'Metallica: Through The Never' Trailer: Fire And Riffs Trump Plot

The riff and machine-gun snare roll combo that opens Metallica's 'Master of Puppets' is a primal thing. My response to it is the same every time — an adrenaline rush, a  bodily thrill, and a genuine feeling of happiness. Now it has an additional effect: making me so ready to watch the 3D IMAX film Metallica: Through the Never. This first trailer for the film from Predators director Nimrod Antal tells us next to nothing about the movie, but it opens with a bit of 'Wherever I May Roam' before going into 'Puppets,' and the effect of the latter song still takes hold.

We've seen that one photo of star Dane DeHaan staring down a whole bunch of armed dudes that look like they're in the opening stages of a Warriors recreation. The trailer shows us more of those guys, but doesn't give any clue as to what they're doing. Insert song title puns here ('Seek and Destroy,' 'Damage, Inc.,' 'Battery') but is that one of the four horsemen that shows up at the end? Seems like it. What the hell is going on there? No idea.

Then there's the really well-shot live footage of Metallica. The stage set looks great, and the sound is huge. If you were ever a fan of the band, even if you've fallen away in the last decade or two, this will probably pull you back in. And if you never walked away in the first place, this is going to push your buttons hard.

Watching this a few times, I wonder what degree of the audio is truly live and what is overdubbed. (The vocals, still inflected with the crooner approach that Hetfield has been shedding of late, sound pretty live.) Not that it really matters. Personally, I'd almost prefer the overdubs, as Lars can be, well, a little shaky compared to his performances in years past. Hell, if nothing else, since I've never seen Metallica with Trujillo in the lineup, I'm looking forward to just watching that dude for a while. (Here's a full live set from Metallica's Orion fest last year, to compare against what we hear in the trailer.)

Yahoo has the trailer. The film opens on September 27.

Trip, a young roadie sent on an urgent mission during Metallica's roaring live set in front of a sold-out arena. As the band performs its most iconic songs for thousands of their fans in a never-before-seen performance created exclusively for the film, Trip is dispatched outside the arena to meet a disabled delivery truck and recover a mysterious item being transported to the show. But the seemingly simple assignment turns into a surreal adventure when his car is hit by an out-of-control driver. Trip, dazed and bruised, climbs out of his van only to find himself pitched in the middle of a tense standoff between angry protesters and charging riot police. In the ensuing mayhem, a vicious masked horseman sets his murderous eye on Trip while delivering indiscriminate deathblows to rioters and cops alike. Fleeing through the desolate, post-apocalyptic urban streetscape, Trip has only his wits to protect him as he attempts to deliver the band's precious cargo and avoid becoming the horseman's next victim.