American Hostage Soundtrack
American Hostage | |
|---|---|
| Show Soundtrack (2026) | |
 | |
| Director | Shawn Ryan, Eileen Myers |
| Studio | Sony Pictures Television / Amazon MGM Studios |
| Release date | 2026-09-20 |
| Genre(s) | Crime, Drama, Thriller, History |
| Composer(s) | Robert Duncan |
| Music supervisor | Thomas Golubić, Suzuki Ingerslev |
| Available on | Prime Video |
| Cast | Jon Hamm as Fred Heckman Giovanni Ribisi as Tony Kiritsis William Jackson Harper as Det. Ray Sellers Mireille Enos as Barbara Heckman Kristoffer Polaha as Richard O. Hall |
About This Soundtrack
Created by Shawn Ryan and Eileen Myers, MGM+'s American Hostage dramatizes the chilling true events of the 1977 Indianapolis standoff. Jon Hamm stars as veteran radio news journalist Fred Heckman, who suddenly becomes the sole voice of reason when an armed and desperate Tony Kiritsis, played by Giovanni Ribisi, hijacks the airwaves with a hostage wired to a dead man's switch shotgun.
The musical backdrop of American Hostage is crafted under the supervision of acclaimed music supervisors Thomas Golubić and Suzuki Ingerslev, alongside an original psychological score by Robert Duncan. Balancing authentic period-accurate 1970s psychedelic rock with nail-biting acoustic and electronic cues, the soundtrack captures the frantic pace of live broadcast journalism during a deadly crisis. The official MGM+ trailer highlights this tension with Velvet Opera's raw 1969 track 'There\'s a Hole in My Pocket'.
This guide catalogs every licensed song and original score piece featured in American Hostage on MGM+. Tracklists, scene breakdowns, and direct streaming links will be updated weekly across each of the season's eight episodes as the series airs.
Songs by Episodes
Soundtrack Coming Soon
We are currently preparing the complete musical guide for American Hostage. As soon as the series premieres starting 2026-09-20, our editorial team will update this page with every song, scene description, and timestamp.
Bookmark this page and stay tuned!
Songs in Trailer
Exclusive Trailer Music
Can't find the song from the official trailer? We've identified it for you.
[Official MGM+ Trailer]
About the Composer(s)
Robert Duncan is an Emmy-nominated Canadian composer celebrated for crafting propulsive, high-tension musical narratives across film and television. A long-time creative collaborator of showrunner Shawn Ryan, Duncan has composed the scores for acclaimed series such as The Night Agent, S. W. A. T., The Unit, Timeless, and the hit crime drama Castle. His musical work frequently weaves visceral electronic soundscapes with live orchestral elements and analog textures. For American Hostage, Duncan delivers a claustrophobic, edge-of-your-seat score that captures the raw suspense and psychological unraveling of a real-life 1970s hostage negotiation.
Did you know?
- Vintage Psychedelic Trailer Anthem: The official trailer features 'There\'s a Hole in My Pocket' by British psychedelic rock group Velvet Opera, from their 1969 catalog, establishing a gritty late-60s/70s counterculture sonic texture.
- Shawn Ryan and Robert Duncan Collaboration: American Hostage reunites executive producer Shawn Ryan with composer Robert Duncan, continuing a fruitful partnership that includes The Night Agent, S.W.A.T., The Unit, and Timeless.
- Thomas Golubić's Period Expertise: Renowned music supervisor Thomas Golubić, famous for his iconic song curation in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, brings his deep knowledge of vintage analog recordings to curate the mid-1970s radio soundscape of Indianapolis.
- Podcast Origins: Jon Hamm originally starred as Fred Heckman in the acclaimed 2022 scripted audio podcast American Hostage, created by Shawn Christensen, before executive producing and starring in this live-action MGM+ adaptation.
- Weekly Broadcast Rollout: The eight-episode limited series premieres with two back-to-back episodes on September 20, 2026, on MGM+, releasing new episodes every Sunday through its finale on November 1, 2026.
Official Trailer
About the Show
American Hostage is an eight-episode psychological thriller anthology series on MGM+ starring Jon Hamm as Fred Heckman, a beloved Indianapolis radio reporter thrust into an unprecedented media circus. In 1977, disgruntled borrower Tony Kiritsis, portrayed by Giovanni Ribisi, takes his mortgage broker hostage with a wire rigged from his shotgun to his captive's neck. Demanding a live on-air interview on Heckman's top-rated radio news show, Kiritsis turns the 63-hour standoff into a gripping national spectacle that tests journalistic ethics, personal courage, and the fragile line between reporting news and participating in a life-or-death crisis.
Developed by Shawn Ryan alongside Eileen Myers and based on the acclaimed audio drama podcast, the series features an outstanding cast including Mireille Enos, William Jackson Harper, and Kristoffer Polaha. The production's tense atmosphere is enhanced by an unsettling, propulsive original score from composer Robert Duncan, curated alongside era-accurate late-1970s psychedelic and blues rock tracks, spearheaded by Velvet Opera's vintage anthem 'There\'s a Hole in My Pocket' featured in the official trailer.
Additional Information
Frequently Asked Questions
What song is featured in the American Hostage trailer?
Who composed the score for American Hostage?
Who are the music supervisors for American Hostage?
When does American Hostage premiere on MGM+?
Is American Hostage based on a true story?
How many episodes are in American Hostage Season 1?
External Links
Editorial Integrity & Verification
At Soundtrack Wiki, we take musical accuracy seriously. Every track list, scene description, and timestamp featured on this page has been manually verified by our editorial team to ensure it reflects the actual usage in the production.
Our methodology involves cross-referencing official credits, digital fingerprints, and frame-by-frame analysis of the soundtrack in context.
