That was the initial connection, and then I started having a lot of breakfast with McQ talking about the film, and before I hadn’t ever seen anything, the way he kept talking about Ethan’s character in this movie, and how it was a a different side that we haven’t seen in the prior movies, and I think after the third breakfast, I locked myself in the studio and I wrote down the music to give to Chris to basically say what I felt I was getting from him about Ethan’s character, and also a lot to do with the famous theme, which I think everybody in the world knows about, so that’s how it all began. Lorne Balfe: We’ve got a lot of mutual friends and colleagues, Jack Myers, who produced Dunkirk, and the whole franchise family and the whole Paramount family. How did are you first approached by McQ and this production to join the Mission: Impossible team? We also consider just what the word “trilogy” could mean… In our below interview, we discuss trying to reinvent the wheel of the “Mission: Impossible Theme,” as well as Balfe’s own contributions from the new theme to an emphasis on percussions and bongos in the score (he apparently was a failed percussionist). The latter previously directed the then-best reviewed M:I movie, Rogue Nation, yet in coming back elected to have an almost entirely new creative team, including composer. And a big part of that are the chances Balfe and McQuarrie took. The general good nature and relief in Balfe’s demeanor underscore a Cinderella rollout for Fallout, which many have hailed as the series’ best. So hearing that the legendary composer loved Balfe’s own version of the theme let him realize “I can die a happy man.” Still, Balfe had been too nervous all the way through production and even release of Fallout to share with Schifrin his score. It was one of the many ways Balfe and writer-director Christopher McQuarrie shook things up on the action sequel. It was a theme that Balfe also rearranged the harmonies of for a reinvention of Fallout’s opening credits. It’s not something that happens very often, nor is it something that, generally speaking, Balfe or I would prefer, but a funny thing was happening during the interview: Lalo Schifrin was on the radio discussing how much he loved Balfe’s reworking of the “Mission: Impossible Theme.”įor those who do not recognize Schifrin’s name, he was the composer who realized an awesome baseline was the secret to one of the greatest espionage themes of all time in 1966.
When I sit down to speak with Lorne Balfe, the composer of Mission: Impossible – Fallout, the sixth and arguably best of the Tom Cruise spy movie bunch, we have to pause midway through the interview.