Spinal Tap II: The End Continues

Around forty years after the first film, director Martin “Marty” DiBergi creates a documentary of the reunion/final show of legendary rock band Spın̈al Tap, including original members Nigel Tufnel, David St. Hubbins, and Derek Smalls. He visits Hope Faith, the daughter of Spın̈al Tap’s original manager Ian Faith, and finds that she inherited a contract requiring Tap to perform one more concert. Marty goes on to reunite with Nigel, former Tap lead guitarist, who now runs a cheese-and-guitar shop with girlfriend Moira and plays guitar in a local folk band. Marty then goes to David, former Tap guitarist/lead singer, who produces music for true-crime podcasts and on-hold phone music. David’s wife, Jeanine, has become a nun. Marty finally visits Derek, former Tap bassist, now curator of a glue museum (Derek gets a glue-bottle stuck up his nose), who has composed a symphonic work called “Hell Toupee”. Although tension exists between Nigel and David, the trio agree to perform once more, though they need a drummer, as all their previous ones mysteriously died. They discuss how although the band has not performed for 15 years, interest in their music has increased after a video of Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood performing Tap’s “Big Bottom” went viral.

Finding a sleazy promoter who cannot comprehend music, Simon Howler, Tap voyages to New Orleans to practice; their concert will fill an arena slot vacated by Stormy Daniels. Questlove, Chad Smith, and Lars Ulrich turn down their offers to be drummer; auditions go badly, but eventually, a spirited young rocker woman, Didi Crockett, successfully auditions. Keyboardist CJ “Caucasian Jerry” Vanston also comes on board. However, old manager Bobbi Flekman reveals that the band stressed her so much that she became a Buddhist; PR man Artie Fufkin has become a used-car salesman.

The band, living in a “ghost house” tourist attraction, must endure being served a whole-alligator supper while tourists with “ghost meters” wander through. It is revealed that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame rejected Tap’s membership with a letter saying, “Fuck off, sincerely yours”; Hope and Simon propose that Tap establish their own hall of fame, the design for which resembles an IHOP site, featuring themselves. Nigel shows Marty a small cavity in his guitar, containing a piece of cheese and a grater. As the band reflects on aging and death, Derek composes a song, “Rockin’ in the Urn”. Rehearsals are fraught, as Nigel and David fail to connect musically. However, Paul McCartney drops by and offers helpful advice, later telling Marty that “Big Bottom” is “almost literature”. Elton John also drops by, though Simon derides him, and sings Tap’s “Flower People”, and agrees to sing “Stonehenge”.

Complications abound: the stage manager makes a huge model of a woman’s bottom for “Big Bottom”, which loudly emits flatulent sounds, annoying Tap. Didi requests that her drum platform be moved closer to the trio. Derek makes an unsuccessful pass at Didi, who promptly calls her beautiful girlfriend into the room. Simon even tries to make Tap exercise with an annoying personal trainer, as he wants them to dance like a K-Pop boy band. Earlier, he had proposed that at least one of the band die in concert, to produce a financially-valuable tribute opportunity. Simon then abandons Tap, claiming he must visit his birth mother. Finally, David accuses Nigel of adultery with Jeanine, which Nigel denies.

David, frustrated, takes a walk in New Orleans, seeing a Black bluesman singing a song which reminds him of good old days with Nigel; he tells Nigel he forgives him, though Nigel again pleads his innocence. As the concert finally begins, the crowds cheer Tap’s performance of old hits. However, as “Stonehenge” unfolds, with Elton John at the piano, a huge stone monument descends from the ceiling, teetering precariously on the edge of Didi’s relocated drum platform. Two little people in druid robes accidentally knock down the prop, which crushes the piano, Elton, and the trio. Elton screams, “Fuck Spinal Tap!” The four recover in a hospital room. Later, Derek tells Marty that he was the one who had an affair with Jeanine. The final scene shows Marty at a restaurant, congratulating Didi on being the only surviving Tap drummer; as she smiles and eats her healthy fruit-and-nut diet, she chokes, and Marty gives her the Heimlich maneuver, with a freeze-frame leaving the result uncertain.

Last Updated: October 10, 2025 at 16:00