change the tone of the track from one perhaps typically associated with parties to something far more intense.

As it turns out, subtlety is overrated in this trailer: at 1:19, Justice Smith’s character asks “what’s the trick?” (to be fair, cover songs have been chosen for simpler reasons).

The song plays in its original version at this point, in effect loosening things up in tandem with the action spectacle that ensues, with playing cards, party scenes, and the like reinforcing this co-opting of “Tricky” as a song about magic.

It works for three reasons: half the trailer opts for a contrasting jazz-funk soundtrack; the introduction of the cover song is staged and even subtle at first; and when it is introduced, it’s unapologetic—a shift towards pure fun, seeing as the concept of a gang of thieves pulling off heists through magic and illusions is inherently unserious.

Now You See Me: Now You Don’t arrives in theatres November 14th.

— Curtis Perry