Cerebral Cortex

Williams and Spielberg look like they're about to do a more casual version of the Spider-Man pointing meme. bonus pic:

When your friends make millions on the new Star Wars movie after a couple hours of work but you have to work on the whole film for the better part of a year:

"And you're in and out of there in, like, an hour." "Wow." "Yeah, no, shit's incredible. It's like I'm back in college." "And what did you say this was called again?" "LASIK." "Gotcha."

Which new theme or musical idea are you most anxious to hear in the upcoming Dial of Destiny score from Williams? We already have a solid idea of what Helena's theme will sound like, but as usual you can expect what we've heard so far to just be the tip of the iceberg in terms of the variations and permutations Williams will no doubt put it through in the film proper. There is the new villain, Voller, who may or may not get a theme or may be structured into general Nazi thematic material which, likewise, may be old or new. The titular dial of destiny will no doubt get a theme. And of course, there are numerous other aspects to the score to get excited about. Which part has you most excited?

With another John Williams Indy score growing fast upon us comes the realization that we have another John Williams end credits piece to look forward to. Here, Williams is given a largely blank canvas to weave together the themes and musical ideas, both old and new, he has put into the film into a singular musical tapestry. With the prospect of a new Indy end credits comes multiple points of discussion. --- (1) The first topic of discussion that comes to mind is how will Williams treat the Raiders March in this final end credits sequence? His approach has been a bit off and on, with Temple of Doom and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull both featuring new creative instances of the theme: In contrast, Raiders and Last Crusade go for a largely by the numbers approach: Which ultimately brings us to the first poll question: will Williams choose to conclude the series with some sort of new Raiders March variation snuck in there, perhaps a merging of Helena's theme with Indy's à la Force Awakens, or will it be sufficient in Williams mind to end it with a grand orchestration of the traditional playing of the theme we know and love? (2) Second point of discussion. As @crumbs was astute to point out here, it seems possible that Williams will be using the newer concert recording mix of the Raiders March that makes the drum rhythm more prominent/audible. Will this be what is featured in the end credits, will Williams opt to use the older styling, or will he use both for the end credits? (3) Lastly, and as a bit of a bonus question inviting more generalized discussion surrounding the end credits of Indy 5, will Williams choose to do something special to send off the series in the end credits? In contrast to Rise of Skywalker, where Williams was rushed and without a dial of destiny to give him more time, it would seem Williams was given a more structured and less rushed working schedule to write the score for the final Indy outing. Perhaps a stroll through the museum of themes Williams has accumulated for this series over the years? Perhaps an end credits styling straight out of the Hollywood Golden Age to conform with how Williams has been going around presenting Helena's theme? Who knows!

Some quick thoughts after watching the finale to picard 3.0: you are (not) alone: • The finale is TNG meets Star Wars meets The End of Evangelion. Trek has never been this Star Wars, even under Abrams. But that's okay. If Andor is Star Wars embracing the best parts of Trek, Picard S3 is Star Trek embracing the best parts of Star Wars. To live in an age where these two divisive fandoms can be bettered by finally taking lessons from the other is a great joy. • If we are to define "All Good Things..." as the left hemisphere ending to TNG, this is the full right hemisphere ending, in a good way. In fact, it's very satisfying finally getting fuller and richer arcs for these characters now that they can exist in a post-Gene Roddenberry Trek where characters don't have to be static in time and incapable of changing in profound emotional ways. • Stupid ideas are only as stupid as the lack of thought you put into them, something stupid on paper can work on film if you just find a good reason to explain why it should be there. The Enterprise-D coming back, on paper, should not really work, but they did a great job explaining why it feasibly should/could still be around. • Great Trek doesn't necessarily have to be perfect Trek. It's surreal seeing TNG getting the proper send-off the TOS crew got with Undiscovered Country. It seemed like such an option was always off the table, so there was never a possibility to hope for it. So to so quickly start to realize what it was you were seeing could only really be met with overall misbelief. But whereas TOS ended with film, TNG ends with television, which in the end seems kinda perfect. Kirk (William Shatner) was made to put at the front and center of big screen adventures, whereas Picard (Patrick Stewart) thrives in proper longer form stories. • Question what you love, but don't be as quick to doubt yourself for loving it. • Never doubt your ability to love something again. And... • There's nothing a good Patrick Stewart monologue can't fix.

I see some people comparing Indy to Bond, but I really see the two as apples to oranges. Connery was replaced only a few years after Dr. No, and he even came back twice to the role. Ford has been known as the defining performance of Indy for 42 years now. It is not the same. Ford IS the character, just like Williams is the music for the series. You take those away and it's not the same. Much like Stallone coming back over and over for Rocky, there is something special about getting to see a largely singular performance for a character being made by an actor at different points in their life. At this point, there aren't many large roles left like Indiana Jones in Hollywood that have gotten to be graced for decades with the same actor in the role. Okay, yeah, sure, you had the Young Indy Chronicles, you had River Phoenix in Last Crusade. I get it. But if you ask someone on the street who Indiana Jones is, they without hesitation will say it is Harrison Ford. And I think it's a bit silly to argue that his performance hasn't been defining in the role when people are largely going to see these movies BECAUSE it's him playing the role. Getting to see a hero age, getting to see him in different walks of life, getting to go through life alongside the character... it grounds him and humanizes him in a way; grants him a level of depth that isn't afforded in quite the same way as if they'd just recast him repeatedly with younger actors. Ford is Indy, and Mickey's money milking machine can continue to churn and pump out new Indy films with a different actor, but I personally view this as a rather unique franchise in Hollywood that would be cheapened by going down such a path.

I keep seeing this thread title and thinking that we're getting a CD release for Sabrina 2, my number one Williams holy grail!

Regardless, I love your effort here. Thanks for putting that much work into something like this and then sharing it with the community. Very fun to speculate about this score in this small window we have before release where we'll never get to look forward to a John Williams Indiana Jones score again, and I always respect and am in awe of this level of geeking out.

Someone over on the Raider fan forums pointed out this little short promotional blurb for the trailer on the official Instagram account that has a new shot of Indy, at least to my eyes: Cool to see Indy using a gun again. Not his revolver, perhaps a German gun he picks up?

indiana jones

The fact that the action music from that 6 minute clip seemingly has multiple reprisals of previous action material does make me curious if perhaps Williams will decide to bring back the old Nazi themes for this last romp as well.

But he did say new takes on old classics, so get ready for a revamped "Anything Goes" reprisal!

In all seriousness, the titular Dial theme is probably what I'm most anxious to hear.

Map lines and dots are back on the menu, boys! Also so great to receive confirmation that Indy doesn't stay in the same place the whole movie!

Had to ride on the coattails of custom cover art guru tintacle and take a stab at continuing one of the formats he created for the first 4 Indy films that's based on the Indy DVD sets and that I really love. You can view his wonderful work here over at @heidl's wonderful site, filled with other great custom artwork both he and tintacle worked on. Mine ended up becoming a bit busy and muddled in the end, but I couldn't afford to dedicate more time to it before heading to bed. Kudos to all the covers people have been posting. Really helps to get the excitement flowing.

I keep reading this thread title and thinking of Mangold locking Williams up in a room until he wrote the whole score for Indy 5 in a horrific display of elder abuse.

i'm fucking crying. couldn't keep it together at work. thanks for the laugh.

I really sincerely think that is just us getting a very exasperated Williams trying his best to rewrite and rewrite to a changing edit while also making something Abrams is happy with and gives up and surrenders to the temp. As it just so happens, I actually was listening to TROS again just last night. In the years since release, it's settled pretty firmly into being what I think is my favorite sequel trilogy score. But one objective point of attack to the TROS score I've seen online is how much Williams quotes from previous material in the score. While this personally never bothered me, as I find that to be part of the fun getting to hear Williams having to do takes on stuff from the Williams of years past, it is understandable why someone might listen to tracks like "Reunion" or your "Falcon Flight" and be disheartened to hear so many renditions of themes we've already heard taking up sizable score space. Then it occurred to me that, wow, that was probably such an asset to Williams in doing these scores. Not to in any way diminish the accomplishment of Williams coming back to score the sequel trilogy, but to be able to do films where you can pull from a wealth of existing material organically probably helped so much in Williams being able physically to do these films. Him going pencil to paper and having to write hours of new music has to be quite physically taxing and hard on his hands. I've never met someone over the age of 30 who has loved the idea of continuing to do a job where they had to write stuff down for hours. Arthritis is a BITCH. So Williams being able to plant themes in abundance probably helped quite a bit in being able to finish TROS. Not to in any way imply laziness on the part of Williams, but I also know that he ain't cranking out 120+ minute blockbuster scores left and right where he's having to drop 100% new material. It's either franchise films with established musical vernacular that he can draw from, or a short tight score like Fabelmans. Like I said, just a nice asset that I think Williams leaned into nicely in the Sequel Trilogy. I honestly think it's such a masterclass getting to listen to TROS and the other sequels and hear how Williams so seamlessly goes from seemingly such disparate themes so organically. I swear that man can transition between two themes like nobody else (Parade of the Ewoks to Luke and Leia's theme in the ROTJ end credits will never not astound me). But then I thought, to bring it ALL full circle, oh shit... Williams doesn't have that luxury on Indy 5. With no Mutt or Marion taking up large portions of the film, in what is basically an Indy film score tradition, Williams has to basically come up with a Star Wars-size score at 90 and have it be almost entirely new music save for Indy's theme. Not only that, it's a fucking action movie. That means Williams is having to write a bunch of dense action music, and fuck me I wouldn't want to do that shit at 90. So since Williams doesn't have the asset of reusing old themes in abundance like he did on TROS going into writing Indy 5, if the thing that makes it possible for John Williams to write a fifth Indiana Jones score as well as likely his last major blockbuster score is for him to do new spins on old action material from previous Indy films, SIGN ME THE FUCK UP.

If nothing else, it'll probably end up being a very timely score... sorry

I'm really glad we're getting a 5th Indy film if for no other reason than a film called "The Last Crusade" getting to now be the middle movie in the famous film franchise. @crumbs Excellent edit, buddy! Got me pumped! This album is gonna have some of the best cover art for any Williams album. Someone over at the Indy fan forum, The Raven, did a really nice edit on the new poster: http://raven.theraider.net/threads/poster-artist-for-dial-of-destiny.24804/page-10#post-598996 Finally caved and watched the trailer. Between this and the poster, I honestly don't think I could be more excited for a new entry with this character. I feel like the arc (of the covenant) that they will be going for is Indy feeling comfortable with where he is in life. Marion may have passed since Skull. I get the feeling with this new trailer that Helena is meant to be reminiscent for us and Indy as Marion in Raiders. This serves thematic purpose though as Indy is encountering that type of person now at the end of his life. I feel like the titular dial can somehow change time, and Indy will go from wanting to be at a different place in his life to being happy with where he is now. The idea of time or fate being a core element to this film is exciting for multiple reasons, but that coupled with someone like Mangold who really seems to be breathing true life into the character really makes me anxious to hear what the score sounds like from Williams. My mind keeps going to a score like Prisoner of Azkaban where it really comes out of nowhere and shows how Williams can take the soundscape he established for a franchise and really turn it on its head. And also, ya know, time shenanigans. Not that time travel has been confirmed or anything, just speculating.

Finally caved and watched the trailer. Man, can't wait to see what Williams cooks up for this one. Feel like there is so much stuff in this one to get him inspired and go out with a bang.