The Suicide Squad Composer Talks Crafting Memorable Character Themes

The Suicide Squad debuted in theaters and on HBO Max this past weekend, showcasing a take on the DC Comics universe that’s never quite been seen on the big screen. A lot of elements went into telling the emotional, action-packed story of the film’s eclectic ensemble, including a score courtesy of John Murphy. Murphy’s score, which quickly rose to the top of the iTunes charts in the days after The Suicide Squad debuted, is chock-full of explosive moments, including standout themes for characters like Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), and King Shark (Sylvester Stallone). In an exclusive interview with ComicBook.com, Murphy spoke about the approach to those individual character pieces,

“When we were figuring out which of the characters were going to have their own standalone themes, what became interesting was — [writer-director] James Gunn was okay with completely dipping out of the score to do that, which then allowed different influences to come in,” Murphy explained. “So we had the shape and the crescendo of the score, which naturally became more orchestral and more Gothic. But within that kind of shape, I basically had free rein with some of the vignette pieces to just do whatever style was good for that character in that moment.”

“So you had Polka-Dot Man, I was trying to think, ‘What can I do that’s going to give him his own sound?’ He’s quite different from the other characters, and he’s got these different powers,” Murphy continued. “He’s got this inter-dimensional power. And then I just had the thought of, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to have a really kind of cheesy, but sweet, 1973 kind of Moog thing going on?’ And I’ve got a big old Moog here, so I thought ‘Let’s try it.’ That sound has got nothing to do with the rest of the score, and we never hear it again, but I tried it and James loved it.”

“And then we got to King Shark, and you had this beautiful vignette, which comes right in the middle of a big action sequence,” Murphy added. “And then, suddenly, you’ve got this big shark in Bermuda shorts wandering round an aquarium looking for friends, and it’s all sad. So I thought, ‘Well, let’s try some really sweet, lo-fi little ’60s guitar with a little voice [singing].’ That’s crazy and it’s got nothing to do with the rest of the score, and again, he loved that. That just allowed all of these vignette pieces to just be their own things. So, that allowed all the influences to come in. It was crazy how we shaped the score, but if it works, who cares?”

For Ratcatcher 2, there are two key pieces in the film — “Ratcatcher’s Story”, as well as the epic “Ratism” piece in the film’s conclusion. When determining Ratcatcher’s sound, Murphy drew inspiration from a unique place.

“Me and James are both Ennio Morricone fans,” Murphy revealed. “I mean, for me, Ennio is like the God. He is the cinema to me. And Ratcatcher was, especially, a very important character, because she’s carrying a lot of the heart and the emotion. A lot of the main undercurrent themes of the movie are to do with redemption and family, so I knew that was a big character for James. So, I thought, “What do I really want to hear when I’m watching this heartfelt, beautiful character?” And I thought, “Well, let’s try the beautiful sad strings with the simple acoustic guitar.” And I sent a really rough demo over to James, thinking I was going to add more things on top, and there was a countermelody and there was other stuff. And he was like, ‘No, it’s perfect. Just leave it like that.’ And we tried to incorporate that theme in other places, but at that point it just felt out of place. I think, by definition, a theme is something that recurs. But most of those themes for the characters, they never come back again. They just have their moment in the sun and that’s it. But he was totally cool with that. He was just like, ‘No, it works beautiful there. Let’s just have it there.’”

The Suicide Squad is now available both in theaters and on HBO Max.