Few pieces of music set the tone quite like Batman themes. But which of The Dark Knight’s films and TV shows have the best theme songs?
The Batman movies are capable of making you feel a lot of things, including but not limited to awe and amazement. It’s all in The Dark Knight, his legacy, and the way that he is portrayed on-screen; you just can’t help but to feel pulled into the hero’s world and everything that takes place in Gotham City.
One of the most awe-inspiring elements of the Caped Crusader’s stories is the music that plays in them. Yes, over the course of the past century, the character has had plenty of incredible theme songs that really just set the mood for the stories audiences are about to see.
Heck, he’s had two definitively iconic theme songs that shaped him for two different generations. Both are incredibly different, and yet both are equally as legendary.
The list of composers who have showcased their talents to bring the sounds of Batman to life is also legendary. With that, and the recent Batman Day celebrations, let’s take a look back at the iconic DC hero’s awesome theme songs and rank them.
6. The DCEU Batman theme
Batman is a larger-than-life figure and he requires a larger-than-life theme to get that across. All of his theme songs have encapsulated that in some way or another, but perhaps none really leaned as far into the awe-inspiring element of that as his theme in the DC Extended Universe.
Composed by Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL, there is something so Gothic and goosebump-inducing about this theme and whenever it featured in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, it invoked all of the emotions. In fact, now when you listen to it, you can’t help but think of imagery of Ben Affleck’s Batman standing on a rooftop in the pouring rain on a dark night, illuminated by the occasional flashes of lightning.
It certainly captures the shock and awe required for a Batman movie, but the thing that prevents this one from coming any higher is the fact that it felt like a beginning, a moment of brilliance, that never quite got to reach its finish. It’s more terrifying and lacks a little of the triumph we’ve come to know from Caped Crusader too, and that’s likely because the DCEU never got to make full use of it in a solo movie. This hero’s journey was just beginning when Warner Bros. moved in a new direction, and so this score will always remind us of what could have been.
Could you imagine a suite full of this music, one that fully explored it in the way it should have been. There’s that word again: Awe.
5. The Schumacher Batman movies
When Joel Schumacher took over as director of Warner Bros.’ Batman franchise in the mid ’90s, everything pivoted towards a much campier light-hearted direction. With that, the eerie quiet and bellowing triumph of Danny Elfman’s iconic Batman theme was replaced with a more loud, boisterous and, well, ’90s-ish score. For that Elliot Goldenthal was brought in as composer.
There were a lot of poor decisions made during this time, but bringing in Goldenthal was not one of them. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that he’s probably the most underrated of the Batman composers, because the music he gifted us with during both of these movies (but especially Batman Forever) were a triumph in and of themselves.
From the moody yet triumphant fanfare opening to the track, “Fledermausmarschmusik”, which very much became the basis for the movie’s main score, there was a carnival-esque approach to Goldenthal’s work and it just matched the world of Schumacher’s Batman movies so well. They sounded how they looked, and honestly we don’t appreciate that enough.
This theme tried something completely different from the Danny Elfman theme and yet it still felt completely, definitively Batman.
4. The Batman
After The Batman was released in movie theaters, a meme made its way around social media of a man playing a piano that was on fire. The caption often read: “Michael Giacchino composing The Batman“. Honestly, there is no better way to say it than that.
Giacchino is known for producing incredible scores that often pay tribute to previous franchise entries. From Jurassic World to Spider-Man: No Way Home, his compositions draw us into the modern world of the movie we’re watching while also gifting us with feelings of nostalgia. The theme of Matt Reeves’ The Batman is no different.
It matches Reeves’ world perfectly but it also features nods and references to themes that came before, perhaps closely invoking memories of the iconic Batman: The Animated Series more than anything else. Its inspirations are clear and it helps make The Batman the perfect direction for the future that carves out its own path while also paying tribute to what helped it get there.
The music of The Batman is powerful, triumphant, melancholic and emotional all at the same time. It’s Batman of today and Batman of old. It’s everything all at once and it’s a stunning piece of music that will define the character for a whole new generation. It’s beautiful and subtle, but also features one of the most epic endings on any film score in recent memory. It’s art.
3. The Dark Knight Trilogy
We have our two generation-defining Batman themes coming up shortly but the one that could very well be the soundtrack to the character’s story that this generation is most familiar with is the theme of Christopher Nolan’s critically-acclaimed The Dark Knight Trilogy, composed by the brilliant Hans Zimmer.
I don’t know whether it’s the continuousness of the music or just the power of the orchestra but the intensity of Zimmer’s theme is through-the-roof. It’s also infectious, because when you get even just one second of that theme in your head, it’s suddenly the soundtrack of your whole day and there is nothing you can do about it. And honestly, your day is probably better off because of that.
There’s just nothing like it and there couldn’t have been a better theme for Nolan’s game changing movies. The seriousness of the saga needed a more attention-grabbing and less subtle score, and it certainly found that in this. It’s different from any of the previous themes for the Caped Crusader, and yet it suits him just as well. It might be down to the fact that Nolan’s movies are every bit as intense as the music, or might just be that the theme is sensational.
Either way, you’re in for a ride with The Dark Knight Trilogy – and its music.
2. Batman (1966)
For a whole generation, Batman wasn’t the broody avenger we’ve come to know him as. He was a light-hearted and friendly do-gooder who had as much time to stop and teach young people an important lesson about life as he did to stop some bad guys. And no theme summed that up better than the iconic and funky piece of music from Neal Hefti and his Orchestra.
The theme of the classic 1966 Batman TV series starring Adam West and Burt Ward, the legendary “Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Batman” became a sensation in and of itself and it is still recognized to this day by general audiences around the world.
Not only is the funky theme a perfect representation of the TV series (and its movie spinoff), it’s incredibly catchy – which is a real feat since it features just one word throughout its whole runtime (“Batman”). It became an instant fan-favorite and it’s easy to see (or hear) why.
This was the definitive Batman theme for a whole generation and it would be two decades before it was rivalled for that title. But even a half century later, it’s still arguably holding onto it. This will follow Batman forever as easily as it will get stuck in your head.
You’re singing it now, aren’t you?
1. Batman (1989)
We mentioned earlier that there were two definitive Batman themes. One was the classic TV series theme; this was the other.
By the time 1989 rolled around, Batman was set for a dark reinvention in Tim Burton’s game-changing reboot. In order to fully pull it off, we needed a new theme song. For that, Danny Elfman was brought in to conduct the theme, and the rest was history.
From the moment that those first few moody bars serenaded Burton’s film, the character’s future had been changed. From there, it builds towards an epic march that just fills your mind with imagery of the Batmobile racing through the forest on its way back to the Batcave. And this theme would become the soundtrack of not just this movie and its sequel, it would follow The Dark Knight for decades.
Not only was it used for Burton’s movies, it influenced the music in the legendary Batman: The Animated Series and has been used over the course of the last three decades in various Batman titles. No matter how many reinventions the Dark Knight gets on-screen (and how many scores come with those reinventions), this remains the go-to theme, with even Justice League, Gotham and other adaptations featuring nods to it.
Just as Neal Hefti’s opening song was the definitive theme of the classic Caped Crusader, Danny Elfman’s became the definitive theme of the modern Dark Knight – and it will likely never relinquish that title.