Hans Zimmer’s ‘Time’ — We have to go deeper
Everyone knows the song `Time`— the soundtrack of choice for every starting YouTuber who wants to turn the epicness of their Naruto super-cut all the way to 11.
WARNING: Get a cuppa, sit down and put on your headphones. It’s gonna be a long ride.
Featured in the 2010’s indie coming-of-age flick Inception, these four and a half minutes of Hans Zimmer’s goodness made us experience approximately a lifetime therapy’s worth of emotions all within the film’s ending sequence.
The track, mimicking the narrative structure of the film, unfolds over layers and layers of instrumentation — going from the limbo-like subbasses to the elated, sweeping strings representing the return to reality.
The goose-bumpy chord progression, the perfectly minimalistic guitar lick courtesy of Johnny Mar, and the intertwining melodies that make you feel like both the “I’m the king of the world” and “Drowning cause Kate Winslet doesn’t share” versions of Leo from Titanic — this song has it all.
Time is both poignant and inspiring — it’s a masterpiece that is ingrained in the modern popculture. You only need a few seconds to recognise the theme.
Also, it’s a copy.
Not only that, but there’s a web of musical connections that you can spin out from the track. Once I discovered the first clue I had to dig deeper and see where the trail led to.
Join me on my adventure as I uncover the greatest conspiracy of our times. #BushDid911 has nothing on this.
First, let’s listen to the track I’ve been blabbering about for the past few paragraphs. If you’re anything like me the playback of ‘Time’ is bound to a keyboard shortcut so that you’re always ready to blast it when your morale is low.
Alternatively, here’s a link for the Untermensch among you:
Feeling epic already? You should be experiencing tingling sensations throughout the body and a sudden urge to walk in slow-mo towards a sunset.
Now, imagine being whipped for 12 years. As a slave.
3 years after Inception was released — which is the average amount of time it takes to be able to say you understood the plot — Hans Zimmer collaborated with Steve McQueen on his magnum opus 12 Years a Slave.
Tasked with creating a score that would evoke feelings of being stranded from one’s family and the need to find hope in desperate circumstances, Zimmer decided there’s only way to utilise the heights of his creativity.
He needed to be bold.
He needed to push the envelope.
He needed to find a unique way to convey such powerful emotions.
But he couldn’t be arsed so he just put ‘Time’ in and called it a day.
Don’t believe every word that comes out of my twisted mind, though. Hear it for yourself.
The song literally starts with the same sound Time ends on and that’s the least offensive similarity. Solomon follows a familiar structure and reuses the same chord progressions.
Ok, that’s pretty lazy but we can let this one slip, Hans.
As long as it’s just that one time.
Turns out, our Hans has been a bad boy since at least 1998 when he scored the most A-listers heavy war epic in history — The Thin Red Line. The part that starts at 3:04 mark sounds like an early draft of Time.
Back then he already knew that this shit was fire.
Thematically, the film hasn’t got a lot do with either Inception or 12 Years a Slave but when you’ve got such intense melodies you know you just can’t use them once in the span your career. That would be super-wasteful.
Before we take this musical adventure to its final stop let me take a little detour.
I promise we’ll be back on track soon.
Remember Steve McQueen from a few paragraphs ago? The modern black voice in the world of cinema who had the nerve to remind the Americans that they’ve historically been absolute cunts to everyone but themselves?
A few years before 12 Years a Slave he made Shame — a quiet study of sexual addiction starring Michael Fassbender and his intimidating penis (I’ll give you a few seconds to google that).
Apart from having one of the most interesting banned posters, the film also features soundtrack that’s as close to sounding like Hans Zimmer as it’s humanly possible without actually employing the guy. Back then McQueen couldn’t get The Man to compose for him so he hired Harry Escott and told him:
Have you seen The Thin Red Line? The same thing, please.
To which Harry replied:
You don’t mean exactly the same, right? Maybe just similar style?
McQueen leaned closer and whispered:
Did I fucking stutter?
(at least that’s how I imagine it went)
I present to you, J̶o̶u̶r̶n̶e̶y̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶L̶in̶e̶ Unravelling — a song by H̶a̶n̶s̶ ̶Z̶i̶m̶m̶e̶r̶ Harry Escott from T̶h̶e̶ ̶T̶h̶i̶n̶ ̶R̶e̶d̶ ̶L̶i̶n̶e̶ Shame
Now that we’ve mapped out this tangential connection let’s bring it all back full-circle.
But what good would a maniac’s theory be without a graph? Knowing I’ve probably lost you a few times already ( my mind is a confusing place) I prepared a little cheatsheet so you can witness the full glory of what I’ve discovered so far.
Behold:
It’s weird how it all seems makes sense now once I’ve drawn colourful lines that connect things.
The last piece of the puzzle is the actual reason I went down this rabbit hole to begin with. As I was listening to ‘EPIC SOUNDTRACKZ FROM AWESOME MOVIEZ’ playlist on Spotify I heard the familiar chords and felt the goosebumps coming.
It sounded very similar to Time (which should not surprise you since you’ve made it so far into my ramblings).
The stacatto piano, the guitar, the BRAAAAAM sounds — all there.
The track is called Safe Now (kinda like the feeling the guys from a certain film had after finally getting out of the dream layers) and it plays over the ending of the 2013 sleeper-hit Captain Phillips (hmm, Time is also used to end a certain film)
The composer of this intensely original track is Henry Jackman. Apart from being known for such memorable and innovate soundtracks as the one to Captain America: Civil War (I dare you to hum it) he also has an interesting past that plays a big part in why he copied Time.
At the beginning of his career he used to shadow the one and only Hans Zimmer.
BOOM
I told you it would all make sense.
So the question is: why do all those songs sound so similar?
Are the composers just burned out and can’t think of anything else or is there a better explanation?
It’s the temp music… I think.
Temp music is what editors use when working on rough cuts of the films. They use soundtracks from other films so that they can get similar emotional responses before the real score is written. In some cases the temp music turns into real score very organically.
David Fincher used Nine Inch Nails instrumental album Ghosts I-IV as temp music for The Social Network and when it came to actually producing the score he decided to just get the guy responsible to write it. The result? A nice gold naked man statue for Best Original Score and this banger:
The other times, the editors and directors get so used to the temp music that once the film is edited and it comes to finally getting a composer on board , the temp music had already greatly influenced the creative process. The result is that the final soundtrack sounds very much like the temp score.
For a better and more in-depth analysis of this phenomenon I refer you to the Video Essay God — Every Frame A Painting:
The End
I can’t help but feel like the knowledge that I’ve passed onto you — the reader who managed to get all the way here — is ultimately useless.
Therefore, to make it all somewhat worthwhile, here’s a beautiful, if completely unrelated, cinemagraph from The Master (courtesy of TechNoir).
Also, if you want to drive yourself insane by listening to what is ultimately just various versions of the same track, check out the Spotify playlist I made.
PS:
Kudos to the geeks on reddit who started a thread that reassured me that I’m not the only one obsessing over the strained connections between different piece of film music.
