Composer Laura Karpman Used Wind-Up Toys and a Vintage Radio to Score ‘Captain America: Brave New World’

Composer Laura Karpman has shaped some of the most memorable sounds of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The five-time Emmy Award winner and Oscar nominee has crafted themes for many of Marvel’s most beloved heroes, writing scores for the 2023 film The Marvels and the Disney+ series What If…? and Ms. Marvel.

Now, Karpman is diving back into the music of the MCU, taking flight with Sam Wilson for Marvel Studios’ Captain America: Brave New World.

The film follows Anthony Mackie’s high-flying hero as he’s tangled in an international incident, clashing with the newly-elected President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford). The entire film has a ticking-clock quality, as Sam races to uncover a deadly conspiracy — something Karpman and director Julius Onah wanted to emphasize through music.

“We wanted to find an edgy sound for Cap,” Karpman tells Marvel.com. “He is a modern man in a modern situation. We wanted to create music for who he is at this second, at this moment in his life.”

Captain America: Brave New World is an action-packed Super Hero story, but Onah also wanted to keep the film as grounded as possible, describing it as “our own version of a paranoid thriller.” To capture that vibe musically, he and Karpman assembled a wide range of sonic inspirations — from 1970s conspiracy classics to more modern spy flicks.  

“We talked about conspiracy thrillers — even mid-century, earlier than the ‘70s, like The Manchurian Candidate or North by Northwest,” Karpman says. “And the Brave New World theme, which is the hero theme for Cap, Joaquin, and Isaiah, does have a Mission: Impossible feel to it. That was something Julius asked for.”

Even before Karpman began writing, she gathered inspiration by recording some New Orleans-style drumline percussion. Sam Wilson was born and raised in Louisiana (as was Mackie himself), so Karpman wanted to find a way to incorporate classic New Orleans drums into Sam’s theme.

“I thought, ‘Oh, it’ll be great for the Cap theme,’” Karpman remembers. “It’ll give it that edge that’s great for Sam and for what’s going on in the film. But it actually brought me to the conspiracy music, which was a surprise. That kind of tight drumming brought me that tight, wound-up feeling.”

To amplify that unsettling vibe, Karpman also turned to some unconventional instruments — like wind-up toys and fuzzy radio static, which she used for manipulative villain Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson).

“I brought down my mother’s ‘70s analog radio for the Sterns theme,” she explains, adding that she wanted Sterns’ melody to feel “taunting,” just like his character. “His thing was using sound to trigger the reactions he wanted out of people, so I was just playing with a lot of different sounds and trying to bring them together with the traditional large Marvel orchestra.”

The result is an unconventional (and unforgettable) score, packed with unexpected sounds and surprises. After all, Karpman says, that’s what she loves most about writing for Marvel.

“Everything about it is fun, and there’s a lot of room to be weird,” Karpman says. “Once you get the singable themes, and Kevin [Feige] is kind of whistling them around, there are all kinds of spaces where you can do all these weird things that I love. And I love the characters. They run the whole range of humanity — even when they’re not human.”

Captain America: Brave New World is in theaters now.