Metallica Involved Movie Hits Theaters Today

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who plays the lead role, recently explained he based much of his character's performance on late Metallica bass player Cliff Burton, who died when Metallica's tour bus crashed during a tour in Sweden in 1986. Gordon-Levitt was shocked when Metallica recognized the similarities without giving them prior warning.

"They dug the movie. It was a real honor and I took a lot of inspiration for this character from the basis of some of their early albums, this guy named Cliff Burton, who played on Master of Puppets and Ride the Lightning," Gordon-Levitt said, reports Blabbermouth.net. "And when the band saw it, they were like, 'You know what?! He reminds us of Cliff,' and we didn't even tell them that's what we were going for. And they let us use their songs and I was actually moved because I grew up headbanging to Metallica."