Airheads was a critical and commercial failure,[1] but has since come to be viewed as a cult film.[2]
Plot
In Los Angeles, Chester "Chazz Darby" Ogilvie and his friends, sibling musicians Rex and Pip, are in the Los Angeles hard rock band "The Lone Rangers" who are continuously rejected as they try to get their demo tape heard by record producers like Jimmie Wing. After scolding him for being lazy, Chazz's girlfriend Kayla kicks him out of her apartment.
The Lone Rangers try to get the local rock station KPPX to play their reel-to-reel tape on the air by attempting to break-in through the back door. After several unsuccessful attempts, station employee Suzzi comes out to smoke and they keep the door from shutting behind her.
Once inside, laid back DJ Ian "The Shark" talks with them on the air. Station manager Milo overhears them and intervenes, but Ian continues broadcasting. After Milo insults Rex by calling him "Hollywood Boulevard trash," he and Chazz pull out realistic-looking water pistols filled with hot pepper sauce and demand airplay. After setting up an old reel-to-reel for the demo, the tape begins to play but is quickly destroyed when the player malfunctions. The trio attempt escape, but the station's accountant Doug Beech has already called the police and they see the building is surrounded as the Lone Rangers start rounding up Suzzi and the other employees Yvonne, Marcus, and Carter.
They negotiate with the police who are now tasked to find Kayla who has a cassette of the demo. Since the station never went off the air, news of the hostage crisis travels quickly and numerous fans begin showing up outside the radio station and interfering with police. A SWAT team has also arrived where Carl Mace prefers using force over negotiation tactics by Sergeant O'Malley. His team secretly passes a gun through a roof vent to Beech who has been hiding in the air ducts. During the crisis, it is revealed that Milo had secretly signed a deal to change KPPX's format to adult contemporary which includes having to fire Ian and most of the other employees. Consequently, Ian and a few employees side with the band and turn against Milo.
The police find Kayla who arrives at the radio station to deliver the tape. However, the tape is damaged because she threw it out of the car earlier. Chazz and Kayla get into an argument that quickly escalates and results in the studio console being destroyed, dashing any hopes of the tape being played on the air.
As some of the items the band demanded from police are brought into the station, the door shuts on Rex's plastic gun, revealing it to be fake. Seeing this, Marcus and Carter run out with one telling the SWAT team the band's guns are not real upon being subdued. As the team assembles to storm the station, Beech corners the band from a low hanging air vent. Knowing he no longer will have a job at the station, Ian knocks down Beech's gun. This causes the weapon to wildly fire several rounds and the police are forced to back off. Ian picks up the gun, but gives it to a somewhat confused Chazz in a final act of anti-establishment rebellion.
Jimmie Wing comes to the radio station and offers the band a contract, to which they reluctantly agree. Wing arranges an entire stage and sound system to be airlifted to the roof where the band will play their song for the now huge crowd outside. Unfortunately, the band find that only the PA system is real and everything else is just props. Refusing to lip sync to their tape, they instead destroy their instruments in protest to the delight of the crowd and stage dive into the hands of the cheering audience that O'Malley has his men let through.
The Lone Rangers are later seen playing a gig in prison where they are incarcerated as Kayla and Suzzi dance in the background. The concert is shown live on MTV. Now their manager, Ian says on the phone to an unknown person that The Lone Rangers will start touring upon their release in six months....three months if they behave themselves.
A postscript states that The Lone Rangers ultimately served three months in prison for kidnapping, theft, and assault with hot pepper sauce. Their album LIVE IN PRISON goes triple platinum.
Cast
Brendan Fraser as Chester "Chazz Darby" Ogilvie, the lead guitarist and lead vocalist of the Lone Rangers
Steve Buscemi as Rex, the bassist of the Lone Rangers
Adam Sandler as Pip, the drummer of the Lone Rangers and Rex's brother
Chris Farley as Officer Wilson, a police officer involved in dealing with the hostage crisis
Michael McKean as Milo Jackson, the station manager of KPPX
Judd Nelson as Jimmie Wing, a self-serving record executive at Palatine Records that has repeatedly denied Chazz
Marshall Bell as Carl Mace, a SWAT officer involved in dealing with the hostage crisis that would prefer to use force in dealing with the hostage crisis
Harold Ramis as Chris Moore (Probably a pseudonym), an undercover LAPD detective who poses as a Capitol Records A&R executive in order to gain entry into KPPX to no avail
Allen Covert as Officer Samuels, a police officer who was the first to arrive at KPPX at the start of the hostage crisis
The band Galactic Cowboys perform in the film under the name "The Sons of Thunder".
Mike Judge voices Beavis and Butt-Head, who call in to the radio station during the hostage situation and end up infuriating the Lone Rangers with their comments.
White Zombie appear in the bar scene with Officer Wilson is searching for Kayla, playing the track they recorded for the film "Feed the Gods".
The KPPX radio station was located at Fox Plaza in Los Angeles, which served as Nakatomi Plaza in the 1988 film Die Hard.[5][6]
Music
The film features an original song by White Zombie and went on to chart on the Billboard 200 and peak at Number 157.[7] In addition, there are re-recordings of songs from Motorhead and Primus. Jay Yuenger and Sean Yseult also accompanied with Brendan Fraser's vocal rendition of "Degenerated", a song by hardcore punk band Reagan Youth.[8] The song was produced by Yuenger and Bryan Carlstrom.[9]
A number of songs can be heard in the film but not included on the soundtrack album. These are: "Baby Huey (Do You Wanna Dance)" by Dim Stars; "Shamrocks and Shenanigans (Boom Shalock Lock Boom) [Butch Vig Mix]" by House of Pain; "Unsatisfied" by The Replacements; "Rocks" by Primal Scream; "Janie's Got a Gun" by Aerosmith; "Wheezing" by David Byrne; "Don't Hate Me Because I'm Beautiful" by "Sons of Thunder" (Galactic Cowboys).[10]
Reception
Box office
The film debuted in tenth place, grossing US$1.9 million in its opening weekend,[11] and grossed only half its budget.
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 29% based on 38 reviews. The site's critical consensus states: "There's a biting satire that keeps threatening to burst out of the well-cast Airheads, but unfortunately, the end result lives down to its title in the most unfortunate ways."[12] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 46 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[13] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B-" on an A+ to F scale.[14]
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film a rare positive review: "Fraser and Buscemi are deadpan delights. And Sandler, Opera Man on SNL, is a red-hot screen find."[15]
^P. Means, Sean (January 1, 1995). "'Pulp and Circumstance' After the Rise of Quentin Tarantino, Hollywood Would Never Be the Same". The Salt Lake Tribune (Final ed.). p. E1.
^Mills, Michael (December 30, 1994). "It's a Fact: 'Pulp Fiction' Year's Best". The Palm Beach Post (Final ed.). p. 7.
^Craft, Dan (December 30, 1994). "Success, Failure and a Lot of In-between; Movies '94". The Pantagraph. p. B1.
