The Dark Knight: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack album

Soundtrack album

A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television program. In some cases, not all the tracks from the movie are included in the album; however there are rare cases of songs in the trailers that do not appear in...

 to Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan

Christopher Jonathan James Nolan is a British-American film director, screenwriter and producer.He received serious notice after his second feature Memento , which he wrote and directed based on a story idea by his brother, Jonathan Nolan. Jonathan went to co-write later scripts with him,...

's 2008 film The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight (film)

The Dark Knight is a 2008 superhero film directed, produced and co-written by Christopher Nolan. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, the film is part of Nolan's Batman film series and a sequel to 2005's Batman Begins...

, the sequel to Nolan's 2005 film Batman Begins

Batman Begins

Batman Begins is a 2005 American superhero action film based on the fictional DC Comics character Batman, directed by Christopher Nolan. It stars Christian Bale as Batman, along with Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Cillian Murphy, Morgan Freeman, Ken Watanabe, Tom Wilkinson,...

. The soundtrack was released on July 15, 2008, in three editions: CD

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

, limited edition

Special edition

The terms special edition, limited edition and variants such as deluxe edition, collector's edition and others, are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as books, prints or recorded music and films, but now including...

 CD digipak

Digipak

Digipak is a patented style of CD, DVD or BD packaging, and is a registered trademark of AGI World Ltd., an Atlas Holdings company.-Features:...

, and digital download. The 2CD Special Edition was released on December 9, 2008, along with the DVD. A limited edition 180-gram vinyl LP

Gramophone record

A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...

 was released on August 12, 2008. The soundtrack was composed by Batman Begins collaborators

Batman Begins (soundtrack)

Batman Begins: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is a soundtrack album to Christopher Nolan's 2005 Batman Begins. It was released on June 15, 2005. The soundtrack drew from the film score, composed by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, as well as contributions by Ramin Djawadi and Mel Wesson...

 Hans Zimmer

Hans Zimmer

Hans Florian Zimmer is a German film composer and music producer. He has composed music for over 100 films, including critically acclaimed film scores for The Lion King , Crimson Tide , The Thin Red Line , Gladiator , The Dark Knight and Inception .Zimmer spent the early part of his career in the...

 and James Newton Howard

James Newton Howard

James Newton Howard is an American composer best known for his scores to motion pictures. He is one of the most popular and respected composers for cinema, and has scored over 100 films...

 and recorded in April 2008.

The score won the Grammy Award

Grammy Award

A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...

 for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture

Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media

The Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media has been awarded since 1960. Until 2001 the award was presented to the composer of the music alone. From 2001 to 2006, the producer and engineers shared in this award...

.

Composition

Zimmer originally said the main Batman theme was purposely introduced at the end of Batman Begins, and would be fleshed out in the sequel as the character develops. Zimmer and Howard both believed that creating a heroic theme that a viewer could hum would ignore the complexity and darkness of the character. The Batman theme (audible twice early in the film, once towards the end and a final time at the beginning of the end credits) creates what Zimmer described as a "red herring", a kind of musical foreshadowing

Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing or adumbrating is a literary device in which an author indistinctly suggests certain plot developments that might come later in the story.-Repetitive designation and Chekhov's gun:...

, which was played by a cello.

The nine-minute suite

Suite

In music, a suite is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral pieces normally performed in a concert setting rather than as accompaniment; they may be extracts from an opera, ballet , or incidental music to a play or film , or they may be entirely original movements .In the...

 for the Joker ("Why So Serious") was based around two notes played by Electric cello, solo violin, guitars and a string section. Zimmer compared its style to the band Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...

, who come from his native Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, as well as his work with bands like The Damned. Throughout the piece, Zimmer used razor blades on string instruments to achieve the tortured, twisted sound to accompany the character on the screen. When Ledger died, Zimmer stated that he felt like scrapping his original material and composing a new theme, but decided that to do so would compromise the "evil [performance] projects". James Newton Howard composed the "elegant and beautiful" themes for Harvey Dent/Two-Face, to work as an aural contrast.

The heroic brass theme which plays when Batman leaves Ducard to die in Batman Begins makes a reappearance when Batman hurls the Joker off the building in the film's climax. The cue was released on the two-disc special edition, and can be found on the track "We Are Tonight's Entertainment". The second disc can also be found for digital download over iTunes.

Sales

The soundtrack debuted on the Billboard 200

Billboard 200

The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...

 list at #20, with 25,000 copies sold in the first week.
During its second week in release, the track fell to #23, with an estimated 20,000 copies sold. It dropped out of top 100 on its third week, but held the position of #192 selling 2,100. On its fourth week it fell out of the Top 200.

A 2 CD Special Edition of The Dark Knight soundtrack was released on December 9, 2008. In addition to the 14 tracks on the regular release, an additional 10 tracks of score were added to the second disc, along with four remixes by The Crystal Method

The Crystal Method

The Crystal Method is an American electronic music duo that was created in Los Angeles, California by Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland in the early 1990s. The Crystal Method's music has appeared in numerous TV shows, films, video games, and advertisements. The most prominent is the US television...

, Paul Van Dyk

Paul van Dyk

Matthias Paul, better known by his stage name Paul van Dyk is a German Grammy Award-winning Electronic Dance Music DJ, musician and record producer...

, Mel Wesson

Mel Wesson

Mel Wesson is a British film, TV and video game composer and ambient music designer. He is one of the most influential 'musical sound designers' in Hollywood, yet his sound is often hard to describe or even identify...

, and Ryeland Allison, packaged as a digibook in a semi-artificial leather slipcase with the Batsign cut out. The Digibook features several movie scenes, production details and a few words from Christopher Nolan on the collaboration with Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. The first disc is exactly the same as the original release, with additional tracks and remixes on the latter disc.

Reception

The score received favorable responses. Websites like scorenotes.com, tracksounds.com and Soundtrack.net have released mostly positive reviews, commending the score's blend of electronic and orchestral elements as well as its continued departure from the tone of the original Tim Burton

Tim Burton

Timothy William "Tim" Burton is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. He is famous for dark, quirky-themed movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet...

 Batman series

Batman (1989 film)

Batman is a 1989 superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name, directed by Tim Burton. The film stars Michael Keaton in the title role, as well as Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl and Jack Palance...

 set by Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman

Daniel Robert "Danny" Elfman is an American composer, best known for scoring music for television and film. Up until 1995, he was the lead singer and songwriter in the rock band Oingo Boingo, a group he formed in 1976...

. Other sites, like Movie Music UK and especially Filmtracks.com found the score to be bland and uncreative, with many elements borrowed from the previous scores of both composers, especially previous scores by Zimmer. Filmtracks.com reviewer Christian Clemmensen found the track "Why so Serious" unlistenable and referred to it as "nine minutes of your life that you'll never get back". Other complaints were about Batman's new heroic theme, featured most heavily in Like a Dog Chasing Cars, which Clemmensen considered "a murky blend of The Last Samurai

The Last Samurai

The Last Samurai is a 2003 American epic drama film directed and co-produced by Edward Zwick, who also co-wrote the screenplay based on a story by John Logan. The film was inspired by a project developed by writer and director Vincent Ward, who had previously filmed the movie in 1990, starring...

, The Thin Red Line

The Thin Red Line (1998 film)

The Thin Red Line is a 1998 American war film which tells a fictional story of United States forces during the Battle of Mount Austen in World War II. It portrays men in: C Company, 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division; in particular those soldiers played by Sean Penn, Jim...

, The Da Vinci Code

The Da Vinci Code (film)

The Da Vinci Code is a 2006 American mystery thriller film directed by Ron Howard. The screenplay was written by Akiva Goldsman and based on Dan Brown's worldwide bestselling 2003 novel, The Da Vinci Code...

, and Crimson Tide

Crimson Tide (film)

The film has uncredited additional writing by Quentin Tarantino, much of it being the pop-culture reference-laden dialogue.The U.S. Navy objected to many of the elements in the script — particularly the aspect of mutiny on board a U.S. naval vessel — and as such, the film was produced...

."

Awards

On February 8, 2009, the soundtrack was awarded the Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture. In May 2009, the soundtrack won a Classical BRIT Award for Best Soundtrack.

Track listing

1st Disc

#	Title	Length	Key Scenes/Notes
1	"Why So Serious?"	9:14	Played whenever the Joker appears. This cue is named when the Joker tells Gambol "Why so serious?". Hans Zimmer was the composer of this piece and tried using different experiments on instruments to create a wide variety of distinctive noises for the piece.
2	"I'm Not a Hero"	6:34	Directly after the bank robbery (when Mike Engel is interviewing the Mayor), when the plane lands in the water to pick up Bruce and when Batman is in Hong Kong retrieving Lau. Edited slightly when Mr. Reese tries blackmailing Lucius Fox. This cue is named when Batman says "Because I'm not a hero. Not like Dent." Played in sections throughout movie.
3	"Harvey Two-Face"	6:16	Harvey Dent and Two-Face's theme. This cue is named when Gordon tells Harvey's nickname which is "Harvey-Two-Face". James Newton Howard was the composer.
4	"Aggressive Expansion"	4:35	The first part is played at the end of movie; the scene when Batman escapes on his Batpod. The middle is during Fox's meeting with Lau in Hong Kong. The end is played when the Joker kills Commissioner Loeb, Judge Surillo, and comes for Harvey Dent at the party saying: 'We made it'! The name comes from the Joker line: "There's a lot of potential for aggressive expansion."
5	"Always a Catch"	1:39	The beginning is while the Joker wildly guns down other cars demanding Batman hit him. This line is not said in the film, but would have been placed during the scene where Gordon and Batman discuss the Joker's ferry situation. The script has Gordon yelling to Batman: "Then he'll blow them both up! There's no time- we have to go in now-" and Batman responds: "There's always a catch with him-" before getting ready to rescue the hostages from the hospital.
6	"Blood on My Hands"	2:16	During Harvey Dent and Gordon's first scene together. This one is named for when Bruce says: "...Maybe, but I have enough blood on my hands."
7	"A Little Push"	2:42	While Harvey threatens a thug using his coin and a revolver. This one is named from when the Joker says: "... All it takes is a little push."
8	"Like a Dog Chasing Cars"	5:02	Commissioner Gordon co-ordinates the assault on the Joker's building, but Batman interrupts him and glides to the building. The bulk of this track was originally intended to be used during the armored car chase scene, but at the last minute director Christopher Nolan took it out, making this music unused. The cue is named after the hospital scene in which The Joker tells Harvey Dent "I'm like a dog chasing cars."
9	"I Am the Batman"	1:59	While Alfred tells Bruce a story of his time in Burma. The cue is titled after the press conference scene when Harvey says that he's Batman.
10	"And I Thought My Jokes Were Bad"	2:28	When Bruce is driving around making sure Mr. Reese is not killed. The title is from when the Joker appears to the mobsters and says "And I thought my jokes were bad."
11	"Agent of Chaos"	6:55	Batman goes to rescue Rachel after the interrogation with the Joker, the Joker escapes, Rachel's death and Harvey's disfigurement, and aftermath. Named when Joker says, "I'm an agent of chaos" during the hospital scene.
12	"Introduce a Little Anarchy"	3:42	Begins as Batman realises that the Joker has dressed the hostages as his henchmen, "Clowns." Finishes when the Joker pushes Batman through a net. The line is said during the hospital scene.
13	"Watch the World Burn"	3:47	Plays as Harvey Dent/Two-Face holds Gordon and his family at gunpoint. Concludes with Batman tackling Dent. The title is from when Alfred describes the Joker by saying, "Some men just want to watch the world burn."
14	"A Dark Knight"	16:14	A compilation of parts of the ferry scene (in particular, the moment where the Joker counts down to midnight - "And... here... we.. go!"), Fox's arrival to Hong Kong, the ending scene, the credits and some album-exclusive cues. The title comes from Gordon's final monologue when he describes Batman as, "a silent guardian, a watchful protector, a dark knight."

2nd Disc - (Bonus Special Edition)

#	Title	Length	Key Scenes/Notes
1	"Bank Robbery (Prologue)"	5:24
2	"Buyer Beware"	2:56	When Batman breaks up the meeting between the Chechen and the Scarecrow. The title comes from a line said during the meeting by the Scarecrow in response to the Chechen yelling at him about his toxin.
3	"Halfway to Hong Kong"	3:43	The first scene in the new "Batcave" and Sal Maroni's trial. The title comes from a line said by Harvey when Lau escapes.
4	"Decent Men in an Indecent Time"	2:51	When Gordon returns home, when Batman tortures Sal Maroni, when Dent threatens Thomas Schiff (before 'A Little Push') and the opening titles. The title comes from the scene where Two-Face, confronted by Batman, says, "You thought we could be decent men in an indecent time!"
5	"You're Gonna Love Me"	4:51	During Dent's conversation with the Mayor in his office when the hanged Batman imposter slams on the window. Also when the Joker is at the penthouse party, Batman arrives, and Rachel is thrown off of the building. Also the end is where Bruce kisses Rachel in his apartment. The title comes from a line said by Batman before he fights the Joker and his men at the fundraiser.
6	"Chance"	3:34	The aftermath of the Joker's attempt to kill the mayor, Harvey claims to be Batman, and when he gives Rachel the coin. The title comes from the scene when Two-Face is confronted by Batman and says, "And the only morality in a cruel world is chance."
7	"You Complete Me"	4:51	During the interrogation between Batman and the Joker, when the Joker kills the Chechen, when Gordon is preparing to ambush the Joker after that, when the Joker places the threat on Mr. Reese and when the Batpod bursts out of the Tumbler. The title comes from a line said by the Joker in the interrogation scene.
8	"The Ferries"	9:57	The scene with the Joker and Harvey in the hospital, the end of the death threat on Reese, the bar scene with Two-Face and Wuertz, when the Joker threatens the ferries, and when Two-Face interrogates Ramirez.
9	"We Are Tonight's Entertainment"	5:38	The climax of the ferry scene, when Batman throws the Joker out of the building and the Joker tells Batman that he had corrupted Harvey. The title from a line said by the Joker when he crashes the fundraiser.
10	"A Watchful Guardian"	6:45	From the part where Batman tackles Two-Face until the credits. The title comes from combining "A watchful protector" and "silent guardian" in Gordon's monologue, mentioned in "A Dark Knight."
11	"Why So Serious?"	5:30	The Crystal Method Remix
12	"Poor Choice of Words"	6:15	Paul van Dyk Remix. The title comes from when the Joker drops Rachel, saying, "A very poor choice of words."
13	"Gunpowder and Gasoline"	4:34	Mel Wesson Remix. The title comes from the scene where the Joker confronted the Chechen and sets the mob's money and Lau on fire, saying, "I enjoy dynamite and gunpowder and gasoline!"
14	"Rory's First Kiss"	6:04	Ryeland Allison Remix. The title comes from a fake working title for The Dark Knight.

Tracks not included within the release of the soundtrack:

#	Title	Performer(s)	Key Scenes/Notes
1	"Balmoral"	The Pipes and Drums of Chicago Police Department Chicago Police Department The Chicago Police Department, also known as the CPD, is the principal law enforcement agency of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States, under the jurisdiction of the Mayor of Chicago. It is the largest police department in the Midwest and the second largest local law enforcement agency in the...	Played during Commissioner Loeb's funeral.
2	"Scatterin' Monkey"	Boom Boom Satellites Boom Boom Satellites is a Japanese electronic music duo consisting of guitarist and vocalist Michiyuki Kawashima and bassist and programmer Masayuki Nakano. While their music can be mostly classified as big beat or nu skool breaks with heavy jazz influences, they are famous for the heavy usage of electric guitars in...	Played in Maroni's night club.
3	"4 A Moment of Silence"	Boom Boom Satellites Boom Boom Satellites is a Japanese electronic music duo consisting of guitarist and vocalist Michiyuki Kawashima and bassist and programmer Masayuki Nakano. While their music can be mostly classified as big beat or nu skool breaks with heavy jazz influences, they are famous for the heavy usage of electric guitars in...

Chart positions

Chart (2008)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...	20
Top Internet Albums	23
Top Soundtracks	3

External links

• The Dark Knight Soundtrack - official website