Tap of Ages
Spinal Tap II: The End Continues and the enduring, endearing silliness of heavy metal
Ozzy Osbourne once said that he would “die a happy man” if he dropped dead at his farewell show. After ascending to stage on a blacked-out throne adorned with outstretched bat wings, he nearly did – shuffling his mortal coil just 17 days after his “Back to the Beginning” mega-concert in Birmingham, England.
Expiring mid-scream isn’t just the stuff rock n’ roll legends are made of. It’s the stuff heavy metal was founded on. Going for baroque with 11-minute guitar solos and runny eyeliner, metal makes a melodrama of sex, life, and death. Puccini for burly guys with beards. So it’s fitting, then, that Spinal Tap II: The End Continues revolves around a final gig.
Older, but certainly not wiser, we find the lads of Tap have left bright lights and big bottoms behind. David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) composes music for murder podcasts and phone trees (“this one won a Holdy”). Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) runs a museum dedicated to the history of glue. Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) is the proprietor of a shop where you can trade a hunk of cheese for a guitar of equal weight. They’re brought back together by a contractual obligation discovered by their late manager’s daughter, forced to face each other and their own mortality.
As plots go, it’s as flimsy as a slice of mini bread from a backstage sandwich tray. Despite some heavy-hitting celebrity cameos, the surprises are few. The companion soundtrack offers reworked songs and some minor new material (like Shearer’s “Rockin' In The Urn”). What it doesn’t offer is an anthem on par with “Hell Hole” or “Big Bottom.”
What Tap II lacks in substance, though, it makes up for in moments of joyous stupidity. Like the original mockumentary, Rob Reiner lets the cameras roll and the improv flow. For fans, that’s where the fun is. A sight-gag involving a tiny cheeseboard nestled in Nigel’s guitar. A hilarious throwaway line about ghosts (“Well in the daytime, ghosts are just rumors”). The best and dumbest fart jokes of 2025. It isn’t as fresh and clever as the original, sure. But it’s hard not to be charmed by it.
And isn’t that all you can ask for, in the end? Like that pap photo of Glenn Danzig getting kitty litter, Tap II keeps us laughing at the silliness behind heavy metal’s self-seriousness. It’s also proof that metal is forever – even if, or maybe especially if, you spontaneously combust on stage.
Want to hear what we thought of the original? Listen to our Spinal Tap episode with Dan Shinder of Drum Talk TV
