Max Richter’s ‘On the Nature of Daylight’ might just be the most overused song in film soundtracks, ever.
It was released in 2004, on Richter’s album, The Blue Notebooks
Don’t get us wrong, it has a purpose, and it works.
(It is quite the tearjerker.)
But the question stands…
Why?
What is it about this song that means it has soundtrack some of the most emotional and profound moments in modern cinema?
Sure, it’s beautiful.
But it runs the risk of acting like an emotional wallpaper in scenes that might just be better left without it.
It also risks making every scene it inhabits feel like an emotional tik tok edit.
But really, none of these things actually make it a bad needle drop.
In reality, it’s a lot of our favourite needle drops, because, as aforementioned, it just works.
So, let’s take a look at (just about) every time ‘On the Nature of Daylight’ has been used in film.
Also, spoiler alert, obviously.
Arrival (2016)
Denis Villeneuve’s 2016 sci-fi classic famously, and quite beautifully, uses the track.
Under a profound voice over from Amy Adams is the, even more, profound track.
Fun fact, using this song disqualified the film from being nominated for ‘Best Original Score’ at the Oscars, but made for one of the most iconic musical moments in cinema, at least.
Shutter Island (2010)
The Martin Scorsese mystery thriller has one of the most incredible plot twists of all time.
You know what else it has?
An ‘On the Nature of Daylight’ needle drop.
During a dead wife flashback scene, too – classic.
The Handmaid’s Tale (2021)
The dystopian series features Richter’s famed track in season 4, episode 9.
It overlays the protagonist, June, as she leaves her lover, Nick.
The Last of Us (2023)
Perhaps the best thing The Last of Us TV show adaptation brought us was the Frank and Bill episode.
Season 1, episode 3 is perhaps the most devastating in the series.
The dystopic HBO drama uses Richter’s piece to score Frank and Bill’s final day together.
Hamnet (2025)
Most recently, Chloe Zhao’s devastating film Hamnet used the track.
The use of the song in this film is what has caused a lot of the discourse around it.
Many of the film’s critics have said that the film is emotionally manipulative, and forces sadness upon its viewers.
If you agree with that criticism, you agree that using Richter’s track in the film does not help its case, at all.
The second you hear those strings creeping up on you as Agnes reaches for Hamlet on stage, you know what the film is trying to do to you emotionally.
In fact, it was lead actress Jessie Buckley’s own suggestion to use the song in the deeply moving scene.
We can definitely owe some of the scenes emotional impact to her, then.
Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011)
The documentary feature follows a master sushi maker at work.
The soundtrack is strangely powerful and reflective, and so Richter’s song seems like the perfect fit.
Togo (2019)
Even Disney loves ‘On the Nature of daylight.’
The film follows a sled dog trainer (Willem Dafoe) and his dogs and the track scores the real life story of hardship.
Sherpa (2015)
Sherpa is a celebrated Mount Everest documentary.
It tracks the devastation of the lives lost on the mountain, through the eyes of the Nepalese climbers it is named after.
And of course, if climbing Everest wasn’t emotionally impactful enough, then climbing Everest and listening to ‘On the Nature of Daylight,’ certainly is.
EastEnders (2020)
Richter’s track also scored the 35th anniversary episode of the popular British soap opera, Eastenders.
It plays during a particularly harrowing drowning scene for a character, Dennis.
Stranger than fiction (2006)
The very first use of ‘On the Nature of Daylight’ was in Marc Forster’s Stranger than Fiction.
The Will Ferrell led film follows an IRS agent who has a narrator in his head describing his.
He discovers that he is, in fact, a protagonist in a novel and is going to die.
So, a pretty fitting film with some pretty heavy emotional turmoil for the song to find itself in.
