A Good Day to Die Hard (soundtrack)

Marco Beltrami composed the score for A Good Day to Die Hard, the fifth and final film in the series, marking his second time working on a Die Hard movie after Live Free or Die Hard (2007). The soundtrack album came out on February 12, 2013, through Sony Classical Records.

Beltrami had previously collaborated with director John Moore on Flight of the Phoenix (2004), The Omen (2006), and Max Payne (2008). For this score, he wrote everything in a 4/4 time signature, mirroring Michael Kamen’s earlier compositions, and built the music around minor ninth chords with unusual harmonies for a modern feel. Moore wanted to evoke the action music of Lalo Schifrin from the 1970s and 1980s, so Beltrami used instruments like horns, harmonica, muted brass, triangles, and bongos—tools most action scores avoid because they can sound clichéd. To give the music a Russian flavor, he brought in balalaikas and dulcimers. Moore also pointed out that Russian military drums differ from American ones, which led Beltrami to adjust the percussion.

For the track "McClane's Brain," Beltrami called in a few balalaika, harmonica, and saxophone players to record. They jammed on various ideas, sampling some and writing music that became central to the score. That particular cue ended up as the final composition, but it wasn’t played for the director until the last day of recording, when Moore had to search for it. The piece only appears in the end credits.

Beltrami had about six weeks to write the entire score, so his protégés Buck Sanders, Marcus Trumpp, and Brandon Roberts helped out. Sanders handled programming, while Trumpp and Roberts composed additional music. The recording sessions happened at the same time the film was still being shot, with extra scenes added later. In total, Beltrami wrote nearly 120 minutes of music, and about 80 of those minutes made it into the final movie.

The soundtrack was released digitally on February 12, 2013, with a physical version following on February 19.

Critics had mixed reactions. Filmtracks.com said the score was more satisfying than Beltrami’s previous Die Hard work, but noted how far the series’ sound had shifted from its earlier suspense to straightforward action, praising the team’s loyalty to Kamen’s themes. Gregory Heaney of AllMusic felt the score adapted well to the series’ larger scale. A. O.