Little Nicky is a 2000 comedy film directed by Steven Brill. It stars Adam Sandler as Nicky, one of Satan's three sons. It is the first Happy Madison Film relased with a PG-13 rating by the MPAA.
Plot
The movie begins with a peeper (Jon Lovitz) sitting in a tree spying on a single mom. He gets caught out by her son who in turn fires his slingshot at the guy who falls off the tree and then dies. He ends up in Hell as what he was doing is a sin. Also in Hell, it is the 10,000th year as the current Satan's rule of Hell. He brings his three sons—Adrian, Cassius, and Nicky—to decide who will succeed him as "Prince of Darkness". Adrian and Cassius constantly torment Nicky for being their father's personal favorite, even going as far as taking control of his mind and hitting him in the face with a shovel (resulting in a slacked jaw and a speech impediment). The Devil decides to rule another 10,000 years himself because there is more to being Satan than torturing sinful souls as much as keeping the balance between good and evil, saying that none of the sons are ready to take on that responsibility. This greatly angers Adrian and Cassius, so they decide to go to Earth and create a "New Hell" there, corrupting as many souls as possible so that when they kill the souls they will have an army of Damned Souls. They escape Hell and freeze the entrance, the Fire Gate, on the way out. When no new souls can get in, Satan begins to decompose. Satan sends Nicky to Earth with a silver flask that traps the drinker inside it forever. The only way to un-freeze the gate is to get Adrian and Cassius to return through the Fire Gate inside the flask.
Nicky goes to Earth and appears in the subway at Grand Central Terminal and meets "Mr. Beefy", a talking bulldog that is "an old friend" of Satan. He says that Adrian and Cassius can possess mortals so they will be hard to find. Nicky manages to get an apartment with Todd, a failed actor. Meanwhile, Adrian (possessing a powerful Deacon) and Cassius (possessing the Mayor of New York City) corrupt an entire mass, thus taking the first steps towards New Hell. Cassius makes the mayor even change the New York Slogan to "I Love Hookers" and lower the legal drinking age to 10.
Nicky spends the beginning of the next day ordering random people (thinking they're possessed) to "Get in the flask" but all fails. Nicky also meets Valerie, a design student whom he falls for. Seeing that Nicky has been sent to catch him, Adrian invades Nicky's mind and makes him scare Valerie away. Adrian kills Nicky, sending him back to Hell (this happens several times throughout the film) and he only respawns back in Grand Central Station. Both Satanists are there, seeing that, Nicky's blood splatters on them, reading off 666, instantly fascinating them.
While watching a Globetrotters game with Todd, Nicky sees that Cassius has possessed a referee, and is making several bad calls against the favorite Globetrotters, trying to make the audience riot. Nicky gets to the court and challenges Cassius to a one-on-one game during half time. Using his newly found "Evil" (powers he was born with as the son of the devil) to win the game (which he does), he then tricks Cassius into the Flask. John and Peter, two headbanging Satanists, see the "Devil Showdown" and devote themselves to Nicky.
Back at Nicky's apartment, Nicky tells John, Peter, and Todd about his heritage and his point on Earth. Nicky, Todd, John, Peter, and Mr. Beefy get high off of cake with marijuana in the mix and after hearing "Mama, I'm Coming Home" Nicky realizes he is in love with Valerie and passes up an Ozzy Osbourne concert to go see her. He only ends up getting Pepper Sprayed by a still angry Valerie and Nicky falls off her building. Valerie's concern for Nicky stops his descent inches from the ground and he floats back up. He explains to Valerie who he really is and why he is on Earth and at the risk of him falling again, she believes him. Nicky gives Valerie the power to fly and they do so around the city.
The next day Adrian, possessing the Chief of the New York Police Department, puts a false bounty of $50 million on Nicky's head for mass murder. Nicky is being chased by loads of townspeople who think he is a monster. When he arrives home safely, he realises that Adrian has set him up. He then wonders what to do and Jon tells Nicky that he should ask his dad for help. Taking Jon's advice, Nicky advises them to kill him but is only badly injured. Todd agrees to kill Nicky as he has always wanted to kill someone so he fills the bathtub with water and drowns Nicky in there. Back in hell, Nicky sees his father reduced to only his body, face and arms and has no ears. Jimmy angrily shouts at Nicky for letting his father die and while Nicky is trying to explain that Adrian is turning everyone against him, no one seems to listen and Jimmy tells Nicky that he has until midnight to save his father so then Nicky leaves Hell and arrives back on Earth where he and his friends devise a plan to take down Adrian, involving John and Peter to go to Adrian and give Nicky's location. After Adrian takes an army of cops to Grand Central to take out Nicky, they end up arresting Todd and Mr. Beefy who are waiting for Nicky. John (being possessed by Nicky) attempts to trick Adrian into drinking from the Flask but then Adrian realises that Nicky is possessing him. When this fails, Nicky decides to confront Adrian himself. Adrian holds Valerie (hiding behind a pillar in the subway) hostage, but Mr. Beefy who escapes by fumigating the police rushes to the rescue where he fires an arrow from his penis which stabs Adrian in the leg and gives Valerie time to escape from his clutches but he ends up throwing her onto the track. Nicky jumps onto the track and throws Valerie out of the way, but when Nicky tries to jump off the track, Adrian grabs him and both are hit by the train.
In Hell, Adrian interrogates his father-reduced to his arms, hands, and lips-about where Nicky is, who wakes up in Heaven and meets his real mother, a beautiful angel named Holly. She reveals that Nicky was conceived from a one night stand at a "Heaven/Hell Mixer" after both were intoxicated. Meanwhile, Nipples who is being tortured by Adrian accidentally reveals to him that if what's left of Satan is thrown from his throne, any son may claim the seat of power. Lucifer then commands Adrian to stay off the throne but Adrian pushes him to the ground. He then throws Satan's arms and lips off the seat and then sits down on the throne where horns emerge from the top of his head. He rises his throne into Central Park along with several other parts of Hell where a party/riot begins. Adrian reveals to the party goers that they will all go to Hell when he kills them after the past Satan's complete dematerialization.
Nicky witnesses all this and returns to Earth after Holly tells him as half Angel he can use the "Inner Light", similar to Evil but can be used for good, and a mysterious white orb that is only to be used when Nicky is in grave danger. Nicky arrives at Central Park and commandeers a platoon of Adrian's Demons with the Inner Light. Nicky confronts Adrian with the demons, but they are scared away by Adrian's powers. Nicky and Adrian engage in hand-to-hand combat until both brothers end up in the Flask where an off-screen battle between the three brothers ensues. Nicky emerges as the victor, but an overly passionate kiss with Valerie reveals it is only Adrian in disguise. Adrian turns into a large bat and flies around the crowd, stalling time until his father's death at midnight. Valerie convinces Nicky to summon the strength to get out, which he does, and confronts Adrian one last time. Nicky shatters the White Orb in front of Adrian and Ozzy Osbourne magically appears. Ozzy proceeds to bite Adrian the Bat's head off and spits it into the flask.
Nicky realizes that the only way to save his father is to kill himself, but then realizes he will only go to heaven. He covers Henry Winkler in bees as a sin and Valerie kills him, but not before she and Nicky express their love for each other. Nicky returns to Hell just in time to save his father. After Nicky tells Satan of the happiness on Earth, he decides to stay there with Valerie. Satan's father Lucifer then opens the flask for Adrian and Cassius, but sends them up Adolf Hitler's anus as a punishment for all three. A year later, Nicky is shown living on Earth with Valerie and their son Zachariah. Meanwhile, Mr. Beefy runs into his old girlfriend Heather (a sewer rat) who he has children with who look like half-rat half-bull dog. Nipples also has children with Chewbacca (their children have Chewbacca's body and Nipples's face). John and Pete die after their zeppelin, which they purchased with the money they got for turning Nicky in, crashes (as after buying all of their party supplies forgot to hire a pilot) and they end up in hell where they stay in Nicky's old room listening to all of his records.
Cast
Cameos
Production
The concept for the Nicky character has roots in Gil Graham, whom Sandler portrayed on Weekend Update during his time on Saturday Night Live.[citation needed] Similarities include his speech pattern, hairstyle, and affinity for heavy metal music.
Angus Young of AC/DC was originally cast as Satan, but backed out prior to shooting, and was replaced by Harvey Keitel. Marilyn Manson also left the cast, due to schedule issues.[1]
The film is dedicated to Chris Farley, who died on December 18, 1997.
Culture References
Lucifer (played by Rodney Dangerfield)says a parody of his "I get no respect" catchphrase ( Even in hell I got no respect.)
Reception
Critical reaction to the film was fairly poor. Based on 109 reviews collected by the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 22% of critics gave Little Nicky a positive review.[2] Comedian and former Mystery Science Theater 3000 host Michael J. Nelson named the film the worst comedy ever made.[3] It was also nominated for five awards at the 21st Golden Raspberry Awards, including Worst Picture and Worst Actor (Adam Sandler).
Soundtrack
- P.O.D. – "Southtown"
- Incubus – "Pardon Me"
- Deftones – "Change (In the House of Flies)"
- Cypress Hill – "(Rock) Superstar"
- Insolence – "Natural High"
- Linkin Park – "Points of Authority"
- Disturbed – "Stupify (Fu's Forbidden Little Nicky Remix)"
- Unloco – "Nothing"
- Powerman 5000 – "When Worlds Collide"
- Muse – "Cave"
- Filter – "Take a Picture"
- Deftones – "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away) (Acoustic)"
other song appearances
- Scorpions – "Rock You Like a Hurricane"
- AC/DC – "Highway to Hell"
- Foo Fighters – "Everlong"
- Van Halen – "Runnin' With the Devil"
- Zebrahead – "Now or Never"
- Lit – "Perfect One"
- Ozzy Osbourne – "Mama, I'm Coming Home"
- Ozzy Osbourne – "No More Tears"
- Ozzy Osbourne – "Flying High Again"
- Chicago – "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?"
- The Dandy Warhols – "Bohemian Like You"
- The Stampeders – "Sweet City Woman"
Video game
A Game Boy Color game was released based on this film shortly after its release.
References
External links
