The score to the James Cameron

James Cameron

James Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...

 film Aliens

Aliens (film)

Aliens is a 1986 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron and starring Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, William Hope, and Bill Paxton...

was composed by James Horner

James Horner

James Roy Horner is an American composer, orchestrator and conductor of orchestral and film music. He is noted for the integration of choral and electronic elements in many of his film scores, and for frequent use of Celtic musical elements...

. Released in 1986, it was one of his first major hollywood scores. The score itself includes extracts from Gayane's Adagio from Aram Khachaturian

Aram Khachaturian

Aram Ilyich Khachaturian was a prominent Soviet composer. Khachaturian's works were often influenced by classical Russian music and Armenian folk music...

's Gayane ballet suite, which had also been used in Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...

's 2001: A Space Odyssey

2001: A Space Odyssey (film)

2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, and co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, partially inspired by Clarke's short story The Sentinel...

(1968). The score also uses musical motifs and sound treatments from Jerry Goldsmith

Jerry Goldsmith

Jerrald King Goldsmith was an American composer and conductor most known for his work in film and television scoring....

's original soundtrack to Alien

Alien (film)

Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm and Yaphet Kotto. The film's title refers to its primary antagonist: a highly aggressive extraterrestrial creature which...

(1979). Additional cues taken from Jerry Goldsmith's Alien score were used in the climax of the film when Horner was unable to finish some cues to Cameron's satisfaction whilst working to a tight deadline. The film's editors completely altered the score's chronological flow, looping, truncating or removing the music and placing it in fragmented form in the film out of context. Despite production issues, it was nominated for an Academy Award in 1986. It was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra

London Symphony Orchestra

The London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...

. The soundtrack album was released the following year, in 1987.

Original track listing

1. "Main Title" (5:10)
2. "Going After Newt" (3:08)
3. "Sub-Level 3" (6:11)
4. "Ripley's Rescue" (3:13)
5. "Atmosphere Station" (3:05)
6. "Futile Escape" (8:13)
7. "Dark Discovery" (2:00)
8. "Bishop's Countdown" (2:47)
9. "Resolution and Hyperspace" (6:10)

Deluxe edition track listing

1. "Main Title" (5:13)
2. "Bad Dreams" (1:22)
3. "Dark Discovery/Newt's Horror" (2:07)
4. "LV-426" (2:03)
5. "Combat Drop" (3:29)
6. "The Complex" (1:34)
7. "Atmosphere Station" (3:11)
8. "Med.Lab." (2:04)
9. "Newt" (1:14)
10. "Sub-Level 3" (6:36)
11. "Ripley's Rescue" (3:19)
12. "FaceHuggers" (4:24)
13. "Futile Escape" (8:29)
14. "Newt is Taken" (2:04)
15. "Going After Newt" (3:18)
16. "The Queen" (1:45)
17. "Bishop's Countdown" (2:50)
18. "Queen To Bishop" (2:31)
19. "Resolution and Hyperspace" (6:27)

Bonus Tracks

1. "Bad Dreams" (alternate) (1:23)
2. "Ripley's Rescue" (percussion only) (3:20)
3. "LV-426" (alternate edit – film version) (1:13)
4. "Combat Drop" (percussion only) (3:24)
5. "Hyperspace" (alternate ending) (2:08)

External links

• Another review (Deluxe Edition) at Score Reviews
• Another review (Deluxe Edition) at Soundtrack-express