Every Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross Movie Score, Ranked
Multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, singer, and founding member of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor had no real need to add film composer to his already long list of accomplishments. However, starting with his brief work on the 1994 film Natural Born Killers, that's just what he did.
English musician Atticus Ross would eventually join Reznor and become the other half of what became a famous duo in the film world. Currently nominated for two Golden Globes, one for Pixar's Soul and the other for David Fincher's Mank, the musical duo have been relatively selective with their work, creating a limited number of wildly varying and completely memorable scores.
9 Bird Box
It's generally hard to rank the work of the duo, given how exceptional most of their output tends to be. However, fans can clearly that this is some of their most uninteresting work. In fact, the whole thing led Reznor to call it a "waste of his time."
Maybe just uninspired by Susanne Bier's Netflix thriller, the score sounds like a general amalgamation of every Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross characteristic thrown into a brief soundtrack. While it retains their signature icy sound with ominous undertones, it doesn't manage to do anything that fans of the two haven't heard before.
8 Mid90s
One of their shorter works, clocking in at only 12 minutes, their work for Jonah Hill's Mid90s is a little bit sweeter than expected from a duo that tends to work on films steeped in atmosphere and dread.
Made up of mainly soft piano compositions, their pieces for the movie are surprisingly simple and adds a nice touch to the film. Really the only major issue one could have with it is the length being so excessively short, making it a less major outing of theirs.
7 Patriots Day
Reznor and Ross's work on the Boston Marathon Bombing film maintains the perfect level of clock-ticking anxiety and unease that matches very well with the thriller, without ever coming across as overbearing or cliché.
Pay special attention to "Terminus," one of the last tracks in the score, which brings back Reznor's old Nine Inch Nails sound for a grimy, uncomfortable listen that stands out on the tracklist.
6 Waves
Very rarely would a 22-minute song sound like something anyone would actually want to listen to, but somehow the two make the track "Wounds Heal," a standout piece in an already great score.
Seemingly dragging the listener throughout the entire grieving process, the song ends in a beautiful eruption that allows the listener to exhale after 18 minutes of tension. With this and other notable tracks, the Waves score proves that these musicians can enhance pretty much any type of film.
5 The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
With four total collaborations so far, there was going to have to be a David Fincher collaboration that ranks lower than the rest. Not a reflection of quality, this placement is due to this score being created soon after the duo's first, and as a result, sounding slightly too familiar to be placed any higher.
However, this score to the Oscar-nominated thriller proves the duo's first outing wasn't a fluke, creating a freezing cold, eerie listen that sounds like metal pieces of a jigsaw puzzle falling into place.
4 Gone Girl
After their second Fincher collaboration, the musical duo made an inspired choice to base the Gone Girl soundtrack off what they consider "spa music," or the type of music they play in massage parlors to lull the listener into a sense of peace.
Of course, being what Reznor describes as a "nasty" film, this tactic works incredibly well and leads to moments of sheer terror as the spa music stops, the old Reznor and Ross resume, and the rug gets firmly yanked out from under the viewer.
3 Mank
Fans of the two would think that limiting the notoriously electronic musicians to a mono, 1930's big band sound would kill their creativity, but on the contrary, the soundtrack for their most recent Fincher collaboration proves to be one of their best.
Comprised of 52 songs, the soundtrack for Mank manages to be perfectly retro, blending in with the film's aesthetics, and just dark and strange enough to assure the listener they're listening to a Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross soundtrack.
2 Soul
Nine Inch Nails fans would probably never believe this Pixar soundtrack was created by the man responsible for songs like "Closer," but somehow it is. Even more shocking than the duo's foray into the 1930s with Mank, the fact that this children's film manages to be one of their best scores ever remains truly unbelievable.
Managing to blend the electronic, nihilistic tone of the duo's past with a light, whimsical touch that works exceptionally well in the film's comedic moments, all while being interspersed with Jon Batiste's jazz arrangements, this score proves to be their most agile work yet. With how good this score is, it'd be interesting to see what the other five movies worth of music the two wrote for the film sounds like.
1 The Social Network
It couldn't have been anything else. The duo's first score also happens to be their best. A score that sounds as if it's buried in the DNA of the film, it enhances every moment while never sounding overbearing and manages to evolve with the protagonist's own life, all while providing a dark undercurrent that serves as a warning of what's to come.
The blueprint for every modern electronic score made after its release, this work will be well known for decades to come as up there with the likes of Bernard Herrmann, Ennio Morricone, and John Williams.
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