Green Day move into film with Nimrods, opening August 14

Green Day's comedy film Nimrods, loosely based on the band's early touring days, opens in cinemas on August 14, NME and Indie Hoy reported. Directed and written by Lee Kirk, it stars Mason Thames, Kylr Coffman and Ryan Foust as the fictional teenage band Analog Dogs, with Mckenna Grace, Fred Armisen, Jenna Fischer, Bobby Lee and Sean Gunn in supporting roles, and Green Day appearing as themselves and serving as producers.

The film follows the young band on a chaotic road trip to Los Angeles, where they believe they have scored a support slot for Green Day at the Hollywood Palladium, actually a prank pulled by an older brother. Frontman Billie Joe Armstrong told the Los Angeles Times the story leans on the band's own beginnings. "You have to be delusional to be in a band," he said. "It takes a certain kind of dreamer." He added that Green Day now sees "families coming to Green Day shows... two, three generations," which shaped the film's multigenerational appeal.

Bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool contributed real tour stories that made it into the script. Dirnt recalled a mud fight during the band's Woodstock '94 set that turned into "a giant brawl on stage," while Cool remembered a 1991 European tour where "the van caught on fire, but that doesn't deter you from just wanting to jump in and get to the next town." One scene, set at a menacing biker bar, was inspired by a real breakdown in San Luis Obispo that forced Green Day to play two impromptu shows to repay the mechanic who fixed their van.

The band played a surprise 16-song set as a trio, without their usual touring members, at the film's Los Angeles premiere afterparty on August 12, at the American Legion Post 43 in Hollywood, NME reported. They opened with Going To Pasalacqua, from their 1990 debut 39/Smooth, and dusted off Only Of You for its first live outing since 2017, alongside rarities like Paper Lanterns and Christie Road and singles including Longview and Minority. "We've always dreamed of making a Green Day movie, and now that dream is finally a reality," the band wrote afterward.

Days earlier, on August 6, Green Day launched a 24/7 YouTube stream called GDTV, offering round-the-clock footage from across the band's history, including full gigs, backstage video and rare archive clips. Drummer Tre Cool hosts a weekly show on the platform called Transmission Unknown, spotlighting emerging acts, which sits alongside Nimrods' own soundtrack, already covered here.

Promoting the film to Letterboxd, the three members named their favorite movies: Dirnt picked Steve Martin's The Jerk, National Lampoon's Animal House, the original Star Wars and Kubrick's The Shining; Armstrong named Wes Anderson's Rushmore, Valley Girl, Blades of Glory and Sixteen Candles; and Cool ranked The Big Fish, The Big Lebowski, Funny Games and Step Brothers. The film arrives the same year Green Day headlined the Super Bowl LX halftime show alongside Bad Bunny and topped Coachella's 2025 bill; Armstrong will also lead a Ramones 50th anniversary tribute show at Hollywood Forever on August 30. MusicSuey follows more rock news on the rock page.