“Superman” Composer John Murphy on Electrifying John Williams’ Iconic Score

John Murphy is a composer known for scoring films with dark undertones, whether they’re kinetic and terrifying or haunting and ethereal. To this day, his theme for Danny Boyle’s electric 2002 gamechanger, 28 Days Later, remains a deservedly beloved earworm, while his music for Boyle’s bittersweet 2007 sci-fi stunner, Sunshine, is at turns heartbreaking and inspiring. Now, he’s scored one of pop culture’s sunniest, noblest characters (Zack Snyder’s darker take notwithstanding), Superman, whom he brings to the screen with strings of bravura and romance.

Superman is not Murphy’s first collaboration with writer/director James Gunn; the two teamed up for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and The Suicide Squad. Gunn isn’t shy about letting music tell his stories, allowing Murphy’s score to soar and riff, which included playing John Williams’ iconic Superman theme on an electric guitar. The composer brings elegance and playfulness to Superman’s (played by David Corenswet) journey, whether he’s saving Boravia or Metropolis from Lex Luthor’s (Nicolas Hoult) machinations, while fighting to maintain his identity and protect his love for reporter Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan).

Murphy scored pieces of music before seeing a single frame of the film. When Gunn shot scenes, he played the composer’s music. For Murphy, who co-composed with David Fleming, it was a process that sometimes made him forget he was scoring a movie as gigantic as Superman. “The story is everything,” Murphy told The Credits. “We’re not scoring to picture. We’re scoring a story. That’s what we do.” 

What was that first experience like of playing the John Williams theme? What was your ambition in tackling a classic? 

It’s funny, there was no grand idea of, oh, wouldn’t it be awesome to put this iconic theme on guitar? I was just playing around with it. I kind of played it in that bombastic, Hendrix Star-Spangled Banner style for fun. After playing that, I thought, God, could I get away with this? Am I going to go to Composer Hell here for daring to put such a beautiful, iconic theme on guitar? So I did a version of it with [musician] Tyler Barton, and we sent it to James, and it ends up being the first sound you hear on the first trailer, which I wasn’t expecting. The thing with this movie is that it goes back to that pure sense of wonder, so there was always a feeling that we would have some fun and keep that sense of wonder. Ideas like playing the John Williams theme on electric guitar — we wouldn’t have gotten away with that on a certain type of movie. With this movie, we thought, let’s try it and see.

The score in general is often quite gentle for a superhero movie. The track “The Real Punk Rock” is a good example of that, when Superman explains what’s truly punk rock to him. How’d his monologue inspire your score? 

One of the first of the original themes I wrote was the love theme. I don’t panic, but I always go, God, I’ve got to write a love theme. I tend to err toward the darker side of the story in a movie, or toward darker movies overall. I don’t get up in the morning and listen to love themes, let’s be honest. So, I wrote two themes for James. One was this big epic, golden-era, Max Steiner–type love theme. I was quite proud of myself for digging that one out, but I thought I should do something a bit more modern and minimal. So, I did the one that ended up in the movie, which was a gentle, filtered guitar. The idea was that it was going to be kind of like a Sigur Rós, Mogwai–type thing.

What’d you think when James chose to go with the more gentle track than the grand, Max Steiner–type epic track for that scene? 

I was sure he was going to go for the big orchestral romance, but when I saw the movie for the first time, it all made sense. At the beginning of their relationship, it’s not grand. The movie starts right as they start dating, so they’re awkward with each other, not sure how they feel about each other. And so, it made sense why James went for the more minimal one. It was a motif that could grow. By the time you hit the conclusion of that theme, and the scene toward the end where they’re floating, then it becomes grand and makes sense then.

How’d Lex Luthor on the page influence your theme for him? The scratchy guitar for him contrasts so well with Superman’s elegance. 

The minute you establish something — the way the guitar became the Hendrix Star-Spangled Banner–type, John Williams motif — then your next thought is, well, how can I contrast that? What would be the way to battle with that in certain moments? It’s having that dirty, kind of Pablo Honey–type guitar, which is kind of nasty, relentless, and grimy. For Luthor, that was a perfect foil. My daughter, Molly Murphy, actually co-wrote the “LuthorCorp” theme.

On the flipside, the track “Metropolis” — that’s Superman and the city together, as one. How did you want that track to tell the character and location’s story?

That started off as one of the first conversations with James, who had it in his head to explore the possibility of using the original John Williams theme. I’m not sure he knew how I would react to that, because normally, as a composer, you’re like, “Why do you need somebody else’s theme? I’ll write it.” But because of what it is, I was like, “Whoa, that would be amazing, if we can find our own sound for that.” But that guitar thing at the end in “Metropolis” was actually part of a longer version that was me messing with the original John Williams theme. That section never got used at that moment. In the end, it was just my vision, and Dave [Fleming] added all the beautiful strings and changed some chords. So, that was a proper collaboration between me and Dave.

How else did the track evolve?

It was originally my way of trying to see if I could do a Radiohead–type acoustic version of the John Williams theme. It never went into that section, but it’s cool. One of the reasons I love using the acoustic guitar in films is that it’s one of the most grounded instruments. You have all this cinematic noise — bangs, crashes, and pyrotechnics of the orchestras and choirs — but the minute you come down to someone strumming an acoustic guitar, it brings you emotionally close. It gave us the feeling that everything had returned to some semblance of normalcy. What Dave added with the strings gave it that sense of finality as well, that this chapter of the story is closing now.

What about John Williams, the craftsman and technician, influenced you while scoring Superman? 

Nobody comes close when it comes to articulating his themes and how they develop. It’s almost pure math. It’s so perfectly executed. If there’s a film that’s got one of John’s scores, I always — no matter what movie it is — if it’s on TV, I’ll stop and listen. A master craftsman. How he can take a motif and effortlessly drag it out into another emotion — it’s almost the way when you listen to Bach, and you just almost get that sense of divine-like effortlessness. You don’t get that with Mozart or Beethoven so much, or I don’t. But with Bach, you get that sense of this is just effortless, and it’s how it’s meant to be.

You pay good respect to the original Superman theme. You won’t be going to composer hell, as you feared. 

What was funny was that I did everything I could to kind of destroy that motif. I thought, well, where does it break apart? I put it in minor key, and it was awesome. And then I slowed it down. I did a doom version. I did a punk version. No matter what I did to it, no matter what I played it on, how much I slowed it down, what chords I put underneath it — it was still the Superman theme. My God, it’s the most bulletproof motif ever written. Genius in simplicity. Whatever you do to that motif, the fact that it still feels like the Superman theme is mind-blowing.

Featured image: DAVID CORENSWET as Superman and RACHEL BROSNAHAN as Lois Lane in DC Studios’ and Warner Bros. Pictures’ “SUPERMAN,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures