MovieChat Forums > 48 Hrs. (1982) Discussion > Theme of 'Commando' (1985) appears in '4...

Theme of 'Commando' (1985) appears in '48 Hrs.' (1982)???

posted 17 years ago by GodfatherX
15 replies | jump to latest

Can anyone confirm this???

When Luther (played by David Patrick Kelly) picks up Reggie's car from the parking garage and drives it - and the money - to the first meeting point, I am quite positive, that the theme of the movie "Commando" (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) is played.

The funny thing is, that the movie Commando came out 1985 (3 years after 48 Hrs (1982)).
Another funny thing I noticed, is that David Patrick Kelly (who plays Luther in 48 Hrs.) also plays in Commando. He plays Sully, a henchman of the villain, and as him, he also drives a fancy german sports car.

Aren't those too many coincidences?
Or am I imagining things?

Somebody who has both DVDs, please confirm this.

And if it's true does anybody know if this was done intentionally?

Thanks,
GodfatherX

[–] SickBoy00 17 years ago

Same music. They may have rearranged it differently or played the entire version in 48hrs, but it was used again in Commando. In Another 48Hrs, they use a similar version. Not quite the same, cut up a bit differently, but the steel drum part is there.

And yea, its a pretty weird coincidence that David Patrick Kelly is in both movies where the music is used.

[–] alexandermircica 17 years ago

Plus its used in another 48 Hrs and Red Heat too which also has Ed o Ross in it! The plot thickens!!!

[–] frog2077 17 years ago

Yeah this happens all the time but as the music is incidental you wouldn’t notice. It is easier and cheaper to nab some stock music than make your own score, although nowadays with computers making music for a film it must be a lot less expensive I imagine.

This happens a lot with trailers too. For example the first trailers of Robocop have the Terminator music on them. Check out early trailers of these 3 that all have the soundtrack music to 28 days later. There is another one about a kid with magical powers that has it too but the name escapes me. Its lame huh especially when the music has 'in your mind' attached itself to a certain movie.

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[–] crescentcomics1 17 years ago

It's not the exact same music. All of those scores--48 Hours, Another 48 Hours, Commando, and Red Heat--were done by James Horner, a great composer who happens to have a really bad habit of ripping off his own scores. One poster almost had it right--it is kind of a re-arranging of the same basic motif. Similarly, you can hear the opening strains of Aliens in his score for Project X, and he re-uses a variation of his Khan/Klingon themes from Star Trek II and III respectively in many other movie scores (the aforementioned Aliens, Brainstorm, Willow and Troy, to name a few).

Hope this helps :-)

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[–] ubcool 17 years ago

Your right James Horner does recycle certain themes and parts of his music, but the parts of the score mentioned in Commando, Another 48 hours etc are the same. the music in those parts is in fact exactly the same. basically stock music, the overall score will be different but only through arrangement

the others parts of scores u mentioned, like the parts in Aliens and star trek II do sound similar but are in fact notably different.

[–] pazuzu-2 16 years ago

The Trailer for Commando has music from 48Hrs.

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[–] 16 years ago

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[–] 16 years ago

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[–] Sofa_King_Sleazy 13 years ago

The funny thing is, that the movie Commando came out 1985 (3 years after 48 Hrs (1982)).
Another funny thing I noticed, is that David Patrick Kelly (who plays Luther in 48 Hrs.) also plays in Commando. He plays Sully, a henchman of the villain, and as him, he also drives a fancy german sports car.

The way you word this almost makes me think you were accusing 48Hrs of ripping off Commando. LOL!

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[–] GodfatherX 13 years ago

Well, I'm not "accusing" any movie or person, but wondering about the connection.

It's just, that the steel drum theme in Commando is used practically the whole time throughout the film and in 48 hrs it's only in one (or a couple) scene(s).

So yes, for that reason, I would think, the theme was originally made for Commando and parts of it was recycled in 48 hrs. That's why I found the chronologically reverse order of the movies' release dates "funny".
However, as somebody else mentioned above, James Horner might have just used that little piece in 48 hrs and later, when he made the score for Commando he might have thought that it could become an overall theme for another movie.

Whatever the order of events really was, I'm sure it was just James Horner recycling his own stuff.

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[–] scabab 13 years ago

I watched Commando recently then this today, I definitely could tell it was music from the same guy. I looked it up and yep it was.

[–] Max06 13 years ago

Many film composers have recognizable motifs and themes which they often recycle in other projects. For instance, you always know when it's a Hans Zimmer score (or one of his protégés). James Horner has written some fantastic movie music over the years, though he is well known for frequently double-dipping his own work.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] the_la_baker 9 years ago

You touch it with a needle.

There are a lot of people who have spent some time compiling all the music he steals(from himself mostly, but also famous pieces by other composers).

Here is an example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMHJlkYlzKE

You can find many more.

[–] FCA1975 9 years ago

You would think the phenomenon known as "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" should have been coined as "Six Degrees of 48 hrs.".

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