There are numerous companies that compose and produce music specifically for movie trailers, each one trying their darnedest to make you drool in awe by the time the “Coming Soon” card appears.
But you don’t have to be a kickass company with a bunch of employees and a dungeon full of instruments to make it big in movie trailers. Sometimes you just need some kickass music.
You need some E.S. Posthumus—two brothers with cools sounds and even cooler names (Helmut and Franz. Hell yeah).
An acronym of “Experimental Sounds” and “Posthumus”, meaning “all things past”, this Latin-nomenclature-loving duo created music that fused New-Age, Neo-Classical, and Symphonic Rock in the style of Pythagoras’ philosophy: “Music is the harmonization of opposites; the conciliation of warring elements.”
This is exactly right, since listening to the duo’s music conjures images of Pythagoras riding into battle astride a golden dragon, beating the hell out of dark elves while shouting his Theorem as a war cry.
Apparently, studio executives and movie trailer houses imagined the same thing and contacted the band.
Thanks to their music, trailers for Spider-Man, XXX, Planet of the Apes, and Minority Report still make you grab the sides of your head in anticipation like you’re Edvard Munch’s The Scream.
Unfortunately, after three albums and over thirty trailers with their music stamped in, one half of the duo, Franz, tragically died in 2010. After that, E.S. Posthumus came to a close.
“What we do in life, echoes in eternity.” – Maximus Decimus Meridius.
5 Trailers Featuring E.S. Posthumus
1. Sherlock Holmes (2009)- “Unstoppable”
Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law skip around Victorian London to the track “Unstoppable.” If movie trailers had their own theme song, this is probably what it would sound like. The track was also used in the previews for Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and Casino Royale (2006).
2. The Time Machine (2002) – “Tikal”
“Tikal” already sounds like someone running through the jungle while being chased by a tribe of cannibals wielding poison darts, so it’s only natural they used the track for The Time Machine. The trailer then segues into music from Stargate at the 1:41 mark.
“Tikal” was also used in trailers for Daredevil (2003), Minority Report, and the very first teaser for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
3. Vanity Fair (2004) – “Nara”
Next to “Unstoppable”, “Nara” may be E.S. Posthumus’ most well-known track. It kicks in at the 1:22 mark, making us feel like you’ve landed smack-dab in the middle of a Victorian ballroom that’s crawling with British aristocrats looking to screw you over.
“Nara” was also used in trailers for The Other Boleyn Girl, Unfaithful, and Antwone Fisher, as well as being used as the intro music to the TV series Cold Case.
4. Spider-Man (2002) – “Pompeii”
The Spider-Man trailer begins with music from The Matrix, before heading into the action-packed-upside-down-kissing culmination beginning at the 1:41 mark. Here, it becomes E.S. Posthumus territory, with their track “Pompeii” giving Spider-Man his most rousing musical entrance since the 1994 animated series.
“Pompeii” was also used in trailers for Planet of the Apes (2001), Spy Game, and Curse of the Golden Flower.
5. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life (2003) – “Menouthis”
Though it kicks in at the 0:39 mark and only lasts another 20 seconds, “Menouthis” helps set the tone as we cheer for Lara Croft in a trailer that is ultimately better than the actual movie. After watching this trailer again, however, I feel my DVD copy that I found at the thrift store calling my name.
“Menmouthis” was also used in the very end of the trailer for National Treasure.
If you’d like to read more about the band, check out E.S. Posthumus’ interview from Soundtrack.Net.
