Smith opened the day with a warning to the orchestra about the workload ahead.
It's mostly action music, so if you hate us by the end of it that's totally understandable.
Henderson, the son of Sherlock actress Una Stubbs, co wrote the score with Smith in a cramped east London studio before the live session. Smith said software orchestral tools were essential for mockups, but hearing world class brass players in the room was mind blowing. After the first run through, Henderson reportedly whispered to Smith, "Take that to the bank."
The game, which has reportedly sold three million copies, presents an original Bond origin story. Players first meet him as a Navy aircrewman pulled into a hostage rescue in Iceland before he reaches MI6 or full 007 status. The Flight scored that opening like a film set piece, leaning electronic and avant garde in a dark, craggy landscape, then eased familiar Bond sounds in as recruitment progressed.
My favourite bits of the Bond films are always the opening sequence, so I really enjoyed the Iceland mission.
The team had permission to weave in classic movie motifs, including John Barry's theme from On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Henderson called that access a major break, arguing a pastiche could never match the real thing. Smith agreed the main James Bond theme was too iconic to imitate.
Before pop and electronic credits with artists like Bjork, Mel C, and the Freestylers, The Flight built game scores for Alien: Isolation, Assassin's Creed, and the Horizon series. Henderson described the Bond assignment as thrilling and nerve wracking, while Smith pointed to childhood Boxing Day afternoons watching the films with his dad as the source of pressure to stand beside historic Bond scores.
First Light was also reportedly the last Bond project supervised by Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson before creative control moved to Amazon MGM Studios, with that leadership change arriving in the middle of production.
