Spoiler Warning: There are Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere spoilers in the article below. If you’ve yet to watch the new music biopic, please exercise some caution.
As a massive Bruce Springsteen fan, especially when it comes to his stripped-down and highly personal 1982 album, Nebraska, I was floored when Scott Cooper’s Deliver Me From Nowhere was announced. The critically acclaimed biopic, which just dropped on the 2025 movie schedule, follows Jeremy Allen White’s “The Boss” as he deals with past trauma and his own identity just as he’s about to become a massive superstar.
Considering the movie focuses so heavily on the recording of the famous Colts Neck sessions, it was no shocker that there would be references galore. There’s one subtle reference that blew me away, and I hope Bruce Springsteen’s fans didn’t miss it.
If you did, however, I’ll break it down for you now…
There’s A Shot Where Jeremy Allen White Stands Just Like Springsteen On The Back Of The Nebraska LP
Partway through Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, there’s a scene where Bruce imagines walking through his parents’ old house in New Jersey, where he walks up on his dad (played by 2025 Emmy winner Stephen Graham). When his father, head down on the kitchen table with a pack of smokes and a half-finished pint, asks him what he wants, Jeremy Allen White looks exactly like the image of the real Springsteen on the back cover of the Nebraska LP.
This classic, black-and-white photo, which was taken through a doorframe, shows a young Springsteen standing in a way that makes it appear he’s anticipating a big step with a slight hesitancy and confounding look upon his face. And since the movie deals so much with Springsteen overcoming past trauma, his depression, and his place in the world, it seems like a clever reference to an all-time great image.
It’s Only There For A Few Seconds, But It Has To Be Intentional
Unlike the Nebraska photo, which is forever captured in a freeze frame, the shot in Deliver Me From Nowhere is one of those “blink and you miss it” situations. That said, I am convinced this was intentional by director Scott Cooper and not some lucky shot, a number of days into filming. The composition of the shot, the way Jeremy Allen White is posed, and the way the movie references the Nebraska album throughout its two-hour runtime back this up. It makes even more sense when you consider one of the record’s best tracks is called “My Father’s House.”
It’s Also Notable Because The Nebraska Album Cover Is Discussed Multiple Times In The Movie
Another thing I love about the Nebraska reference at the end of the movie is the fact that the unconventional album cover (David Michael Kennedy’s black-and-white photo of a car driving down a country road) is discussed multiple times before this scene takes place.
Up to that point in his career, every album save for his debut, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., had featured The Boss front and center, and the movie captures CBS Records executives’ skepticism of straying from that course. These conversations also lead to some funny moments when they hear of Springsteen’s wishes for no tour, no singles, and no promotion of any kind for the highly personal project.
While I can’t say for certain that Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere references the back of the Nebraska LP, it would be hard to convince me this wasn’t a fun Easter egg put in for The Boss’ fans.