A soundtrack is a vital component to any movie, whether it’s a rousing orchestral score or contemporary songs following the characters through their lives. And yet it’s curious that a soundtrack’s creation is often a starkly separate process. Composers will, of course, base their writing off the filmed material and notes from the director but, ultimately, the music they conjure up is its own artistic beast.
As such, an utterly fantastic soundtrack will sometimes accompany a not-so-fantastic movie. That could be due to the caliber of the artists or composers involved; other times it’s a simple stroke of fortune that the musical elements turn out better than the movie itself. Regardless, these ten movies ended up being outshone by their far superior audio backdrops.
9
Tron: Ares
Tron: Ares was always a curious concept. The previous two movies earned a dedicated cult following, but were never runaway critical or commercial success stories. Casting a polarizing lead in Jared Leto only gave Tron: Ares a bigger hill to climb, and so it proved, as the threequel landed in theaters to lukewarm reviews and an unenthused Rotten Tomatoes score, which currently sits at 54%.
Still, at least Nine Inch Nails wrote the soundtrack. Trent Reznor has been penning spectacular movie scores for years, but Tron: Ares is unique in being tagged with the “Nine Inch Nails” brand. Quite what the difference is remains unclear, given that Reznor is the creative driving force behind Nine Inch Nails anyway, but one cannot doubt the results. Tron: Ares is arguably a more enjoyable experience when viewed as an elongated Nine Inch Nails music video.
8
Twilight
As prevalent as Twihards were in the late 2000s/early 2010s, the sparkly vampires and questionable romances attracted plenty of detractors. The one thing both sides could unite over was the fact that Twilight‘s soundtrack was an all-time classic filled with alternative rock bangers.
The 2008 movie represents the pinnacle of Twilight‘s musical greatness, with Muse’s “Supermᴀssive Black Hole” and Paramore’s “Decode” both featuring prominently. Carter Burwell’s score cannot be ignored, of course, but it’s the injections of post-MySpace rock that ensure the legacy and cultural impact of Twlight‘s soundtrack is as strong as the movie itself in 2025.
7
Maximum Overdrive
Since “Stephen King adaptations” is virtually a genre unto itself, one might wonder why the horror legend doesn’t simply make movies of his own. King himself had a similar thought and did exactly that with Maximum Overdrive in 1986 – then immediately regretted it. Maximum Overdrive suffers from a lack of focus and minimal substance, and will go down as one of the author’s worst adaptations, even in the opinion of the man himself.
Fortunately, King had the good sense to hire AC/DC for the movie’s soundtrack. The band mixes classics like “Hells Bells” with new tracks such as “Who Made Who,” creating a reliably electrified landscape of hard rock to accompany King’s iffy directorial debut. None can question Stephen King’s status as a living legend, but Angus and the gang valiantly provide the one and only redeeming feature in Maximum Overdrive.
6
Ghosts Of Mars
As well as being a god of horror cinema, John Carpenter is something of a musical anomaly by virtue of being one of very few directors who score their own pictures. He’s quite good at it too, penning the iconic music for 1978’s Halloween. Alas, Ghosts of Mars represents a low point in Carpenter’s filmmaking career – a futuristic horror featuring Ice Cube and Jason Statham that really does miss the mark.
Overall quality aside, Ghosts of Mars is worth watching for the soundtrack alone. Carpenter himself is on top form, but he also recruits a gaggle of top-tier talent to ᴀssist him. These maestros include guitar legends Steve Vai, Buckethead and Robin Fink, as well as the band Anthrax. The results are predictably fantastic and far outshine the movie itself.
5
The Village
Plenty of directors find a composer they collaborate well with and stick by them – the Danny Elfman to their Tim Burton. For M. Night Shyamalan, that composer is James Newton Howard, who scored classics like The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. Unfortunately for Howard, he was also recruited for less beloved releases such as The Last Airbender and After Earth.
But while Shyamalan’s star in Hollywood faltered somewhat, Howard’s did not, and his musical contributions continued to soar in the background of less critically successful partnerships between director and composer. The Village is perhaps the best example of Howard lifting a not-so-great Shyamalan movie, and his work was nominated for Best Original Score at the Oscars.
4
Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon is a cult classic in its own right, but falls firmly within the “so bad, it’s good” category. Queen’s soundtrack, on the other hand, is simply just very good, in particular the main theme. These two aspects of Flash Gordon straddle the line of taste in terms of ’80s cheese. Flash Gordon is an of-its-time release best enjoyed in the same tongue-in-cheek vein Mark Wahlberg watches it in Ted, whereas the Queen soundtrack is still perfectly acceptable to blast from the rooftops in 2025 without a shred of irony.
There simply isn’t a world where Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon combine to produce something below par, and it’s intriguing to ponder exactly what Flash Gordon would look like if Queen’s work was replaced by some generic synth rock typical of the era. Certainly, it’s hard to imagine Flash earning his cult status without the British rock quartet backing him up.
3
Sucker Punch
Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch earned widespread criticism for its style-over-substance approach, depiction of female characters, and video game-esque tendencies. The 2011 effort certainly has its supporters, but not quite to the same pᴀssionate extent as other divisive Snyder efforts such as Man of Steel and Watchmen.
Almost every element of Sucker Punch splits the crowd, but Tyler Bates and Marius de Vries’ soundtrack stands as the lone exception. A clever blend of rock-driven cinematic instrumentals (a trick Bates would later echo for John Wick) and cover versions of classics from decades past, Sucker Punch is a perfect example the music feeling more inspired and intentional than the movie it’s soundtracking.
2
Purple Rain
Purple Rain is not a bad movie, but it would be without the soundtrack it’s inextricably tied to – one of the greatest musical feats in human history. If Purple Rain was a regular movie stripped of Prince and his almighty music, it likely would have pᴀssed through the ’80s and been forgotten to time.
It’s also impossible to avoid the realization that Purple Rain the album has aged like fine wine, whereas Purple Rain the movie smells very strongly like a product of the ’80s, questionable depictions of female characters included. Whether you’re watching Purple Rain for the first time or the 1999th, one inescapable truth shines through: the soundtrack is perfect without the movie, but the movie doesn’t work without its music.
1
The Bodyguard
Like Purple Rain, The Bodyguard is a movie orbiting a soundtrack, with Whitney Houston shining so brightly onscreen, it’s easy to forget Kevin Costner’s there somewhere too. While it’s impossible to deny The Bodyguard‘s place in the ’90s pop culture hall of fame, it’s also impossible to deny that the movie is deeply flawed, skating by on star power, Houston’s charisma, a by-the-numbers love story, and, of course, some absolutely classic tunes.
When an album starts with “I Will Always Love You,” “I Have Nothing” and “I’m Every Woman,” it’s very obviously on the path to greatness, and Houston’s vocal performance is the sound of an artist truly hitting their peak. By contrast, The Bodyguard is a movie few would be talking about in 2025 if anyone but Houston had been the star.
