"Although I'd been friends with director Marty Brest since he was a film student, finally we had a chance to work together. We decided to use a small contemporary ensemble for the score, which was quite a change, as I'd been accustomed at this point to using large orchestras. It took a while to get the hang of it, but after a while it was like scoring for a 'band'. For me that's like combining two worlds that I had always kept seperate." - Danny Elfman



Midnight Run is one of Danny Elfman's most infamous scores as it ushered in a "sound" for buddy/cop/roadtrip comedy/action capers that would follow. As Elfman states, Midnight Run is not a traditional orchestral film score, but film music performed by a "band". This is one of Elfman's purely fun scores and MCAs album is a fantastic listen.

Anchoring the entire score is an extremely pleasant main theme ("Main Titles"). The rest of the score dashes from twangy-blues to country-jamboree ("The River", "Amarillo Dawn") to everything in between. Most of the time Elfman keeps the score moving, and Midnight Run never becomes static, even in the suspense cues ("The Confrontation"). What elevates this about your typical 'rock' score is the inclusion of piano and a brass ensemble which appears throughout. Midnight Run has influenced scores like Robert Folk's Nothign To Lose and portions of Trevor Rabin's Con Air (particularly the bass guitar grooves in Elfman's score). Probably the greatest testament to this score's success is that even today it sounds as fresh as it did in 1988.

The final track, "End Credits: Try To Believe" is performed by Moseley and The B Men... The lead singer sounds suspiciously like Danny Elfman... Hmn...

Unfortunately Midnight Run has long been out-of-print. Copies turn up on eBay sometimes, while sharp eyes can spot it elsewhere. I found a second copy at a Wal-Mart... So you never know.

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