Best Finale and End Credits

Which Star Wars film has the best finale and end credits music in the saga?

For me it would be TESB for The Rebel Fleet/End Title. I love the grand, epic and solemn reprise of the love theme followed by the classic Star Wars main title/Rebel fanfare transition into the end credits. Yoda's theme in a unique, almost march-like treatment followed by the Imperial March and a glorious love theme before the great ending with those fantastic drums.

 

ESB for the end suite and AOTC for the transition to the end suite.

 

Can't choose!

Taken as a whole TPM's and AOTC's don't move me at all, in the slightest.

ESB, ROTS and ANH (in that order) all have amazing end score suites.

The ROTS ending is kind of naff though - I've always been oddly bugged by it because I didn't feel that Owen and Beru were significant enough characters to end on for it to have the gravity that matches the score (even if it did mirror the Luke in ANH looking at the twin sunset scene).

The ROTJ ending itself is very good (pre Christiansen insertion) but I don't like the score as much as the others.

This leaves ESB and ANH as the winners in terms of the complete package really.

 

Oh, it has to be Rebel Fleet and End Title.
The ending to The Empire Strikes Back features some of the most recognizable cues from the saga as a whole, and I find that - just as with the film itself - the soundtrack from Empire is the one I listen to the most frequently. That may change with The Force Awakens, but I highly doubt that. Not that I think TFA is going to fail, mind you. Empire just happens to be the greatest motion picture ever made : D

 

Return of the Jedi form me. Not the theatrical cut.

 

ESB - the musical cue at the very end of the credits has been used repeatedly ever since for multiple SW trailers (the SE's and the PT), with good reason. Genuinely epic, in the literal sense. The rest of the credits music also includes some of the most iconic themes of the whole Saga.

Best finale music (pre-credits), however - Throne Room from SW/ANH (which is a bombastic version of the Force Theme). No contest. Really wish they'd finished ROTJ with a similar variation on it, instead of the cutesy/silly Yub Nub (OOT) or the limp Victory Celebration (SE).

 

Confrontation with Count Dooku and Finale is my favorite. The music captures the scenes beautifully, and I love the Across the Stars theme. Victory Celebration and End Title is a close second. With that said, I love all the finale/end credits. Each is a perfect ending for the particular movie.

 

From favorite to least favorite:

Victory Celebration/End Title: I just love this song. It is very happy sounding, but also sad, which is how I feel every time at the end of the movie. And I like how it starts with kids singing (even though I know it's not actually in the movie) and then adults singing. To me, that symbolizes a maturing of the characters from where they started in ANH to where they end up in ROTJ.

Confrontation with Count Dooku and Finale: I like the Force theme at the beginning, the spooky music that ties in so well with ROTS, The Imperial March, and of course Across the Stars is just brilliant and epic. And I like how in the End Title part it ends with a bit of Anakin's Theme laced with Across the Stars.

The Rebel Fleet/End Title: Epic love theme played loudly - can you really go wrong? Plus I like The Imperial March, Yoda's Theme, and Han and Leia's theme played in the actual credits part.

Augie's Great Municipal Band/End Credits: Love the cheerfulness and joy expressed in the song. It's just so....happy. At least the Band part anyway. The credits part is a bit more serious sounding.

The Throne Room/End Title: Like the sense of victory and I tend to hum along with this song.

A New Hope and End Credits: I like the actual "A New Hope" part (Leia's Theme and Luke's Theme is very nice) but I don't care much for the "End Credits" part. I don't like that he reused "The Throne Room". I get he was trying to tie in to the next film, but I think that piece should be reserved, for, well, the throne room. And I definitely don't like that it seems like he used it twice.

 

Confrontation with Count Dooku and Finale: It starts off all magical then turns all mysterious with Sidious. Obi-Wan and the Masters in the Temple, reflecting on the clones and battle, "Begun the Clone Wars has." I love it leads into Imperial March and how it transitions into Across the Stars with Anakin and Padme's over on Naboo.

 

This. Though have to give a nod to ANH for finale. Love it! ROTS is good as well.

 

1. The Throne Room
2. The Rebel Fleet
3. A New Hope
4. Confrontation With Count Dooku
5. Ewok/Victory Celebration
6. Augie

 

Wow. I'm quite surprised to see the ESB ending score is the winner here so far!

I would've thought the Throne room finale would be a clear winner...that was my vote. Also some of my all time favorite bit of score

 

Definitely Rebel Fleet/End Titles. Four absolutely classic movie themes all on display together - it's a real highlight of the film and a true showcase of Williams' achievements. Going straight from the End Fanfare to Yoda's Theme to Imperial March to Han/Leia with barely a pause for breath, all with huge full-blown renditions, is just staggering. And those last 30 seconds are iconic as well, purely due to their perennial use for trailers!

 

Victory Celebration for me. It's a little sombre at first, but ultimately has an air of triumph as they look toward the future. AOTC's and ANH's are close behind though.

 

The Rebel Fleet / End Title is my favourite overall, for the momentum that builds with theme up to the sweeping rendition of Han Solo and the Princess and finally that unforgettable brass fanfare at the end which, as other posters have commented, was used to mouth-watering effect in the TPM trailers.

BUT I do love Throne Room and in particular the incredible short statement of Princess Leia's theme. The melody is played on cello, with a flute chiming in with the Rebel motif, and high strings that combine with the cello melody amazingly.

 

I like Confrontation with Count Dooku the most. It covers more musical ground than any of the others (purely before the credits at least).

The strains of the force theme as Yoda struggles to lift the the column. The sort-of 'slimy' music that plays when the solar sail opens and Dooku escapes. The despair when Padme enters the hangar. The dark sinister chants of Sidious' theme, showing that the dark heart of Coruscant is where the real menace was all along. The otherworldly chanting that plays in The LiMerge building. The apprehensive tone in the council chambers. The heavy military beat as the Imperial march first plays. And Across the Stars playing one last time, with a hint of risk and danger about it, during the lover's wedding.

Truly, a masterpiece.

 

I love ROTJ because of 1:55!

 

Gonna have to go with Rebel Fleet / End Title for music but I do really like pretty much all of them except for The Phantom Menace's. I mean, it was okay, but the others were much, much better.

 

So it's not just me then. Maybe that's why that is the one bit of JW music I find to be incredibly cheesy? Lol

As for the question itself, I'm going to have to echo my choice in the "Favorite Star Wars Soundtrack" thread and go with The Phantom Menace. Goes from joyful at Naboo having won the conflict against the Federation (Augie), to the sinnister/epic nature of the Sith revealing themselves again (Duel of the Fates), to innocent of what is to come (Anakin's theme). Really sums up the movie nicely.

 

Well, for the prequels, it would totally be the Attack Of The Clones ending and music. I just love imperial march in tragic mode where it foreshadows the future.

 

Little late to the thread, but yeah. I think that's my favorite setting of the Imperial march (the one in AOTC -- "birth of the Empire"), and that horn figure that ends in that big 4-3 suspension just as the end credits pop...wow. Girlfriend at the time was a Master's student at Manhattan School of Music, heard it coming a bar or two away and just goes "Nice....." under her breath. Chills. Never forget it.

 

Tough choice, but I'd have to say TPM has a great finale. Sure, on the surface, it looks childish, like a Disneyland parade or something, but because the viewer is privy to information that the characters aren't, it has a sinister feel. They're all celebrating, completely unaware that things are about to get a lot worse, and Palpatine is standing around, grinning, pretending to be a nice guy. There's definitely something creepy about that ending.

 

Palps telling Skywalker "We will watch your career with great interest" helps this scene because of the future events known to the audience.

 

Not to mention the music, Augie's Great Municipal Band is a light hearted version of the Emperor's Theme.