If one artist defines the soul of this soundtrack, it is Swedish singer-songwriter José González. His minimalist, nylon-string guitar style and soft vocals provide a sense of grounded intimacy. González contributed several tracks to the film, both as a solo artist and with his band, Junip.

The final song, played over Walter and Cheryl walking into the sunset (but not ironically— sincerely ), is González’s “Stay Alive.” Its refrain—“There’s a rhythm in rush these days / Where the lights don’t move in phase”—captures the film’s central wisdom. Walter has not escaped life. He has stopped trying to. He has learned that presence is not the absence of fear or boredom or failure. It is the decision to anyway.

No sequence in the film is more analyzed, yet the depth often goes unstated. When Walter commandeers the drunken helicopter pilot, the song playing on the pilot’s headphones is Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” On the surface: a song about an astronaut floating away from Earth. But listen closer.