The soundtrack for "The Social Reckoning," composed by Alexandre Desplat, is scheduled for release on Oct. 9. The film, written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, stars Mikey Madison, Jeremy Allen White, Bill Burr and Jeremy Strong, with Strong stepping into the role of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg — a part previously played by Jesse Eisenberg in 2010's "The Social Network."
The movie dramatizes the true story of former Facebook engineer Frances Haugen, played by Madison, and Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz, played by White. Their reporting brought to light the company's internal research and decision-making, culminating in "The Facebook Files," a 2021 investigative series that exposed Facebook's harmful effects on teenagers and its role in spreading misinformation, including content tied to political violence.
Desplat recorded the score with a full orchestra on the John Williams Scoring Stage at Sony Pictures Studios, crafting a symphonic sound that shifts between intimate character beats and larger dramatic sequences.
"When I first read Aaron Sorkin's script, I was taken aback by the sophistication of his writing," Desplat said. "The dialogue is integral to this film. The language ended up being more important to this score than any other music I've ever written. The greatest challenge was finding the rhythm between their voices and performances, to find the right moment for music to join the actors in the scene."
The score is built around the tension between courage and uncertainty, conviction and doubt, and personal sacrifice versus public responsibility. Central to it is a musical portrait of Haugen, tracing her shift from employee to whistleblower through themes that weigh vulnerability against determination as she wrestles with her choices before ultimately acting on her conscience.
The soundtrack spans 17 tracks: "The Social Reckoning," "Tomorrow's Headlines," "F***," "Jeff," "Online," "Unplug," "MSI," "Celiac," "Published," "Frances Goes Home," "Psych Damage," "Likes," "Sleepless," "Chaos," "Waiting Room," "The Lament" (featuring Renee Fleming), and "72 Hours."
Photo: Kacy Bao, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
