Tom Holkenborg Breaks Down Score for Terminator: Dark Fate

Watch 1st Episode: Terminator Theme Spin-off

Tom Holkenborg (aka Junkie XL) has unveiled two new special episodes of his insightful series on YouTube, Studio Time, breaking down his score for Terminator: Dark Fate, the recently released sequel from the Terminator franchise. 

The first episode, released on Friday, dives into Tom’s reimagined Terminator theme. Tom explains how he wanted to pay homage to Brad Fiedel’s classic theme from the original film, embracing the synthesized and sound design aspects of the original score, while revamping the theme as “the natural progression of this story over the last 25 years.”

In the second episode, released today, Tom breaks down Dani’s Theme, the franchise’s new protagonist who lives in Mexico City with her father and brother, who is eventually hunted down by the new Rev-9 Terminatory. For Dani’s theme, Tom infuses the original Terminator theme with Latino guitars to highlight her heritage, even involving Mariachi trumpets as a countermelody to the Terminator theme. 

Tom will unveil further Dark Fate-themed episodes of Studio Time throughout November, giving insights into various themes from the film, including John’s reimagined theme as well as a frenetic theme for the film’s new Terminator: Rev-9.

Tom played 16 instruments on the score himself, embracing his role as a “full contact composer”, even instructing players to perform as a “heavy metal orchestra”, demonstrating Tom’s unorthodox approach to film score composition.

Dark Fate has been embraced as “the best Terminator film since T2” by critics and the score has had universal acclaim. Tom is currently putting the finishing touches on his next score, for Sonic The Hedgehog, which will be released in North America on Valentine’s Day 2020.