Hysteria: The Def Leppard Story

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A Made for TV Movie from 2001. Hysteria: The Def Leppard Story follows Def Leppard's beginnings and rise to stardom, focusing especially on the alcoholism of both Pete Willis and Steve Clark and on Rick's accident. There's also a little something about Pyromania and Hysteria in there somewhere.

Tropes used in Hysteria: The Def Leppard Story include:
  • The Alcoholic: Steve, so tragically much. Pete, not so tragically.
  • The Determinator: Joe Elliott. Also "Mutt" Lange, once he shows up.
  • Henpecked Boyfriend: Original drummer Tony Kenning is forced by his girlfriend to quit the band. In reality she was a factor, but not the only one or even the main one.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!: Anthony Michael Hall as "Mutt" Lange
  • How We Got Here: The film actually starts with the auto accident, then flashes back to the band's beginnings.
  • I Meant to Do That: used no less than three times, all by Rick Allen:
    • When first auditioning for the band, Rick plays in the style of several drummers, then falls off his drumstool. He's just imitating the drunken antics of Keith Moon.
    • In a Call Back to the above: When first trying out his new electronic kit with the band after his accident, Rick can't get the timing right, gets frustrated and falls off his stool. He echoes the audition incident to reassure the band.
    • Backstage at his first on-stage performance after the accident, Rick is practicing stick-twirls but drops the stick. After a dead silence falls over the room, Rick invokes the trope word for word.
  • Pragmatic Adaptation: The band's history is compressed into a tidy 90-minute package.
    • Composite Character: Peter Mensch and Cliff Burnstein, the band's early managerial team, are compiled into one person.
  • Satellite Character: Rick Savage is barely in the movie at all, and tends to just stand around when he is; he neither says nor does anything to drive the plot.
  • Technician Versus Performer: played up with Steve and Phil's first guitar duel.
  • Television Geography
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Steve, so tragically much.


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