History WesternAnimation / HeavyMetal

* CoolCar: The Corvette convertible that flies through space, re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and drives home. Harry Canyon's heavily modified, armored, and weaponized yellow Checker cab.

** [[GenderFlip Gender-flipped]] with the pilot in the "B-17"-segment, who immediately upon landing after bailing out, feels his face and is relieved that it is unspoiled [[spoiler: from his encounter with the zombies]] ... [[FromBadToWorse for now.]]

* AllAmazonsWantHercules: In 'the "Den" story, Den is a 98-pound weakling voiced by John Candy. Sent to an alternate dimension, he transforms into a bald, muscle-bound, loin-cloth-wearing ActionHero, "with his dork hanging out." He rescues a DamselInDistress, Kath, and when they have a moment to talk in peace (Expanded upon in a deleted scene), Kath explains that she brought into that world as well and changed to her delight into a [[ShamelessFanserviceGirl naked]] MsFanservice ideal and would love to offer her attentions to her hero, and he accepts eagerly. Later, Den is forced to join a small raid against an evil queen's palace only to blunder into the queen in the dark. When the lights come on, he is clearly grabbing her (very much uncovered) breasts. The queen doesn't mind; a few seconds of animated sex later, she proclaims Den her messiah. About par for female characters in that movie.

* FailureHero: 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 HeroicSacrifice from her pet and a random lightning bolt. Aside from decapitating three {{Mooks}} in a bar, her fighting skills are strictly an InformedAbility.
** Her winged mount bails her out of trouble ''twice'', and she wastes so much time sexily getting dressed for battle that if the elder council had prayed for the bird instead of her, they might well have all survived.
*** They die immediately after calling out to her. So, nope, couldn't be saved.
*** Not a random lightning bolt. That's the energy from her sword that was infused during her swimming scene. She fights the leader of the mutants, who seems to be also the strongest, and destroys the real problem, the Loc-Nar with the electricity/power from her weapon, so she personally destroys everyone that caused the deaths of the people she was meant to protect/avenge. She has zero chance of getting to them quickly enough to save them, as they died moments after calling her. So, this could best be in the YMMV section.
** Then again, the people she's supposed to protect wait until the last possible second to summon her. This can also be seen as an aversion of this trope, as the pact is described that if the Taarakians cannot defend, their mission is to avenge those they swore to protect.

* RevelingInTheNewForm: In the segment "Den", a scrawny science nerd is studying lightning in his room when a bolt creates an electric arc that teleports him through space and time to the world called Neverwhere, transforming his body into that of muscular warrior. "Hmm, big," Den notes of his new physique, and promptly snags a pendant to use as a loincloth.

* DistaffCounterpart: Taarna is based on a male Creator/{{Moebius}} character called Arzach.

* DistaffCounterpart: Taarna is based on a male Creator/{{Moebius}} character called Arzach.

The film is adapted from a number of stories in the ''Magazine/HeavyMetal'' magazine, an American version of the French comic ''Métal Hurlant'' founded by Creator/{{Moebius}} and Creator/PhilippeDruillet. A number of other adaptations have also been made, including the film ''WesternAnimation/HeavyMetal2000'' and the ThirdPersonShooter ''F.A.K.K.[[superscript: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''. Another adaptation is the TV series ''Series/MetalHurlantChronicles'', as was ''WesternAnimation/LoveDeathAndRobots'' during its origins.

'''Grimaldi/Soft Landing''': The titular astronaut's Corvette.

'''Harry Canyon''': Again, the main character's modified vehicle and the bounty on the Loc-Nar.

'''Den''': The heavy chains [[spoiler: used by the hero to dispatch the villains]].

'''Captain Sternn''': The PlanetSpaceship setting and again, what is essentially blood money.

'''B-17''': The titular bomber, the [[MoreDakka copious firepower]] employed, and [[spoiler: the DerelictGraveyard]] at the end.

'''So Beautiful And So Dangerous''': Intricate alien machinery and another space dreadnought.

'''Taarna''': Taarna's [[CoolSword sword]] against the cyborg chief's lethal instruments.

-->'''Trailer'''

-->'''OpeningMonologue'''

->''"A shadow shall fall over the universe...and evil will grow in its path...and death will come from the skies."''

** Exploited when [[spoiler: the Barbarian Leader slashes Taarna across the stomach. Another reason not to BareYourMidriff in combat.]]

** Taarna, as visible in the poster and half of the page image (although her battle gear doesn't cover much either, and sports CombatStilettos). Although, there were real life warrior cultures where going to war wearing little or nothing was both an actual practice and a sign of being a total badass who wasn't afraid to fight without armor. Plus, it allows for better movement and everything in Taarna's story takes place on a desert planet.

* JudicialWig: The segment of that focuses on the trial of Captain Lincoln Sternn is presided over by a corpulent judge wearing the classic woolen wig, even though the courtroom is aboard a huge space station, with a CastOfSnowflakes gallery of bizarre aliens. He presumably bugs out when star witness Hanover Fiste goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge.

* CanonWelding: The comics this movie is based on weren't set in the same universe as eachother. Here the Loc-Nar MacGuffin from ''ComicBook/{{Den}}'' linking most of the stories.

* AmbiguouslyGay: In "Taarna", the Council chamber sentry wears a pink jacket, a pink bow-knot and really short and tight shorts that [[ShesGotLegs leave his entire legs bare]]. [[BuryYourGays His death]] is displayed in graphic detail a mere minute after he appears on screen.

* BolivianArmyEnding: "B-17" ends on an inconclusive but grim note with the sole survivor of the titular plane trapped on a deserted island and surrounded by zombies.

-->'''Ard''': My, aren't we ''fierce!'' Guards, castrate him!

* ZombieApocalypse: The B-17 segment. First the dead crew of the B-17 turn into zombies, then the B-17's pilot parachutes onto an island infested with zombies who were once the crew of crashed planes.

* '''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.

* DerelictGraveyard: "B-17". After bailing out of his B-17 bomber, the pilot lands on a tropical island and finds it filled with crashed airplanes. Unfortunately, the pilots of those planes are still around, and they're angry zombies.

* GoodIsNotSoft: The few characters who do manage to resist and even fight back the Loc-Nar, namely [[spoiler: Harry Canyon, Den, Skip the pilot, Taarna and the Girl]], are invariably kind-hearted and just, but also forces to be reckoned with. Even so, their respective enounters with the ultimate evil change their lives forever, and not for the better in [[ZombieApocalypse every]] [[HeroicSacrifice case]].

* TheHorde: Barbarian minions are seen in "Den" and "Tarrna".

* CourtroomAntic: Big time. Sternn bribes Hanover Fiste so that he'll lie about what a good person he is and have his charges dropped.

* ThemeSongReveal: Music/BlueOysterCult wrote "Vengeance (The Pact)" for this movie but it was replaced with "Veteran Of The Psychic Wars" due to the former song's lyrics having major spoilers for Taarna.

* AdaptedOut: During the chase in the Captain Sternn segment after the Captain leaves through the steel door that Hanover Fiste smashes through, he runs into a group of robots who try to stop him and Hanover who in turn grabes their weapons and eats them before Hanover Fiste smashes their heads together.