For as big as techno is as a music genre, and for as long as it’s been in the mainstream, it’s been fairly underutilized in film scoring. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s 90s techno throwback score for Challengers may finally buck the trend, but that remains to be seen. One way to know their 90s-homage was successful is how reminiscent it is of a much earlier techno score: Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek, and Reinhold Heil’s 1998 score for Run Lola Run (with Tywker also directing the film). While the three (once called the “Pale 3”) may now be best known for scoring some of the Wachowski sisters’ films, like Cloud Atlas and The Matrix Resurrections, Run Lola Run was their first collaboration.
The film’s basic premise is pretty simple: Lola’s (Franka Potente) boyfriend Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu) misplaces 100,000 Deutschemarks belonging to his boss, who will kill Manni unless he can replace the money in twenty minutes. But how does a twenty-minute deadline last for roughly ninety minutes? Time loops. Lola must repeatedly run, quite literally, throughout the city in her attempts to save Manni. The frantic pace of Lola’s attempts, and their repetition, lay the groundwork for the trio’s score.
Klimek in particular has a long history in the European electronic scene, which may have been the driving force in determining the score’s genre: techno. Once Lola’s odyssey begins, the score reaches full speed, its pounding rhythms often reminiscent of fast-paced footfalls, mirroring Lola. These moments make up the bulk of the score, creating the film’s urgency and adding life (and danger) to frequent sequences and montages of running through city streets; what could be rather dull moments, no matter how energetically cut, become frenetic.
Tykwer had considered using a voiceover throughout the film as a way to present Lola’s thoughts during these sequences. While useful, it’s easy to imagine the choice cutting against the music’s urgency. However, the Pale 3 found a workaround – Potente’s “vocals”. Throughout the score Potente, as Lola, has rhythmic, spoken-word moments (approaching, but not quite reaching, singing) meant to act as a cipher for Lola’s internal monologue. We literally hear her thoughts, hopes, dreams, worries in infectious repetition, synched to blaring techno. While it isn’t as effective in transmitting her thoughts as a full-bore monologue would be – often the vocals get lost in the music – it’s a clever choice that’s far more inconspicuous.
Perhaps the score’s greatest downside is that it’s affixed to twenty-minute time loops. While the various cues, to an extent, have their own identities, they ultimately feel very similar to one another, particularly since much of what Lola does and experiences from one loop to the next is also similar. It’s a necessity that works to picture but can make the first half of the score release drag.
The first half? That’s right. As the Pale 3 note in the score’s liner notes: “To re-experience the movie, listen tracks 2-9. For alternative experience, listen tracks 10-16.” The back-half of the score consists of remixes by Klimek and other members of the European techno scene. These are a completely different vibe, retaining the DNA of the score but often replacing the intensity with something a bit more downtempo. It takes the original tracks and turns them into a sort of dream state.
The remixed tracks create another coincidental parallel to Challengers, which had a remix album by Boys Noize (and a later official remix single by Nic Fanciulli). Of course, these inadvertent connections make Run Lola Run a recommended listen for anyone that enjoyed the viral score of the summer, but the score shouldn’t simply be looked at as a good double feature with Challengers. Run Lola Run is an indie achievement, with three inexperienced film composers crafting a refreshing, energizing techno score constantly breathing life into Lola.