Viewing the world as a circuit board/a circuit board as our world, governed by electrical currents, setting up the idea of a fractal reality, which repeats itself in the same way on different scales. The opening of the “official” version of Blackhat starts with this assumption: a vision of the Earth in silence, seen from the exosphere and then diving down, passing through the electromagnetic buzz of terrestrial communications, where everything and everyone is connected, down to the heart of an integrated circuit: from the macrocosm to the microcosm in a few shots, the connection between the infinitely large and the infinitesimally small, the apparent immateriality of light signals that become the most material of catastrophes (in the alternative opening, the discourse becomes even less tangible: no exploding reactor, only numbers gone crazy on the Big Board of the Stock Exchange causing an economic earthquake that changes the trajectories of the huge cargo ships sailing the oceans of globalization.

The immateriality, the elusiveness of this duality of a film (real/virtual, bodies/bits, theatrical version/alternative cut, praise from the harshest critics/box office failure) has produced another, certainly more limited, catastrophe: an avant-garde soundtrack layered like the colors of the film, but not published in any commercial format. The names of the contributors employed “in parallel” are manifold: after all, Mann has said that choosing musicians is like casting: everyone must provided a different “emotional perspective.” The signatures on the titles are those of Atticus Ross (long-time collaborator of Trent Reznor, with whom he won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for The Social Network in 2010) and Harry Gregson-Williams (at work, among others, with Nicolas Roeg, the brothers Scott, Joel Schumacher, Ben Affleck, and Antoine Fuqua). Gregson-Williams started a Facebook controversy with Mann over the use (or, rather, non-use) of his compositions in the film, writing, “I therefore reluctantly join the long list of composers who have had their scores either sliced and diced mercilessly or ignored completely by Michael Mann.” Mann replied, via Variety,“In the end, it's the film and my vision that dictate which music is used and how.” Along with Atticus Ross and Gregson-Williams we find Leo Ross, Atticus’ brother and brother-in-arms; Bobby Krlic, aka The Haxan Cloak (producer of Vulnicura for Björk and the critically acclaimed Excavation (2013)); Justin Burnett (former collaborator of Gregson-Williams); Hybrid (English breakbeat duo, also frequent Gregson-Williams collaborators); Ryan Amon (soundtrack for Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium, here the principal “victim” of Mann’s slicing and dicing); and Mike Dean (cornerstone hip hop producer, from Kanye West to Jay-Z). A host of talent for a score to be deciphered from within its intangibility.

Without an official reference, here more than ever one must work wisely to identify and connect. The opening “Nuclear Hack” is up to Gregson-Williams, whose 90 minutes of score have been heavily edited, remixed, or entirely discarded: the song initially produces hardware-style low frequencies at work and a vortex of sounds that attempt to flow into synth strings and more familiar percussion (Heat), and from there to embrace one of the principal themes of the film. “Leaving Prison” (working title) employs dramatic strings and piano to comment on the sublime moment of being able to look beyond the walls of a cell in the vastness of an airstrip, while “Dead Reyes/Call to Prayer” is a sort of litany for synth and vocals in the face of the overdose death of Reyes (distant echoes of “Gloria” from The Keep, 1983). The beautiful “Darkness” (Amon from Elysium) is for the lively after-dinner scene at the Korean restaurant, but we also find it on the cargo ship that transports soy off the coast of Rotterdam (alternative cut) and in other times of danger. “Movements” (Atticus Ross) appears in the love scene between Hathaway and Chen Lien. The paramilitary Kassar is one of Mann’s most memorable badasses (at the level of Magua and Waingro): “Shootout/Going After Kassar” by Gregson-Williams, which evokes a supercharged mix between “Force maker” and “Shootout” (Eno and Goldenthal on Heat), accompanies the hut for the dangerous subject in the labyrinthine sewers of Hong Kong. “Drive/Diamond Building” (Gregson-Williams) is eloquent in highlighting the protagonists’ difficult choices and the roads from which there is no going back. “Leaving China” is a rearrangement of Elysium (Amon), used for the magnificent aerial shot when Nick and Lien leave Hong Kong for Malaysia. The preceding firefight with Kassar’s men is commented on by “Darkness,” but in the alternative cut we find the splendid instrumental interlude “Cold Ass Nigga” (Freddie Gibbs, produced by Mike Dean, from the album Shadow of a Doubt, 2015). Amon also composed the main theme, “Blackhat,” with its oriental nuances and rhythms, leaves its mark on the critical moment when Nick, like an antivirus, eradicates Kassar and Sadak, and on the finale, in which the two survivors leave the airport terminal, to dissolve into a reprise of “Movements.” What remains are “Snake Charmer” (Eagle Eye Williamson, from the album Black Gold, Vol. II, 2013), listened to by Nick on headphones before leaving cell 16, and “Sinnerman” by Nina Simone, also a guest in Miami Vice, here the James Leg cover (from the album Oh,Sinner Man, 2015), for the dinner at the Hong Kong wok.

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[MIXCLOUD TRACK LIST] BLACKHAT SCORE
01_A Familiar Code
02_Eagle Eye Williamson - Snake Charmer
03_Ryan Amon - Darkness -[ Bad Guys in a Korean restaurant-Escaping The Ambush]
04_Ryan Amon - Elysium Soundtrack Theme - [Leaving China]
05_ James Leg - Oh, Sinner Man
06_ Open Your Eyes [ Restaurant Scene ]
07_Harry Gregson-Williams - Rooftops - Love Scene
08_Harry Gregson-Williams, Atticus Ross, Leo Ross - Drive [ HQ Echo V. ]
09_Harry Gregson-Williams, Atticus Ross, Leo Ross - Hacking The NSA - Copying Files To External HDD
10_Harry Gregson-Williams,Finding the Transmitter
11_ Justin Burnett - Yau Ma Tei Garden [ Rejected score - Bonus Track ]
12_Harry Gregson-Williams, Atticus Ross, Leo Ross - Raiding Kassar's Hideout
13_Harry Gregson-Williams -Trapped
14_Ryan Amon - Blackhat
15_Atticus Ross - Movements