One of the earliest pioneers of the heavy metal subgenre of rock, Black Sabbath has been given a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, ranked as one of the greatest artists of all time by Rolling Stone magazine, and inducted into both the UK Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Having been one of the biggest rock bands in the world for more than half a century, Sabbath has been included on the soundtracks of a bunch of different movies. The band’s music has been featured in everything from Iron Man to Dazed and Confused to The Hangover Part III.
“N.I.B.” In The Hangover Part III
While the two sequels to The Hangover failed to live up to the original, the whole trilogy is full of great music moments, like Danzig’s “Black Hell” in the second movie.
In the third one, Black Sabbath’s “N.I.B.” plays as Phil and Alan infiltrate Mr. Chow’s strobe-ridden penthouse shindig, right before he jumps off the balcony with a parachute.
“Iron Man” In School Of Rock
Having been ousted from his own band, when Dewey Finn listens in on his students’ music class and realizes they can all play instruments, he sees a way to compete in the Battle of the Bands after all.
When the kids return from music class, he invites some of them up to the front of the classroom to see how well they can play. To determine if Zack could be a great rock guitarist, Dewey asks him to play a few different riffs, including Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” and Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man.”
“Paranoid” In Kong: Skull Island
What sets Kong: Skull Island apart visually from the other King Kong movies is its Vietnam War-era setting, which influenced its soundtrack as well as its design.
“Paranoid,” arguably Sabbath’s most popular song, plays as the helicopters arrive on the island and Kong suddenly appears and starts punching them out of the sky.
“Time Machine” In Wayne’s World
Obviously, the most iconic music moment in Wayne’s World is when Wayne, Garth, and their pals sing Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” in the car. There’s also the hilarious moment when Wayne is denied the right to play “Stairway to Heaven” in a music store.
But one of the many other classic rock tracks featured on the soundtrack that gave the movie its metalhead vibe is “Time Machine” by Black Sabbath.
“Into The Void” In Dogtown And Z-Boys
In most cases, when a Black Sabbath song is used in a movie, it’s a fictional movie. But the band’s trippy, surreal gem “Into the Void” was utilized in the documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys.
The doc charts the rejuvenation of skateboarding culture in the mid-‘70s when it was in danger of dying out. A group of surfers saved skateboarding by incorporating surfing techniques.
“The Mob Rules” In Heavy Metal
Usually, when the frontman of a rock band is replaced, the new frontman pales in comparison. But Ronnie James Dio’s stint at the helm of Black Sabbath resulted in a couple of fantastic albums, including The Mob Rules, whose title track appears in Heavy Metal.
Based on the magazine of the same name, Heavy Metal is an animated anthology movie with a psychedelic visual style and a hard-R rating.
“Sweet Leaf” In Almost Famous
Writer-director Cameron Crowe included a litany of classic rock tunes in his music industry drama Almost Famous, licensing not one, not two, but five tracks by Led Zeppelin.
Black Sabbath’s ode to marijuana, “Sweet Leaf,” plays when William is invited to L.A. and says his farewell to everybody before leaving.
“Iron Man” In Iron Man
After playing rock classics like AC/DC’s “Back in Black” throughout the movie, Jon Favreau fittingly ended 2008’s Iron Man with Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man.” Tony Iommi’s booming guitar riff beautifully punctuated the movie’s improvised final scene.
Interestingly, some of the song’s lyrics parallel Tony Stark’s ultimate fate in Avengers: Endgame: “When he traveled time / For the future of mankind.”
“War Pigs” In This Is The End
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s This Is the End is one of the funniest comedies of the past decade. It revolves around a bunch of comedy stars playing themselves as they struggle to survive the apocalypse.
“War Pigs” plays over a montage of the guys boarding up James Franco’s house and preparing to ride out the end-times. “End of the Beginning” plays over the end credits, too.
“Paranoid” In Dazed And Confused
Richard Linklater constructed his classic stoner comedy Dazed and Confused by stringing together a bunch of vignettes loosely connected by being set on the last day of high school. This movie isn’t about a plot, necessarily; it’s more about recapturing a feeling.
Despite being named after a Led Zeppelin song, Dazed and Confused doesn’t actually feature any Zeppelin songs. Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” plays when Fred O’Bannion and Benny O’Donnell chase down Hirschfelder and paddle him.