InnerSpace – music by Jerry Goldsmith

Not exactly a major box office hit, 1987’s Innerspace was an odd mix of science fiction action and romantic comedy whose two halves never quite made for one satisfying whole. The ingredients all seemed to be there, including Joe Dante behind the camera, impressive FX work, and an all-star 1980s cast including Dennis Quaid, Martin Short and Meg Ryan, but somehow Innerspace didn’t catch on. It also featured a score by the legendary Jerry Goldsmith, which may well be the one thing about the movie that does have staying power. La-La Land Records issued a nicely remastered edition on CD at the end of 2009, along with their usual generous helping of detailed liner notes that proclaim the musical score (but not the movie) of Innerspace to be a virtual sequel to Goldsmith’s music from Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Is this true? Well, yes and no. Goldsmith does an admirable job of conjuring up that same sense of wonder that he employed in Trek, though of course the arrangement is different, and the one thing that would’ve made a strong connection between the two films’ music – the blaster beam instrument – is a no-show for Innerspace. But seeing that Goldsmith was writing and arranging music for Innerspace and not another Star Trek flick, that’s completely understandable: the literature trying to convince us that Trek fans will eat this up is, perhaps, overstating the case.

Taking up much more of the proceedings are a wistful Americana-flavored theme for Quaid’s washed-up (and washed-out) astronaut, and a comically threatening, twangy motif for the bizarre enemy agent played (complete with evil foreign accent) by Robert Picardo. Action cues begin commanding some of the action about 1/3 of the way though, and while they’re perfectly decent action music, they’re nothing groundbreaking by Goldsmith’s standards (but that still means it’s better than most movie action music).

3 out of 4Innerspace is a more than competent movie score – Jerry Goldsmith never quite seemed to reach the stage where he was phoning it in, which is why fans go nuts when a score like Innerspace is released. If there’s a disservice here, it may well be the marketing hoopla comparing it to some of the composer’s even better works.

Order this CD

  1. Main Title (2:16)
  2. Take Him Home / Broken Toe (1:48)
  3. Tell Me About It (2:17)
  4. State of the Art / The Charge (6:55)
  5. Gas Attack (4:53)
  6. The Injection (2:12)
  7. The Hand / Fat Cells (1:01)
  8. Woman In Red (2:36)
  9. What Is It? (1:08)
  10. Optic Nerves (3:59)
  11. Take It Easy / It’s True (2:18)
  12. No Messenger (2:42)
  13. No Pain (1:57)
  14. User Friendly (1:39)
  15. A Close Look (1:34)
  16. The Cowboy (0:59)
  17. Hold It (3:41)
  18. For the Money / A New Man (3:40)
  19. How Do I Look? / Save It (1:45)
  20. Transformed (3:01)
  21. Retransformed (2:52)
  22. Where Am I? (2:12)
  23. The Womb (4:38)
  24. Fair Exchange (2:05)
  25. Stop The Car (5:59)
  26. Out Of The Pod (3:55)
  27. Disengage (3:00)
  28. No Red Lights (1:18)

Released by: La-La Land Records
Release date: 2009
Total running time: 78:20