Heavy Metal (film)

Heavy Metal
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Gerald Potterton
Produced by	Ivan Reitman
Screenplay by	Daniel Goldberg Len Blum
Based on	Original art and stories by Richard Corben Angus McKie Dan O'Bannon Thomas Warkentin Bernie Wrightson
Starring	Harvey Atkin Jackie Burroughs John Candy Eugene Levy Marilyn Lightstone Harold Ramis Richard Romanus Alice Playten Rodger Bumpass
Music by	Elmer Bernstein
Edited by	Ian Llande ("Den") Mick Manning ("Soft Landing") Gerald Tripp ("Harry Canyon" and "B-17")
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date	August 7, 1981 (1981-08-07)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	Canada United States
Language	English
Budget	US$9.3 million
Box office	US$20,117,636

Heavy Metal is a 1981 Canadian-American adult animated sci-fi-fantasy film directed by Gerald Potterton and produced by Ivan Reitman and Leonard Mogel, who also was the publisher of Heavy Metal magazine, the basis for the film. The screenplay was written by Daniel Goldberg and Len Blum.

The film is an anthology of various science fiction and fantasy stories adapted from Heavy Metal magazine and original stories in the same spirit. Like the magazine, the film features a great deal of graphic violence, sexuality, and nudity. Its production was expedited by having several animation houses working simultaneously on different segments.

A sequel titled Heavy Metal 2000 was released in 2000.

The title sequence story opens with a space shuttle orbiting the Earth. The bay doors open, releasing a Corvette. An astronaut seated in the car then begins descending through Earth's atmosphere, landing in a desert canyon.

Crew

Music

In the framing story the astronaut, Grimaldi, arrives at home where he is greeted by his daughter. He says he has something to show her. When he opens his case, a green, crystalline sphere rises out and melts him. It introduces itself to the terrified girl as "the sum of all evils". Looking into the orb, known as the Loc-Nar, the girl sees how it has influenced societies throughout time and space.

Cast

Crew

In a dystopian New York City in the year 2031, cynical taxicab driver Harry Canyon narrates his day in film noir-style, grumbling about his fares and occasional robbery attempts, which he thwarts with a disintegrator installed behind his seat. He stumbles into an incident where he rescues a girl from a gangster named Rudnick, who had murdered the girl's father. She tells him about her father's discovery: the Loc-Nar, an artifact over which people are killing each other. Harry takes the girl back to his apartment, where she climbs into his bed and has sex with him. The next day, one of his fares is Rudnick, who threatens Harry if he does not cooperate. The girl decides to sell the Loc-Nar to Rudnick and split the proceeds with Harry. At the exchange, Rudnick takes the Loc-Nar out of its case, and is disintegrated. Meanwhile, the girl informs Harry that she's keeping the money for herself and pulls a gun on him. Harry is forced to use his disintegrator on her. He keeps the money and writes it up as a "two-day ride with one hell of a tip."