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Airheads is a 1994 American comedy film directed by Michael Lehmann and written by Rich Wilkes. It stars Brendan Fraser, Steve Buscemi, and Adam Sandler as the members of a struggling rock band who hijack a Los Angeles radio station in order to get their demo aired. The rest of the principal cast includes Chris Farley, Michael McKean, Judd Nelson, Michael Richards, and Joe Mantegna, with Ernie Hudson, Amy Locane, Nina Siemaszko, Marshall Bell, Reg E. Cathey, and David Arquette in supporting roles.
Airheads was a critical and commercial failure, but has since come to be viewed as a cult film.
The Lone Rangers try to get local rock station KPPX to play their reel-to-reel tape on the air by attempting to break-in through the back door. Once inside, DJ Ian "The Shark" talks with them on the air. Station manager Milo overhears them and intervenes, but Ian continues broadcasting. After Milo calls Rex "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 immediately destroyed when the player malfunctions. The trio attempt escape, but the station's accountant Doug Beech has already called the police. The building ends up being 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 travel and fans begin showing up outside and interfering with police. A SWAT team also arrives 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 secretly signed a deal to change KPPX's format from rock to adult contemporary which includes having to fire Ian and most of the other employees. Consequently, Ian and some employees side with the band and turn against Milo.
The police find Kayla at the club and she arrives at the 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 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 fake upon being subdued. As the team assembles to storm the station, Beech corners the band from an 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 rounds, and the police are forced to back off. Ian picks up the gun, but gives it to Chazz in an act of anti-establishment rebellion.
Jimmie Wing comes to the station and offers the band a contract, to which they reluctantly agree. Wing arranges a stage and sound system to be airlifted to the roof where the band will play their song for the now huge crowd outside. However, 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 band later plays 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 band will start touring upon their release in six months, three months if they behave themselves.
A postscript states that the Lone Rangers ultimately serve three months in prison for kidnapping, theft, and assault with hot pepper sauce. Their album LIVE IN PRISON goes triple platinum.
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" 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).
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."
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