Film scores enhance the movie viewing experience. They give weight to the story and specific moments of it. They convey emotions ranging from joy to terror, depending on the story the score is supporting. Scores and soundtracks are an integral part of the movie-making and movie-viewing experience.
In many films, the score becomes a character in the movie. Think back to the Star Wars films and the first time audiences meet Darth Vader. Chances are, the ominous, foreboding music composed by the popular John Williams created as Darth’s signature song automatically started playing in your head. Think about the Harry Potter films and how the main theme is instantly recognizable and raises the hair on the arms of fans of this film franchise. This is the power that a truly excellent film score can have over audiences.
During the '00s, Hollywood released some epic blockbuster films with equally epic scores. Composers Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore, James Horner, and more made their mark in cinematic history with the films they created scores for-- respectively, DaVinci Code, Pirates of the Caribbean, and The Perfect Storm. These are far from the only memorable film scores of the '00s, so let’s take a look at a handful more.
Update September 13, 2023: This article has been updated with even more incredible scores from the 2000s.
15 Corpse Bride (Composed by Danny Elfman)
Composer Danny Elfman is as well-known for his film scoring career (Mission: Impossible, The Men in Black films, Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films, just to name a few) as he is for the decades he spent in the new wave band Oingo Boingo and the theme he composed for The Simpsons. He frequently collaborates with director Tim Burton (working on 16 of his films) as he did in this case. Elfman’s score for Corpse Bride conveys the creepy mood of the film with surprising tenderness and depth.
14 Disney's A Christmas Carol (Composed by Alan Silvestri)
Alan Silvestri was in charge of composing a fantastic soundtrack for an adaptation of one of the most iconic stories of all time. With the help of orchestrators William Ross, Conrad Pope and John Aston Thomas, Silvestri was able to accomplish just that. Based on old Christmas classics like "Deck the Halls" and "Joy to the World", Silvestri produces music that helps create a magical feeling for fans while watching A Christmas Carol around the Holidays.
In addition to his fellow orchestrators, the legendary Andrea Bocelli helped sing "God Bless Us Everyone," which was an absolute showstopper to close out the film. His soundtrack really helped set the stage for a joyous retelling of arguably the best Christmas story ever.
13 Attack of the Clones / Revenge of the Sith (Composed by John Williams)
There is arguably no greater composer than John Williams. He has composed every single one of the soundtracks in all 11 Star Wars films. The two Star Wars films that were released in the 2000s were the second and third films of the prequel series Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.
Along with Williams' composition of the soundtrack in The Phantom Menace, this particular trio of movies addresses the era of the Jedi prior to the rise of the Empire. So, Williams had to create music that made fans feel the action that was happening. There aren't any stormtroopers or rebels. But there are more lightsaber duels, along with battles between droids and clones. It is a different era with different events taking place within the series. The music makes fans feel tension, action, and curiosity. Williams' soundtrack in Revenge of the Sith was nominated for a Grammy Award.
12 Brokeback Mountain (Composed by Gustavo Santaolall)
Gustavo Alfredo Santaolalla is a more underrated composer in terms of not getting as much attention from the general public, but he has composed some of the most iconic scores of the 21st century in a wide array of different mediums from the television show theme for Jane the Virgin and the video game as well as the TV adaptation of The Last of Us.
He won two consecutive Academy Awards for Best Original Score, the first in 2005 for Brokeback Mountain and the second in 2006 for Babel. Brokeback Mountain is certainly the more iconic score, with the gentle guitar string theme of the film being instantly iconic, which evokes a powerful but tragic love story.
11 Star Trek (Composed by Michael Giacchino)
The first but not the last time Michael Giacchino will appear on this list. The composer had been best known for his working relationship with filmmakers Brad Bird and J.J. Abrams, and certainly, one of the best scores in his career as of the 2000s was Star Trek. The reboot of the popular franchises needed a top-to-bottom refresh of the franchise to draw in new audiences, and the score certainly helped.
Giacchino's Star Trek score gave the film a real energy, one that was exciting and adventurous as both the new film wanted to be but also captured the spirit of the original series. He sprinkles motifs from the original Star Trek throughout but also makes an entirely new sound that is iconically Star Trek. Notably, "Enterprising Young Men" is as defining a theme for the franchise as the theme music for The Original Series of The Next Generation.
10 The Queen (Composed by Alexandre Desplat)
In 2006, French composer Alexandre Desplat landed his first job composing the score of a film. That film was The Queen, and he went on to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score for his efforts. That experience put him on the map, and he went on to compose the scores for the last few Harry Potter films as well as Argo, Little Women, The King’s Speech, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and was nominated for the Oscar for all of those films. He won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Shape of Water. But it was his regal score for The Queen that beautifully skyrocketed his career in America.
9 The Perfect Storm (Composed by James Horner)
Composer James Horner is best known for his Academy Award-winning score for Titanic; incidentally, he also co-wrote “My Heart Will Go On” for Celine Dion, and won the Oscar for that too. However, it’s his pitch-perfect score for The Perfect Storm that lands him a spot on the best film scores of the '00s. Arguably, the storm in the movie played a major role in the film, and Horner’s score gives voice to the storm, conveying how powerful and deadly it ultimately is.
8 The Da Vinci Code (Composed by Hans Zimmer)
Hans Zimmer is one of the most prolific composers in history. The German-born composer got his start in the early 1980s and has written the score for more than 150 films. His music is unmistakable; his signature sound is often synthesizers with a steel drum accompaniment. Zimmer is known for scoring Rain Man, Driving Miss Daisy, and The Lion King.
But it is his work on The Da Vinci Code that earned him a spot on this list. The film, based on the novel by Dan Brown, could have been trite and mocked (and still is by some) if not for Zimmer’s soaring score. It conveyed a feeling of church music, which gave life to the scenes of Tom Hanks hunting down the evidence to clear him of the murder he was accused of.
7 Up (Composed by Michael Giacchino)
Up is the third Pixar film that Michael Giacchino has composed following The Incredibles and Ratatouille. The film won an Academy Award (Best Original Score), a Golden Globe Award (Best Original Score), and a Grammy Award (Best Score Soundtrack Album) for its soundtrack. The music in the film is very playful and calm. However, it also made fans feel emotion and power.
The use of the piano is very common with this particular soundtrack and is especially felt when Carl Fredricksen (Ed Asner) is feeling the loss of his wife Ellie. It gets quieter and more somber in that particular moment but becomes more exciting in a moment such as Carl deciding to go save Russell. In a long line of great Pixar soundtracks, this one is right near the top.
6 Pride and Prejudice (Composed by Dario Marianelli)
Italian composer Dario Marianelli used Beethoven as an inspiration for his score for Pride and Prejudice. The 2005 movie was his first major film score and since that time, the film’s director, Joe Wright, has hired Marianelli several times. Pride and Prejudice stands out on Marianelli’s resume because, as a period piece, the score provides the perfect balance between modern audiences and the 19th-century story. Marianelli was nominated for an Academy Award for his Pride and Prejudice score, which perfectly complimented the bourgeois romance on screen.
5 Batman Begins / The Dark Night (Composed by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard)
In the first two films of The Dark Night Trilogy, which took place in the 2000s, Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard composed music for Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Both were two of the best superhero movies of the decade and helped rejuvenate the DC Universe again. Batman Begins grossed over $370 million, and The Dark Knight grossed over $1 billion.
Both films were either nominated or given major awards for Zimmer and Howard's work on each respective soundtrack. Both composers actually split their duties when they created the music by each taking a set of characters and creating themes for them. For a film that revolves around a crime-ridden city trying to be saved by a heroic yet imposing figure with a dark past, the overall soundtrack needed to be mysterious, frightening, and electric. This is exactly what was created. It was spectacular.
4 Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (Composed by Tan Dun)
The score for Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was composed by Tan Dun and features several solo movements for the cello, which were performed by the venerable Yo-Yo Ma. The score was performed by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai National Orchestra, and the Shanghai Percussion Ensemble. Dun also took his score and arranged it into a cello concerto called the Crouching Tiger Concerto. The entire score was assembled in just two weeks, and the urgency makes a great parallel to the stunning action in the film.
3 Gladiator (Composed by Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard)
Gladiator was released in 2000, and in the more than two decades since then, the film’s score has become one of the prolific Hans Zimmer’s best-known works. Throughout the movie, Zimmer took care to convey the mood of the scene in his score with simple yet memorable and emotional melodies. Gladiator (and the stirring, visceral music it ends with) owes a chunk of its success to Zimmer’s score.
2 Pirates of the Caribbean (Composed by supervisor Hans Zimmer, Klaus Badelt, and seven other composers)
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl owes as much to its score as it does to its set design and Johnny Depp’s pitch-perfect acting. But the story of how this epic score came into existence is one of pure chaos. Hans Zimmer was approached to compose the score, but he was working on another film (as he always seems to be). Zimmer came on to the film to supervise the score with Klaus Badelt leading a team of eight composers (including himself) to put together the entire score in just three weeks, and the desperation behind it is palpable in the film.
1 The Lord of the Rings trilogy (Composed by Howard Shore)
Canadian-born composer Howard Shore’s scores for the Lord of the Rings trilogy can only be described as epic. For his efforts, Shore has brought home three Oscars, two Golden Globes, and four Grammy Awards, among other accolades. The first Lord of the Rings film opens with a monochord – which sets the tone for Shore’s soaring score. The monochord is an ancient sound that has been around for thousands of years, making it the perfect music to offset Galadriel’s speech in the opening scene of the trilogy. Throughout all films, Shore's score is filled with epic grace, whimsical moments of fantasy, and stirring emotional tones, and is one of the best and most memorable of the decade.