Die Hard 2 (soundtrack)

Die Hard 2: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the score for the 1990 sequel Die Hard 2, which again stars Bruce Willis as John McClane. Michael Kamen composed the music, bringing back a handful of themes from the first film and weaving in parts of Jean Sibelius’ tone poem "Finlandia." The score was recorded at the 20th Century Fox Scoring Stage with the Los Angeles Motion Picture All-Star Orchestra performing.

The soundtrack album didn't come out alongside the movie. Varèse Sarabande released it on August 31, 1993, three years after the film hit theaters. That first album only contained 40 minutes of music, even though the film itself used about an hour of score. Later, on November 5, 2012, Varèse Sarabande put out a 2-CD deluxe edition that included the complete score plus alternate cues that hadn't made it into the final film.

Critics had mixed but generally positive things to say. Jonathan Broxton at Movie Music UK called it one of Kamen’s most bombastic action scores, written during a period when his action music was everywhere in Hollywood. He noted that Kamen’s real strength was in his heartfelt dramatic and romantic work, but still praised Die Hard 2 for offering over half an hour of top-tier Kamen action music that shows why he was so in demand through the late 1980s and 1990s.

Christian Clemmensen of Filmtracks.com described it as sufficient and occasionally entertaining, a decent album choice for those who don't want to hunt down the rare original Die Hard albums. Steven McDonald of AllMusic pointed out that much of the score feels traditionally 1950s, with drawn-out orchestral stabs that recall Bernard Herrmann’s thriller scores—a terrific homage that evokes film noir angles and desperate action, though he doubted it would become a frequent listen for the average soundtrack fan.