Exodus: Gods and Kings: the soundtrack album is available for pre-order; the track list hints at a few new story details

Many thanks to the reader who tipped me off to the fact that the soundtrack album for Exodus: Gods and Kings is already available for pre-order at Amazon.com. No cover art is available for it yet, but we know it will feature music by the film’s main composer Alberto Iglesias (pictured here), and it may or may not include music by Harry Gregson-Williams, who also contributed to the movie’s score.

The soundtrack album will include 32 tracks in all, and the titles on a few of them hint at story elements we haven’t heard much about yet. Check out the full list — mixed with some speculation as to what the titles might mean — below the jump.

Here is the track list:

1. Opening + War Room
2. Leaving Memphis
3. Hittite Battle
4. Returning to Memphis

These four tracks seem pretty clearly to refer to the opening battle sequence, including the build-up to that sequence and the calming down afterwards.

5. Moses in Pythom
6. Nun’s Story
7. The Coronation

Pithom is one of two cities that the Hebrews built in Egypt, according to Exodus 1. But all the previous reports had indicated that the city Moses visits in this film will be the other city built by the Hebrews, i.e. Pi-Ramesses. Does he visit both cities, then?

Also curious: ‘The Coronation’ presumably refers to Ramses becoming Pharaoh after the death of Seti, but previous reports indicated that Ramses would already be Pharaoh before Moses visits the construction site and has his first serious encounter with the Hebrew slaves (including Nun, the father of Joshua). If the tracks appear on this CD in the same order that they do in the film — and they might not — then it would seem that Ramses isn’t crowned until after Moses meets the slaves.

8. Ramses Retaliates
9. Arm Chop
10. Goodbyes

We’ve seen the ‘Arm Chop’ in the trailers, and ‘Goodbyes’ probably refers to the farewells between Moses, his adoptive mother and his sister when he is sent into exile, as per the clips from the film that have already been screened for the media.

11. Journey to the Village
12. The Vows

The latter title presumably refers to Moses’ marriage to Zipporah.

13. Alone in the Desert
14. Climbing Mount Sinai
15. I Need a General

I assume Ramses already has all the generals he needs, so I’m guessing ‘I Need a General’ might be something that Moses says, perhaps in reference to Joshua. A more daring guess: maybe it’s something that God says to Moses from the burning bush.

16. Exodus
17. Ramses’ Orders
18. Moses & Nun
19. Moses’ Camp

The notion that Moses has a “camp”, rather than a house that he stays in or some such thing, may tie in to the film’s depiction of a Hebrew “uprising” against the Pharaoh.

20. Ramses’ Insomnia
21. Hail
22. Animal Deaths

Technically, the plague on livestock should happen before the plague of hail, but hey.

23. Looting

Presumably this refers to the Egyptians raiding the granaries.

24. Ramses’ Own Plague
25. Lamb’s Blood

The juxtaposition of these two titles makes me wonder if Exodus is going to follow The Ten Commandments’ lead, in suggesting that God sent the plague of the firstborn after Ramses himself threatened to kill all the firstborn Hebrews.

26. We Cross the Mountains
27. Into the Water
28. The Chariots
29. The Hebrews
30. Tsunami

These tracks all seem to refer to the actual Exodus itself — and, notably, instead of mentioning the Red Sea or any parting thereof, they mention a tsunami.

31. Sword Into Water

Given the importance of swords in this film — specifically the two that Seti gives to Moses and Ramses in the opening scenes — I’m guessing that either Moses or Ramses throws his sword into the water after the Egyptian charioteers are drowned, as a gesture signifying that that part of their lives is now well and truly over.

32. The Ten Commandments

Aha! It looks like Ridley Scott won’t simply show the Hebrews escaping their bondage in Egypt, but will include at least a coda acknowledging that Moses established a new legal and moral code. Will we see Christian Bale holding the two tablets of the Law, then, just like Charlton Heston and Val Kilmer before him? We shall see.

Amazon says the soundtrack album will be released December 2, and other sites say it will be released December 9, but either way, it looks like North American audiences will have a chance to listen to this music before the film comes out December 12.

November 13 update: Film Music Reporter now has the soundtrack album cover — and they also indicate that track 12 might be called ‘The Wows’. This is actually the title in the Amazon.com listing as well, but I assumed it was an error, especially after I found a website that called it ‘The Vows’. Now, though, I’m not so sure — especially after seeing ‘The Wows’ on the Spanish Sony Music website.