Max Aruj & Alfie Godfrey's MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING (2025)

[ThomasFernando 109]

On 6/5/2025 at 5:48 AM, antovolk said:

Can already listen to it if in a time zone where it's Tuesday.

 

Sounds certainly *triumphant*, feels like it's trying to mix both the classic and Balfe's style

Honestly a nice arrangement.

 

I still don’t understand how a live orchestral recording (multi-tracked, yes) results in such a nasty, fake-sounding mix. All of Zimmer’s scores are recorded in a multi-tracked format, and they never sound this lifeless and artificial. Same issue with Dead Reckoning. It’s a shame, because whenever Lorne posts a video from the recording sessions, and you hear the musicians playing live and unfiltered, things sound incredible. But as soon as they get out through all that heavy processing they sound like Spitfire Libraries from 2013!

[Richard P 4,752]

12 hours ago, thestat said:

What stage of a career is that? Devaluing an art form? Making everything dumb as arse?

 

Once again, a hatred of a composer clouding the straightforward fact that he's a busy composer and can easily choose not to work on a third M:I movie if he wants a break. That's a career stage - you may not like said career.

 

I found DR pt. 1 boring as heck, and his material for the new W&G film was completely forgettable - I don't like his music much (Fallout may be the only Balfe score I have, and only about an hour of it). I'm not defending Balfe as a composer in any way. But this isn't about that - it's whether there is any evidence at all that he was actively replaced, and a recognition that he doesn't need to do these big films any more.

[Gustavo Joseph 49]

There are only a few options, and no one here really knows what happened. We can only speculate.

 

1. He was hired and couldn't accept for reasons beyond his control - a good possibility; remember that the film had been planned for many years, it wasn't something that came up at the last minute, and Balfe knew exactly when it would be produced.

 

2. He was hired and didn't want to - in my opinion, unlikely, it's not common for a composer to turn down a film with potential for 500,000,000+ at the box office, and Balfe is no Zimmer, who turned down blockbusters to compose soundtracks for Nolan, much less Williams; 3 of his top 5 box-office hits were Tom Cruise projects, it's not a good career move to turn him down. 

 

3- He was hired and ended up being replaced for whatever reason - very likely, the director isn't good with composers;

 

4- He wasn't even called - he was announced by the director many years ago, who said that Balfe would compose the soundtrack for both films, very unlikely. 

 

 

[Anthony 819]

48 minutes ago, Gustavo Joseph said:

4- He wasn't even called - he was announced by the director many years ago, who said that Balfe would compose the soundtrack for both films, very unlikely. 

 

 

 

Good point. Did McQ say that Balfe would score both when they announced 7 & 8 would be made back-to-back?

[Gustavo Joseph 49]

Yes he did, a long time ago... 

https://filmmusicreporter.com/2020/05/13/lorne-balfe-to-return-for-christopher-mcquarries-mission-impossible-7-8/

[antovolk 99]

Some score snippets in this Korea premiere livestream 

 

https://m.chzzk.naver.com/video/7158990

 

39-42mins ...this cue feels very spoilery. Another one at 54 mins.

 

The rest of what's used through the stream I believe is the trailer music.

[Gabriel Bezerra 628]

2 hours ago, antovolk said:

39-42mins ...this cue feels very spoilery. Another one at 54 mins.

Ah, I thought it was in a "musical continuity" way, not an "orchestration" way.

 

If you told me it was by Balfe, I would've believed it.

[Jfallon 48]

3 hours ago, antovolk said:

Some score snippets in this Korea premiere livestream 

 

https://m.chzzk.naver.com/video/7158990

 

39-42mins ...this cue feels very spoilery. Another one at 54 mins.

 

The rest of what's used through the stream I believe is the trailer music.

I like what I’m hearing.

[antovolk 99]

This is also been confirmed to be using the score

And yeah they even posted photos from the recording sessions for the teaser so that's confirmed 

[Thor 9,308]

Just came back from it.

I'm torn. There aren't many of the crazy setpiece shenanigans (there are a couple of spectacular ones, but not one of the inventive ones we're used to from the past). The tone is more serious, more mythological, more operatic, which I suppose is fitting for a final film of a series, but it also comes off as self-aggrandizing a bit.

Aruj & Godfrey's score is very much of the Balfe school, or rather the Zimmer school that Balfe once went to himself...it sounds more like early 2010s Zimmer than contemporary Zimmer, or Balfe. Some good moments, but also very loud and brickwally, of course.

Decent film, but not on the level of 1, 2 and 5.

[MattyO 67]

Soundtrack released by Sony Classical, according to the end credits.

[antovolk 99]

Starting to listen to this interview - and yeah McQ kinda says that Balfe indeed left due to other project commitments, they were looking for folks who would stick with it for months and months

 

 version of interview with score bits - https://open.spotify.com/episode/6fmXoJLZ0RbtQmWUWNHMgP

[FunnyML 132]

11 hours ago, antovolk said:

Starting to listen to this interview

Also talks about the home video release, which is planned to include an isolated score again.

[ThomasFernando 109]

Watched the film yesterday — generally, the score works well and does its job, but there aren’t any standout moments.

 

The score suffers from Lorne’s absence, and it doesn’t feel like it’s entirely of a piece with Dead Reckoning. There were a few moments where the music didn’t quite match the stakes or intensity of the scenes. Things felt a bit static, particularly in some of the earlier action sequences. Some cues came across like library music — a generic bed of underscore that didn’t really follow the action.

 

I don’t love Lorne’s style of writing for Mission, but his cues always tracked with the edit and narrative, and were very effective within the context of his films — even if they didn’t make for the best listening outside of them.

 

The submarine sequence is the best in the film, and I think the music is very effective throughout. Aruj and Godfrey underscore the whole thing with a low sub-bassy drone, and additional layers come and go, often blending with the sounds of the submarine in a very organic way. It’s understated work, but highly effective, and adds a lot to the tension of the sequence.

 

In general, I found that the music didn’t add much to the emotionally weighty scenes. There were a few moments that could have been really elevated by stronger music. As a comparison, Ilsa’s death in Dead Reckoning was scored very effectively by Lorne — excellent spotting, and tonally it hit the right notes. There’s nothing quite like that in this score.

 

Overall, the score sounds better in the film than it probably will on the OST. You can definitely hear a lot of sample-work in the mix — more so than in Lorne’s work on Fallout and Dead Reckoning. Some passages sound noticeably synthetic, and it does cheapen the overall sound of the film.

 

I’m not sure what went wrong here — the film was mixed by Chris Fogel, who’s very experienced and skilled. Maybe the composers had to accommodate a lot of changes and rewrites from McQ and Cruise, and things ended up being programmed with samples as a result?

 

This all sounds pretty negative, but I should reiterate that the music is adequate and works well enough in the film. Anyone on this site is obviously paying more attention to the music than 99% of the audience, so of course we expect more than adequacy.

 

I just wish I lived in the multiverse where Joe Kraemer scored Fallout onwards… Kraemer’s score for Rogue Nation is the best of the series, and massively elevates that film over Fallout for me. I think his intelligent approach to the series would have added a LOT to the emotional impact of this one.

6 hours ago, FunnyML said:

Also talks about the home video release, which is planned to include an isolated score again.

Fantastic news. Now let’s hope for a lossless TrueHD track, instead of the AC3 lossy tracks we got for Fallout and DR.

 

And hopefully it’s mastered properly like Fallout, instead of being a straight rip of the music stem.

[crocodile 9,167]

Yeah, the score in context felt bit heavy handed. Doesn't help that the film already feels too self-important on its own sobthe score only amplifies that. I will give the album a try but my first impression is that Balfe did better in the previous one. I actually remember quite liking it in the film in many places.

 

Karol

[Richard P 4,752]

Eyebrow-raising comment from McQuarrie about telling the new guys about traditional orchestral, thematic material (basically, preaching) while Fallout was one of the most themeless, wallpapery scores I've ever heard. Wasn't one of the suggestions at the time that Cruise didn't like Kraemer's approach and wanted an RCP style?

 

Nice to hear the iso scores are continuing, even if they'e not the best representation of a score. They're such a rarity now, especially an un-potted audio track - I was able to extract some moments that even LLL's expanded CD of Fallout doesn't contain.

 

And a confirmation that Balfe just couldn't devote the extended time needed for such a score. It's fun to read people hoping he was rejected because they don't like him   (why would you reject someone and replace them with two people who have trained to write in the same style?)

[Gustavo Joseph 49]

On 07/05/2025 at 8:20 AM, Gustavo Joseph said:

There are only a few options, and no one here really knows what happened. We can only speculate.

 

1. He was hired and couldn't accept for reasons beyond his control - a good possibility.

 

 

 

 

 

So it was option 1, Balfe couldn't accept for reasons beyond his control. I remember reading that one of the reasons Joe Kraemer got the job on Rogue Nation, besides his previous partnership with the director, was that he was available to spend a lot of time on the project, from rehearsing a scene in an opera (or something like that) that required organizing music for its recording.

[Stark 682]

One of the least surprising revelations in... ever

[Anthony 819]

Still doesn't really explain the drama on RN.

 

I thought Cruise approved of the retro sound and a lot of percussion, but but McQ (or possibly other producers) didn't. Apparently "there's too much timpani" was said at one point.

 

But McQ mentioned Kraemer in the interviews and said he wish he'd done an isolated score for it, too. So do we, McQ. 

 

If Joe Kraemer wrote 4 scores as entertaining as RN, it would surely have been one of the greatest action score franchises ever. RN has that PERFECT summer movie vibe.

 

Remind me - where did the bwaaaams and constant power anthem epicnsss of modern action music dome from? Inception?

[DangerMotif 1,275]

Re watched Rogue Nation recently, it’s crazy how good that score is. Top 5 score of the 2010’s

[Anthony 819]

TFR is a lot of fun and the score is good, too. A natural extension of Balfe's work, but with a lighter touch. It's more fun. 

[ThomasFernando 109]

7 hours ago, Anthony said:

Remind me - where did the bwaaaams and constant power anthem epicnsss of modern action music dome from? Inception?

Inception gets away with it because the bwaams are embedded in the screenplay - it it’s important part of how the film communicates the passage of time to the audience.

 

When other composers use bwaams, it’s done simply for dramatic effect, so it has far less narrative and thematic resonance.

 

But let’s not pretend that big, beefy low brass sounds were invented by Zimmer. Every Hollywood composer was using them  in their scores, including Williams (in The Lost World) - it’s just that Zimmer’s score for Inception supercharged them…

[Anthony 819]

Why are there still no details of the soundtrack for this? I thought it would at least be out today, considering the movie is now out of previews only.

[antovolk 99]

1 hour ago, Anthony said:

Why are there still no details of the soundtrack for this? I thought it would at least be out today, considering the movie is now out of previews only.

I'm guessing at this point it'll drop Friday... hopefully.

 

The soundtrack is clearly done and mastered based on the samples played on Edith Bowman's podcast interview with McQuarrie.

 

Something I've been thinking about since seeing the film...if in a theoretical "complete" cut combining Dead Reckoning and Final Reckoning as one two part film as initially envisioned, what bits from Lorne's score could carry over here and vice versa with Max/Alfie's.

 

EDIT: slight spoiler for those who haven't seen the film but...

Spoiler

The basis for the submarine set piece score - it's credited in the end credits

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzYLHNfgYDklJkBNTzYppqsHAKEkojJmA&si=tHVx4gUA3eVYGes-

 

[Anthony 819]

Spoiler

The Entity motif reappears and there are some badass renditions of The Plot.

 

There's also a nice (even better than DR!) "jazz flute" slow rendition of the M:I theme in the final scene.

 

There's a consistency in some of the percussion. The crazy swiss drummer stuff. (But most of it is in DR - it's just teased at in TFR.)

 

But overall, I love how TFR uses speciality instruments inspired by where the characters go. The African drums teased in the opening logos and then returning when they arrive in Africa are fantastic!

 

I asked Max about the soundtrack and he said "May 23rd. Some bonus tracks, too!"

[ThomasFernando 109]

11 minutes ago, Anthony said:

There's also a nice (even better than DR!) "jazz flute" slow rendition of the M:I theme in the final scene.

 

This was a very nice moment in the score. McQ talks about it in the Soundtracking episode.

[tomsmoviemadness 4,234]

I was gonna say. Friday is a normal release dat for new scores

[ThomasFernando 109]

2 hours ago, antovolk said:

The basis for the submarine set piece score - it's credited in the end credits

 

I thought the score for this whole sequence was a stand out - surprised to learn that it was actually pre-existing music/temp music!

 

I'm sure Max & Alfie made a new recording or made some modifications, but I'm not sure if any set piece in a Mission film has been underscored like this before - I don't think another composer's work has ever been tracked into a scene like this!

[tomsmoviemadness 4,234]

There was a moment during the submarine sequence when there is a wide shot of Hunt on top of the sunken submarine and a very slow, dark statement of the M:I was played, on a think basses. Thought that was really cool

[John F 100]

1 hour ago, ThomasFernando said:

 

I thought the score for this whole sequence was a stand out - surprised to learn that it was actually pre-existing music/temp music!

 

I'm sure Max & Alfie made a new recording or made some modifications, but I'm not sure if any set piece in a Mission film has been underscored like this before - I don't think another composer's work has ever been tracked into a scene like this!

Havent seen the film yet but curious where did the temp music come from and who wrote it?

[WampaRat 1,768]

On 21/05/2025 at 1:53 PM, antovolk said:

Something I've been thinking about since seeing the film...if in a theoretical "complete" cut combining Dead Reckoning and Final Reckoning as one two part film as initially envisioned, what bits from Lorne's score could carry over here and vice versa with Max/Alfie's.

I had that same thought, too.
I recently rewatched Dead Reckoning, having not seen it since its release in theaters. I was struck by how padded it felt. There are some cracking set pieces in that film. But I think the best M:I films move at a clip. I think Fallout, while an incredible action tour de force, started to suffer from some of that excess. I haven't seen this new one yet, but I hear they haven't really course-corrected pacing-wise. But Im hoping to enjoy it at least more than Dead Reckoning.

There's very few two-parter movies that I feel justify the decision to break them into two movies. I would very very curious to see Dead Reckoning pt 1 and Final Reckoning cut together in a single 3(ish) hour movie. Im sure an ambitious fan edit cut will come out at some point.

[Jurassic Shark 14,938]

When they were called part 1 and part 2, the script of part 2 was probably different.

[WampaRat 1,768]

Yes I heard they had to change some things around. Was it due to part 1 not doing as well? Yet they still have to resolve major plot points that DR sets up. Tricky spot to be in. I guess they wanted to go the Infinity War/Endgame route. Movie making, man. What a circus. 
 

[tomsmoviemadness 4,234]

There's gonna be over a 110 minutes of music on the album.

 

1. We Live and Die in the Shadows (0:44)
2. Another Sunrise (2:28)
3. Come Home Ethan (2:27)
4. Main Titles (1:07)
5. Martial Law (3:07)
6. Enter Paris (2:31)
7. Origins (3:28)
8. It’s Only Pain (1:42)
9. It Will Change You (Ça Te Changera) (1:57)
10. The Entity (4:06)
11. The Entity’s Future (3:11)
12. I’ll Be Waiting (2:48)
13. This Is Where You Leave Me (3:08)
14. I Know You (5:23)
15. Mt Weather (2:07)
16. Checkmate (3:11)
17. I Have No Regrets (1:25)
18. The Eye of the Storm (2:03)
19. Nothing Is Certain (4:37)
20. Firefight (4:04)
21. The Icecap (3:57)
22. The Sevastopol (5:33)
23. Ascending (2:31)
24. I Owe You My Life (7:21)
25. Cons (3:23)
26. Your Final Reckoning (5:17)
27. We’ll Figure It Out (2:04)
28. Liftoff (1:28)
29. Decisions (2:22)
30. This Is Not Good (1:10)
31. Problems (1:31)
32. Tailstrike (1:04)
33. Ten Seconds… Maybe (2:27)
34. Good Luck (1:58)
35. Descending (2:19)
36. A Light We Cannot See (9:14)
37. Curtain Call (1:52)
38. For Those We Never Meet (5:01)
39. The Arctic (1:44)
40. This Is My Mission (3:17)
41. Encore (0:59)
42. Final Reckoning – Sacrifice Teaser (1:59)

 

https://filmmusicreporter.com/2025/05/22/mission-impossible-8-the-final-reckoning-soundtrack-album-details/

 

[Thor 9,308]

15 minutes ago, tomsmoviemadness said:

There's gonna be over a 110 minutes of music on the album.

 

It stopped being an album 50 minutes ago.

[Jfallon 48]

Guess no La La cd release. Too bad…

[Quppa 294]

Out now on the streaming platforms if it's the 23rd where you live.

 

https://open.spotify.com/album/6BQaNMu6oyHLI539E226uc

[Anthony 819]

Better album art required, stat! But looks like a good release. 🙌🏻

[FunnyML 132]

On 20/05/2025 at 6:08 PM, Anthony said:

Still doesn't really explain the drama on RN.

All I know is, Kraemer did A LOT of music for this. Basically re-scoring the whole picture multiple times. I guess it was a healthy choice to choose another composer (with a whole team supporting him), even though I loved his score. By the way, are there fan edits out there, replacing Balfe's music for Fallout and DR with Kraemer cues from Rogue Nation? Would love to see that

[WampaRat 1,768]

2 hours ago, FunnyML said:

By the way, are there fan edits out there, replacing Balfe's music for Fallout and DR with Kraemer cues from Rogue Nation? Would love to see that

Ditto!
It really hit me how much I missed Kraemer's brand of scoring in Fallout when Ethan and team captured Lane, and they're driving the boat in the sewers to get to their safe house area. It's a simple minute-long sequence of them driving and giving sideways glances to each other, not knowing how the interrogation is gonna go down. There's an impending betrayal with Cavill's character on the horizon. There is so much to play with musically in that moment. Tension, intrigue, mystery building, perhaps a sense of false victory. Play with the audience's emotions! Throw some musical red herrings at us! But instead, it's scored with a lame snare hit...over and over. A 30-40 second long moment in a film with no dialogue is a goldmine for a composer to play with. Not sure if it was at MQs request, but what a wasted moment of musical storytelling. 

[Anthony 819]

That snare cue always bugged me. It sounds like something a kid would write in school.

 

I've gotta say - I think Aruj and Godfrey have outdone both of Balfe's scores, here.

 

2 hours ago, FunnyML said:

By the way, are there fan edits out there, replacing Balfe's music for Fallout and DR with Kraemer cues from Rogue Nation? Would love to see that

 

Maybe I'll play around with this one day. But I first plan to rescore GoldenEye.

[thestat 496]

Totally not surprised by any of this as Balfe is the master of inadequate - cheap bits of nonsense escaping into his 'score' productions (referencing the snare bit). 

 

I am so surprised someone keeps hiring him - he is the lowest common denominator for film music. The basic basic. 

 

Unfortunately, I feel sorry for his crew. They probably have immense talent and education but now have to produce BRAAAMSS and CHUGGGAA-etc to survive. Meanwhile, AI continues their work in easily replicating the simplicity of Batman Begins while Balfe swans about in European countries recording string samples at a massive expense that sound like any other string samples elsewhere. 

 

And then processing them to sound like string samples from an old X-files episode froom 1993 (and nothing wrong with Snow's work - magnificent).

 

it's wonderfully ludicrous that they don't understand that theve dumbed themselves out of work.

[Anthony 819]

Much better.

 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,892]

Max Aruj & Alfie Godfrey.....who?

 

Film music is all but dead! The only reason these guys got the job is because the studio isn't yet allow to let an ai do it.

[thestat 496]

The MI franchise is the epitomy of both bottom-of-barrel-scraping and decreasing artistic value in film music. It's amazing to see it still getting recognised for the Schifrin stuff.

 

Balfe devalued it by making the score just standard-trailer-type-repetitive-stuff - there is a pizza advert on the TV that does the same thing.

 

Balfe was too 'busy' so helpers (dudes who did some of the music to the previous one) did this one.

 

It's embarassing. The latest KFC commercial has more melody than this 'score'. Sadly the KFC sounds the same as the 500 musicians PR job on Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning.

 

[Henry Sítrónu 573]

very boring film. ridiculously forced plot connections to earlier films. 

 

btw opening credits reads „Score Produced By Cécile Tournesac“, whatever that means.

[PeregrineBland 0]

One thing that I don’t think has been brought up: the opening titles.

 

First of all, the opening titles don’t track with the music. In fact, Aruj and Godfrey’s arrangement tracks perfectly over Dead Reckoning’s opening titles but not over TFR’s, suggesting that they were arranged to those credits. 

 

Second, they look like something out of Windows Movie Maker. They aren’t even in the right font, for crying out loud. It’s like if the Star Wars opening crawl were in Comic Sans (even if there are subtle difference between the font used for the original releases of ANH and ESB versus the font used in RotJ). 

 

One of the best parts of Balfe’s scores for Fallout and DR was the opening titles: they injected the film with energy, and the visuals were kinetic and arresting. No such luck here, unfortunately. 

[DangerMotif 1,275]

Love or hate the score I respect how much of the MI theme they where able to put into this

[Anthony 819]

9 hours ago, PeregrineBland said:

One of the best parts of Balfe’s scores for Fallout and DR was the opening titles: they injected the film with energy, and the visuals were kinetic and arresting. No such luck here, unfortunately. 

 

Interesting. I thought Balfe's were trying too hard to be "epic". These new guys have found a much better balance of the Zimmer/Balfe vibe while still making it sound like a massive orchestra.

 

Reading some of the reviews of the movie, it's interesting to see some of the criticisms (exposition dumps, the film getting in it's own way, pacing issues) are all things I struggled with in Fallout and Dead Reckoning.

 

Maybe I was just conditioned to expect it, here. But I really didn't have many faults with The Final Reckoning at all. I genuinely thought it was a huge step up from Dead Reckoning.

 

I also made another custom cover.

 

 

I also enjoyed how the trailer music teased bits that ended up (or presumably, were in) the score. Particularly during the aerial sequence, I was thinking, "I know this melody". It's a slowed-down version of the trailer music. 

 

Their spotting of where to place the Entity motif was also brilliant!!

 

[crocodile 9,167]

Both Reckoning films are absolutely ridiculous but at least the previous one felt playful and fun. This one is too gloomy and Cruises' saviour complex is played up to religious-like levels. Coupled with the apocalyptic tone, it's very hard to stomach for me. Having said, the two big setpieces are definitely impressive.

 

Karol