All spoilers on this page are left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
For 10 years Marvel Studios have been putting out movies with amazing soundtracks. This movie is no exception... but seeing as it's the culmination of all movies prior, it's up to eleven.
The trailers:
- The Teaser
Trailer opens with an extremely somber rendition of Alan Silvestri's Avengers Theme, which then transforms into something like a combination of war drums and horror strings, increasing in intensity for half the trailer, then gradually slowing for the second half for increased drama. And after the final shot of a group of Avengers led by Captain America charging into battle alongside a Wakandan army, Silvestri's original theme just blares triumphantly. The music of the teaser is enough by itself to induce spine tingles, muscle cramps, and the most manly tears since the ending of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. It received covers by multiple YouTube piano artists, including Samuel Fu and Jon Pumper. - The Official Trailer is also pretty good — it has another version of the Avengers theme, but even darker, sounding more like a villain's theme, appropriately enough. Samuel Fu covered this one, too. It's so epic, the trailer and its music have been put on other trailers from Game of Thrones to Halo, and every single one was vastly improved.
The film
- The Avengers' title theme carries the grandeur of the first Avengers title card theme, only with bigger and grander trumpets accompanying the horns and cymbals to signify the skyrocketing stakes Thanos brings and set the stage for the film. On a Meta level, one could see it as Silvestri musically declaring, "I'm back! You miss me?!"
- "Travel Delays", which is played at the very beginning and, together with the distress signal, substitutes the fanfare that is normally played over Marvel Studios' Vanity Plate, and continues to play over Ebony Maw's preaching of Thanos. The ominous sounds set the tone for the whole movie and immediately lets you know that it will be different.
- "Undying Fidelity", which plays at the opening scene of the movie. It starts out ominous and unsettling as Thanos obtains the Stone, and gets heartbreaking the moment Thanos kills Loki.
- The song that introduces the Guardians of the Galaxy is the Spinners' "Rubberband Man". It's a perfect mix that encapsulates the carefree attitude of the crew and is a worthy inclusion for their continuing Awesome Mix playlist.
- "Help Arrives" is a truly fantastic rendition of the Avengers theme that plays when Steve, Natasha and Sam arrive to rescue Wanda and Vision from the Black Order ambush in Scotland. The scene itself uses Mickey Mousing to great dramatic effect, syncing the musical beats with the heroes emerging out of the shadows.
- Hearing the triumphant theme from Black Panther (2018) when the heroes arrive at Wakanda perfectly captures the feeling of hope and safety that we saw T'Challa strive for in his solo outing. The audience knows how grand Wakanda is and hearing Marvel Studios reuse a memorable theme works well.
- The score that plays when Thanos sacrifices Gamora for the Soul Stone, titled Even For You, is slow, somber music that starts picking up once Gamora realizes what Thanos is about to do, then reaches into heart-wrenching strings that build up to a grandiose and terrifying, but tragic climax. Cue Manly Tears from both you and Thanos.
- While Doctor Strange is battling Thanos, he turns himself into dozens of duplicates. At this moment, a cue from Michael Giacchino's score from his solo film plays in Silvestri's track A Lot to Figure Out (Extended). It's spine-tingling.
- "Charge!", which plays when Black Panther leads the charge against the Outriders, complete with him and Captain America displaying their Super-Soldier speed before literally jumping into the battlefield. "Awesome" is an understatement in this case.
- "Forge" which plays when Thor takes the power of a dying star, and recreates Stormbreaker, all set to an epic theme, reaching its climax as Thor arrives in Wakanda in a Triumphant Reprise of the crescendo from the first film's "Assemble", which was a pretty fucking triumphant track to begin with. The scene before that (reigniting the dying star) is set to "More Power", which is a decent and fun piece of music, with some Guardians cues, but special credit goes to the brief moment when the star actually reignites, which is accompanied by a short beautiful cue, especially powerful after the frantic action music up to that point.
- "Get That Arm", the two-ish minutes of score that plays immediately before "I Feel You". There's a beginning of battle music that gives way to silence as those on Earth assemble around the Vision, which is suddenly interrupted as a bluish cloud forms. Thanos steps onto Earth, and just stands there. The music becomes even lower as Thanos begins stomping heroes left and right without even exerting himself.
- "I Feel You", Playing The Heartstrings at its finest, perfectly captures the emotion of Vision's Heroic Sacrifice at a tearful Wanda's hands, all while the remaining Avengers Hold the Line to stop Thanos.
- The awesome and soul-crushing lack of music during the Snapture. Slowly, we see each of the heroes we've come to know and love dissolve into nothing or helplessly watch it happen to their loved ones, all in dead silence.
- "Porch", the last soundtrack before the credits. A bittersweet track that captures both the loss that the audience just witnessed and Thanos's solemn satisfaction at having accomplished his goal at the cost of losing everything as he watches the sunset.
- The tragic titular "Infinity War" plays over the closing credits, hammering home how soundly defeated our heroes are and the sadness thereof. And then, there's the title being shown disintegrating to ashes as a lone piano plays a slower, somber rendition of the normally heroic main theme, serving as a cruel final reminder of this soul-crushing loss.
- On a more general level, despite the conscious choice from the filmmakers to avoid overt reprisals of individual leitmotifs beyond Silvestri's established Avengers materialnote , the writing style of previous MCU scores is reflected in his compositions here. The liberal use of choir to anchor the space segments is reminiscent of Tyler Bates' work on the Guardians subfranchise, and the instrumentation for Doctor Strange (2016) comes through whenever his influence is prominent here. However, one interesting example of thematic continuity comes in "One Way Ticket," the cue that plays when Stark and Strange debate about altering their course for Titan. At the 3-minute mark, the score references Michael Giacchino's own arrangement of the Avengers theme as heard on the closing moments of Spider-Man: Homecoming, fitting for Peter's baptism as an Avenger.
