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Jack Black in Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny
Directed by	Liam Lynch
Produced by	Jack Black Kyle Gass Stuart Cornfeld Ben Stiller
Written by	Jack Black Kyle Gass Liam Lynch
Starring	Jack Black Kyle Gass Dave Grohl
Music by	Tenacious D score by John King Andrew Gross
Editing by	David Rennie
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date(s)	November 22, 2006
Language	English
Budget	$20,000,000
IMDb profile

Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny is a rock musical set in the 1990s, starring Tenacious D, an American satirical rock duo that features Jack Black and Kyle Gass. It is directed by musician and puppeteer Liam Lynch. The film was released on November 22, 2006. Publicity for the film involved a tagline "The Greatest Motion Picture of All Time".^[1]

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Critical response
4 Box Office
5 Music
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Plot

As a young man, Black is the black sheep of his religious family in the oppressive town of Kickapoo, Missouri. He leaves for Los Angeles after abuse from his father and a vision of Dio.

Shortly after he arrives in Hollywood, he stumbles upon a long-haired man playing acoustic guitar. The man introduces himself as Gass, and is very unimpressed with Black. Despite the fact that Black improvises lyrics for Gass' playing off the top of his head, Gass still rejects Black's overtures of friendship. Black, disheartened, wanders off into the city, where he is attacked by a gang of A Clockwork Orange-themed thugs (complete with white overalls, masks and cockney accents). They beat him briefly and run off, whereupon Gass emerges and chastises the already-fled gang members. Black, believing that Gass chased them away, is intensely grateful, and Gass takes him back to his apartment.

Gass wearing the Trainwreck T-shirt in The Pick of Destiny

Over the next few days, Gass lies about knowing and interacting with a number of rock legends in the course of running his own band, "The Kyle Gass Project". Gass agrees to take Black under his wing and teach him the secrets of rock. Soon, Black undergoes Gass's custom 'gig simulator', which ends disastrously. Immediately thereafter, Black learns that Gass is completely fake; even his hair is a wig. He's a failure as a musician, and his parents are cutting his rent off. Enraged by the deception, Black berates Gass and says he's leaving.

Gass informs his former apprentice that he will have to return home because he has already spent his last rent check. He reveals a new acoustic guitar with custom decorations, including a 'JB' logo on the lower half. Touched and appeased, Black states that there will be no moving back in with anyone's parents - that they will pay the rent "with their rock". At the same time, they discover the birthmarks on their buttocks that, when combined, reveal the name of their destined band: Tenacious D, with "Tenac" being on Black's right buttock, and "ious D" being on Gass's left.

Tenacious D try their luck at an open mic night performing "History" and receive a lukewarm reception. It seems that one week later, a competition with a cash prize will be held, which the D desperately need to win to pay the rent. Seeking praise from the open mic host, they are told the contest's competition will be fierce, and they'd best come up with new material. When they attempt to do so, they run into writer's block, frustrating Black greatly. He throws himself down amidst copies of Rolling Stone, noting that all the bands on the covers are great, and tries to figure out a common element. Gass, looking at the covers, idly observes that they all apparently used the same guitar pick which is green ivory shaped into a skull of a demon with horns.

Heading to the ultra music store to see if they can find such a pick, the two attract the attention of the owner. He reveals in a dark closet (in which he uses a lighter to create suspense, but Gass quickly turns on the light switch) that they've stumbled across the legend of the 'Pick of Destiny': long ago a dark wizard summoned up the Devil himself to force him into doing his bidding. The Prince of Darkness had other ideas and the sorcerer quickly found himself on the losing side of a magic-fueled match. A heroic blacksmith, discovering the struggle, hurled a horseshoe at Satan, breaking one of his teeth. This distraction allowed the wizard to put a curse on Satan: he was forced to return to Hell until he was complete again. In gratitude for the blacksmith's valuable help, the wizard formed the tooth into a lute pick that held a part of the Devil's essence. Using the pick would allow the blacksmith to play lute songs that would help him win the heart of his lady love, something that would leave her "moist and wanting." The pick surfaced hundreds of years later in the southern U.S. where legendary black guitarist Robert Johnson used it to forge its own guitar-infused brand of blues, which was later to develop into rock music (Johnson often humorously referred to having made a pact with the devil to achieve his guitar-playing skills and even composed a "Me and the Devil" blues). Stating that he believes the Pick of Destiny to be in the Rock & Roll History Museum (using evidence of a picture of the last time the pick was seen, being held by AC/DC guitarist Angus Young and donated his guitar with the P.O.D.) the guitar store owner then ejects Black and Gass from the shop, advising them not to meddle with the pick.

Black and Gass perform Master Exploder.

Black is determined to get the pick, and after he and Gass borrow their friend Lee's car, they set off for the museum. While driving, Black fantasizes about their upcoming performance at the open mic night when they finally get the pick "Master Exploder". Along the way, Gass is distracted by college girls who are impressed by his exaggerations of his band's fame. Gass wants to go to the sorority party the girls are heading for, but Black is focused on the pick, especially after picking up a tip on infiltrating the museum from a strange vagrant. Gass abandons Black to go to the fraternity party, and an embittered Black sets out for the museum on his own, after smashing one of the car's taillights with a rock. Along the way, he has a mushroom-induced hallucination where he meets sasquatch. Black eventually wakes up from his hallucination, and continues towards the museum.

Meanwhile, Gass flounders at the party. When he is pressed to sing one of his band's songs, he attempts to sing the song he and Black sang at open mic night, but he only knows the harmony vocals. Humiliated, Gass realizes he is only half complete without Black, and sets out to make things right. Meanwhile, Black breaks into the museum, following the directions he got from the vagrant. Meeting up with Black in the museum's air ducts, the two reconcile and set out to steal the pick. When confronted by a "deadly" laser grid, Black manages to tumble and wriggle his way to the end, but is thwarted by the lasers being too close together. A button at waist height will shut off the grid, but he cannot reach it. Gass urges Black to use one of the rocker techniques he taught him earlier, the "cock push-up". Black's now strengthened penis is able to emerge from his jeans and hit the red button. Having successfully used the technique to deactivate the lasers, the two steal the pick and flee from the guard.

As they drive home, a policeman attempts to pull them over for their broken tail lamp. Gass panics and the two engage in a high speed chase, which ends when the car bursts into flames. The police believe the two perished in the fire, but they've actually slipped into the sewer system. Using the sewers to arrive at Open Mic Night, Tenacious D prepares to go on stage.

Greed comes between the two as they fight over who gets to use the pick first, and it ends with the Pick of Destiny broken in half on the ground. They mourn their loss, but the open mic host advises them that the power of Satan is not in a pick; it's in everybody. Heartened, the two go inside to prepare. Meanwhile, the host picks up the pick, which glows with unearthly green power. The two emerge from the club, intending to use the halves of the pick anyway, just in time to see the host transform into Satan and turn the pick back into his tooth, rejoining it to his body.

Exulting in his wholeness, Satan announces that the world will now belong to him, and that Black and Gass are first on his list of people to slaughter. Black interrupts by challenging the devil to a rock-off, which Satan must accept due to the Demon Code. When asked for terms, Black announces that if Tenacious D wins, Satan must return to Hell and pay their rent. Black then gives their penalty for losing: Satan will be allowed to take Gass back to hell and use him as a sex slave. Satan consents to the terms and they then begin the rock-off.

Satan sings a song of arrogance and sex - in other words, "a masterpiece", as Gass mentions. After seeing Satan's skill, Gass is terrified that he will become Satan's sex slave. But Black encourages him, claiming they can win together. Heartened, Gass joins Black and they retaliates with their own song, right off the top of their heads. Gass plays his acoustic guitar and Black dances about proudly, with Gass harmonizing, shouting his unique style of profanity-laced nonsense/genius. Despite their valiant effort, Satan decries them as "fuckin' lame", and prepares to send Gass to Hell.

Black leaps in front of Satan's blast of lightning, which deflects off the emblem on his guitar and breaks the end off of one of the Devil's horns. Recalling the incantation the dark wizard used hundreds of years ago (related to them by the guitar store owner), "from whence you came, you shall remain, until you are complete again", Black curses Satan once more to return to Hell. Condemning the rockers individually and swearing his vengeance on the band as a whole, Satan is dragged back to the underworld.

The end of the tale sees Tenacious D sitting in their apartment, musing that they defeated the devil "with their rock". They also mourn that they cannot remember even a single note of the amazing song they played in the rock-off (this is a reference to their hit song "Tribute" from their first album). So they decide to simply write a new, even better song, and make use of the "BOD", the Bong of Destiny - a bong fashioned from Satan's horn - for inspiration. In an after-credit scene, Black and Gass are pondering their next song. When Black hits record on their tape player, the duo pauses for a short moment, waiting for Gass. When Gass thinks he feels something, he prepares to play on his guitar, however, the "feeling" turned out to be just gas. The movie ends with a final quote from Gass, "I thought I felt something." and Black saying "Let's play that back."

[edit] Cast

Jack Black as himself: lead vocals of Tenacious D.
Kyle Gass as himself: lead guitar of Tenacious D.
Jason Reed as Lee: Tenacious D's biggest fan.
Ronnie James Dio as himself: heavy metal singer and Black's hero.
Dave Grohl as Satan: the band's nemesis in the final scene
Ben Stiller as Guitar Center Guy.
Paul F. Tompkins as Open Mic Host.
Tim Robbins as The Stranger: A mysterious stranger who tries to steal the .
Troy Gentile as Lil' JB: a younger Black.
Meat Loaf as Black's father.

[edit] Critical response

After the film's premiere, the duo appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Both expressed happiness over the film's good critical response, and claimed they were "shooting for cult film status".

Kevin Crust of the Los Angeles Times said "[The movie] might best be enjoyed in an enhanced state of consciousness, a herbal supplement, and we aren't talking ginko biloba."^[2]

Stephen Rae of The Philadelphia Inquirer said that the frequent drug-use in the film gives "the term potty humor a new meaning."^[3]

Michael Phillips criticized the frequency of the drug-use by saying: "This may be the problem. Pot rarely helped anybody's comic timing."^[4]

Stephen Holden of The New York Times suggested that the film could be viewed as a "jolly rock 'n' roll comedy", but he also described the progression of the film as being a "garish mess."^[5]

[edit] Box Office

The film performed poorly at the box office, only grossing a total of $8.2 million in the United States. It debuted with a mere $3 million during its opening weekend at number eleven. With a budget of $20,000,000 the film is considered a financial failure because it was not able to gross half the cost of production. In the fifth week after its release, the movie only earned $50,000 and virtually vanished from theaters. Even more surprising was that the DVD sales outnumbered the box office receipts. DVD sales totaled over $9 million. Prior to filming, both Jack Black and Kyle Gass each received $5,000.000 and were to share 10% of the total revenue of the film. This means that each of them earned about $865,000 from the project.^[6]. This movie is rated R.

[edit] Music

Main article: The Pick of Destiny

The soundtrack, the band's second album, includes vocals by Ronnie James Dio and Meat Loaf. Dave Grohl plays drums on the album, as he did on their first album, Tenacious D (2001). Grohl also contributes his vocals on "Beelzeboss (The Final Showdown)".

The score by Andrew Gross, John King and Trainwreck, More Rocktastic Music from the Film, was released in limited quantities to Wal-Mart stores.