The 6 Best Movies For Your Surround Sound System Experience
The term "home theater" is pretty self-explanatory: A home entertainment system assembled to get the closest thing to a movie theater-style experience that you can fit into your home. Generally speaking, it's used to refer to a combination of a large TV (or projection screen) and a surround sound system. Though surround sound is also used for TV shows, video games, and even multichannel music, it's most closely associated with the theatrical movies where it originated.
Over time, the potential scope of a true surround sound system has changed. For a long time, the default was called 5.1 channels, or two pairs of front and rear speakers, a center channel, and a subwoofer. Eventually, it expanded to include 7.1 channels, which split the rear channels into two pairs of side and rear channels. In the last decade, spatial audio formats like Dolby Atmos and DTS:X have become the newest standard, adding height-level channels from upward or downward-firing drivers. Now, it's common to see movie soundtracks listed as something like 5.1.2 channels or 7.1.4 channels, with the last digit referring to the height channels, opening up new avenues for attacking the viewer's senses with sound design.
If you're new to surround sound and are looking for a movie that could best show off your system, we've got some recommendations to show off what your speakers can do. So let's take a look at some of the best movies with surround soundtracks that make for great demo material.
Stop Making Sense
This is a list of movies, but we shouldn't limit ourselves to effects-laden blockbusters. What better way to do that than to examine a great concert film, one with a 100% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes? That would be "Stop Making Sense," director Jonathan Demme's 1984 classic starring 2002 Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame inductees Talking Heads. The film is explicitly billed as the greatest concert film of all-time in the trailer for the recent 40th anniversary 4K release that's due out on Blu-Ray this year.
Though out of print, the two different surround soundtracks (one reflecting the live experience and one with a much greater emphasis on the soundboard feed of the performance) on the original 2009 Blu-ray got high marks at the time, hailed as "reference quality" by Blu-Ray.com. "[T]he track is filled with the claps and cheers of concert ambience [sic] in the surround channels, and the timbre of the music is affected by the acoustics of the Pantages Theater," reviewer Casey Broadwater wrote. As for the Atmos mix, Talking Heads keyboard player/guitarist Jerry Harrison told IndieWire in 2023 that the 7.1.4 version has added movement of instruments and backing vocals around the room when it added to the performance.
If you want to turn your home theater into a concert hall for a demo, "Stop Making Sense" is the way to go.
Taxi Driver
Let's move on to a different, old-school kind of Hollywood blockbuster, starting with 1976's "Taxi Driver." This film is particularly great to show off your surround sound system by way of the atmosphere much more than gun fights, car chases, and explosions. Martin Scorcese's epic stars Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle, a Vietnam War veteran and loner who takes the titular job as a way of dealing with his insomnia, though his character becomes increasingly unhinged throughout the film. All of the various Blu-ray editions of "Taxi Driver" are widely beloved as some of the best releases in the format's history, and the surround mix first released in 2011 that's been used in HD and 4K releases is one of many reasons.
"You're looking for your speakers to melt into the background and produce an all-round, open sound that you can almost bathe in," reads a 2023 What Hi-Fi article recommending the film's opening scene as surround sound demo material. "It needs to lull you into relaxation before smacking you round the face with discord in a reminder of the Travis Bickle that's yet to come."
A 2011 AVForums post singled out Bernard Herrman's score as the highlight of the mix, calling it "a moody, dark and powerful blend of saxophone and drum work which perfectly accompanies and enhances the production."
Saving Private Ryan
Now we get to the kind of movie that you were probably expecting to see on this list, like 1998's "Saving Private Ryan." Steven Spielberg's World War II epic features a loaded cast with superstars such as Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, and Vin Diesel plus many others. Oh, and it won Academy Awards for Best Sound and Best Sound Effects Editing.
Originally released on Blu-ray in 2010 with the theatrical 5.1 mix, the movie got high marks. "Certainly the track's primary source of energy and astonishment stems from the combat scenes, but it's the more subtle effects that truly bring the film to life," reads the Blu-ray.com review. "If there's such a thing as a soundtrack being too intense and even somewhat frightening in its realism, this is it."
The 4K Blu-ray release in 2018 expanded on the original version to include 7.1 and Dolby Atmos mixes, and the reviews were just as glowing. "With the Dolby Atmos track, those sounds [in the climactic battle] are more open, and the distant rumbles, the grinding gears, the treads rolling over debris seem to enter the stage with more clarity of fine detail and sense of distance and space, adding to the effect of coming war," noted Blu-Ray.com's review of that release.
The Final Destination series
This one is a bit of a cheat, but it's for a good reason. If you've never seen the five-movie "Final Destination" series, it's a simple premise. Each movie starts with a major, onscreen mass casualty event, and the rest of the story is about those who somehow luckily survived, but weren't supposed to. So, now the characters have to escape a metaphysical embodiment of death, which kills them off in increasingly convoluted ways. Though the surround soundtracks throughout each movie is generally well-reviewed, those dramatic opening scenes are why they're on our list.
BlueRay.com's review of the third film notes that even before people start dying, you can hear the roller coaster that eventually collapses ominously summoning the viewer in the background. "Death's presence is felt as much as it's anticipated, kills are deafening sonic delights, and warehouse machinery, collapsing bridges, airplane engines, rattling fans, and clattering metal are granted convincing weight and low-end ferocity," adds the site's Final Destination 5 review.
All told, these surround sound mixes pack a powerful punch, particularly for the openings and the later Rube Goldbergian death scenes. Even with the uneven storytelling, all are equally fun for your ears.
The Matrix
Next, we have one of the most iconic action movies of the last 30 years: 1999's "The Matrix," which was directed by the Wachowski sisters and followed by three less well-received sequels.
Set in a dystopian future where everyone is trapped inside a virtual world and those who escape rebel against the machines that enslaved them, the Matrix is fondly remembered for pioneering "bullet time" special effects during fight scenes.
A futuristic action movie like "The Matrix" is likely to give a surround sound setup a workout, anyway. But "The Matrix" pushes much further.
Professional reviewers were wowed going back to the original DVD release in 1999, with DVD Talk's review saying that the surround mix "far exceeded the movie theater sound experience and captured the excitement of this film." Blu-ray.com's review of 2009's 10th-anniversary release notes that the lossy Dolby Digital version on the DVD was already worthy of being "demo material." Still, it adds that the lossless Dolby TrueHD version supplanted it "as the ultimate demo material for home theater enthusiasts" thanks in large part to superior bass. Nine years later, the same site's review of the 4K Blu-ray proclaimed that the latest release's Dolby Atmos soundtrack outdid the HD version. There, Michael Reuben explained that much of the original mixing team handled the Atmos track, keeping it faithful to the original while giving it increased directionality by using the height channels of a spatial-ready system.
Jurassic Park
Last but not least, we have the movie that was used to debut DTS's counterpart to Dolby Digital in 1993: Steven Spielberg's "Jurassic Park." Spielberg was an early investor in DTS, so it was only natural that the technology made its debut in one of his biggest blockbusters. The new format, which required specialized CD players with DTS decoders instead of using the film stock, was buoyed by Universal Studios investing $4 million to prepare hundreds of theaters in time for the film's release according to the Los Angeles Times.
Did we mention the film won Academy Awards for Best Sound and Best Sound Editing?
"Whether it's the chirping of a tiny dino as it runs past behind you, or the sound of the Rex's screams up front echoing from the rear channels as if it's reflecting back from the forest behind you, this mix is completely believable," reads The Digital Bits' review of 2000's DVD version. Blu-ray.com unsurprisingly deemed the 2011's 7.1 mix as reference quality, and loved 2022's DTS:X remix, too. "The track is not gun shy, that's for sure, and it's 'Jurassic Park,' so it shouldn't be. Music swells with superb stage engagement and excellent fidelity; John Williams' legendary score has never sounded so," reads that review.
Methodology
For this list, we wanted to focus on films with surround soundtracks that had been lauded in professional reviews first and foremost, with variety being a secondary criterion. Ideally, this shouldn't just be a list of movies that send the sounds of gunshots, explosions, and car crashes across your living room (though, those can be fun!). This list should represent a cross-section of ways that engineers and sound editors can make the most of surround sound to enhance a movie.
In terms of citing professional reviews, the sheer depth of the review archive at Blu-ray.com makes it a valuable resource. You're unlikely to find a group of people with a better frame of reference for where a given movie stands than the staff of Blu-ray.com. When possible, we supplement them with reviews from other websites too, including Reddit and various DVD/Blu-ray/Home Theater blogs or forums.
For variety, we wanted to run the gamut of movies. "Stop Making Sense" represents music and atmosphere through one of the greatest concert films ever made. "Taxi Driver" is widely recognized as one of the greatest films ever made, period, and considered to have a surround soundtrack that enhances the ambiance and showcases the film's score. The others represent different flavors of the more conventional surround experience, with "Jurassic Park" standing out in particular for its role in launching DTS.