It is one of the most famous scores in cinema: for more than 40 years, these 5 little notes have haunted generations of viewers.

In the early 80s, to revive his first real feature film (after the injury of Piranha 2), James Cameron could already rely on a reinforced concrete script, partly inspired by one of his dreams and himself. His talent as a director was just waiting to be proven.

So he had to find an interpreter worthy of his Terminator name—which he eventually found in the person of Arnold Schwarzenegger—and an original soundtrack awesome enough to fit the heavy and metal atmosphere of his feature film while he was on his way. Pantheon of film music.

• It is one of the greatest scores in cinema: for more than 40 years, when we listen to it resonate, we all dream of going on an adventure.

total investment

Calling on composer Brad Fidell, who is also known for having written scores for feature films such as Vampire, Did You Say Vampire? Or later trapped in troubled waters, the Canadian director could not have made a wiser choice.

Immediately grasping the film’s strength, Brad Fidel put his heart and soul into creating this score unlike any other, following Cameron’s prime directive (who primarily wanted to avoid over-exploitation of the main theme) and punctuation throughout. His music with the little percussion leitmotif we know so well.

A legendary leitmotif

5 consecutive notes, repeated in a loop, dizzying and immediately recognizable, already present in the first part released in 1984, but which were especially revealed in the soundtrack of Terminator 2. This motif allowed us to be the musical backbone of Fidel’s work. Create a whole sound world with an atmosphere that perfectly suits the film: cold, metallic, disillusioned, chilling.

“The idea was this mechanical man and his beating heart”Fidel explained in an interview about the creation of the Terminator (recently broadcast on YouTube Movie List channel).

Control the cars

But developing this unusual score was not an easy task for the composer, who literally had to fight in his own garage with the rudimentary technology of the time to get the right result:

“I had all these individual keyboards and had to use them separately (…)“he said.

“I had to sit down and change the tempos live, trying to get them to match. The nature of this soundtrack is partly me trying to take control of these cars, just like the cars are trying to control the characters in the movie I was in. I was sitting there desperately trying to control these cars. (laughs)“

The result: an absolutely essential piece of music in the history of science fiction and cinema in general.

(Re)discover the ‘Terminator’ trailer…