Director Rob Reiner Reveals Plot Points of ‘Spinal Tap’ Sequel

This Is Spinal Tap director and co-writer Rob Reiner revealed some details of what to expect when the sequel movie arrives in 2025.

He outlined some of the plot points, after it was previously reported that Paul McCartney and Elton John will appear in the follow-up to the 1984 spoof documentary.

In a new interview with Empire, he said the story would open with discovering what singer David St. Hubbins, guitarist Nigel Tufnel and bassist Derek Smalls had been doing since Spinal Tap broke up.

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“Nigel has been running a cheese and guitar shop in Berwick-upon-Tweed,” Reiner explained. “He’s also been performing with a local folk band in the village that play penny whistle and mandolin, and he plays electric guitar with them. We show a little clip of that.

“David St. Hubbins has been living in Morro Bay in California, and he’s been writing music for podcasts, particularly this one true-crime podcast called ‘The Trouble With Murder.’ He also writes the music that you hear when you’re on hold on the phone.

“Derek is living in London and is now the curator of the New Museum of Glue. He’s curated glue from every country in the world – the whole history of glue – and he shows me around. He’s also been performing with a philharmonic orchestra, and he’s written this kind of symphony about the fact that the devil wears a bad hair piece. It’s called Hell Toupée.”

Reiner also said that the idea for the story came from the death of Tony Hendra, who played band manager Ian Faith in the first movie. “[W]e came up with this idea that Ian Faith had willed his daughter, Hope, this contract that called for one more performance.

“She thinks initially, ‘Well, this is not really worth anything…’ But then some big music star, while screwing around at a sound check, is filmed on an iPhone singing a Tap song, and it goes wild on social media. All of a sudden, the contract is worth something.”

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Reiner confirmed that, as with the first movie, a lot of the performances are improvised. “[W]e’ve known each other for so many years, and you just fall right back into it,” he said.

“We’ve got the contours of it, because we have a 10-page outline. But we’ll have a scene that lasts 15 or 20 minutes, that winds up being a minute in the movie. You find the best bits of everything and you cut them together.”

Both McCartney and John proved to be good in the improvisation environment, he added. “We came up with a good idea for Paul, and he was excited to do it. And we had a great idea for Elton. They’re both terrific in the film, both comfortable just talking off the cuff.”

The director went on to say that new Spinal Tap songs will be heard in the movie and its accompanying soundtrack album. “[I]t’ll have a couple of cuts by Elton John and one cut by Paul McCartney – songs that they sing in the film, which aren’t Spinal Tap-type songs, they’re ones that people know. But the rest of them are new.”

He provided a hint as to one of those new tracks: “There’s a scene where Henry Diltz, the very famous rock photographer, takes them to a cemetery in New Orleans. Nigel’s like, ‘Why are we here? All these people are dead.’ And Henry says, ‘Well, you’ve got to get used to this idea. You know, it’s going to happen.’

“Then Derek has this idea of what it’s going to be like after he dies. So he’s got this song called ‘Rockin’ In The Urn’ which is all about the fact that even after he’s dead, he’s still going to be performing.”