Joy Division

The band, and especially Ian Curtis, has been an inspiration for a number of bands and musicians that include U2, The Smashing Pumpkins, Manic Street Preachers, Interpol, Trent Reznor (who, as Nine Inch Nails, covered "Dead Souls" for the soundtrack of the movie The Crow), Robert Smith of The Cure, and Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante. The continuing importance of Joy Division was shown at the turn of the millennium when John Peel asked his listeners to vote for the all-time Festive 50. At number one was the haunting "Atmosphere," while "Love Will Tear Us Apart" sat at number three. Three more songs from the band sat on the list. The ending solo from "New Dawn Fades," as performed by Moby, was featured in the 1995 film Heat as Al Pacino chases down Robert De Niro. In 1999, a New Jersey band named Thursday recorded a song called "Ian Curtis" that included Joy Division song titles, such as Isolation, Heart & Soul and Twenty Four Hours, as lyrics. In 2005, Joy Division were inducted along with New Order into the UK Music Hall of Fame.

Much of the history of Joy Division was portrayed in the 2002 MGM/United Artists released film 24 Hour Party People which presented a somewhat fictionalized account of the rise and fall of the Factory Records, with whom both Joy Division and New Order were signed.

In 2007 a new film Control, directed by Anton Corbijn was released. The film depicts Curtis' life and uses the Deborah Curtis biography as a basis, although the plot has been broadened to cover areas of Ian's life that Deborah was not privy. Other people close to Ian were consulted for the film, including Tony Wilson, and of course the band, who scored the film using the Joy Division name. Control had its international premiere on the first night of Director's Fortnight at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival (May 17, 2007; the twenty-seventh anniversary of Ian Curtis' final night alive). Curtis is played by 24 Hour Party People star Sam Riley, who played Mark E. Smith, while his wife Deborah is portrayed by Samantha Morton, and Alexandria Maria Lara plays Annik Honoré. The members of New Order attended the premiere. In 2007 the Belgian indie magazine Side-Line published an interview online with Annik Honoré originally made in 2005 in which she tells for the first time about her view on the upcoming film