Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a 2010 romantic action comedy film directed by Edgar Wright, and written by Wright and Michael Bacall, based on the graphic novel series Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Malley. It stars Michael Cera as Scott Pilgrim, a slacker musician who is trying to win a competition to get a record deal, while also battling the seven evil exes of his new girlfriend Ramona Flowers, played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead. The ensemble cast also features Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick, Alison Pill, Brandon Routh, and Jason Schwartzman.
A film adaptation of Scott Pilgrim was proposed following the release of the first volume, and Wright was attached early in development. Filming took place between March and August 2009 in Toronto. The film uses famous features of its Toronto setting and matches the style of video game and comic book imagery. It used real musical artists, including Beck and Metric, as a basis for each fictional group in the battle of the bands plot, with some of the actors also performing. The score was composed by Nigel Godrich. A combination of digital and physical methods were used to create the extensive VFX.
The film premiered at San Diego Comic-Con on July 22, 2010, before premiering at the Fantasia Festival on July 27. It was released in the United States on August 13, and in the United Kingdom on August 25, by Universal Pictures. It received positive reviews from critics, who noted its visual style and humor, though it was a box-office failure, grossing $48 million against a budget of $60–85 million. It has since garnered a cult following. The film made several top ten lists and received several awards and nominations. In scholarly analysis, it has been widely discussed as a transmedia narrative. The film's main cast reprised their roles in the 2023 animated television series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, Wright and Bacall also served as executive producers on the series, which was co-written by O'Malley.
Plot
In Toronto, Scott Pilgrim, a 22-year-old bassist for unsuccessful indie garage band Sex Bob-Omb, dates Knives Chau, a 17-year-old high-school student, to the disapproval of his friends in the band, his younger sister Stacey, and his roommate Wallace Wells. Scott meets Ramona Flowers, an American Amazon delivery girl, at Julie Powers’ party, after having first seen her in a dream. Scott loses interest in Knives but does not break up with her immediately before pursuing Ramona.
When Sex Bob-Omb plays in a battle of the bands sponsored by record executive Gideon Graves, Scott is attacked by Ramona's ex-boyfriend Matthew Patel. Sex Bob-Omb's competition is incinerated by Matthew's fireball attacks, but Scott defeats him and learns he must defeat Ramona’s remaining six evil exes in order to date her. Scott finally breaks up with Knives, who blames Ramona and swears to win him back by becoming more like Ramona.
Scott soon encounters Ramona's second ex, actor and skateboard junkie Lucas Lee. Scott defeats Lucas by tricking him into attempting a grind on a 200-plus step icy railing and crashing explosively. The band is soon asked to open for Clash at Demonhead, whereupon Scott encounters Ramona's third ex, the super-powered vegan bassist Todd Ingram, who is dating Scott's ex, Envy Adams, the lead singer. Scott deceives Todd into drinking half and half, and Todd is confronted by the vegan police and stripped of his powers; Scott then delivers the final blow. Scott then encounters Ramona's fourth ex, bisexual ninja Roxy Richter, and with the help of Ramona, he manages to beat her. Scott's growing frustration soon boils over, and after an outburst regarding Ramona's dating history, she breaks up with him while leaving him a list of her exes.
At the next battle of the bands, Sex Bob-Omb defeats Ramona's fifth and sixth exes, techno twins Kyle and Ken Katayanagi, earning Scott an extra life. Despite this, Ramona appears to get back with her seventh and final ex, Gideon. Sex Bob-Omb accepts Gideon's record deal, except Scott, who quits the band in protest, during which their roadie, Young Neil, becomes their new bassist. Gideon invites Scott to his venue, the Chaos Theater, where Sex Bob-Omb is playing. Resolving to win Ramona back, Scott challenges Gideon to a fight for her affection, earning the "Power of Love" sword. Knives interrupts the battle, attacking Ramona, and Scott is forced to reveal that he cheated on both of them.
Gideon kills Scott, and Ramona visits him in limbo to reveal that Gideon has implanted her with a mind control device. Scott uses his 1-up to come back to life and re-enters the Chaos Theater. He makes peace with his friends and challenges Gideon, this time for himself, gaining the "Power of Self-Respect" sword. After apologizing to Ramona and Knives for cheating on them and accepting his own faults, Scott joins forces with Knives and they defeat Gideon. Now free from Gideon's control, Ramona begins to leave. Knives accepts that her relationship with Scott is over and, at her encouragement, he runs after Ramona to "try again".
Cast
Main characters
League of Evil Exes
Other characters
Production
Development
After artist Bryan Lee O'Malley completed the first volume of Scott Pilgrim, his publisher Oni Press contacted producer Marc E. Platt to propose a film adaptation. O'Malley originally had mixed feelings about a film adaptation, stating that he "expected them to turn it into a full-on action comedy with some actor that [he] hated", though he also "didn't even care", admitting: "I was a starving artist, and I was like, 'Please, just give me some money.'" Universal Studios contracted director Edgar Wright, who had just finished the 2004-released Shaun of the Dead and agreed to adapt the Scott Pilgrim comics. Wright had first become interested in making the film when given a pre-release copy of the first graphic novel during the Shaun of the Dead press tour, later saying that "everything that [he] found interesting about the book, and why it felt fresh and unique, was irresistible to adapt." In May 2005, the studio signed Michael Bacall to co-write the screenplay.
Wright cited Mario Bava's 1968 film Danger: Diabolik (another adaptation of a comic series) as an influence on his approach to Scott Pilgrim, stating that he took an "Italian influence, a sense of completely unbridled imagination. They don't make any attempt to make it look realistic. Mario Bava's composition and staging has a real try-anything attitude." Other influences on the screenwriters include musical films like Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Dig!, and particularly Phantom of the Paradise. The film also takes on elements of style from the graphic novels, including the use of comic book text-as-graphic (e.g. sound effect onomatopoeia), which is described by Wright and O'Malley as "merely the internal perspective of how Scott understands himself and the world". It has been described as both a video game and a comic book film.
Bacall said that he wanted to write the Scott Pilgrim film because he felt strongly about its story and empathized with its characters. Wright said that O'Malley was "very involved" with the script of the film from the start, contributing lines and adding polish. Due to the long development, several lines from various scripts written by Wright and Bacall were used in later Scott Pilgrim comics. The screenplay's second draft, which O'Malley said "became the main draft for the film", was submitted right at midnight on the night the Writers' Strike was supposed to begin in October 2007. No material from Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour, the sixth Scott Pilgrim volume, appeared in the film, as the comic was not complete at the time of the film's production; O'Malley contributed suggestions for the film's ending and gave the producers his notes for the sixth volume, but stated that the film's ending was "their ending". Some ideas for the film's ending were cut before production, including that Scott would turn out to be a serial killer who fantasized the gaming aspects and that Gideon would turn into a Transformers-style robot.
Casting of the principal characters began in June 2008, with Wright consulting with O'Malley during casting. Test shoots began in July 2008, with Wright saying that there was a year of preparation before shooting began. He also stopped working on his Ant-Man screenplay for two years during the production of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. By 2009, casting had been completed and the film was titled Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. The cast spent two months in fight training together before filming, with Bradley James Allan and Peng Zhang of the Jackie Chan Stunt Team; Michael Cera said that he "got kicked in the throat during the training" and "expected it to be excruciating, but it didn't hurt at all, which was really confusing."
In the film's original ending, written before the release of the final Scott Pilgrim book, Scott gets back together with Knives. O'Malley objected to the first ending because he felt it would dilute Knives's character. After the final book in the series, in which Scott and Ramona get back together, was released, and with divided audience reaction to the film's original ending, a new ending was filmed to match the books, with Scott and Ramona getting back together. O'Malley helped write the new ending and Wright called Knives' actress Ellen Wong beforehand, thinking she might be disappointed at the change but finding that she liked the idea. The final ending was shot three months before the film was released; Wright says that it is his "preferred ending". The film was given a production budget of $85–90 million, an amount offset by tax rebates that resulted in a final cost of around $60 million. Universal fronted $60 million of the pre-rebate budget. O'Malley's commentary track was recorded on August 14, 2010, one day after the film's theatrical release.
Filming
Principal photography began in March 2009 in Toronto, and wrapped as scheduled on August 28. One of the producers, Miles Dale, said that the film is "the biggest movie ever identifiably set in Toronto." The film features notable Toronto locations Casa Loma, St. Michael's College School, Sonic Boom, the Toronto Public Library Wychwood Library, a Goodwill location on St. Clair West, a Second Cup, a Pizza Pizza, Lee's Palace, and Artscape Wychwood Barns. The production planned to set the film in Toronto because, in Dale's words, "the books are super-specific in their local details" and director Wright wanted to use the imagery from the books, so Universal Studios had no plans to alter the setting. Dale stated that "Bathurst Street is practically the cerebral cortex of Scott Pilgrim". David Fleischer of Torontoist wrote that though films set in New York City show off all the major landmarks, "Scott Pilgrim revels in the simplicity" of everyday locations that are still identifiably Toronto, like the Bathurst/Bloor intersection and a single Pizza Pizza restaurant.