Rogue Nation Soundtrack

[Kerby Reynolds]

Withthe fifth film in the Mission: Impossible film franchise out today, how do we talk about the music that has brought each of these to life? It all gets back to Lalo Schifrin. His theme has defined this narrative from the beginning.

Written for the original 1960s television series, the theme has become iconic. As NPR points out, "one of the most appealing things about it...is that it's in 5/4 time." This means that "the piece contains five beats to the measure, instead of the more typical three or four." This may seem to be a simple variation, but we are so accustomed to music having three and four beats per measure that when someone changes it up, our ears take notice.

Over the history of the film franchise, we have heard the theme rendered in a variety of ways. Joe Kraemer, who scored the most recent version, told me his goal was "to create a score that honored the work done by Lalo Schifrin in the 1960s when he created the iconic theme for the TV series, while at the same time, not doing a pastiche that sounded cliche or dated, or came off like a spoof."

The great Danny Elfman had the first chance to write Mission: Impossible movie music. Directed by Brian De Palma, the first film in the series owes a great debt to Schifrin's original ideas and keeps the sense of thrilling espionage front and center. We don't often hear this kind of respect to musical atmosphere, as summer blockbusters have become built around thrill-ride dynamics.

Highly reverential to Schifrin, Elfman does not go too far afield and merely brings in a huge base of percussion and brass to shove the theme into a new decade. He also ends the theme with a solid bass line that serves to distinguish his variation. Elfman's brand of composing was a perfect starting point for the franchise reboot, his ability to manipulate percussion with winds and brass created a sturdy support beam.

While Hans Zimmer was brought in to score the second film in the franchise, responsibilities for the main theme were actually handled by the rap-rock band Limp Bizkit. That was a misstep among many in this film, often regarded as the worst in the franchise; every choice seemed driven by an attempt to align the series with the fads of the moment.

John Woo, who directed the film, was hot off his first couple of jumps into American action cinema, and swung this narrative into one action set piece after another without much connection to the roots of the series. The soundtrack of music "from and inspired by" fits the pop charts of the late 90s early 2000s with Metallica, Rob Zombie, and Chris Cornell from Soundgarden rounding out a record that overshadowed Zimmer's work. It's the outlier of the series that has been mostly forgotten.

A longtime collaborator of J.J. Abrams, who directed the third Mission: Impossible film and is largely responsible for bringing the series back to legitimacy, Michael Giacchino scored the third and fourth films in the franchise, with the fourth film's directing responsibilities taken on by another long-time collaborator, Brad Bird.

With the third film being something of a redefinition and rebirth, Giacchino takes a step back to the mindset presented in Elfman's interpretation and reverence for Lalo Schifrin. There is a lot more big brass, and Giacchino writes in a few subtle changes that distinguish the piece, but his reverence for a classical orchestra really serve to bring legitimacy back to the music of the series.

For the fourth film, Schifrin's theme is also dramatically reworked. Many saw Ghost Protocol as a new beginning, with the third film somewhat cleaning the audience's palate after the distasteful second film. This takes the original theme into some new territory; while the new orchestrations do work really well in their own right, Giacchino also seems to forget what this franchise is really all about: the weighty simplicity of Schifrin's original work. Giacchino does bring more strings into the fourth film's arrangements, speaking to the Russian "bad guy" aesthetic of the film versus the third film's American "bad guy," who was evoked by brass.

Joe Kraemer is one of the most interesting composers working today. His score for Christopher McQuarrie's first film as director, The Way of the Gun, is still a standout of composition that has, sadly, been forgotten by most. When McQuarrie was brought on to direct the fifth film in the series, it was sort of a foregone conclusion that Kraemer would also be brought on due to their long-standing collaboration, and once onboard Kraemer really wanted to honor the original ideas presented by Lalo Schifrin. He made the choice to use only instruments that he Schifrin could have used in the '60s (so no synthesizers, and no Bizkits), and developed new ideas inspired by smaller pieces composed for the original series as well as some of the classical canon.

"I decided to embrace Lalo's original theme, as it is one of my favorite compositions," Kraemer told me. "But I took it apart and broke it down in to three main elements, which I then used in different permutations and combinations to construct new cues for this film.

"In addition, I had to write new themes for Solomon Lane, the film's villain, as well as the Syndicate, his evil organization. Pretty much every character has at least one music motif associated with them. Ilsa Faust's theme is based on the aria Nessun Dorma from Pucinni's opera Turandot, as that music becomes associated with her during an early sequence in the film. Benji's theme comes from a piece Lalo wrote for the TV show called 'The Plot,' as I liked to imagine that Benji had a fantasy that he was starring in a TV show all through the movie!

Kraemer's thoughtful considerations highlights a direction for this fifth film not unlike that of the most recent James Bond installments: a looking back to look forward that really tries to keep the material relevant, but not in a way that disregards tradition. The music of Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation has the most connections to the original TV concept since Danny Elfman's take, and while Kraemer too did some reworking of the original theme, it was only to embolden the ideas rather than delegate them to the dustbin of history.

The scores for the Mission: Impossible films have always been a greatly anticipated event, particularly because of their usage of the iconic Mission: Impossible theme composed by Lalo Schifrin. This in combination with excellent action music as well as a string of well known and highly praised composers has created a high bar for the soundtracks for these films, which is why when Lorne Balfe was announced as composer for Fallout the news was met with a series of sighs and groans from the soundtrack community.

I however was keen to keep an open mind, so when the score for Fallout was randomly dropped on iTunes last night I grabbed it immediately and gave it a listen. Several listens in fact. And if I am honest, I was rather disappointed.

The album opens with A Storm Is Coming, and you can already feel that fast-paced Mission: Impossible action as rapid drums kick in right off the bat. They are met shortly afterwards with loud and perilous-sounding brass and strings that tell you immediately that the stakes are high. However, while certainly exciting the music does little to satisfy the high bar the previous scores have set, containing nothing really thematic or of substance. This is slightly better than average generic action music in a franchise famous for not having it.

The action continues through Your Mission to Good Evening Mr. Hunt, still using the same strings and brass combination throughout. It is here however that we hear the first hint of the classic Mission: Impossible theme for the first time on this album, and I certainly breathed a sigh of relief when I heard it. Finally, this score is going somewhere interesting. This relief was short lived however, as the theme disappears as quickly as it arrived.

Change Of Plan is the first track on this album that gave me real hope for the rest of the score. It starts slowly and ominously before building up with strings and initially quiet brass into a full on action setpiece. About halfway through Balfe also brings in vocals, which is a questionable choice but in this case it works very well. Change Of Plan is a very edge-of-your-seat track, which is exactly what the action in a Mission: Impossible album should be like. There might be hope for you yet, Mr. Balfe.

After intercepting nerve gas being sold to Chechen terrorists in Minsk, IMF agent Ethan Hunt is determined to prove the existence of the Syndicate, a consortium of rogue field operatives for various different intelligence agencies turned mercenaries the CIA does not believe exists. As CIA Director Alan Hunley successfully convinces a Senate committee to disband and absorb the IMF, currently without a secretary in charge, into the CIA for its destructive methods and other misconduct, Hunt is captured by the Syndicate at a record shop in London, while their leader, a blond man in glasses, kills the female IMF agent stationed there. Hunt escapes a torture chamber led by Syndicate member Janik "Bone Doctor" Vinter with the help of disavowed MI6 agent and now Syndicate operative Ilsa Faust. IMF Field Operations Director William Brandt, knowing Hunley will try to capture Hunt, warns him to stay undercover. Cut off from the IMF, Hunt follows his only lead: the man in glasses, later identified as former MI6 agent Solomon Lane.

Six months later, Hunt, still a fugitive living in Paris (luring a CIA team to a decoy safe house in Havana), enlists former colleague Benji Dunn to attend the opera Turandot in the Vienna state theater, predicting that an assassination attempt will be made on the Austrian Chancellor at the performance, and that Lane will also be there. The two stop three snipers, including Faust, but the Chancellor is ultimately killed by a car bomb, and Lane is still not found. Faust willingly drops hints of Lane's plan to Hunt before leaving. After learning the Syndicate is working against "the old world order" by committing several terrorist acts, Dunn stays with Hunt instead of reporting back to the CIA, despite knowing his action amounts to treason.

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