Picture courtesy of Dmitri Golovko / Netflix
Director Patrick Hughes wanted energy from War Machine’s action. He got plenty of it from composer Dmitri Golovko. While rangers – led by 81 (Alan Ritchson) – are on the run from alien weaponry, Golovko gives the chase plenty of propulsion.
With electronic instruments, a choir, a war horn, and plenty of more in his toolbox, the composer helps make War Machine a satisfyingly bombastic experience. It marks another successful collaboration between Hughes and the composer, who scored his directorial debut, Red Hill. “That was our first film together,” Golovko said. “My first film, his first film, so we didn’t know what the hell we were doing, but it was a lot of fun.”
The composer recently spoke with What’s On Netflix about their latest film, War Machine, which is performing more than well for Netflix.
I was talking to Patrick just about how important 81’s shame was to the movie. What conversations did you have with Patrick about crafting 81’s theme around it?
A lot of our conversations are about story, character. What are the different moments and the different important elements of the story? In this film, we wound up breaking it up into three categories. There was 81 and his shame.
After Pat and I talk about the story, then I go away and I try to come up with some idea that I think best conveys it. I show it to him and then whether he warms up to it or not, it depends. We just try things out as well and see what works best. But with the idea of shame, that was one of the pillars of the three. I tried to convey a lot of the themes and ideas through falling and rising intervals.
Which scenes really highlight that theme?
With his shame, that theme that plays when he’s in the pool and then when he’s dragging Seven. It reoccurs in different ways throughout, but you maybe don’t notice it as much. It’s these kinds of falling intervals because it’s like 81’s constantly, even though he’s moving forward, he’s always falling down. It’s this internal thing.
How’d you want to wrap up his theme?
At the end of the day, the Rangers theme becomes his theme, and that theme is like, it falls down and then goes back up and then it falls down and goes back up. It’s got this propulsion that 81 has, but he just doesn’t realize it because he just feels so ashamed.
War Machine. (L-R) Jai Courtney as Squad Leader and Alan Ritchson as 81 in War Machine. Cr. Ben King/Netflix © 2026.
Like you said, Patrick, let you go off and see what happens. What were some of the earliest ideas you had that just stayed consistent?.
Actually, that theme was one of them. The core ideas always stayed the same, which is it’s all about 81’s journey within the lens of this kind of alien invasion movie that’s not really an alien invasion movie. There was another theme or an idea that didn’t become a thing, but it’s in there.
What is it?
When the machine is getting up and the music is the rhythms just speeding up, just this feeling of overwhelming, threatening awe. The idea of using choir stayed consistent. And early on, I came up with this idea of using a war horn, but specifically I found an instrument called the carnyx that’s a 2,000-year-old war horn.
It was used by Celtic warriors in battles against Romans, but they also used it in rituals and more intimate settings. I found this guy in France who made them – bashing the metal into shape. He plays them as well. And so I contacted him and he’s like, “You want to buy one?” And I’m like, “No, man, I just want you to maybe record something for me.”
[Laughs] What is a guy like who makes war horns?
He’s awesome. He’s so talented. He just recorded a ton of samples and lots of performances for us. I think I got, I don’t know, 200 recordings from him in total. We had two sessions. Fom that I built some virtual instruments and used those and manipulated them in different ways. And so, you’ll still hear it in the film, but it started off being a lot more prominent, I think, in the sound of the film and then eventually became less prominent, but it’s still there. The life of it is still there. You’ll still hear it during certain moments.
How’d the battle horn play a large role in the score?
We were always just thinking about, okay, well, what’s the sound design doing as well? It was always about a balance. At the end of the day, it’s kind of a horror film. You want it to feel like they’re going through some pretty traumatic, crazy shit. It’s just those elements as they mesh together, but some come up more during certain moments and kind of dip down. The war horn as well – I made a virtual instrument out of it. I actually used it in the score in lots of different ways. It sounded almost like this low brass thing that was just adding a texture to it. I put it through these distortions and filters. It sounded almost what the machine is.
A lot of fun synth work in the score.
It’s a mix between these elements of synth and it kind of feels alive as well. And yeah, I don’t think I can get into what the story behind the machines is, but Pat certainly has all these ideas and we definitely considered those when we were kind of constructing the music.
The movie is heavy on sound effects, given the machine, all the explosions and gunfire. How’d you want the score to play along with the action?
I definitely think about it. I try not to step on anyone’s toes. That’s definitely one way. I’m sure a lot of composers, a lot of experienced composers, will actually do the same thing, that you don’t need to be a sound designer to know that in a mix certain decisions will be made.
You still try to deliver the most robust score you can that doesn’t have any holes in it. And then in the mix they might make some if they need to. And so, I do think about that, the balance of that. It does help with designing stuff, just creating instruments and things, which I always try to do when I can, when time allows for it.
Some action calls for music, some action doesn’t. How do
Patrick’s first instinct is always music, actually. He loves music, which is great, but there are also times when you go like, “Oh, maybe this doesn’t need it.” The performances are strong enough, or it’s, “We’ve had music for this fucking long, let’s have a breather.” But he loves music, but the other thing is he loves trying stuff. We will try stuff. He also cuts the film with no music, which is actually cool because you get to actually see what works and what doesn’t work. And then you can make decisions from there and test things out.
What were your instincts for the introduction of the machine? It’s like a Spielbergian moment of awe, this first encounter, except going horribly wrong.
The thing we talked about a lot was the movies that we grew up with, but like taking it to another level. It’s first contact, but it’s like everybody dies, which is why I named that cue “Massacre,” because it just is pretty much a fucking massacre [Laughs]. It’s that feeling of horror, basically. It is like a horror film – a buildup.
We start off in the world of the Rangers, which is very orchestral, very kind of bombastic and big. And then you go into that other world, which slowly morphs from orchestra to more synths and more strange sounds. And that’s also where, as they’re going down the hill toward the thing, you hear the carnyx again, like boom, boom, that interval thing, and it gets more synthetic. We spoke about the vibe of it changing and becoming a lot more like a horror film, basically.
Say for the chase scene, how bombastic do you want the score to go?
My mixing engineer said, “When you think it gets louder, it gets louder.” It just gets louder and louder. But that whole sequence was really just about — it’s kind of meant to feel like it’s over almost. There’s no hope left.
We tried different temp music and different things to get a feel for it with the music editor as well. We tried things that were a lot more emotional and in the end it was just like, no, it needs to feel like they’re about to get stomped on. And then of course, yeah, the carnyx, again the war horn, comes in as it starts shooting its giant laser.
The way Patrick broke it down for us is he really likes positive and negative charges in action sequences. How do you want to support that through the score?
It’s the dynamics of the particular sequence. My process is always thinking about the characters, about what they’re experiencing, and story beats as well. What’s the most important thing to highlight during a particular moment? Sometimes it is a matter of juxtaposition, changing something and making it sound like the opposite of what you’re seeing sometimes works, but sometimes it is a matter of just being from the character’s perspective.
As you noted, this movie is inspired by some of the movies you and Patrick grew up with. What were some ’80s scores that really inspired you with War Machine?
Total Recall is a big one for me. Obviously, it’s a different kind of movie, but the feel of Jerry Goldsmith’s score, it’s so creative. I would say, of course, James Horner’s (Aliens) scores from that era and Alan Silvestri (Back to the Future).
It’s interesting because a lot of people — I have nostalgia for Total Recall — but a lot of people say, “Oh, it was really fun.” I think it’s fun in retrospect. It wasn’t tongue-in-cheek back then. And so, we try to approach War Machine in a similar way where it’s not quite tongue-in-cheek. It still takes itself pretty seriously, even with the score, as much as it is influenced. It’s influenced, but also, we do try and do our own thing.
