The Evacuation of Lillian

The Evacuation of Lillian is a piece composed by Michael Giachino for J.J. Abrams’ 2012 film, Super 8. The piece is the 22nd track on the Super 8 score album, and is 3:41 long. The music begins in the film when the protagonist, a young boy named Joe, and his friend Charles discover the creature on the Super 8 footage they had, the accompanies them as they are thrust into the evacuation of their town, Lillian. The track ends as Joe and his friends sneak back into Lillian after the evacuation.

The piece begins quietly with squealing strings and spinning harp glissandos to a creepy and disorienting effect, over which the Creature’s Theme appears three times, quietly at first, then louder. In the film, this part accompanies Joe and Charles discovering the creature in the Super 8 footage they have. The music kicks up with a brassy rendition of the Air Force Theme as the boys leave the house to find themselves in the midst of the town’s evacuation by the Air Force.

Snare and muted brass beats then propel the track for a while from here, while the characters the film are propelled through the unsettling evacuation of the town; these beats layer with the continuously repeated leitmotif representing the evacuation. At 1:03, the leitmotif for disaster and things coming undone makes an appearance, acting as an interlude before the theme for the evacuation begins hurriedly marching again.

At about 3:00, Giacchino introduces the Lamb Action Theme, which is layered with a variation of Alice’s Theme at 3:26. This music coincides in the film with Joe and the boys in the evacuation rendezvous point learning that Alice was taken by the monster (during the track Neighborhood Watch – Fail) and planning to sneak past the Air Force back into the evacuated Lillian to rescue her.

The Evacuation of Lillian is one of two tracks on the album that contain the evacuation theme, the other being Truckload of Trouble.

Super 8 writer-director J.J. Abrams has stated that The Evacuation of Lillian is one of his favorite pieces written by his frequent collaborator Giacchino for the film, saying during Super 8 DVD’s audio commentary that “This cue that Michael wrote is, again, one of my favorites in the movie; it was sort of hard to know what it would be, and then he just came up with something that I just thought was fantastic.” He also referred to it in his note in the album liner as “the glorious evacuation theme.”

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