All vikisInception Soundtrack
Hans Zimmer's Inception soundtrack (2010) in full, all 12 tracks of the WaterTower Music album, 49 minutes, each playing from its first second, under measured highlights. Its two heavy brass notes come from a single beat of an Edith Piaf record, and the album closes with Time.
We rate the Inception soundtrack B tier, and we think that undersells how far it traveled: its two brass notes are the most copied sound in film music since 2010, and Time is the rare closing track that outgrew its film. The tier follows our rule, not our ears. We could confirm no second complete recording by another orchestra and no concert performance of this score, so what decides it is the third test: the album is its maker's own full release, 12 tracks from WaterTower Music (Apple Music).
This is Time, the last track on the album, in which Filmtracks hears a motif pointing back to Half Remembered Dream, the track the album opens with. Zimmer now plays his film music in arenas with his own band: "Hans Zimmer Live: The Next Level" had finished 50 sold-out European shows by Apr 2, 2026 and goes to North America from Feb 17 to Apr 11, 2027 (Pollstar, Sep 18, 2026), though that report lists no set, so we cannot say Inception is in it. His next large commission is HBO's Harry Potter series, due in 2027 (Warner Bros. Discovery). The album came out in July 2010 with 12 tracks, which Vi.ki timed from the uploads on Nov 10, 2026 at 49 minutes 25 seconds.
One beat of Edith Piaf
In the film the characters wake each other with Edith Piaf's 1960 recording of "Non, je ne regrette rien", and the score's two heavy brass notes come out of that record. Zimmer told the New York Times (Jul 28, 2010) that the idea started with Christopher Nolan, who had the song in the script, and that the cue is not the song slowed down. He pulled one beat out of the recording and worked on that. "I didn't use the song; I only used one note," he said.
The tempo of the whole score hangs on the same record. Every piece is a subdivision or a multiple of the Piaf track's tempo, Zimmer said, so the music can fall into half time or third time as the film moves down a level of dreaming (NPR, Aug 2, 2010). MovieMusicUK (Jul 16, 2010) describes the brass blast as the film's signpost between those levels.
Electronics, an orchestra and Johnny Marr
Zimmer called this a very electronic score, one where the orchestra and the electronics share the front of the stage (Filmtracks). The other live element is a guitar: Johnny Marr, formerly of The Smiths, plays the parts, which Classic FM (Apr 17, 2014) hears as an echo of Ennio Morricone. Lorne Balfe wrote additional music, Matt Dunkley conducted, and the album's four producers were Zimmer, Balfe, Nolan and Alex Gibson (MovieMusicUK).
It was Zimmer's third film with Nolan, after Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Told to let his imagination run, he prepared by reading Douglas Hofstadter's "Godel, Escher, Bach" for the way it plays with mathematics and music together (Classic FM). The track with the clearest scene on record is Mombasa, the chase through the Kenyan city, where percussion pulses over orchestra, synthesizers and guitar (MovieMusicUK). We think it is the album's best argument that this score is more than two notes.
Nominated everywhere in 2011
The score was up for all four major prizes and took none. The Academy nominated it and chose The Social Network (oscars.org). The Golden Globes nominated it as one of the film's four nominations, none of them a win (goldenglobes.com). BAFTA listed it for Original Music beside 127 Hours, Alice in Wonderland, How to Train Your Dragon and The King's Speech (BAFTA, Feb 13, 2011). At the Grammys it lost best score soundtrack album to Toy Story 3, in a year when Zimmer had a second nomination in the category for Sherlock Holmes (grammy.com).
The album entered the Billboard 200 at No. 53 on Jul 31, 2010 and peaked at No. 44 a week later (Billboard). A search of the RIAA's Gold and Platinum database on Nov 10, 2026 found no certification.
Highlights
Six moments inside the tracks of this album, measured by Vi.ki from the uploads on Nov 10, 2026 and not picked by ear (the home page says how). No single instrument's entry passed the bar; what is kept are the climaxes of a score built on slow swells. The Play column is the time inside the track.
All tracks
The album in its own order, from the uploads WaterTower Music provided to Hans Zimmer's YouTube channel. Each track is its own video, so every Play link starts at 0:00, and together they run 49 minutes 25 seconds; Waiting for a Train is the longest at 9:31 and Half Remembered Dream the shortest at 1:12.
Editions
| Edition | Released | Tracks | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| Music from the Motion Picture | July 2010 | 12 | WaterTower Music and Reprise |
One edition is all we could confirm. Its release day differs by source: Apple Music gives Jul 9, 2010 and Filmtracks Jul 13, 2010. MovieMusicUK lists the CD as WaterTower Music and Reprise 524667-2 and times it at 49 minutes 20 seconds, five seconds under our count of the uploads.
Sources
- Inception (Music from the Motion Picture), Apple Music, read Nov 10, 2026
- Inception, Filmtracks, read Nov 10, 2026
- Inception, MovieMusicUK, Jul 16, 2010
- Hans Zimmer Extracts the Secrets of the Inception Score, The New York Times, Jul 28, 2010
- The Music of Inception, Exposed, NPR, Aug 2, 2010
- Inception, Classic FM, Apr 17, 2014
- Hans Zimmer Announces The Next Level U.S. Dates, Pollstar, Sep 18, 2026
- Hans Zimmer and Bleeding Fingers compose new score for the HBO Harry Potter series, Warner Bros. Discovery
- The 83rd Academy Awards, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
- Inception, Golden Globes
- Film Awards 2011 winners list, BAFTA, Feb 13, 2011
- Best Score Soundtrack Album, 2011, Recording Academy
- Billboard 200, Sep 4, 2010, Billboard
- Gold and Platinum: Inception, RIAA, read Nov 10, 2026
Moments
Time
Hans Zimmer
Half Remembered Dream
Hans Zimmer
Radical Notion
Hans Zimmer
Old Souls
Hans Zimmer
528491
Hans Zimmer
Waiting for a Train
Hans Zimmer
Paradox
Hans Zimmer
We Built Our Own World
Hans Zimmer
Dream Is Collapsing
Hans Zimmer
Mombasa
Hans Zimmer
One Simple Idea
Hans Zimmer
Dream Within a Dream
Hans Zimmer
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See also
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SoundtracksFull soundtracks of games, movies and shows, one page each, starting with Aion 2, New World, Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer. Each page opens with highlights inside the tracks and then lists every track in a table that plays it from its first second.
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