Best "Ass kicking time" character theme songs

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi · Post by **Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi** » 2006-11-09 09:50am

I read the OP and thought "Bad to the Bone" by George Thorogood, because for a span of a few years, it seemed to be in the trailer of every action movie, and some Elizabethan-era dramas.

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » 2006-11-09 10:22am

Oh man, can't believe this took so long to come to mind: 'Grahf, Emperor of Darkness' from Xenogears. Because not only is it badass, but so is Grahf. Really, anyone who fights you, in your mecha, standing next to his own, on foot is one hardcore motherfucker.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2006-11-09 10:56am

Anvil of Crom wins hands down. There's really no contest. You hear that music, and you know people are going to die. In large numbers, with fountains of blood.

Having said that, some others I can think of are the Rambo theme (particularly in the second movie), and Khan's musical motif in ST2. And of course, Max Cady's theme song from the Robert De Niro remake of Cape Fear. You hear that, and you know something awful is going to happen to somebody.

PainRack · Post by **PainRack** » 2006-11-10 10:57am

Other than echoing Anvil of Crom(darn. now I have to find an mp3 of that song!)

I don't know why, but the Back to the Future III theme, when McFly decked out the cowboy always struck me as bad-ass.. Its an odd feeling, but its just never struck me how "heroic" the Back to the Future theme could sound, and it was nice.

OmegaGuy · Post by **OmegaGuy** » 2006-11-10 12:29pm

The Queen Flash Gordon Theme

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2006-11-10 06:15pm

that ultramarine chant in chaos gate is very bad assed. "Fearless formless"

Alan Bolte · Post by **Alan Bolte** » 2006-11-10 11:55pm

Zero's theme from the Mega Man games. Plays when he drops in (usually literally) 'cause shit needs to die.

Vain · Post by **Vain** » 2006-11-11 03:42am

Since so many people in this thread seem to be familiar with Chaos Gate, is there a good place to get the soundtrack? I know how to extract the music from the game disc itself (which I own) but the music is stored as crappy mod files (only a step or two above midi) and doesn't really sound that great relative to modern compression technology. Also, I have no idea what the track titles should be. Is there a high quality version somewhere? Or hell, at least a track list?

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2006-11-11 03:53am

First place goes to Darth Vader's theme, "The Imperial March". It's probably the best "Hail to the Chief" musical piece ever conceived. When you hear it for the first time, you know this guy's a bad-ass. The combination with the visual of the gigantic Executor against the comparably puny Imperial Star Destroyers is just icing on the cake.

Then, of course, there's the "24 Theme". Jack Bauer's total bad-assitude just oozes from the theme song.

Darth Quorthon · Post by **Darth Quorthon** » 2006-11-11 05:02am

I'll add a +1 to "Anvil of Crom" and add "The Battle of the Mounds" to it. "Riders of Doom" was also good, even if it was a theme for the villains. Man, I love that CD. RIP Basil Poledouris. I was reading his obituary in the paper yesterday and it said that he conducted a live concert version of the Conan score in Spain last year. How frickin' awesome would it have been to see that?

Marko Dash · Post by **Marko Dash** » 2006-11-11 07:21am

Not sure if its used anywhere, but 'Flight of the Valkyries' would be good.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2006-11-11 11:55am

White Haven wrote:Gonna go out on a limb and say the Trans-Siberian Orchestra's Christmas Eve Sarajevo. Not because it's been used in that context, but because the first time I heard it, I saw, playing out in my head, a fully-scripted space battle scene, complete with camera angles, timings, cuts...everything. Sorta creepy, but awesome nonetheless.

That's my hallmark of good music too: If it can be a good starship battle soundtrack, it's a Keeper!

And yes, it happened with me too.

Darth Lucifer · Post by **Darth Lucifer** » 2006-11-11 02:14pm

When I heard "Death Rides a Horse" by Ennio Morricone when Uma Thurman walked into the dance club in "Kill Bill" (Vol. 1), I knew the shit was going to hit the fan.

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2006-11-11 04:05pm

The main theme from Patton.

JAWS theme, first one to scare people from swimming in a indoor pool! hard one to beat.

And Conan who can deny the sheer kickass factor of that one?

salm · Post by **salm** » 2006-11-11 04:09pm

Indeed. Jaws was really brilliant. Only two notes and so effective.

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2006-11-11 04:56pm

Forgot:

Orff with O Fortuna

Whenever you herar this in 100s of movies you KNOW that bad stuff WILL happen.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2006-11-11 04:59pm

well I live in a red neck hell hole, and I've been joking for years about replacing my horn sound with "Dueling Banjos" just to make the tourists uneasy.

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2006-11-11 05:05pm

The Yosemite Bear wrote:well I live in a red neck hell hole, and I've been joking for years about replacing my horn sound with "Dueling Banjos" just to make the tourists uneasy.

That is just plain mean.

Remind me to bring a bow and arrows if I ever visit

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2006-11-11 05:44pm

And how can we forget the "Fed Net March" from Starship Troopers? Talk about a theme that sticks in your head.

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » 2006-11-14 04:32pm

Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:
White Haven wrote:Gonna go out on a limb and say the Trans-Siberian Orchestra's Christmas Eve Sarajevo. Not because it's been used in that context, but because the first time I heard it, I saw, playing out in my head, a fully-scripted space battle scene, complete with camera angles, timings, cuts...everything. Sorta creepy, but awesome nonetheless.
That's my hallmark of good music too: If it can be a good starship battle soundtrack, it's a Keeper!

And yes, it happened with me too.

...did it involve a scene with rapidly cut moving camera shots of squadrons of fighters being loaded in a carrier's bay? Because if we actually independently pictured the same thing, I'm gonna go research astral projection or some such.

EDIT: Also, another candidate, the Sinistral battle theme from Lufia 2. The rest of the game's music was more or less background and forgettable...and then you run into Gades for the first time and the music cuts in....and you know you're in for a very, very bad time.

Adrian Laguna · Post by **Adrian Laguna** » 2006-11-14 07:20pm

I listened to "Anvil of Crom" and am disappointed. It's not even in the same league of as things like The Imperial March or Hell's March.

Sephiroth's theme in Advent Children is pretty cool. I've also heard the orchestral version, but it doesn't kick as much ass. Sephiroth himself isn't as badass as his song, unfortunately.

I liked the smooth jazzy theme that plays in the first Hellsing OVA when Seras first sees Alucard. It fits the guy so well, all cool and laid back.

Android Kikaider: The Animation. The opening credits theme, that guitar song Kikader plays in the park during Episode 4, and the ending credits theme. The entire series had great music, but those those three are the best.

The Turanic Raiders theme in Homeworld. Totally awesome. I'd put it up there with The Imperial March. It slowly and ominously builds-up, giving you a feeling of "imminent threat" until it gets into gear and you can just picture the Raiders swarming the Kiithid fleet.

Sunstreaker · Post by **Sunstreaker** » 2006-11-16 11:24am

DEATH wrote:
TF The movie -
"Instruments of destruction" - Megatron. Its the "Anti-touch"
Hunger - Megatron and the Decepticons.
"Nothings gonna stand in our way!" - The Decepticon forces, especially Starscream and Megatron.
How many villians have themes which involve them slaughtering the heros with equivalent numbers

Sorry dude, you're all over the place misremembering here..

"Hunger" was the sharkticon theme
"Nothings Gonna Stand in Our Way" was the song playing when Hot Rod was fighting the under"water" creatures on Quintessa (and saving Kup)
"Dare" was the Hot Rod them played when Roddy drove to Look Out Mountain and also when he crashed the Quint starship though Unicron's eye
"Dare to be Stupid" was played during the Junkion fight and the Junkion/Bot celebration

To make this post legal:

-"Rhythm Emotion" from Gundam Wing when Zechs destroys barge in the Epyon
-T2 theme, played when Arnie scarified himself at the end
-Transformers the Movie battle theme, when the cons assault the bot city (which is coincidentally playing right now)
-Unicron's Theme
-The Torgo Theme from "Manos" The Hands of Fate...j/k

Adrian Laguna · Post by **Adrian Laguna** » 2006-11-17 08:38pm

"The Mob Song" from Beauty and the Beast. Granted, the mob gets it's ass kicked, but it's still cool.

"Be Prepared" from The Lion King. Scar is one of the most badass and coolest villains ever, and probably the top villain in Disney's history of villainy. It's awesome watching him and his hyenas plan their coup.

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2006-11-18 12:58am

Sunstreaker wrote:
DEATH wrote:
TF The movie -
"Instruments of destruction" - Megatron. Its the "Anti-touch"
Hunger - Megatron and the Decepticons.
"Nothings gonna stand in our way!" - The Decepticon forces, especially Starscream and Megatron.
How many villians have themes which involve them slaughtering the heros with equivalent numbers
Sorry dude, you're all over the place misremembering here..

"Hunger" was the sharkticon theme
"Nothings Gonna Stand in Our Way" was the song playing when Hot Rod was fighting the under"water" creatures on Quintessa (and saving Kup)
"Dare" was the Hot Rod them played when Roddy drove to Look Out Mountain and also when he crashed the Quint starship though Unicron's eye
"Dare to be Stupid" was played during the Junkion fight and the Junkion/Bot celebration

[hangs head in shame]

.
I see know why I haven't had my application to Cybertron processed yet.

"Be Prepared" from The Lion King. Scar is one of the most badass and coolest villains ever, and probably the top villain in Disney's history of villainy

Fuck yes

.

An incredibly bad-ass song (Only a few people here will get it including Weetmando, those who have played "The neverhood"):
"The battle of Robot Bil".
On one side we have Bil, a huge giant Robot with an apartmen in his chest along with a lever going from good to Evil, Klayman our intrepid protoganist has blasted a hole in Bil's head, clambered onto him and saved a friend of his (Willy Trumbone) by twisting a giant tower by 720 degrees. However then Bil sees his Teddy bear (Scaled to size) and rescues it, starting to hug and cuddle it.
The foul villian Klog sees Klayman approaching his castle inside a gargantuan robot and takes action.
He unleashes: The Kloggerbeast.
From a hole in the ground and suspension arises the beast, a huge bastard offspring of the Terminator, a dragon, a crocodile and a Tyranid Genestealer (At this point the music start playing).
The beast beats the shit out of Bil and then analyzes the situation, and dispatches: The BRU [Bear retrieavl unit). Out pop a pair of tiny drones in a buggy who grapple the bear from Bil's hands and bring it to the beast, who Rips it apart in front of Bil's "Face" (Then laughs at him).

This makes Bil get angry, his internal controls sparking and manipulating themselves and he goes ape-shit on the beast with a multi kilometer long flying kick and karate chops (bending his hand on the beast's head).
The beast ends up chewing on his damaged head, but Klayman uses Bil's jump boots (Springs) to push the Beast off the edge of the world (The World/Neverhood is an island floating through space).

Then Later we get another theme: "Klogs castle"
Simply put, remember the tank vs mecha issue? Think Cannon vs robot heroically lifting the gates to Klog's castle despite his heavy injuries getting blasted off the edge of the world clutching his side with his ancient friend Willy still inside him. (Who's last words are "BIll hang ooooon")[/i]

tim31 · Post by **tim31** » 2006-11-26 01:56pm

Marko Dash wrote:Not sure if its used anywhere, but 'Flight of the Valkyries' would be good.

Did you mean you weren't sure if it had already been mentioned? Because otherwise, you have missed out on one of the most powerful bits of war-cinema. Think helicopters, think charlie, think surfing.

And napalm. It smelt like... Victory.