History Leitmotif / FIlm

* '' Film/{{Transformers}} '' movie has a few notable leitmotifs:
** particularly the OminousLatinChanting of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAYV8X-RX64 Decepticons]] - No one has been able to determine exactly what's being sung, but by gum if it doesn't make you afraid of giant evil robots. According to the composer, he based it on the Catholic prayer, Dies Irae.

** The new Big Bad, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHh-BS37vuw The Fallen]], also gets one for ''Revenge of the Fallen''.
** Optimus [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frADyjHdiKE Prime]] also has his own theme that is different from what was used in the first film, although it could apply to the previous Primes. Moreover, the theme first used for the government group, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4gngu-7fDY NEST]], also makes a number of reprisals in the film. Most notably the 'main' part of the theme plays when anything especially 'heroic' happens.

* In-universe in ''Film/HongKilDong''. The mentor who teaches Kil Dong to be a badass martial artist also teaches him to play the flute. So after Kil Dong goes into business as a Korean RobinHood, he gets into the habit of playing his own Leitmotif on the flute before jumping in and kicking ass. It gets to the point where bad guys recognize the music and scurry for cover.

* ''Film/BackToTheFuture''

** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEvJLbTeQoM Mr. Sandman]]" appears to be the theme song of 1955 Hill Valley or something. It's played when Marty first enters the 1955 town square in both ''Part I'' and ''[[Film/BackToTheFuturePartII Part II]]'', something which inspired us to [[MisterSandmanSequence name a trope after it]].

* ''Film/HomeAlone'' gives us a silly theme for the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMh4RVdznC8 wet bandits]] to match their incompetence.

** ''WesternAnimation/LaBalladeDesDalton'' starts with an instrumental version of "I'm A Poor Lonesome Cowboy", then the eponymous [[https://youtu.be/4hsHELSSwyw "Ballad of the Daltons"]], a piano/banjo leitmotif by the resident [[TheBard bard]] that's unique to the film, takes over.

** The flying theme, a bright and swelling melody which plays softly over the opening Creator/DreamWorks logo as the first music heard in the movie, resurges whenever Hiccup and Toothless are at their most badass, is repeated when the pair are rescued by Stoick from drowning and the pair take flight together to face down the Red Death, and triumphantly finishes off the film with the rousing addition of a parade-ground drumbeat. Along with the drums, the instruments of every group participate: the Viking warpipes and dragon brass harmonize, supported by Astrid's violin, and Hiccup's tinwhistle happily skirls around, leading the melody. It's... pretty good.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELNh23yRiJc Christopher Reeve]] ... er, Film/{{Superman}}.
* ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles''

* ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'':

* WesternAnimation/TheBlackCauldron is ''built'' on leitmotifs. Almost every character has their own theme.

* In the original [[WesternAnimation/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh Winnie-the-Pooh]] featurettes, composer Buddy Baker took some inspiration from Prokofiev's ''Peter and the Wolf'' and had different instruments represent each character: baritone horn for Pooh, a sad bass clarinet for Eeyore, flute for Kanga, piccolo for Roo, a fussy sounding clarinet for Rabbit, oboe for Piglet, French horn and ocarina for Owl, and staccato bass harmonica with electric bass for Gopher's walks.

* Film/ForrestGump has a theme for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQQx-iNeXas running]].
* In the infamously horrible Film/TheGarbagePailKidsMovie, the Garbage Pail Kids had their own piece of theme music. Near the end of the movie, Captain Manzini even tries to get the Kids back into their garbage pail prison by playing their leitmotif backward. [[spoiler: It doesn't work]].

* Film/{{Hook}} has themes representing [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM_1SZlO_Qc&feature=plcp&context=C438ba4dVDvjVQa1PpcFPAVNU9SaQWPjipgTsmlfo91d-biN-86Sg%3D childhood]] and Tinkberbell. Hook and pirates have [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBxbWRXbEMY&feature=plcp&context=C42288c6VDvjVQa1PpcFPAVNU9SaQWPjdIHzh6Y7Las1wTXLcwewg%3D multiple]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsejLziECo0 themes]].

* Franchise/JurassicPark: The tune that plays whenever the Velociraptors are even ''mentioned'' could be considered the ''Jaws'' theme of the franchise.

* Film/RepoTheGeneticOpera is chock full of these, of course. They can be as subtle as Blind Mag's indiscernible vocals in songs she's not even part of (Things You See In A Graveyard) to the hilariously blatant "REEEEPO MAN!" that follows Nathan's alter-ego.
* In Film/RequiemForADream, a remix of Clint Mansell's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fStQd9yFbvY Lux Aeterna]]" is used throughout the whole movie, and different portions are taken for different parts. It's also the penultimate track on the movie's soundtrack.

* Film/SpiderManTrilogy:

* Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit has themes for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g10jnaOzxdE Roger]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6muvkhKQFlE Jessica]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09wdBz379U8 Eddie Valiant]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm9t7b_lRHw Judge Doom]], and the Toon Patrol.

* In ''Film/KillBill'' the same eerie, whining siren-like riff plays in several scenes when The Bride lays eyes on her targets of vengeance. It's taken from the first few seconds of the ThemeTune from the series ''Series/{{Ironside}}''.

* In the ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' films, nearly every monster in the franchise gets its own leitmotif. The most famous ones probably are [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5hthWktPtM Godzilla's]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0CDA-ELlJs King Ghidorah's]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJEjdPxGsdw&feature=related Rodan's]]. And that's only three of them!.

* As of Creator/JetLi's run in the [[Film/OnceUponATimeInChina "Once Upon A Time In China"]] series, George Lam's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2V4OZhkL3s "A Man of Determination"]] has always been a sign that Wong Fei Hung is about to lay down a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown on some hapless villain. After Jackie Chan started playing Wong Fei Hung himself, he even covered the song once.

** ''Film/IronMan1'' combined a Leitmotif with a shout-out to the original Marvel animated shows by using a jazz version of [[WesternAnimation/IronMan the cartoon]] theme as background music when Tony Stark is being crass and selfish in Vegas, then later by using the tune as his ringtone on a friend's phone.

!!Film - Animated

!!Film - Live Action

--->'''Radio host''': We talked about Xavier's theme which almost acts as the central theme for the film because his story is so important, and it hovers around him. Since the film is about hope, and his character is about hope and rediscovering his hope, kind of a lost soul, where did you really draw the music from [...]?
--->'''John Ottman''': [...] I knew what the character's challenge was, what the film was about, so I tried to create a piece of music or a theme that could play both sides, sort of despondent and tortured, but also be designed so that it can be hopeful as it evolves later in the movie. I started sketching on an electric piano, and it sounded so cool and vintage [...]. Early in the movie, when it's just very subtly underscoring him, it's a lot of electric piano within the strings.

--->'''John Ottman''': Magneto's theme is a very simple "baauum baaaaw." That's basically it, it's so simple you can identify with it and feel it. [...] When he does his stuff at the end and you hear that big sound, it's bigger than it ever was before, and it ties things together.

** ''Film/ManOfSteel'' gives General Zod "I Will Find Him," "Arcade," and his own self-titled piece, menacing compositions consisting of rapidly ascending and descending strings, menacing war drums, and roaring trumpets that simultaneously evoke [[TheBerserker battle-fueled rage]] and [[{{Determinator}} fanatical determination]]. In this manner, his theme reflects not only his [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy savagery]] and [[{{Pride}} megalomania]], but his [[KnightTemplar single-minded obsession with becoming Krypton's savior]]

* In the ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' films, nearly every monster in the franchise gets its own leitmotif. The most famous ones probably are [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5hthWktPtM Godzilla's]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0CDA-ELlJs King Ghidorah's]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJEjdPxGsdw&feature=related Rodan's]]. [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters And that's only three of them!]].

** They also poked fun at the theme for ''Film/PumaMan''.

** Finally, the symbiote has a menacing, almost antagonistic [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZwaCLZPyLA when bonded to Spider-Man]], until this is replaced with Venom's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ezw7mqYiQ2w own leitmotif]] when he shows up - the complete antithesis of Spider-Man's theme. It's a purely villainous song which, as it goes on, has a sense of pure, utter ''hatred'' slowly building up before just exploding at the end, perfectly capturing Venom's combined hatred and anger towards Spider-Man, and how far he would go to see him suffer and die.