In Jubilee, Queen Elizabeth I is transported forward in time by the occultist John Dee through the spirit guide Ariel (a character from Shakespeare's The Tempest. Queen Elizabeth arrives in the shattered Britain of the 1970s. Queen Elizabeth II is dead, killed in an arbitrary mugging, and Elizabeth I moves through the social and physical decay of the city observing the activities of a group of sporadic nihilists called Amyl Nitrate (Jordan), Bod (Jenny Runacre), Chaos (Hermine Demoriane), Crabs (Nell Campbell), and Mad (Toyah Willcox).
The film is heavily influenced by the 1970s punk aesthetic in its style and presentation. Shot in grainy colour it is largely plotless, episodic, untidy, confrontational, often incoherent and noisily anti-establishment and anti-royalty (Buckingham Palace has become a recording studio run by a seedy music producer named Borgia Ginz).
Numerous punk icons appear in the film including Jordan (the Malcolm McLaren protege), Toyah Willcox, Nell Campbell (Little Nell), Adam Ant, Hermine Demoriane and Wayne County. It features performances by Wayne County and Adam and the Ants. There are also cameo appearances by The Slits and Siouxsie and the Banshees. The film was scored by Brian Eno.
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