Space Force

Ten years following the end of The Office, Michael Scott is pivoting from the paper industry to space military—this, in essence, is the pitch Netflix is offering those pining for more classic Steve Carrell antics come May 29th.

The trailer, in three parts, opens with a fake-out; enterprising strings coalesce with heroic brass as Carrell’s character delivers an impassioned stump speech. Note the perfect cadence just as he intones “we’re going back [to the moon]”. A montage of historic US space travel moments is only allowed to roll for a second as the orchestra swells, only to be cut short in synch with Carrell idly setting his foot atop the mission control launch desk—inadvertently setting off a launch sequence. It’s the slapstick equivalent of delivering Space Force’s apparent thesis: What if The Office, but more?

After the first of several deadpan monologue deliveries by Carrell, we see the Netflix studio logo and along with it a fairly upbeat library music track, beginning the expository middle section of this triptych trailer. The music, just percussion for now to lend more emphasis to the dialogue, stops at 0:31 to emphasise how Mark (Carrell) will take up this new department of the US military.

At 0:32 we hear a busily ascending and descending, stepwise bass line reminiscent of spy thrillers, although obviously repurposed here to as a musical counterpoint to the comedic hijinks. Carrell’s pencil tapping at 0:43 almost seems to call in the music again. Not at 0:54 how the musical arrangement scales back again as Carrell delivers more dialogue; it pauses once again at 1:04 to deliver another punchline, much in the vein of any modern comedy trailer. 

At 1:18 the music suddenly takes a turn back the orchestral score we heard in the beginning, at first hinting at genuine drama—but this is cut short again as the bass peters out along with Carrell’s characteristically disappointing finish to his speech—detailing “the most cataclysmic failure… in the short history of Space Force”.

The third musical section of the trailer uses Elton John’s “I’m Still Standing”, a track of 1983 vintage that sounds every bit its year; the lyrical content and the convivial ambiance underscore the sense that this is at its heart—even outside the quaint quarters of Dunder Mifflin, and in the spotlight of a massive US governmental agency—this is, somehow, still an underdog story as we see Carrell stumble from scene to scene, endearingly trying to keep his wits about him. It’s this sense of connection much of the prospective audience likely has with Carrell—the years as Michael Scott—that is underscored by this choice of music. 

There’s also clear thematic resonance between the dialogue and lyrical content, as we hear a monologue of Carrell delivering a trite but wholesome speech where he implores, “if you fall on your face… you get back up”. It’s this combination of spiritedness and slapstick that Space Force’s trailer most clearly conveys by way of its musical choices.

— Curtis Perry