Last updated: June 9, 2026
*NEW* Review by mrbellamy
Not sure if this has been mentioned but I noticed in the credits, both orchestration and conducting are credited to John Williams, William Ross, and Randy Kerber, the three of them. Definitely seems like he went to Randy Kerber for synth-y effects.
I’m gonna try to be vague but this is a really low-key score and kind of a surprisingly low-key movie. I actually am not entirely sure what Spielberg was talking about saying that this moves extremely fast, I found this a pretty slow burn that occasionally spikes with some incident then comes back down. Really takes its sweet time in some good ways but also ways I got kinda impatient with.
Williams’s score opens up more as it goes along but yeah “listen…” is end credits and it never gets that big in the film. The two pieces from that unofficial YouTube leak are in the movie, though, and definitely film highlights for me. There’s a cool cue I noticed when Emily Blunt is driving through a security area, it either had some synth doubling or just some weird orchestration in the melody….I thought it was tuba at first but no, idk what. Also the big car chase from the trailer starts off unscored but then the rest of it has some pretty aggressive John Williams, kinda War of the Worlds-y. Need a better listen to that, I wouldn’t call this a scary movie but there’s a pretty anxiety-inducing part in that chase that got a reaction out of me. The train sequence is unscored. I wanna listen to the whole finale again too, the music doesn’t draw attention to itself but it is Williams running all the way through, there’s stuff going on in there.
The mysterious theme that played at the premiere and opens the score featurette….I don’t think that version is 100% in the movie. It starts the credits but then transitions to “listen…” Unless I spaced out I don’t think the melody ever hits the high strings like that in the film or credits. So hopefully it’s on the soundtrack. The music for the crop circle shot is correct, yeah.
It’s hard to really think of a Spielberg movie or score to directly compare this to, I don’t agree at all with Arnaud saying it’s like Ready Player One. It’s kind of like a PG-13 Children of Men. Parts of the movie and score also kinda made me think if Spielberg/Williams did something like Michael Clayton lol, a very muted thriller. Maybe I’m off base with this but it made me think of James Newton Howard or John Powell in that mode.
But there also aren’t very long stretches without any music, I don’t think. I think the score is longer than the album’s 64 minutes. Williams starts in the second scene with ominous low strings and brass and he keeps showing up with little things. Some nice oboe and horn solos. He kind of has a scoring strategy in the first act where he’ll come in low at the end of a scene and crescendo into the cut to another character. I felt like there was a little much of that lol.
I didn’t notice potential source cues, and the tracklist seems out of chronological order.
*NEW* Review by TheUlyssesian
The main theme listen… the released track is heard just thrice in the film per my count. Brief hummed versions essentially. I won’t tell you the context but 3 times for similar things. Like maybe 15-30 seconds duration. Sounded like that Hunger Games whistling motif thing. Rue’s theme or whatever.
The listen track is the end credits piece.
The josh o connor piece in the field is in the film almost exactly the same. I think it actually opens the end credits before listen… starts.
There are two major symphonic music highlights but they are not the listen theme.
My favorite moment the most striking one is an extended like piano like motif that is similar to the attraction theme in Queer. Not similar just trying to give you a sense of how it sounds. This piece was mixed very well.
The other one is to do with key scenes with Emily Blunt. I think that was the third piece in the end credits after listen played in full.
I think there is a villain theme or bad guy theme or texture or motif. Mainly associated with Firth. He’s the “bad guy” that’s not a spoiler.
There are suspenseful cues and action cues. All a little bit subdued. But well done.
The score is of course well done. It is the score of a mature man, a 94 year old man. I definitely fell if the Williams of the 70s or 80s or 90s or even the 00s were scoring he would have scored much more rambunctiously.
I definitely want to see the film again to appreciate the score more. The film is kiiiiinda demanding in the sense a lot happens and there’s a lot going on, so you are trying to just follow along. So second viewings might reveal the score more fullsomely.
The listen theme first appears 19 minutes in.
Overall obviously a wonderful score.
Without getting into spoilers, I thought the film was excellent – genuinely big-screen Spielberg. There’s a lot going on, and I already know I need a second viewing to fully process it all. Someone wrote somewhere that the film lacks humor. I honestly have no idea what they were talking about. And when it comes to action, Spielberg still knows exactly how to stage a chase.
As for the score, there is quite a lot of music in the film. Early on it tends to appear in shorter passages, while the second half features more extended musical sequences. That said, this is not a score-driven film in the way Star Wars, Harry Potter or even some of Spielberg’s earlier collaborations with Williams are. Williams is a little more in the background here than some people may expect – but I absolutely do not mean that as criticism.
There are two or three action moments in classic Williams fashion, but don’t go in expecting anything on the scale of “Anderton’s Great Escape”. That’s simply not what this score is about. Still, in a few places Williams reminds us that he hasn’t forgotten how to get the pulse racing.
What struck me most was the thematic material. There is a beautiful horn theme – though not in an obvious, immediately attention-grabbing way – that becomes more prominent later in the film, and I’m very curious to hear how it develops on the album. There is also a lighter scherzo-like idea that caught my attention immediately. I found myself wondering whether it receives a more substantial development on the soundtrack release.
The score also features some delicate choral writing that occasionally brought A.I. to mind. Not huge, operatic choral statements, but something much more intimate and ethereal. Pure Williams.
Another thing I noticed was a theme that, at least to my ears, had a certain “Cinque’s Theme” quality to it, accompanied by a female vocalise. I’d be very curious to revisit those passages on album, because they made quite an impression in the context of the film.
There is also one particularly emotional cue before the finale, strongly centered around the piano, that absolutely floored me. One of those moments where the emotional impact of the music becomes almost overwhelming.
“listen…” appears during the end credits, but what really stayed with me was what follows afterwards, when that beautiful A.I.-like theme returns in all its glory, enriched by a delicate chorus. It was one of the musical highlights of the entire experience.
As for the finale itself, I wouldn’t compare it to Close Encounters or E.T. in terms of musical spectacle. However, there were moments when I became so immersed in what was happening on screen that I almost stopped consciously listening to the score, while at the same time feeling that the music was doing exactly what it needed to do. Had it done more, some people might well have accused Williams of pushing the music too hard in moments that didn’t require it.
Right now, the only thing I’m thinking about is going back to the cinema on Wednesday or Thursday – partly to hear the score again before Friday’s soundtrack release, but also because I simply want to experience the film one more time on the big screen.
And I absolutely cannot wait for the album. I’m convinced it will reveal even more than the film does and that there is still a great deal left to discover.
Review by ‘wikerman’ (from the Paris Premiere)
As for the score, it is rather beautiful and even mellow at times. Honestly, most of action sequences (car chase, train scene) are either not scored or music appears just for a brief moment. Don’t expect Indiana Jones type of action score here. It is the third act, the last 30 mins of the movie, when the music truly shines and paints beautiful landscapes for some amazing storytelling. I can say, you can clearly hear influences from CEOATK and E.T. in this score. And it totally makes sense after watching the film. Some absolutely beautiful melodies and I found the last part of the movie really touching – it honestly left me speechless.
Btw, our Maestro got huge applause when “Music by John Williams” appeared during end credits. Surreal to think they both have been creating magic together for 52 years…