Entertainment
The Best Film Scores Of All Time
List Rules
Vote up your favorite film scores.
The best film scores are famous for their instrumental nuances and memorable sequences. The most popular film scores tend to come from some of your favorite movies. Now it is time to determine which movie has the best score. Vote up the titles of the films based solely on the strength of their musical scores.
This list contains the greatest movie themes and scores ever recorded, chosen by the Ranker community. This list is for film scores, the instrumental music from movies. We also have a list of The Greatest Movie Soundtracks, designed for collections of songs taken from films. These are the most iconic, memorable themes and collections of background music ever.
This means you should rank the film scores on how important you think they were in delivering the atmosphere the film was trying to achieve?
Ranked by
- 1Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler
- Released: 2001
- Directed by: Peter Jackson
The future of civilization rests in the fate of the One Ring, which has been lost for centuries. Powerful forces are unrelenting in their search for it. But fate has placed it in the hands of a young ...more - 2Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher
- Released: 1980
- Directed by: Irvin Kershner
The adventure continues in this "Star Wars" sequel. Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Han Solo (Harrison Ford), Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) face attack by the Imperial ...more - 3Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum
- Released: 1993
- Directed by: Steven Spielberg
In Steven Spielberg's massive blockbuster, paleontologists Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and mathematician Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) are among a select group chosen to tour ...more - 4Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler
- Released: 2003
- Directed by: Peter Jackson
The culmination of nearly 10 years' work and conclusion to Peter Jackson's epic trilogy based on the timeless J.R.R. Tolkien classic, "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" presents the ...more - 5Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher
- Released: 1977
- Directed by: George Lucas
The Imperial Forces -- under orders from cruel Darth Vader (David Prowse) -- hold Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) hostage, in their efforts to quell the rebellion against the Galactic Empire. Luke ...more - 6Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman
- Released: 1981
- Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Dr. Indiana Jones, a renowned archeologist and expert in the occult, is hired by the U.S. Government to find the ark of the covenant, which is believed to still hold the Ten Commandments. ...more - 7Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom
- Released: 2003
- Directed by: Gore Verbinski
Capt. Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) arrives at Port Royal in the Caribbean without a ship or crew. His timing is inopportune, however, because later that evening the town is besieged by a pirate ship. ...more - 8Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Irons, James Earl Jones
- Released: 1994
- Directed by: Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff
This Disney animated feature follows the adventures of the young lion Simba (Jonathan Taylor Thomas), the heir of his father, Mufasa (James Earl Jones). Simba's wicked uncle, Scar (Jeremy Irons), ...more - 9Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain
- Released: 2014
- Directed by: Christopher Nolan
In Earth's future, a global crop blight and second Dust Bowl are slowly rendering the planet uninhabitable. Professor Brand (Michael Caine), a brilliant NASA physicist, is working on plans to save ...more - 10Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes
- Released: 1993
- Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Businessman Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) arrives in Krakow in 1939, ready to make his fortune from World War II, which has just started. After joining the Nazi party primarily for political ...more - 11Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher
- Released: 1983
- Directed by: Richard Marquand
Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) battles horrible Jabba the Hut and cruel Darth Vader to save his comrades in the Rebel Alliance and triumph over the Galactic Empire. Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and ...more - 12Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Denholm Elliott
- Released: 1989
- Directed by: Steven Spielberg
An art collector appeals to Jones to embark on a search for the Holy Grail. He learns that another archaeologist has disappeared while searching for the precious goblet, and the missing man is his ...more - 13Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson
- Released: 2001
- Directed by: Chris Columbus
Adaptation of the first of J.K. Rowling's popular children's novels about Harry Potter, a boy who learns on his eleventh birthday that he is the orphaned son of two powerful wizards and possesses ...more - 14Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen
- Released: 2000
- Directed by: Ridley Scott
Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) takes power and strips rank from Maximus (Russell Crowe), one of the favored generals of his predecessor and father, Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the great stoical philosopher. ...more - 15Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart
- Released: 2008
- Directed by: Christopher Nolan
With the help of allies Lt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and DA Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), Batman (Christian Bale) has been able to keep a tight lid on crime in Gotham City. But when a vile young ...more - 16Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef
- Released: 1966
- Directed by: Sergio Leone
In the Southwest during the Civil War, a mysterious stranger, Joe (Clint Eastwood), and a Mexican outlaw, Tuco (Eli Wallach), form an uneasy partnership -- Joe turns in the bandit for the reward ...more - 17Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan
- Released: 1972
- Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola
Widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time, this mob drama, based on Mario Puzo's novel of the same name, focuses on the powerful Italian-American crime family of Don Vito Corleone ...more - 18Mel Gibson, Sophie Marceau, Patrick McGoohan
- Released: 1995
- Directed by: Mel Gibson
Tells the story of the legendary thirteenth century Scottish hero named William Wallace (Mel Gibson). Wallace rallies the Scottish against the English monarch and Edward I (Peter Hanly) after he ...more - 19Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Eleanor Parker
- Released: 1965
- Directed by: Robert Wise
A tuneful, heartwarming story, it is based on the real life story of the Von Trapp Family singers, one of the world's best-known concert groups in the era immediately preceding World War II. Julie ...more - 20Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss
- Released: 1975
- Directed by: Steven Spielberg
When a young woman is killed by a shark while skinny-dipping near the New England tourist town of Amity Island, police chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) wants to close the beaches, but mayor Larry ...more - 21Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler
- Released: 2002
- Directed by: Peter Jackson
The sequel to the Golden Globe-nominated and AFI Award-winning "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," "The Two Towers" follows the continuing quest of Frodo (Elijah Wood) and the ...more - 22Daniel Day-Lewis, Madeleine Stowe, Russell Means
- Released: 1992
- Directed by: Michael Mann
Randy EldermannThe last members of a dying Native American tribe, the Mohicans -- Uncas (Eric Schweig), his father Chingachgook (Russell Means), and his adopted half-white brother Hawkeye (Daniel Day-Lewis) -- live ...more - 23Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page
- Released: 2010
- Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a thief with the rare ability to enter people's dreams and steal their secrets from their subconscious. His skill has made him a hot commodity in the world of ...more - 24Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burgess Meredith
- Released: 1976
- Directed by: John G. Avildsen
Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), a small-time boxer from working-class Philadelphia, is arbitrarily chosen to take on the reigning world heavyweight champion, Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), when the ...more - 25Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester
- Released: 1968
- Directed by: Stanley Kubrick
An imposing black structure provides a connection between the past and the future in this enigmatic adaptation of a short story by revered sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke. When Dr. Dave Bowman (Keir ...more
