Best Epic Movie Soundtracks

I think that a powerful musical score can contribute as much to the success of a movie as great actors and interesting plot. It helps create that unique atmosphere and mood of each film and can really enhance the watcher's experience. The best movie scores are so memorable that people all around the world will recognize them. The most popular ones are often rearranged and used in other films, trailers, and elsewhere.

I've made a list of my own favorite movie soundtracks below. You can enjoy listening to them on Youtube immediately. If you disagree with my choices, feel free to share your own favorite movie scores in the comments section at the bottom of this page. Let's start the countdown, then...

"He's a Pirate" track by Klaus Badelt, a fun and upbeat musical score from PotC. Anyone who has watched the movies will recognize this one!

It's hard to pick the best track from The Dark Knight as it has so many great ones (see iTunes). In the end I went with "Introduce A Little Anarchy", a great track by Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard, because it's one of my favorites along with "Agent of Chaos". It should also be noted that this film score won a well-deserved Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.

An amazing film score by James Horner.

This movie is a bit controversial: some critics outright call it "stupid", others say it endorses terrorism. I rather enjoyed it though, and I think its score is partly to thank for that. The track below, "The Dominoes Fall", is my favorite, a truly epic soundtrack by Dario Marianelli.

My number six is Duel Of The Fates by John Williams (from The Phantom Menace). As a Star Wars fan you might hate the prequel trilogy, but you have to admit that its soundtrack is pretty awesome.

Hauntingly beautiful track composed by James Horner.

Awesome movie soundtrack by Rob Dougan, this is the so-called "Kurayamino variation" of Clubbed to Death.

The famous Lux Aeterna track by Clint Mansell. Very well-received by the critics, and deservedly so.

This is yet another great soundtrack from the legendary film composer Hans Zimmer. The man is pretty much a modern musical genius, and his work on Inception is one of my favorites. The movie has several cool tracks (available on iTunes), but I believe "Time" is the most memorable of them all.

Finally, we reach the number one on my list, Adagio in D Minor. I don't expect everyone to agree with me, but I really think this piece by John Murphy is the most epic movie soundtrack ever. I first heard it in the movie Sunshine (2007), but a different "Strobe" version of it was also used in Kick-Ass (2010). I definitely believe the former movie did so well in part thanks to its excellent music.

What did you think of my top 10 list? If you disagree with these choices, share your favorite movie soundtracks and composers in the comments below.