Song of the Day 3/2: Brad Fiedel, “Terminator 2 Theme”

Anti-Putin Russian dissident Alexei Navalny was buried in Moscow on Friday, a ceremony that drew thousands of chanting spectators despite threats of arrests and heavy police presence. News reports mentioned that his coffin was lowered into the grave to the theme from “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.”

“He thought ‘The Terminator 2’ was the best film in the whole world,” Navalny’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmish, said. For those who might miss the significance, at the end of the 1991 James Cameron film, the cyborg played by Arnold Schwarzenegger sacrifices himself to save the future. The theme plays as he’s lowered into a vat of molten metal and destroyed.

The theme was composed by Brad Fiedel, a former keyboardist for Hall & Oates in the ’70s who moved to Hollywood and wrote music for dozens of movies and TV shows in the ’80s and ’90s. He got his big break when Cameron hired him to score the first “Terminator” film in 1984.

The “Terminator 2” theme has been covered several times, and you can hear for yourself why it’s perfect for a Russian funeral ceremony.