Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (soundtrack)

Ghost Protocol's soundtrack has a Russian-influence, in tune to the film's setting. The scoring process was delayed, due to Giacchino's commitments on scoring Cars 2 and Super 8.[2] The recording of the score on August 2011 at the Newman Scoring Stage in 20th Century Fox Studios at Los Angeles, California, and was completed early-December.[3]

As in previous installments, the score incorporates Lalo Schifrin's themes from the original television series.[4] Explaining the stylistic influence generated by Schifrin's history with the franchise, Giacchino said "Lalo is an amazing jazz writer. You know you can't write a straight-up jazz score for a film like this but you can certainly hint at it here and there".[5] He used a 6/8 – 2/4 rhythmic pattern of the theme, instead of a 5/4 rhythmic pattern, which Giacchino added that, traditionally in that tune, the lower strings are first played using the "Bom, Bom, Bom-Bom" theme followed by upper strings and woodwinds.[6] But, he did not use strings for that melody, and instead give energy on the melodic tunes, playing "Bop-pa-pa, Bop-pa-pa...".[5] The tune was played using an electric guitar and limited the strings in the lower level, with a slower version of the main melody being overlapped by a jazz theme in the upper layer.[6]

He then described the idea, to Bird who called it as "astonishing" and gave creative freedom to work on that tune. He wanted to make the theme as "modern and hip and energetic and oppressive as you possibly can and that will just keep the audience busy".[5][7]

Varèse Sarabande released the soundtrack of Ghost Protocol on December 13, 2011 in digital and physical formats.[8]

To honor the 10th anniversary of the film's release, in May 2022, Mondo announced two double-disc vinyl sets. The soundtrack is pressed in a 180-gram yellow marble (sand storm) and black colored vinyl. The album also featured two cover artworks from different stills, one featuring Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt climbing on a Burj Khalifa, and the other featured a darkened side profile of Cruise, in the film.[9][10] Pre-orders for the vinyl disc began on May 11, 2022, and was marketed and released on June 3, 2022.[10]

Mondo also released a slip-case featuring vinyl disc of the soundtracks from the first four instalments, including the vinyl edition of Ghost Protocol soundtrack.[11]

Ghost Protocol's score received positive critical response. James Christopher Monger of Allmusic gave the score 7.5 out of 10.[12] In his review for MTV, Williams Goss praised Giacchino's score as "another rousing score that leaps forth from the classic themes of the show to define itself in rightfully thrilling ways".[13] Justin Chang of Variety wrote "Michael Giacchino once again supplies jazzy, propulsive riffs on Lalo Schifrin’s classic theme".[14] Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter also wrote "Michael Giacchino‘s active, imaginative, nearly ever-present score nicely incorporates Lalo Schifrin‘s original TV theme, as the previous films also did."[15] David Edelstein of Vulture opined that "Giacchino does more variations on Schifrin’s M:I theme than Beethoven did on Diabelli's".[16]

Mfiles wrote "The composer's attention to detail is particularly impressive: rarely a moment goes by when he isn't introducing a new motif, reprising his own ideas or adapting Schifrin's previous themes. Consistent with both the original sound of the TV series and his earlier score for the third film, Giacchino mixes together a plethora of ideas, meaning there's rarely a dull moment. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol is one of Giacchino's most entertaining scores and one of the most entertaining action adventure scores of 2011."[17] James Southall of Movie Wave called it as "a solid enough score – though far from one of the composer’s finest – but the recording just drags all the life out of it".[18] Filmtracks.com wrote "Giacchino scores all are among the driest, flattest, and dullest currently recorded and released on album, but Ghost Protocol is so muted at times that it seems like it's practically in monaural sound. The completely dead mix continues to diminish even Giacchino's liveliest works."[19]

Credits adapted from CD liner notes[8]

• ^{^a} Contains Mission: Impossible Theme by Lalo Schifrin
• ^{^b} Contains Mission: Impossible Theme and "The Plot" by Lalo Schifrin