James Horner composed the orchestral score for James Cameron’s 2009 film Avatar, set partly on Pandora. Horner created the film’s music, including its sweeping orchestral themes and the musical material associated with the Na’vi world.
Avatar reunited Cameron with Horner after their work together on Aliens. Horner approached Pandora’s sound as a combination of large-scale symphonic writing, unusual vocal textures, percussion, and ideas intended to suggest an alien culture. The score supports the film’s contrast between human technology and the living ecosystems of Pandora.
The film’s end-title song, “I See You,” was performed by Leona Lewis and written by Horner with collaborators. That song is not the same thing as the film’s instrumental score, although both belong to the movie’s wider musical identity.
Horner received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score for Avatar. He died in 2015, several years before the release of later Avatar sequels, whose music was led by other composers.