Songs and score
The Donnie Darko soundtrack, scene by scene
Six songs from the eighties, one from 2001 that sounds like it belongs there, and Michael Andrews’s score in between. Where each one plays, and what changed in the Director’s Cut.
- 01
The Killing Moon Echo & the Bunnymen· 1984
The opening: Donnie wakes on Carpathian Ridge and rides home through Middlesex.
In the Director’s Cut it moves to the Jim Cunningham assembly; the opening becomes INXS.
- 02
Never Tear Us Apart INXS· 1987
The opening ride home, in the Director’s Cut only.
Richard Kelly’s original choice, unaffordable in 2001.
- 03
Head Over Heels Tears for Fears· 1985
The one-take walk through Middlesex Ridge School: Kitty Farmer, Cherita, the popular girls, Ms Pomeroy, Jim Cunningham, and the arrival of Gretchen.
- 04
Notorious Duran Duran· 1986
Sparkle Motion’s routine at the school talent show, intercut with Donnie burning Jim Cunningham’s house.
- 05
Under the Milky Way The Church· 1988
The Halloween party at the Darko house, October 29.
- 06
Love Will Tear Us Apart Joy Division· 1980
The Halloween party: Donnie and Gretchen upstairs while the house fills.
- 07
Mad World Gary Jules & Michael Andrews· 2001
The closing montage - the Manipulated waking on October 2, Gretchen’s wave - over Andrews’s piano.
A cover of the 1982 Tears for Fears song, recorded for the film. It reached number one in the UK in December 2003.
The score, by Michael Andrews
Michael Andrews’s score is the film’s other voice: piano, glass, a few strings and a great deal of quiet. Its cues are named for Sparrow’s mechanism - "Carpathian Ridge", "Liquid Spear Waltz", "Manipulated Living", "The Artifact and Living", "Ensurance Trap", "Waltz in the Fourth Dimension" - so the album reads like the book’s table of contents.
"Mad World" was recorded as an afterthought, because a song Kelly wanted for the ending was too expensive. It became the most famous thing in the film.