Professional Purveyor the Award Bait Song. Wrote the score for numerous films, working alongside James Cameron for three of his most successful films. He composed the scores for many family and Animated Films before his breakthrough moment scoring Titanic
Most of his work tends to incorporate the use of the Ethereal Choir and Celtic instruments, as well as synth sounds.
Known somewhat less fondly for reusing his music from previous films. Also along these lines, he has a habit of directly quoting themes and motives from 20th century Russian masters.
Some of his scores include (reverse chronological order)[]
- The Amazing Spider Man (2012)
- The Karate Kid -The 2010 remake
- Avatar (2009)
- The Perfect Storm (2000)
- Titanic (1997) - The defining film for Horner, much like Star Wars for John Williams.
- Balto (1995)
- Jumanji (1995)
- Apollo 13 (1995)
- Casper (1995)
- Braveheart (1995)
- Legends of the Fall (1994)
- The Pagemaster (1994)
- We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993)
- Hocus Pocus (1993) - with John Debney (Horner did one theme while Debney did the rest of the film)
- Once Upon a Forest (1993)
- The Rocketeer (1991)
- Glory (1989)
- Field of Dreams (1989)
- Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989)
- Willow (1988)
- The Land Before Time (1988)
- An American Tail - (1986) Also its sequel Fievel Goes West (1991). It was the first score that won him some awards.
- Aliens (1986) - He had such a hellish time scoring this due to the movie's famously troubled production and initially swore he'd never work with Cameron again. However, he relented on this, and had better experiences with the other Cameron movies.
- Krull (1983)
- Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan' (1982) and Star Trek III the Search For Spock (1984). Star Trek II was his big break and launched him into the Hollywood scene; he later declined the offer to score later Trek movies. Debate still rages over whether his or Jerry Goldsmith's music is superior.
- Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)
Works for television include[]
- Amazing Stories ("Alamo Jobe")
- Fish Police - yes, believe it or not he composed one of his few TV themes for this short-lived cartoon (he also scored the pilot).
- CBS Evening News With Katie Couric (yep, that was him)