Heavy Metal (1981)

This article is about the 1981 film. For the sequel, see Heavy Metal 2000.




Heavy Metal is a 1981 Canadian adult animated anthology science fiction 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 was the sixth animated feature film to be presented in Dolby surround sound.

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, including CinéGroupe and Atkinson Film-Arts.

A sequel titled Heavy Metal 2000 was released in 2000.

Synopsis

The movie's title sequence story (based on the original story by Dan O'Bannon and art by Thomas Warkentin) opens with a space shuttle flying in orbit over Earth. The bay doors (on the belly of the shuttle) open, releasing a 1960 Corvette. An astronaut seated in the Corvette then begins descending through Earth's atmosphere, landing in a desert canyon.

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