Acclaimed musician and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness composer Danny Elfman has opened up about the last-minute changes made to the Marvel film's most hectic fight scene.
Speaking to Marvel.com, Elfman discussed his part in bringing the film's "Lethal Symphonies" to life. "When Sam [Raimi] first described it to me, I said to Sam, 'I don't know what the hell you're talking about." According to the composer, Raijmi shot the scene before getting Elfman's input just to show him what his vision for it was. Elfman described it as, "Literally, not metaphorically, these notes are flying off the page.
The scene in question sees Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange encounter a variant of himself in a reality nearly torn asunder by an incursion, an event in which two realities collide. As Doctor Strange and the darker, malevolent Sinister Strange do battle, the two sorcerers conjure musical notes off the pages scattered in the surrounding room. "It was working various classical pieces against each other; kind of famous pieces," Elfman said of composing the scene. "Then, in the very 59th minute of the 11th hour, at the very end, Kevin Feige jumped in and said to just simplify it to Beethoven versus Bach. I did one more pass at it where it was Beethoven’s '5th Symphony' against Bach's 'Toccata and Fugue.' It really worked out perfectly."
Multiverse of Madness marked a reunion for Elfman and Raimi, who first collaborated on 1990's Darkman starring Liam Neeson. Since then, Elfman has composed for the director's first two Spider-Man films, as well as Raimi's Oz the Great and Powerful. Raimi also commented on the "Lethal Symphonies" scene and its importance to further establishing the extent of what magic in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is capable of. "We wanted to do something extraordinary because we had Doctor Strange versus Sinister Strange," the director said. "We didn't want them to throw fisticuffs, and we didn't even want their classic spells against each other. We wanted something that we hadn't seen before. I thought it would be really cool if they used music as a weapon against each other."
The film's star also contributed to the scene, with Cumberbatch stating that there was "a point where it became a little bit like a weird tennis match. I was like, 'No, it's got to be more inventive. We have to explode it, and we have to use different elements.' I came up with the ideas of the sound effects, splitting it apart and coming back together. The notes were hitting Sinister Strange like sort of peppering him with bullets, and then there was one note that would go into a ball that's being held to explode."
Fans can see all the orchestral action for themselves in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, in theaters now.
Source: Marvel