“Takedown” isn’t memorable because it appears twice; it connects because the idea is super clear and delivered with style.
Inside KPop Demon Hunters, it’s written as a battle cry against demons, and Rumi, a half-demon, fights the lyrics because their venom exposes the very truth she’s hiding.
Over the credits, Jeongyeon, Jihyo, and Chaeyoung of TWICE take the same song into a sleeker studio cut that keeps the bite while opening the hook for call-and-response.
The film’s official guide spells out the brief: write a diss that advances character conflict and also works as a standalone pop record.
That clarity, plus Lindgren on writing/production alongside executive music producer Ian Eisendrath, and a built-in TikTok routine, is what pushed the song beyond the film and into real-world feeds and charts.
If you have been tracking HUNTR/X’s arc through “How It’s Done” and the finale close-out “What It Sounds Like,” “Takedown” is the heat-check in the middle where bravado curdles into open threat, and the lyric does the heavy lifting on stage.
Released 20 June 2025; also included on TWICE’s “THIS IS FOR (Deluxe)” from 14 July 2025.
In the story, the stage version comes from HUNTR/X, performed by EJAE, Audrey Nuna, and REI AMI, during the arena blow-up that forces Rumi’s reveal, while the end-credits microphone passes to the TWICE trio.
The rival energy is already seeded by the Saja Boys catalogue, with “Your Idol” grooming the crowd with cult-leader flair and “Soda Pop” masking hunger in a sugary hook, so when “Takedown” hits, the taunt feels earned rather than out of thin air.
Both versions were conceived to stand on their own before being threaded into the plot, which is why the same lyric reads like a taunt inside the scene and like a chant when the credits roll.
The label and soundtrack roll-out back that dual life with separate releases for the HUNTR/X take and the TWICE recording.
On record, the arrangement hits with clap textures, piston-tight drums, and a low end that thumps without blurring the words.
For a clean contrast to this sharper register, remember TWICE’s earlier friendship-pop warmth in “I Got You”; that softness throws the bite of “Takedown” into relief without dulling it.
Verses punch in short bursts, consonants tapping like fingertips on a table, then the chorus sways in triplets so the vocal feels more like a snap-and-shout than a straight swing.
English-to-Korean flips spark like rimshots, and the hand-off from rap grit to glassy harmonies keeps the energy surging rather than flattening into one colour.
The physical sensation is simple: you brace in the verses; you exhale on the hook.
The writing favours double edges over grand statements. Lines that sound like they’re aimed at a toxic ex carry two meanings at once: slang sharpened into demon-hunting talk.
A throwaway “ugly as sin” reads as an idiom and a literal jab. Promises to “put you in your place” conjure stage dominance and a supernatural purge.
That’s why the scene hurts Rumi: the words do the dramatic work without exposition, and when demon impostors belt the harsher version, the lyric becomes the knife, not the narration.
Outside the film, the soundtrack has behaved like a genuine chart campaign.
Forbes tracked seven of the Top 10 slots on Billboard’s Streaming Songs in late August, led by HUNTR/X’s “Golden.”
While the Washington Post documented that same song reaching No. 1 on the Hot 100, historic for a girl group in the U.S. and wild context for a fictional act.
TWICE’s credits cut peaked at No. 50 on the Billboard Hot 100 (chart dated 6 September 2025), hit No. 24 on the UK Official Singles Chart and bowed at in Ireland for the week ending 11 September 2025.
Those headlines set a frame where a credits cut like “Takedown” can find steady traction in the Hot 100’s mid-lanes and ride the wave of the larger OST.
The culture around it keeps expanding. Netflix ran a global sing-along event in cinemas on 23–24 August across the US, UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, reporting over a thousand sold-out screenings before adding a streaming sing-along at home; coverage from tech and entertainment outlets backed the theatrical push and mapped where to go.
The official site logged screenings and tickets country by country.
Listener debate has been lively, Reddit threads tilt between the grittier emotion in HUNTR/X’s on-screen take and the warmth and personality of the TWICE blend.
Some say the film mix hits harder because the visuals and crowd noise add impact, others prefer the end-credits polish and Jihyo’s lift through the chorus, and ONCEs have wondered aloud whether JYP could have squeezed more promotional juice during the soundtrack’s hot streak.
The discussion ranges from affectionate to spiky, but the through-line is that both versions feel like real pop products rather than a novelty tie-in.
If you’re listening with your body rather than your notepad, the verses jab and crowd the breath in your chest; the hook opens the room, and you can hear the space between claps; language flips tug your shoulders forward; the harmony crest polishes the insult until it feels almost euphoric.
That soft–hard relay is what makes it work as character writing and as a playlist staple.
The credits and context explain the precision. Netflix’s track guide attributes the TWICE credits version to Jeongyeon, Jihyo, and Chaeyoung and sets Lindgren and Eisendrath as the creative spine.
It also details Rumi’s crisis with the lyric and the decision to build every song to function first as a pop single, then as a story.
Republic’s HUNTR/X page underlines how the in-film version lives as its own release, not just a clip pulled from the movie.
Put together with the sing-along screenings and the wider chart surge, “Takedown” reads like a diss engineered for a stadium that happens to double as the film’s pressure point.
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