Heavy Metal (animation)



""Blue Oyster Cult, Black Sabbath, Sammy Hagar and Riggs take you to a universe you've never seen before. A universe of magic. A universe of mystery. A universe of sexual fantasies. A universe of awesome good, and terrifying evil.""

If you were looking for the music genre, go here.

The 1981 Canadian-animated film anthology of stories from the magazine of the same name. Laden with sex, violence, profanity, decent animation, and a rippin' soundtrack.

The framing story for each short concerns the Loc-Nar, "The sum of all evil," a sentient, floating green orb that kills people by painfully melting them into goo or turning them into monsters (and a plot device that figures into each short), showing a young girl its influence across space and time (after killing her astronaut father, who had just brought it back to Earth).
 * After said father had de-orbited in a classic Corvette convertible.
 * Harry Canyon, New York taxi driver, gets caught up in a fight between a gang and an archeologist's daughter over the Loc-Nar. She screws him more than once.
 * Den, originally a skinny, nerdy kid named Dan (voiced by John Candy), gets sucked into Neverwhere, becomes a bald, naked, musclebound hunk (still voiced by John Candy) that every woman in the story (equally naked and buxom) apparently throws herself at, and involves himself in a fight between an evil queen and an unkillable dandy to save the girl he encountered upon arrival. Due to the fairly consistent female nudity, this segment is generally excised from TV prints of the movie altogether.
 * The Trope Namer for Normally I Would Be Dead Now (while swimming a LONG way underwater).
 * Captain Sternn, on trial for multiple crimes (including a moving violation), gets more than he bargained for when Hanover Fiste, the man he paid to act as his character witness, goes berserk under the Loc-Nar's influence.
 * B-17: limping home after a World War II bombing run with most of the crew dead, a USAAF B-17 encounters the Loc-Nar, which then reanimates the dead into flesh eating zombies. The pilot bails out and lands on an island filled with plane wrecks and more zombies. The scariest part of the film. Among critics of the movie, also regarded as the strongest segment, and rarely spoken of in anything but a positive light.
 * So Beautiful, So Dangerous: aliens abduct a buxom Pentagon secretary, and the robot leader takes a shine to her. The pilots ingest a massive amount of plutonium nyborg and fly home utterly stoned, while the robot gets into the secretary's knickers. The Breather Episode after B-17, and seems to be playing things for laughs.
 * Taarna, the last Taarakian, is called to defend a peaceful civilization from Loc-Nar-mutated barbarians. She arrives too late, and she turns to vengeance to fulfill her pact.

At the climax, Taarna's defeat of the Loc-Nar echoes, and the orb menacing the girl is destroyed. A purple bird of the same kind that Taarna flew arrives at her side, and she flies off, her hair turning white and the Taarakian crest appearing on her neck.

Once noted for Keep Circulating the Tapes because music rights kept it from being released on home video. Bootleg tapes of it would routinely turn up, some taped off airings on pay cable channels. Now legally available as well.

The film is adapted from a number of stories in Heavy Metal Magazine, an American version of the French comic Métal Hurlant founded by Moebius and Philippe Druillet. A number of other adaptations have also been made, including the film Heavy Metal 2000 (which had almost nothing to do with the first film) and the Third-Person Shooter F.A.K.K.2 (which was based upon Heavy Metal 2000). Somewhat strangely, the film Heavy Metal 2000 is also sometimes seen under the title Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.2.

A new version is in development. Lots of big names were floating around to direct segments, but as of August 2011, the David Fincher movie has been cancelled, as Robert Rodriguez has acquired the rights.


 * Normally I Would Be Dead Now

"Prosecutor: Lincoln Sternn, you stand here accused of 12 counts of murder in the first degree, 14 counts of armed theft of Federation property, 22 counts of piracy in high space, 18 counts of fraud, 37 counts of rape...and one moving violation."
 * Action Girl
 * After the End
 * Alien Abduction
 * All There in the Script: In "So Beautiful, So Dangerous," Zeke and Edsel are the names of the stoner aliens, and Gloria is the redheaded secretary they abduct. The robot, however, is an aversion, as it has no name listed.
 * Alternate Realm Boon: In "Den", short, skinny nerd David Ellis Norman is turned into a bald, musclebound, and well-endowed man when transported into another world.
 * Anthology Film
 * Artifact of Doom: The Loc-Nar.
 * Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The charges against Captain Sternn:

"The Agony Booth: Revenge-seeking warrior, with boobs! Just think every strong, silent fantasy hero cliché, and you’ll get the idea. Plus, boobs!"
 * Art Shift: Justified, as each segment was handled by a different animation studio.
 * As Long as There Is Evil
 * Ascended Fanboy: Den.
 * Badass Creed: Taarna, "To defend, this is the Pact. But when life loses its value and is taken for naught - the Pact is to avenge."
 * Bald of Awesome: Den, again.
 * Ballistic Discount: Averted.
 * Bathe Her and Bring Her to Me
 * Beast Man: The Red Queen's troops.
 * Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted when Taarna is lashed during her fight with the Barbarian Leader.
 * Body Horror: In "B-17". The poor airmen are already dead, but still. Also happens to the astronaut father of the girl.
 * Bowdlerize: In this incredibly graphic adult-oriented film, there is still some bowdlerization. In the Den segment, the titular character is wearing a loincloth. Guess what was different in the original Den comics.
 * Captain Space, Defender of Earth!: Sternn, as one of the darker examples.
 * Caught in a Snare: Taarna is caught in a net trap while flying.
 * The Chosen Zero: Taarna. The people she's supposed to defend get slaughtered, she gets captured, whipped, and sliced by the bad guys, and wins only due to a Heroic Sacrifice from her pet and a random lightning bolt. Aside from decapitating three Mooks in a bar, her fighting skills are strictly an Informed Ability.
 * Her winged mount bails her out of trouble twice. Had the elder council prayed for the bird instead of her, they might well have survived.
 * Well, they did call her too late for her to have actually stopped the slaughter.
 * Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Norl is set up as Ard's top mook...and then disappears after Den "distracts" the queen.
 * Courtroom Antic: Big time.
 * Cute Mute: Taarna.
 * Danger Takes a Backseat: Several times in the Harry Canyon segment. Not very smart, considering taxi cabs in this world have a security system that vaporizes anyone in the backseat.
 * Delayed Reaction: It takes a handful more lines of dialogue from Hanover Fiste after he mutates before everyone in the courtroom panics and flees for their lives.
 * Demoted to Extra: In "So Beautiful, So Dangerous," the Loc-Nar only appears as a bauble on Gloria's necklace at the beginning of the segment. At most, all it does is make Dr. Anrak freak out and attack Gloria; other than that, it plays absolutely NO role in the story. Which makes one wonder why the Loc-Nar bothered to show that story to the little girl in the first place.
 * Depraved Homosexual: Ard at least acts Camp Gay.
 * Determinator: Taarna.
 * Did Not Do the Research: The Space Shuttle is shown with doors in its hull. The cargo bay, and the doors, are on the other side.
 * Disney Acid Sequence: We get a short one in "So Beautiful, So Dangerous," to the tune of "All of You" by Don Felder. And the Enterprise even makes a cameo!
 * Damsel in Distress: Katherine.
 * Eldritch Abomination: The Loc-Nar, which travels through time and space wrecking people's lives and turning them into zombies, and is clearly sentient.
 * Everybody Has Lots of Sex: Den lampshades the fact that, on this new planet, he got lucky twice in one day after arriving a virgin.
 * Expy: More than one review noted the similarity between the Harry Canyon segment and The Fifth Element.
 * Fan Service: So many huge-breasted naked women they could have called the film Heavy Chests.
 * Follow the Leader: The Fifth Element borrows heavily from the Harry Canyon segment.
 * Framing Device: Basically the whole film is the Loc-Nar bragging what a bad-ass it is.
 * The Future Is Noir: Pretty much the premise of Harry Canyon's segment.
 * God Save Us From the Queen
 * Green Rocks: The Loc-Nar can raise zombies, transform humans into monsters, alter personalities, etc.
 * Healing Factor: Ard.
 * Heavy Mithril: The Blue Oyster Cult album Fire Of Unknown Origin was composed to be the soundtrack for the film - ultimately, only the song Veteran of the Psychic Wars (written by Michael Moorcock) made it into the film, though the song Vengeance (The Pact) off the same album is a blatant retelling of Taarna's story.
 * Heroic Albino
 * Heroic Mime: Taarna, the lead action girl in the final segment, never says a single word.
 * The Horde
 * Horse of a Different Color: Taarna's bird-dinosaur-thing.
 * Hulking Out: Hanover Fiste, care of the Loc-Nar.
 * Human Sacrifice
 * I'm Melting: How many people in this film meet their ends.
 * Karma Houdini: Sternn.
 * Large Ham: STEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!
 * Last of Her Kind: Taarna.
 * List of Transgressions / Long List: The charges against Sternn.
 * Made of Evil: The Loc-Nar.
 * Male Gaze: Throughout.
 * Most Common Superpower: Taarna.

"Robot: Earth women who experience sexual ecstasy with mechanical assistance always tend to feel guilty!"
 * Most Writers Are Male - There was almost no female character that behaved in any way, shape, or form the way a reasonable and intelligent person would act. You had a woman who worked at the Pentagon, whose first reaction to being abducted by aliens was to complain that she was going to miss her gynecologist appointment, and who later fell in love with a robot who didn't look remotely human. (Of course, the archaeologist's daughter was trying to manipulate Harry, which makes her behavior to that point make sense. And as for Gloria...even the most sensible of us will panic and babble about random things while in shock—although, admittedly, that only explains her going off about her check-up, not jumping in bed with the robot.)
 * The main exceptions are Taarna (a Badass and grim Lady of War, even dressed like that) and the girl in the bridge segments. The girl is appropriately terrified of a green ball that just vaporized her dad. Even when she, she's never portrayed in a lurid manner as Taarna was in the last story (Taarna was ogled, whipped, sexually abused, and ogled.)
 * Never Trust a Title: This movie really does not focus on the metal. The soundtrack is subdued enough that most of the music is barely audible in the background, there are long gaps between songs, and by today's standards most of the songs would not really be considered heavy metal. The name comes from the magazine the stories were taken from rather than the music.
 * As far as the soundtrack album goes, only the Sammy Hagar, Riggs, Nazareth, and Black Sabbath songs were considered "metal" (or hard rock, at best). The Donald Fagen and Stevie Nicks songs were soft rock, the Journey song was a power ballad, the Devo song was New Wave, and everything else was regular rock.
 * Normally I Would Be Dead Now: The Trope Namer.
 * Pragmatic Adaptation: Most of the magazine-based stories are altered to fit the format. In particular, Den, who is perfectly comfortable being buck naked in the original comics, gets a loincloth. On the plus side, the comic's stiff english translation of the dialogue is replaced by a much relaxed tone that sounds more natural and humorous with a horny teenager's take on the macho fantasy story.
 * Originally there wa going to be a lot more overlap between the stories (e.g. Hanover Fiste is seen traveling on the same ship as the stoner aliens and declares that Sternn WILL go free). However this became impossible due to the filming of each segment being handled by different studios, with collaboration between them being incredibly difficult.
 * Private Eye Monologue: One of the segments has it.
 * Punny Name: Hanover Fiste. Harry Canyon.
 * Ridiculously Human Robot
 * Right-Hand-Cat: The giant rat-like pet of the Big Bad Barbarian Leader in "Taarna".
 * Robosexual: Gloria and the robot, somehow.
 * Rotoscoping: Much of Taarna's actions, especially the dressing scenes. Also some of the B17 footage.
 * Rule of Cool: The entire film not only uses this, it runs wild with it.
 * Rule of Funny: During the "Captain Sternn" and "So Beautiful, So Dangerous" segments.
 * Samus Is a Girl: Taarna.
 * Scenery Porn: Particularly in the alien abduction segment and the Taarna segment.
 * Sex Bot


 * Shameful Strip: When Taarna is captured by the Barbarian Leader, he has her stripped.
 * Shout-Out: In the "Den" story, the name of the eldritch god whose favor the villains are trying to win is clearly "Cthulhu" spoken backward (the sacrificial altar also clearly resembles Cthulhu).
 * Shrouded in Myth
 * Sickly Green Glow: The Loc-Nar.
 * Sissy Villain: Ard, "Leader of the Revolution, and Next Ruler of the World."
 * Smoking Hot Sex: Gloria lights up after sleeping with the robot.
 * So Unfunny It's Funny: "Goddamn illegal aliens..."
 * Space Does Not Work That Way:
 * During his rampage through the station, Hanover Fiste causes a part of it to collapse inwards (complete with a settling cloud of dust), instead of outwards (which would have sent debris floating away into space).
 * At the end of Hanover's rampage,
 * Though he's not entering a planetary or solar atmosphere, Hanover Fiste somehow catches fire in the vacuum of space. (Although you could Hand Wave this by saying that it's the Loc-Nar's doing, or even solar radiation. But still.)
 * Spiritual Successor: Den -> Brutal Legend, in many ways.
 * Stab the Sky: The film poster
 * Stripperific: Taarna, in reverse (although her battle gear doesn't cover much either, and sports Combat Stilettos).
 * The Renaissance Age of Animation (1981)
 * Thong of Shielding: Taarna
 * Thrown Out the Airlock: Hanover Fiste.
 * Twenty Minutes Into the Future: the future of 1981, anyway. Manhattan looks like it did before the cleanup in the 80's and 90's, with sex shops, dirty sidewalks and the World Trade Center.
 * Unstoppable Rage: STEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!
 * Villainesses Want Heroes: The evil queen really wants Den to "please" her.
 * Wish Fulfillment: Horny busty women who get naked at the drop of a hat and screw anything that moves? See Most Writers Are Male.
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: "So Beautiful, So Dangerous" starts out with government officials discussing mysterious human mutations, and Dr. Anrak seems to be part of a cover-up that is later implied to involve Zeke, Edsel, and the robot. Except the mutation story is completely and utterly forgotten when said aliens abduct Dr. Anrak and Gloria.
 * The behind-the-scenes material on disc implies that this story was heavily edited from the original treatment - apparently to the point where it just stops arbitrarily instead of ending.
 * In fact, much that went wrong with this film (particularly the inconsistent animation style, some poor writing in places, and sections that just stop or don't really make sense or were entirely left out like an intended link between Captain Sternn and B17) can be seen as a combination of inexperience, poor planning, and just plain not enough time and money being spent on the project.
 * White-Haired Pretty Girl: Taarna
 * Wretched Hive
 * Zettai Ryouiki: Grade A with the girl in the Harry Canyon segment.
 * Zombie Apocalypse: The B-17 segment.