Film
"AAAAAAYO!"
- The film starts with the 20th Century Fox fanfare... arranged and performed by
Brian May and Roger Taylor. - After Freddie, Brian, Roger, and John storm out of Foster's office for his refusal to listen to the band, a stone gets tossed through his window, with the boys on the other side flipping him off.Freddie: You can take that out of our royalties, twat!
Foster: Wanker!
Brian: You can shove your gold discs! You made a mistake, Foster!
Freddie: Asshole!
[the band runs off, laughing] - The film naturally climaxes with Queen's legendary performance at the Live Aid, voted by numerous other musicians, executives, and journalists to be the greatest live performance in rock music history.
- And they don't just cover it in a montage or a couple samples like music biopics usually do; it was decided that the only way to do justice to the concert was to recreate the entire damn thing,note resulting in a thoroughly engrossing tribute to what made the band so great, and which even the film's worst reviews go out of their way to praise.
- The actors themselves even learned to play the set for as much authenticity as possible, with Rami Malek working with a movement coach to nail down every move Freddie made.
- Freddy firing John Reid after he suggests that he go solo. Considering his portrayal in Rocketman as an abusive person and the fact that the mentioned film is more historically-accurate, it makes this moment much more satisfying.
- Freddy's verbal smack-down and his break-up with Paul. After Mary tells Freddie that Paul doesn't care about him and pleads for him to come back home to London, Freddie calls out Paul for keeping him in the dark about Live-Aid.Freddie: You know when you know you've gone rotten? Really rotten? Fruit fly. Dirty, little, fruit fly. Coming to feast on what's left. Well, there isn't much left for you to feast on anymore, so fly off! Do what you like with your photographs and your stories; but promise me one thing: That I never see your face again. Ever.
- After telling Brian, Roger and John that he has AIDS while rehearsing for Live Aid, Freddie states that they'll punch a hole through Wembley Stadium's roof after he's sorted his "bitchy vocal chords" out. After the rest of them state that Wembley doesn't have a roof:Freddie: ...Then we'll punch a hole through the sky.
- There is indeed a shot during Live Aid that shows Freddie punching his hand into the air from a low angle that includes the sky before him instead of the crowd- the visual effect is that of him punching the sky.
- During Freddie's AIDS reveal to his bandmates, he tells them that he'd rather keep making music and be a performer over being a cautionary tale and an AIDS poster boy.
Brian: Fred, I'm... I'm so sorry.
Freddie: Brian, stop. Don't. But right now, this is between us, just us. So please, if any of you fuss about it or frown about it, or worst of all, if you bore me with your sympathy, that's just seconds wasted. Seconds that could be used making music, which is all I want to do with the time I have left. I don't have time to be their victim. Their AIDS poster boy, their cautionary tale. No, I decide who I am. I'm going to be what I was born to be: a performer that gives the people what they want: a touch of the heavens! Freddie fucking Mercury.
Roger: You're a legend, Fred.
Freddie: You're bloody right I am. We're all legends. [pause] But you're right, I am a legend.
