Tuesday, November 22, 2016

A Trip Down The Rabbit Hole Of My Mind

Another title for this post could have been, "How Christopher Nolan/Hans Zimmer Incepted Bond's Music In Our Earholes."

Stick with me for a minute because this is going to get a little convoluted.  So I recently went to see the latest Marvel movie, Doctor Strange, and the visual effects got me wanting to watch Inception again.  Although I cannot watch movies at work I do listen to music on YouTube a lot.  Instead of watching Inception I decided to listen to the soundtrack.  That led to hearing music similar to a previous James Bond movie.  Now, it is well documented that the music during the climactic snow scenes in Inception was inspired by the soundtrack of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, a Bond movie from 1969, and Christopher Nolan is a big fan of the 007 film series.  But what I didn't realize is Nolan's 2010 movie also borrowed from the David Arnold-scored Bond entry, Quantum of Solace.

To recap, Doctor Strange visual effects led to Inception visual effects, which led to Inception soundtrack, which led to Quantum of Solace soundtrack.  Doctor StrangeInceptionQuantum of Solace.  Bears.  Beets.  Battlestar Galactica.

There is a fine line between homage and outright theft.  It probably depends on your overall liking of the person attempting to honor the source material that determines whether you consider it a tribute or a blatant copy.  Since I respect Zimmer's musical style and Nolan's directorial craft, I give them a pass.

If you've never noticed the similarities between the Bond soundtracks and the Inception score, check out the final battle on Piz Gloria in On Her Majesty's Secret Service compared to the snow sequence from Inception, as well as the opera sequence from Quantum of Solace alongside "Old Souls" and "Waiting for a Train" from Inception.

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