The Terminator Complete Motion Picture Score

February 6, 2022 7:26 AM

Revisiting, revising, and expanding a couple of previous posts, here is The Terminator Complete Motion Picture Score [1h12m, with track links in description], released in 2016, over 30 years after the movie's release. Also available as a YouTube playlist.

The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack album [35m, track links in description], released with the film, had a truncated score and several rock songs. This less-than-satisfactory release was finally rectified in 2016. Composer Brad Fiedel [Wikipedia] did several interviews at that time -- Red Bull Music Academy, Spin, Game-OST.com -- that are all pretty interesting if you like that kind of thing. Also, a podcast episode from Milan Records [Soundcloud, 54m], who did the new release.

Brad Fiedel also did the score for Terminator 2: Judgement Day [53m, track links in description]. Also available as a YouTube playlist. Fiedel's interview with Den Of Geek about this score is quite interesting, too!

posted by hippybear (11 comments total)

What Is the Time Signature of the Ominous Electronic Score of The Terminator?
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 8:50 AM on February 6, 2022 [10 favorites]

A thousand points to you justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow, I rarely smile while going down the rabbit hole, it is usually a grim affair, but your link, read while listening to Take Five linked in your link, (metalinked?) has made me happy this morning.
posted by Pembquist at 9:41 AM on February 6, 2022

This seems to have the same total time as The Definitive Edition from Edel that I picked up at Tower Records in 1995, oh, I see that the YouTube image is exactly the same, carry on.
posted by channaher at 9:55 AM on February 6, 2022

I need your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle
posted by 7segment at 1:22 PM on February 6, 2022

Reese's Death / Terminator Sits Up / "You're Terminated!"

There is just a certain aesthetic to 80s and 90s action thrillers, that perfectly straddles the impossible gap between camp and earnest realism, that appeals to me, and always will.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 4:13 PM on February 6, 2022

The original theme goes

DA-DUM DA-DUM DA-DUM buh-BA

and the T2 theme goes

DA-DUM DUM DA-DUM ba ba

but it's tricky because if you catch all the beats and not just the accented ones, the original theme is 13 beats (13/16 time):

DA-DUM-(ta) DA-DUM-(ta) DA-DUM-(ta) buh-(ta)-BA-(ta)

and the T2 theme is 12 beats (12/16 time or 6/8):

DA-DUM-(ta) DUM-(ta) DA-DUM-(ta) ba-(ta) ba-(ta)
posted by straight at 7:02 PM on February 6, 2022 [1 favorite]

Yeah, in one of the interviews he talks about making the T2 theme more orchestra friendly.
posted by hippybear at 7:16 PM on February 6, 2022

Arnold Schwarzenegger was my favorite actor as a young girl and one of the great CD finds was a compilation of different Arnold movie scores:

https://www.amazon.com/Arnold-Great-Music-Films-Schwarzenegger/dp/B0000014T5

Kindergarten Cop has a gorgeous score that doesn't get a lot of publicity, and the Running Man score is very much in this same deliciously 80s techno genre. Wasn't crazy about the Conan ones, but they can't all be gems.
posted by Gumshoe Grimshaw at 3:12 AM on February 7, 2022

Cool that they got the full instrumental score eventually, but, and maybe it's just me, but I kinda liked the cheesy synth-pop songs from the first movie, just because they're so quintessentially eighties (and three of them are from "Tahnee Cain & Tryanglz", a quintessentially 80s band name). My favorite scene in the movie is when the Terminator finally catches up to Sarah Connor in Tech Noir (again, perfect 80s name), and everything goes into slow motion except for the music, which is going at normal speed, but gets a lot of echo; it adds to the nightmarish quality.
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:34 AM on February 7, 2022 [2 favorites]

For me, the easiest way to satisfy myself the this was 13/16 was to add an extra DA-DUM

DA-DUM DA-DUM DA-DUM DA-DUM buh-BA

when you get a syncopated riff in 4/4, sort of like a rhythm you'd hear on an old R&B record. And a DA-DUM is 3 16th notes, so that's what you took away to get the actual part.
posted by thelonius at 5:40 AM on February 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

There could not possibly be a more apt theme for The Terminator than one that has an inhuman mechanical skip in the rhythm because of a mistake made with the editing equipment.

It wouldn't be even slightly out of place as a shot from the movie right next to Arnold stepping on a headphone set or running over a toy truck with his car.
posted by straight at 10:57 AM on February 7, 2022 [1 favorite]