Jerry Goldsmith (Air Force One) Air Force One

Jerry Goldsmith composed the Air Force One score in twelve days — an emergency replacement for Randy Newman's rejected work — and produced what multiple critics called one of his most rousing themes of the 1990s. He could not finish alone and enlisted Joel McNeely, who wrote nearly thirty minutes of material based on Goldsmith's themes. The result won a BMI Film Music Award and gave the film a muscular patriotic identity that Newman's more ironic sensibility could not provide.

Petersen rejected Randy Newman's score as closer to parody than action

Randy Newman was originally hired to score Air Force One, leveraging his reputation for Americana. Newman invested significant effort attempting to prove his range, recording approximately an hour of material. Petersen rejected it — the compositions sounded closer to parody than to the brassy, dead-serious action scoring the director wanted. Newman was dismissed very late in production, leaving almost no time for a replacement. (filmtracks, movie-wave)

Newman later recycled portions of his rejected Air Force One material for Toy Story 3 (2010). (wikipedia)

Goldsmith composed all themes in twelve days and delegated orchestration to McNeely

With only twelve days remaining before the final mix, Goldsmith accepted the assignment knowing he could not complete it alone. He initially asked his son Joel Goldsmith, who had assisted him on Star Trek: First Contact the previous year, but Joel was unavailable. Goldsmith turned instead to composer Joel McNeely.

Goldsmith composed all themes and motifs, then delegated their development and orchestration to McNeely for sequences he could not personally address. McNeely's contributions — nearly thirty minutes of the expanded score — primarily covered the second act, including major aerial combat and action sequences. The Filmtracks review praised McNeely's work as "outstanding" adaptations that went well beyond simple orchestration, noting careful integration of Goldsmith's thematic material with skillful note substitutions and key shifts. (filmtracks)

Goldsmith later said he would "never again attempt such a last-minute effort." (movie-wave)

The main theme is among Goldsmith's most memorable of the decade

The Movie Wave review described the main theme as "unbelievably rousing and patriotic" and "a bit martial, a bit presidential" — qualities that aligned precisely with what Petersen needed. The score's standout cues include "The Parachutes" (the opening), "The Hijacking" (an eight-minute action cue built on a single rhythmic phrase), and "Welcome Aboard" (the closing). (movie-wave)

The orchestral approach emphasized acoustic purity — no heavy synthesizer accompaniment, which was becoming common in 1990s action scores. The result was a throwback to the golden-age Hollywood style that Goldsmith had helped define, applied to material that could easily have received a more generic treatment. (filmtracks)

The score earned a BMI Film Music Award

The Academy recognized the film for Sound and Film Editing but not for music. The BMI Film Music Award went to Goldsmith, acknowledging the extraordinary circumstances of the composition. The score has remained in print through expanded editions, with the deluxe release running approximately 120 minutes — far beyond the original 35-minute album. (wikipedia, filmtracks)