24 of the Best Soundtracks in Movie History

Music is a movie’s unsung hero (okay, it’s sung a good percentage of the time). Without a score, everyone would be sitting around in awkward silence, sniffles and stomach gurgles painfully amplified. But it goes deeper than that: The right pop song can turn an otherwise perfectly good scene into an iconic moment. Say what you will about the actors and animators, but The Lion King wouldn’t have been shit without Elton John.

In fact, watching the right movie at the right time can program your musical tastes for life, at least according to the responses when Redditor Squirrelkid11 asked r/AskReddit, “Which movie soundtrack slaps from beginning to end?” Long-forgotten movies still show up on people’s playlists, others fall asleep to the sounds of their favorite comfort movies and some soundtracks simply go harder than they have any right to.

24 Gladiator

23 Interstellar

22 The Lord of the Rings

21 Pulp Fiction

20 Trainspotting

19 Dazed and Confused

18 The Last of the Mohicans

17 Almost Famous

16 Tarzan

15 Guardians of the Galaxy

14 A Knight’s Tale

13 Drive

12 Howl’s Moving Castle

11 Spirited Away

10 O Brother, Where Art Thou?

9 The Blues Brothers

8 Tron: Legacy

7 Donnie Darko

6 The Crow

5 The Prince of Egypt

4 A Goofy Movie

3 Shrek

2 High Fidelity

1 Queen of the Damned

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