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Composed, Conducted, and Produced by:
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Joel McNeely
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Orchestrated by:
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David Slonaker
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Release Date:
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October 11th, 1994
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Availability:
Regular U.S. release.
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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you can't enough of an adrenaline kick from
action-oriented orchestral bombast with a few electric guitars added for
flavor.
Avoid it... if you've tired of the same old mundane action music that
you've heard several times from the likes of Jerry Goldsmith and/or Joel
McNeely.
Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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| | McNeely | |
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Terminal Velocity: (Joel McNeely) Ranking relatively
low on the overall list of films by their intelligence level, Terminal
Velocity is a rather mundane, though adequately interesting 1994 film
about a normal guy who gets caught up in a Soviet spy plot and a whole lot
of gold. This unsuspecting skydiving instructor (Charlie Sheen) rescues a
beautiful female student (Nastassja Kinski), escapes from impossible mid-air
situations, blah, blah... Audience reactions to Terminal Velocity
were similar to those you'd receive for a typical straight-to-video flick or
B-rate cable film. For action junkies, the film is a nice distraction in the
middle of the night when insomnia and indigestion strike, and the same could
be said of Joel McNeely's score. Once hailed as the successor for composing
legend John Williams, McNeely has spent the better part of the last ten
years providing effective, though not overwhelming scores for a series of
less-than-stellar films. As with the fates of the films, some of the scores
achieve their own success apart from the pictures. Terminal Velocity
is one that offers the same adrenaline kick to score fans on album. Its
soaring action at high altitudes would serve as a preview of sorts for
McNeely's additional material for Air Force One two years later.
McNeely has shown time and time again that he is capable of producing action
music for lesser films along the same vein as Jerry Goldsmith's similar
works. The music for Terminal Velocity and Air Force One share
many common action rhythms, motifs, and instrumentation, making Terminal
Velocity a good alternative for fans who have been searching without
success for McNeely's Air Force One work on the black market.
With a moderately sized orchestral ensemble, McNeely
produces a dynamic and quickly paced action score for Terminal
Velocity. The consistency of the orchestral harmony becomes more evident
as the score progresses, with the final two cues, "Russian Gold" and "End
Credits" serving up melodic string theme performances that the film
certainly doesn't deserve. At the height of the action, McNeely alternates
between nervous contemplation cues (based with timpani and woodwinds) and
all-out, snare-driven action that, with certain motifs in the brass,
resembles Michael Kamen's Die Hard during its best moments. With only
a few surprising jolts to break up the steady ride, McNeely's score
increases in consistency as it continues to develop the thematic material
highlighted in the final tracks. The only stumbling block for a few
listeners might be the incorporation of electric guitars and an electric
bass into the early cues. Two of these cues offer a contemporary action
backdrop for the sky-diving scenes, though one cue ("Ditch's Dive") explodes
with the guitar in full force, a la John Debney in The Scorpion King.
Interestingly, the use of the guitar fits the film's targeted style quite
well, though when used in total contrast to an adjoining orchestral cue, the
guitar becomes cumbersome. The solo guitar would sadly be absent from the
rest of the score; in fact, McNeely's work loses much of its contemporary
touch as it progresses to more of a Hollywood Silver-Screen resolution. The
contemporary elements serve to add a much welcomed spice to the score, just
as they would add style to The Avengers several years later. The
music for Terminal Velocity never becomes outlandishly stylistic as
The Avengers would, however, and remains a more coherent and solid
action piece. In the end, one wonders if that consistency causes the score
to lose an edge over dozens of other McNeely and Goldsmith scores along the
same lines. Many score fans will probably consider Terminal Velocity
to be an average, if not mildly interesting action effort, and they would be
correct for the most part. More than anything, Terminal Velocity
continues to build the case for many film music enthusiasts that McNeely
continues to deserve better scoring assignments. ***
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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• 1. Desert Landing (2:17)
• 2. Aerial Ballet (2:46)
• 3. Airborne (1:03)
• 4. Ditch's Dive (1:44)
• 5. Easier Ways to Die (1:43)
• 6. The Second Plane (3:46)
• 7. Christa Is Caught (4:15)
• 8. Desert Nocturne (1:10)
• 9. Cadillac Freefall (5:43)
• 10. Russian Gold (3:25)
• 11. End Credits (4:11)
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Insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
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