Over the course of the last couple of decades, composer Michael Giacchino has become one of the top names in the Hollywood film scoring scene. Since 1995, he has been credited with more than 150 films, shows, video games, and shorts. He's worked on about every major modern franchise, ranging from the Mission: Impossible series to Star Wars, as well as both Marvel and DC franchises. His first major film credit came in 2004, with his score for the now-iconic Pixar film The Incredibles, which began a partnership between him and the legendary animation studio that still continues to this day.

Giacchino has been nominated for only two Academy Awards (and it's a crime he hasn't been nominated for more), one of which he won in 2010 for his work scoring Pixar's Up. Now, the composer is changing up his Hollywood life, moving from composer to director after he helmed the live-action Marvel Halloween special, Werewolf by Night. Despite the illustrious career Giacchino has had so far, the work of musical score composers in film often goes underappreciated.

In an attempt to give some credit where it's due, here's a ranked list of some of Giacchino's best work to date. Also, as a quick aside, before jumping into the list, props have to be given to the composer for using puns in the names of almost all of his work. Good stuff.

Update December 3, 2023: This article has been updated with even more great scores by Michael Giacchino and where each of the films on this list can be streamed.

10 Jurassic World (2015)

jurassic world
Jurassic World
PG-13
Action
Adventure
Sci-Fi
Thriller

The Jurassic World series has become one of the essentials of modern blockbuster filmmaking, and Giacchino's work on the music of the films is a major contributor to their overall atmosphere and style. While the New Jersey composer has worked on all three of the Jurassic World films, it's his work on the first one that is being highlighted here, because that was the score that really proved that Giacchino was up to the task. Following up on the work of John Williams is no easy feat; just ask Jurassic Park III composer Don Davis, but Giacchino was able to do it by creating his own exciting and original themes while also pulling from Williams work on the original Jurassic Park.

Giacchino smartly knew that he couldn't score Jurassic World without utilizing the now-iconic theme from the original 1993 film, but he didn't use Williams' work as a crutch. There are a few moments where he subtly intermixed motifs of the score within the broader soundscape of World, but there's only an instance or two where the entire theme can be heard. He times those occasions perfectly within the overall score, and they burst in at the precise moments that the audience is going to want to stand up and cheer as loud as they can for a T-Rex. Giacchino really hit a home run with this score, and it wouldn't be the last time he would follow up the work of Williams in spectacular fashion.

Stream on Max

9 Doctor Strange (2016)

doctor strange
Doctor Strange
PG-13
Adventure
Action
Fantasy
Sci-Fi

Giacchino has become a regular contributor to the sound of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with his work on the Tom Holland-led Spider-Man films, but his partnership with Marvel Studios began in 2016 with Scott Derrickson's Doctor Strange. Earlier on in the MCU, the franchise had an issue with their film scores being fairly bland and forgettable, with about the only exceptions being Alan Silvestri's work on Captain America: The First Avenger and The Avengers. However, with his work on Doctor Strange, Giacchino blew the doors open with what continues to be one of the best themes of not just any Marvel movie, but any superhero film of the last ten years.

Giacchino's use of a harpsichord for the central theme perfectly captures the ethereal aesthetic of the film, while also injecting a sense of class into the whole thing. Just as the film itself took the MCU in some trippy new directions, Giacchino wasn't afraid to get a little weird with this score. He kept all the grandiosity one would expect from a superhero movie, but he weaved in plenty of psychedelic and progressive news ideas as well. While Danny Elfman did a solid job taking over for Giacchino on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness earlier this summer, it's hard to imagine anyone topping the work he did on this first Marvel collaboration.

Stream on Disney+

8 Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

Rogue One
Rogue One
PG-13
Action
Adventure
Sci-Fi
Release Date
December 14, 2016
Director
Gareth Edwards

Star Wars is a franchise whose music is and will always be associated with John Williams. With that said, Giacchino provided one of the best scores of the entire series with his work on 2016's Rogue One. He interwove some of Williams most iconic themes from the original trilogy, while also introducing a number of new sounds and ideas to the Star Wars soundscape. His new themes for the Jyn Erso and the Guardians of the Whills are as epic as they are regal, and when he does bring in the likes of the iconic Imperial March, he doesn't overuse or rely on it. His minimal use of the original score was just enough to give the audience a familiar taste that they'll love while still allowing Rogue One's overall score to stand on its own.

What makes his work here all the more impressive is the incredibly short time span in which he produced it. Composer Alexandre Desplat was originally hired to score the Star Wars Story, but he was replaced by Giacchino late in the film's post-production. Giacchino tackled the challenge head-on and composed this entire score within the span of a month. It's a testament to the pure talent and love the composer has for this stuff, and let's hope that he'll take another flight into a galaxy far, far away sometime soon.

Stream on Disney+

7 Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
dawn of the Planet of the apes movie
PG-13
Action
Documentary
Sci-Fi
Thriller
Release Date
June 26, 2014
Director
Matt Reeves

In a career full of truly incredible work, Giacchino's score for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a standout. From the moment the film starts with the track "Level Plaguing Field" playing quietly over a prologue depicting a global pandemic (yikes), the music of the film cuts to the emotional core of the film, and provides an audible experience that is worthy of just about every award imaginable. Giacchino collaborated with Matt Reeves on the film. He would go on to work with him again on The Batman, and the result is a score that deserves to be considered one of the all-time greats. It's gentle when it needs to be. It's viscerally aggressive with its percussion in the film's action beats. And it also builds incredible tension with the use of choir vocals reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey's soundtrack.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a film that doesn't get enough credit, and Giacchino's score for the film is an integral piece of the already amazing film. It's a pure injection of everything Giacchino is as a composer, as he takes the lessons he's learned from everything he's worked on up until this point and applies them here. There are the quieter moments you might expect from a Pixar film, the intense action-adventure beats of a Mission: Impossible film and the experimental sci-fi sounds of Star Trek or John Carter. He blends all of these elements together and produces a score that, while occasionally reminiscent of his other works, stands on its own as a captivating work of art.

Stream on Max

6 Ratatouille (2007)

Ratatouille
Ratatouille
G
Release Date
June 28, 2007
Director
Brad Bird , Jan Pinkava
Cast
Patton Oswalt , Ian Holm , Lou Romano , Brian Dennehy , Peter Sohn , Peter O'Toole
Runtime
110
Main Genre
Animation
Writers
Brad Bird , Jan Pinkava , Jim Capobianco , Emily Cook , Kathy Greenberg , Bob Peterson

One of three Pixar films on this list, while most people might give credit to Giacchino's rousing score for The Incredibles in terms of his Brad Bird collaborations, his score for Ratatouille is not only the more underrated but might be the superior score. It perfectly captures the beauty and gravitas of the film, a stunning portrait of food, art, and, of course, Paris. The music must be partially credited for what made Ratatouille such a great pick for a TikTok musical.

One of the standout tracks, "Les Festin," is a beautiful song written by Giacchino and sung by French singer Camile. The French lyrics describe Remy the Rat's journey while also showing Pixar's faith that a song with all French lyrics would connect with an audience of children in English-speaking countries. Ratatouille's score is tranquil, energetic, and inspiring, which comes together in a mixture as great as any meal.

Stream on Disney+

5 The Batman (2022)

The Batman
The Batman
PG-13
Superhero
Action
Crime
Drama
Mystery

Batman is forced to investigate the city's hidden corruption and question his family's involvement when The Riddler starts killing key political figures. Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz and Paul Dano star.

It would have been hard to imagine that there could be yet another outstanding, and arguably definitive, score for the caped crusader. After the '60s television theme, Danny Elfman's triumphant work on the Tim Burton films, and Hans Zimmer's more brooding take with the Christopher Nolan trilogy, it seemed like there just wasn't room for another great Batman score. Yet Giacchino's score for The Batman might just be the best of them all. What's even more impressive is that it was done with literally just two notes played in sequence. Of course, that's a bit of hyperbole as the music of this film is much more than just the main theme. But, with as dark and moody as The Batman is, Giacchino understood the assignment and delivered a score that so perfectly captures the atmosphere. It's almost overwhelming.

Whether it is the interpolation of "Ave Maria" for the Riddler's theme, the seductive piano and strings used for Catwoman, or the raw intensity of the Batmobile chase sequence, the music in The Batman never misses the mark. It's the kind of score that so precisely matches the tone of its film that it almost becomes a character in and of itself. In a film with so many moving pieces and intricacies, Giacchino's score establishes its presence subtly and continues to build as the film progresses. By the time the credits roll, the music has become so drilled into the viewer's head that they'll be humming those same two notes over and over again for weeks on end. As one of the composer's more recent works, it proves that Giacchino is only getting better with every year.

Stream on Max

4 Inside Out (2015)

inside out
Inside Out
PG
Animation
Comedy
Documentary
Family
Fantasy
Release Date
June 9, 2015
Director
Pete Docter , Ronaldo Del Carmen

Giacchino has continued his collaboration with Pixar, producing a number of other great scores such as that of Coco, Cars 2 (the flaws of that movie are no fault of the music), and most impressively, Inside Out. Many people consider Inside Out to be one of Pixar's best films, and the score for the film easily lives up to that praise. It's the most wide-ranging score that Giacchino has produced for Pixar, with elements of jazz, electronic and classical music all swirled together to produce one wholistic musical landscape that's just as imaginative as the film itself. It's an array of music that would be worth listening to entirely on its own, even if it weren't attached to a Pixar movie.

Related: 15 Best Disney Animated Movie Soundtracks, Ranked

As one might expect from the music in a film about the emotional embodiments inside your head, the score for Inside Out wonderfully conveys the same variety of strong feelings and emotions the characters of the film are feeling. It's panicked at times, sentimental at others, and it's not afraid to go in some truly strange directions. Giacchino created individual themes and motifs for each of the emotions in Riley's head, which are utilized both with those colorful characters and when the human characters are actually experiencing those emotions. It's delightful! It's depressing! It's perplexing! It's everything Inside Out needed for its music, and it's one of the best scores you'll find in any animated movie.

Stream on Disney+

3 Star Trek (2009)

star trek
Star Trek
PG-13
Action
Adventure
Sci-Fi
Release Date
May 6, 2009
Director
J.J. Abrams
Runtime
126
Main Genre
Action
Tagline
The future begins.

2009 was a great year for Giacchino. The same year, he composed the score for Up, which would earn him an Academy Award; he also wrote the music for Star Trek, J.J. Abrams reboot of the popular sci-fi franchise. Star Trek has plenty of memorable music throughout its history, so crafting a new score that would pay homage to the original legacy while also giving it a new modern 21st-century update was not an easy task on paper, but Giacchino more than delivered.

Star Trek writers Alex Kurtzman and Robert Orci described, "Star Trek is classical music and Star Wars is rock n roll, and we wanted to bring in a bit of rock n roll to Star Trek," and that seems to be what Giacchino did with the score, if not literally but spiritually. His score has a really energetic, fast-paced, and moving that captures the movie's swashbuckling sci-fi action blockbuster tone. The theme "Enterprising Young Man" has now become as iconic a Star Trek theme as the music from The Original Series or The Next Generation. The "End Credits" track is a big bombastic reimagining of the theme of Star Trek: The Original Series, giving it the big epic scope that track deserved. Giacchino would continue to do great work with Star Trek, composing the music for Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond.

Stream on Paramount+

2 Werewolf by Night (2022)

Werewolf By Night
Werewolf by Night
TV-14
Action
Horror
Superhero
Adventure
Comedy
Release Date
October 7, 2022
Cast
Gael García Bernal , Laura Donnelly , Harriet Sansom Harris , Leonardo Nam , Eugenie Bondurant , Kirk R. Thatcher

Werewolf by Night was Giacchino's directorial debut, but he also played his traditional role, serving as the film's composer. Normally, Giacchino collaborates with directors to find where the music would fit in the storytelling process. After the film was released, he noted that having that discussion with himself posed unique challenges. Instead of scoring the movie in the traditional way - where he would write simple horror music - he put more emphasis on feeling. The perspective of a director caused him to focus more on how characters would react, and he said in an article from Variety, "The way I approach music is, how would I feel if I were Jack or Elsa at that moment?"

He also wrote the main theme (which he titled "Mane Theme") before he started working on the movie. In his dual role as director and composer, it allowed him to integrate his creative process, implementing his storytelling responsibilities and then changing the tune on the fly. He was able to work with the editor to alter the music based on the feedback he got in post-production. This high degree of creative freedom, combined with dual responsibilities, created special challenges but ultimately led to a better score, that is, when judging by how well a song might fit a particular scene.

Stream on Disney+

1 Up (2009)

up
Up
PG
Animation
Adventure
Comedy
Drama
Family
Fantasy
Release Date
May 28, 2009
Cast
Edward Asner , Christopher Plummer , Jordan Nagai , Bob Peterson , Delroy Lindo , Jerome Ranft

Giacchino has plenty of great scores, but there's something uniquely special about Giacchino's score for Up. It's the music that earned him his Oscar, and it's easy to see why. The melodies and instrumentation of this soundtrack perfectly capture the complex emotions of the film. While his work on The Incredibles and Ratatouille prior to this were both excellent, it was Giacchino's score for Up that really established him as one of the best composers working today.

The music of this movie is just beautiful; there's no other way to put it. It's exciting and blood-pumping when it needs to be, but it's in quieter moments that the score really shines. The main theme is simple and to the point, yet it can lift the listener up with incredible joy just as easily as it can break their heart. Giacchino doesn't overcrowd the music with a bunch of different instrumental layers and melodies, but rather he often pulls everything back and lets one solo piano do all the heavy lifting. He wrote several themes for the different characters of the film and brilliantly weaves them together as the film progresses to show how the different relationships are growing and evolving. It's the kind of score that sounds simple enough on the first listen, but with each revisit, there are even more small surprises and complexities to be found.

Stream on Disney+