Movie(s) with best soundtrack?

Tron Legacy, but that's cheating as it's essentially a Daft Punk music video.

The Matrix
O Brother Where Art Thou?
Forest Gump

• Pirates of the Caribbean (personally, At World's End has the best, Hans Zimmer)
• The Lord of the Rings (Howard Shore)
• Gravity (Steven Price)
• Tron Legacy (Daft Punk)
• Moonlight (Nicholas Britell)
• Harry Potter (can only speak to the ones by John Williams)
• Braveheart (James Horner)
• The Matrix (Don Davis)

More general answer than you expected, but...

I really like when the sound design in movies makes sense - it "plays" in radio, gramophone...

For example "Black hole sun" cover in first episode of Westworld is just brilliant and caught me off guard (I didn't know what it is about).

Birdman. Just drums. Really fucking good drums. Also they appear in the middle of one scene in an excellent way.

Also: not a movie, but Cowboy Bebop. Lots and lots of great tracks.

Once upon a time the west. (Ennio Morricone)

Blade runner (Vangelis)

The Lord of the Rings

This is Howard Shore's Magnum opus. It's what distinguishes this movie as more than just a great adaptation. His use of themes to represent not only races and kingdoms but characters, objects (like the One Ring, of course), and even concepts is a level above most movie soundtracks. There are even elements of storytelling through the music!

For example, the first time we hear the theme for Gondor is when Boromir is in Rivendell. Since he's more or less alone, the theme is played by a single French Horn in a somber (almost tragic) style. In Return of the King, we see Minas Tirith, capital of Gondor, in all its glory, and so the full orchestra plays the theme.

One more: As the Fellowship begins to break down, so too does the theme. We go from heroic phrases to shorter, interrupted instances. There's a book about the soundtrack written by Doug Adams. I highly recommend it if you're interested!

The Blues Brothers - it's stringing together performances from famous musicians, and the soundtrack was successful as an album in its own right.

• Ray Charles
• James Brown
• Aretha Franklin
• Cab Galloway
• etc.

I know you said movies, but a soundtrack for a show I'm hooked on currently is Legion (FX/Marvel, on Hulu). The whole entire show has an amazing cast to begin with, but Jeff Russo (Fargo, Star Trek Discovery, more) and Noah Hawley put together one hell of a score. I highly recommend it and the show.

• Spawn
• Baby Driver
• Garden State
• the Lord of the Rings trilogy

A few not listed:

• The Crow
• Empire Records
• Leaving Las Vegas
• Get Shorty
• Grosse Pointe Blank
• Pulp Fiction (listed elsewhere)

I am quite fond of the recent Dune movies' soundtrack. Hans Zimmer can make a good bwowwwum, and a helping of One-Woman-Wailing :tm: also helps

Aside for that I would get into movie musical territory. A much derided subgenre that I adore.

Dazed and Confused

Can't believe no-one mentioned The Crow..

Reservoir Dogs, O Brother Where Art Though, Blues Brothers, From Dusk til Dawn,

For me the criteria is: would the movie be very different with another soundtrack. The below offerings truly elevate their movies imo.

Tron Legacy

Blade Runner

Black Panther

• The Village

• O Brother Where Art Thou

• Amélie

• Pride and Prejudice

• Shutter Island

to name a few.

I'm going to reframe this as who I think the best composers are:

Bernard Hermann, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, etc.

John Williams, E.T., Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, etc.

Akira Ifukube, most of the Shōwa era Godzilla movies

Shiro Shigasu, Evangelion, Shin Godzilla

As far as new work, I'm partial to Scott Stafford on Ultraman Rising. It came out on Netflix this past June and I was really surprised how good that movie and soundtrack were.

I quite like the Interstellar soundtrack.

Akira(1988)

The soundtrack compliments the action so well.

28 Days Later

Trainspotting

Garden State....could not tell you a single thing about the film but when it was released, the soundtrack was full of my favorite artists at the time

Honorable mention: Most Wes Anderson films have pretty thoughtful soundtracks but I've never been blown away or introduced to a new band

The Matrix soundtrack is amazing

The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou

The Fountain, Requiem for a Dream, or anything by Clint Mansell

Watched Blade Runner 2049 2 days ago. Had a very good soundtrack but I wouldnt just listen to it just.

Personal favorites:
Tron: Legacy
Pacific Rim

I'm probably biased since this is my fave Pixar movie, but WALL-E, I love Eve's theme the most it's so beautiful and has this futuristic and hopeful kind of vibe to it that I really love

Romeo and Juliet (the one with Claire Danes and Leo DiCaprio)

Pulp Fiction

Buena Vista Social Club

Help! (Or any of the Beatles movies)

Purple Rain

La Boum (French movie, 1980)

Fame and The Kids from Fame (the 1970's Original, not he reboot)

Blues Brothers

Eraserhead, Side B

The album has been seen as presaging the dark ambient music genre, and its presentation of background noise and non-musical cues has been described by Pitchfork's Mark Richardson as "a sound track (two words) in the literal sense". -wikipedia

The mood and tone of Eraserhead and its soundtrack were influenced by Philadelphia's post-industrial history. Lynch lived in the city while studying painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and was fascinated by its feeling of constant danger; describing it both as a "sick, twisted, violent, fear ridden, decaying place" and "beautiful, if you see it the right way."[8][9][1] Lynch and Splet used avant-garde approaches to recording on the soundtrack; including crafting almost every sound in the soundtrack from scratch using bizarre methods. The ambiance of the love scene in the movie, for example, was produced by recording air blown through a microphone as it sat inside a bottle floating in a bathtub.[10] Lynch and Splet worked "9 hours a day for 63 days" to produce the soundtrack and all of the sound effects in the film. Splet recalls the sound effects Lynch called on him to produce for Eraserhead as "snapping, humming, buzzing, banging, like lightning, shrieking, squealing” over the five years it took to produce the film and its soundtrack. -wikipedia

The Big Lebowski deserves a mention.

Stranger Than Fiction, soundtrack by Spoon

Rogue One. First time I saw it I was sure no one could hold a candle to John Williams. Then I watched it again and the way Michael Giacchino uses a half-step to underline the theme of hope gives me chills just remembering it.

• Reservoir Dogs / Pulp Fiction / Kill Bill

• Stand By Me

• Dirty Dancing

• The Lost Boys

Forrest Gump, hands down.

Hackers

Good Will Hunting has a fantastic soundtrack.

American Beauty.

It's the most autumn sounding OST I know, super moody.

The Third Man has that fantastic zither theme.

A Knight's Tale

This is an old one, but:

The Mission, scored by Ennio Morricone.

Into The Wild

I was just watching Tenet last night and the music kind of took me out of it sometimes because I was like, “Fuck, that music sounds awesome”, though not sure how well it will stand on its own, I’ve not tried that yet.

• Yellow Submarine (I think a lot of people either forget this movie exists, or write it off as a kids movie. You're missing out on a movie that could be considered as revolutionary to animation as the Beatles were to music.)
• Back to the Future
• The Muppet Movie
• School of Rock
• Bladerunner
• The Matrix

There's probably other's, but that's what immediately comes to mind.

The blade runner soundtrack is my go to relax soundtrack. Have listened to it thousands of times by now.

I don't know that I could pick one, but Joe Hisashi's Studio Ghibli sound tracks are done of my favourites

Tombstone and Almost Famous for me

Godzilla 1998

Varsity Blues

Lots of good ones here, I'll add some that haven't been mentioned: Sahara, Rango, both Sherlock Holmes movies, Scott Pilgrim vs The World, the JJ Abrams Star Trek's, The Incredibles, Godzilla 2014, The Road to El Dorado

Desparado https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0112851/

Amazing soundtrack!

Conan the Barbarian

Resident evil

Dred 2012

Redline

Monsoon Wedding

Lord of the Rings

The wackness - iconic 90s hip hop songs

28 days later - introduced me to post rock vibes

Pretty in Pink - Pure 80s.

When I think of exquisite sound design, two of my favorite movies spring to mind: Stalker (1979) and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

The former has such a subtle soundtrack that it's almost like it's not there, but without it so much of the atmosphere of a movie that is heavily atmospheric would be lost.

The latter is just a perfect western with a perfect western soundtrack. The theme is well known, but L'estasi Dell'oro gives me chills every time it starts playing.

interstellar, interstella5555, gladiator

The Scream 3 soundtrack is one of my favorites and was my introduction to System of a Down.

Judgement Night - some of the greatest hip-hop & metal crossover songs ever made.

I'm not seeing Oppenheimer mentioned , perhaps I'm in the minority here.

Yeah American Psycho does have a good soundtrack. Eyes Without a Face is great.

My vote is for Interstellar or some of the other Hans Zimmer ones

The Fifth Element is probably the only soundtrack I have ever bought. The diva's aria is AMAZING!

Swingers has a great oldies/crooner soundtrack.

Bohemian Rhapsody

The Decline of Western Civilization

• Schindler's List
• Requiem for a Dream
• Independence Day

Batman Forever

Shrek 2, unironically

Also Sucker Punch and Tron Legacy

Atomic Blonde

Easy rider

Oh just my thing.

• Summer Wars
• Kikojiros Summer
• Dunkirk
• Inception
• Desert Rose

I have a lot of these on my shortlist. More series and even way more videogames

Ransom is underrated IMO.

Baby Driver, The Third Man, anything by John Williams

Buried.

Banger after banger

The Last of the Mohicans Once heard, you cannot escape its beauty.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Just epic classical music.

Spirited Away

Joe Hisaishi fits the fantastical setting perfectly. Lots of bittersweet, exciting, and meditative moods, each placed in the perfect scene.

Tarantino's movies usually have a great song selection.

Full Metal Jacket

Hearing "Bird is the Word" juxtaposed with the Vietnam War is just a crazy choice that paid off.

Nobody (2021)

Turned me on to Luther Allison. Not a "best soundtrack" but it definitely stands out.

Garden State

Thank you for so many suggestions! Honestly, I didn't know most of them.

For anyone who are too bothered to read the entire comment section, here's the list

Let me know if I'm missing something

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen has a fantastic soundtrack. Can really push a system to its limits.

The Abyss really does something for me, can’t quite put my finger on it

Dumb and Dumber

Most people, as evidenced by the comments, don't know the difference between soundtrack and score. Either that or they DO know the difference and are choosing to answer as if they didn't.