Essential Science Fiction/Fantasy Soundtracks

There's a similar thread that I have up in the Amptheatre, but I wanted to see what people here thought. To you, what are the essential Sci-Fi soundtracks?

My own favorites:

A New Hope
Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
Fellowship of the Ring
The Two Towers
Return of the King
Battlestar Galactica (New Version)
Stargate & Stargate SG-1
Firefly (Not released)
The Matrix
Minority Report
A.I.
Dune and the Children of Dune
Halo


Who likes what?

 

Conan the Barbarian -- Poledouris
Krull/Willow/Land Before Time -- Horner
Legend -- Goldsmith
The Dark Crystal, Merlin -- Jones
The Touch -- Poledouris
ST: The Motion Picture -- Goldsmith
ST: The Wrath of Khan -- Horner
Star Wars -- Williams
Children of Dune -- Tyler
Lord of the Rings -- Shore

There are plenty more good ones, I'll post as I think of them

 

The Star Wars Saga
The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy
The Matrix Trilogy
Stargate (film only)
Independence Day
Alien, Aliens, and Alien 3
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial
Willow
Star Trek I and II
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Jurassic Park
Superman
Signs
Waterworld
Predator
The Dark Crystal


And probably many more I've missed.

 

Arnold: Independence Day, Stargate
Davis: Matrix trilogy
Edelman: Dragonheart
Eidelman: Star Trek 6
Goldenthal: Alien 3
Goldsmith: Alien, Legend, Star Trek the Motion Picture, Total Recall
Horner: Aliens, Krull, Rocketeer, Star Trek 2 & 3, Willow
Poledouris: Conan the Barbarian, Robocop, Starship Troopers
Safan: The Last Starfighter
Shore: Lord of the Rings trilogy
Williams: Close Encounters, ET, Hook, Star Wars (No, seriously), Superman

Think that just about covers it for me.

 

I have the soundtracks as follows

ROTJ
TPM
AOTC
ANH
ESB
Harry Potter The Sorceres Stone
And Chamber of Secrets
Return of the King
Two Towers
Fellowship of the Ring
Dune and Children of Dune
Waterworld
Ever After
Passion of the Christ

 

A few additions to my list:

I just got the score to Krull and it's a fantastic mix of Horner's music from Star Trek II and Willow. It bridges the sci-fi/fantasy gap very well.

I also want to add Silvestri's The Abyss score. While the merit of the first 10 tracks is debatable for the most part, the last 3 tracks are amazing pieces of choral and orchestral music and are alone worth the price of the score. Really beautiful music, IMO.

Finally, I want to add James Newton Howard's Atlantis. It, too, has some amazing choral work (similar to parts of Snow Falling On Cedars) and two excellent themes that rank as some of Howard's best work in the genre. Hard to believe such great music was written for such a crappy Disney film.

 

You need to add:

Gremlins (1&2)
Tenchi Muyo
Record of the Lodos War
LionHeart (Goldsmith)
Small Soldiers
Army of Darkness
Xena
Hercules
Secret of NIMH
Celtic Horizons (Phil Coulter)
Smilla's Sense of Snow
Leviathan
The Resurrected


Oh, and of course,
The Planets (Holst)

 

Lots of great soundtracks, some of them
are repeated in my list. Nice to see some
under appreciated scores in other lists.

1. The entire SW saga, by the Master.
2. LOTR save ROTK, I felt it was a bit weak.
3. Superman.
4. The Rocketeer.
5. The last Starfighter.
6. Signs.
7. Star Trek II:TWOK
8. Highlander, if only for the Queen track.
9. Tron.
10. Conan the Barbarian.

 

Xanthe_shHar,

Passion of the Christ is a pretty good fantasy film, but I didn't think the music was all that.

Some good sci-fi/fantasy soundtracks...

Starship Troopers
Flash Gordon
several of the Godzilla themes
Ghosts of Mars
The Thing
Aliens
Terminator
RoboCop
Battle Beyond the Stars

 

Star Wars I, II, V, and VI.

Aliens (For some reason, I always imagine Track 17 being pretty good music for an American Airlines "Fly The Friendly Skies" commercial)

I donno if this counts as fantasy, but I'm quite fond of the original Batman supertrack, particularly Tracks 1, 10, and 21. 10 is really cool, IMO...

 

Batman is most definitely sci-fi. That was a part of a paper I once wrote.

-Paul

 

Krull, Willow, Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, E.T., Superman, Hook, Jurassic Park, Close Encounters, Indiana Jones, The Omen, Gremlins, Harry Potter, Blade Runner, Legend, Hellraiser II, Batman etc etc...

 

What about X-Files ?

 

Contamination