Celebrating Hans Zimmer on His Birthday - A Look Back at His Top 10 Most Influential Scores
Today is the 63rd birthday of legendary composer, Hans Zimmer and since we are honoring him today, the best way to celebrate is to go back and re-visit some of his most influential scores throughout his illustrious career. Hans Zimmer has been nominated for 10 Academy Awards and has been involved in some of the most well-known movies of the past decade. Let’s dive in.
1. Gladiator - 2000
To kick it off, we will start with “Gladiator” (2000). While the movie was not Zimmer’s first project, it’s definitely one that put him on the map. Zimmer collaborated on the well-known movie score with fellow composers Klaus Badelt and Lisa Gerrard. The sweeping score matches perfectly with the historical epic and really kicks off his dominating presences in films in the 2000s. Are you not entertained?
Recommended Track: Honor Him
2. The Holiday- 2006
Perhaps the most underrated Hans Zimmer score, Nancy Meyer’s “The Holiday “ (2006) would not be the movie it is without the involvement of Hans Zimmer. Half of the plot itself centers around the love and devotion of movies with Amanda (Cameron Diaz) as a movie trailer specialist, Miles (Jack Black) a movie score composer himself and Arthur (Eli Wallach) as a retired Hollywood screen-writer. The score is soft, subtle and the simple keys of the piano and strings create this cozy score.
Recommended Track: Iris and Jasper
3. Man of Steel (2013)
After creating movie magic with Batman in the Dark Knight Trilogy, Zimmer moved onto his second superhero composition when he composed the score for Superman on 2013’s “Man of Steel.” Not mentioned in my Top 10, but Zimmer also composed for a Spiderman movie with 2014’s “Amazing Spiderman” and will be involved in the highly anticipated Wonder Woman sequel “Wonder Woman 1984.”
Recommended Track: Goodbye My Son
4. Inception - 2010
Long time collaborators, Christopher Nolan and Hans Zimmer are at it again with 2010 Blockbuster Inception. Perhaps one of Nolan’s more contextually complex films, Hans Zimmer was cited saying that he “struggled to create this whole new world with sound” and brought in a variety of collaborators to find the unique sound to create this new dreamscape universe.
Recommended Track: Time
5. Da Vinci Code - 2006
In the 2006, “The Da Vinci Code” teams up Hans Zimmer with Ron Howard, marking their first feature collaboration. Since their team up in 2006, Zimmer has worked with Howard again on “Rush” (2013). Zimmer also composed the score for the other movies in the trilogy including “Angels and Demons” (2009) and “Inferno” (2016).
Recommended Track: Chevaliers Sangreal
6. The Lion King – 1994/2019
Hans Zimmer was instrumental in the creation of the movie score for 1994’s “The Lion King” so when it was announced that they were planning to re-create the Disney Classic with CGI technology, Director Jon Favreau knew that Zimmer was the right choice. There are subtle differences between the 1994 and the 2019 creations, but the gentle themes are the same throughout. The 2019 Re-Make includes new additions to the beloved 90’s version as well.
Recommended Track: Rafiki’s Fireflies
7. The Dark Knight and Dark Knight Rises - 2008/2012
The later “Dark Knight Trilogy” movies were created with Hans Zimmer and collaboration with James Newton Howard. “The Dark Knight” and “Dark Knight Rises” specifically were penned by Zimmer and it can be argued to be Zimmer’s most iconic contribution to movie scores. The collaboration between Zimmer and Christopher Nolan has now become almost expected and their first project together on The Dark Knight paved way for future projects such as “Interstellar” (2014) and “Dunkirk” (2017).
Recommended Track: Rise
8. Sherlock Holmes - 2009
Hans Zimmer and Guy Ritchie unite on the action epic, “Sherlock Holmes” (2009). One of his most distinctive scores, the music in Sherlock Holmes is vastly different from his other work, using more rough over-tones instead of the epic sweeping nature of some of his other scores. Sharp violins, quick on the keys, another iconic score.
Recommended Track: Discombobulate
9. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End - 2006/2007
One of the biggest franchises in the Mid-200s, Hans Zimmer composed the second and third films out of the saga, “Dead Man’s Chest” (2006) and “World’s End” (2007). Zimmer stepped in to fill the composers chair after Klaus Badelt started the series off with “Curse of the Black Pearl” (2003). Zimmer even stated that he became involved with the project by accident. Zimmer had been working with Gore Verbinski, the director of the first film on another project and was skeptical to get involved when he heard the script pitch. According to an article published by Screenrant, Zimmer originally thought the premise of the Pirate’s Trilogy was a bad idea but “loved that he was wrong” and was able to work on the other installments.
Recommended Tracks: Davy Jones (“Dead Man’s Chest”) and At Wit’s End (“At World’s End”)
10. Interstellar - 2014
Another collaboration of Hans Zimmer and Christopher Nolan, “Interstellar” debuted in 2014. The space, time action epic was their fourth project together. Nolan had even been quoted about Zimmer and his score saying that “Hans' score for 'Interstellar' has the tightest bond between music and image that we've yet achieved."
Recommended Track: Cornfield Chase
While those are a list of Top-10 Hans Zimmer scores, there are plenty more that weren’t included on the list. Here are some honorable mentions: “Dunkirk”, (2017) “Pearl Harbor”, (2001), “12 Years a Slave,” (2013) “Hidden Figures” (2016), “The Lone Ranger,” (2013) and many more.
John Williams has become synonymous with composing some of the most iconic scores of the last several decades, well Hans Zimmer is on his heels. The music composer has been involved in some of the largest-scale movies that we have seen in the past few decades and there are plenty more on the way.
He has a pretty stacked list for 2020 and beyond. Hans Zimmer has already composed the score for 2020’s highly anticipated movie “Dune”, which is due out in December. Zimmer stated that composing the “Dune” score was “a childhood dream come true.” His involvement with “Dune” unfortunately didn’t allow him to work again with Christopher Nolan on another 2020 blockbuster “Tenet” but a fair trade off.
Zimmer has a pretty impressive schedule for the next 2-3 years, here are the other projects that he is working on: “Wonder Woman 1984,” “No Time To Die,” “Hillbilly Elegy,” “Top Gun: Maverick,” and “Space Jam: A New Legacy”, just to name a few. In terms of quality and number of projects Hans Zimmer has worked on, he is well on his way to join the legendary rankings of John Williams and Ennio Morricone and there is more to come!