A gender-queer punk-rock singer from East Berlin tours the U.S. with her band as she tells her life story and follows the former lover/band-mate who stole her songs.
Hedwig, born male as Hansel in East Berlin, fell in love with an American G.I. and underwent a Gender Reassignment Surgery in order to marry him and flee to the West. Unfortunately, nothing worked out quite as it was supposed to - years later, Hedwig is leading her rock band on a tour of the U.S., telling her life story through a series of concerts at Bilgewater Inn seafood restaurants. Her tour dates coincide with those of arena-rock star Tommy Gnosis, a wide-eyed boy who once loved Hedwig - but then left with all her songs.
In 1968, Hansel Schmidt (John Cameron Mitchell) is an East German "slip of a girly boy" who loves rock music and is stuck in East Berlin until he meets Luther Robinson (Maurice Dean Wint), an American soldier.Hansel was raised by his mother Hedwig in East Germany after the Berlin wall was erected in 1961. His father was an American GI, while his mother was an East German. The father (Maurits Niggebrugge) abandoned the family in West Germany, and without a valid visa, she was forced to return to East Germany.Hansel's mother Hedwig (Alberta Watson) spent her days at a communist job, while Hansel listened to American radio and music. Hedwig taught Hansel not to believe in God as she says that absolute power corrupts.Hansel was very fascinated by American values and wanted deeply to go to America.
In the 1980s, Luther watches Hansel (who is 26 years old) sunbathe naked on the roof of an abandoned East German church and falls in love. Both are gay.Luther proposes marriage to Hansel, persuading him to have a sex reassignment surgery in order to leave Communist East Germany for the West as his wife, as that was the only legal solution (In order to be married, the couple must consist of a man and a woman, and the military insists on a full physical examination). This plan will allow Hansel to leave communist East Germany for the capitalist West.Hansel's mother, Hedwig, gives her child her own name and passport and finds a doctor to perform a sex change. The operation is botched, however, leaving Hansel - now Hedwig - with a dysfunctional one-inch mound of flesh between her legs, the eponymous "Angry Inch".
Hedwig goes to live in Junction City, Kansas as Luther's wife. On their first wedding anniversary, Luther leaves Hedwig for a man. That same day, it is announced that the Berlin Wall has fallen, and East Germans are flooding freely into the West, meaning as material gains go, Hedwig's sacrifices have been for nothing. Hedwig recovers from the separation by confidently accepting her identity as a woman, picking up some "odd jobs," and returning to her "first love" of music by forming a rock band composed of Korean-born Army wives.
Babysitting for "the commander of the nearby fort," Hedwig befriends a shy and misunderstood Christian teenager, Tommy Speck (Michael Pitt), with whom she writes some songs. Hedwig falls in love with Tommy, and believes he is her "other half". For six months, she teaches him "rock history, lyrics, grooming, and vocal training" taking him from playing the occasional guitar masses to the two of them "out-grossing monster trucks in Wichita."Hedwig gives him the stage name "Tommy Gnosis" (stating that Gnosis is the Greek word for "knowledge"), but he later leaves her (when he finds out about the angry inch) and goes on to become a wildly successful rock star with the songs Hedwig wrote alone and with him.
Hedwig and her band, the Angry Inch is now composed of Eastern Europeans including her husband, Yitzhak (Miriam Shor)."Internationally ignored" Hedwig and her band of Eastern Europeans, the Angry Inch, are forced to support themselves by playing coffee bars and strip mall dives. These gigs are performed at a chain seafood restaurant called Bilgewater's. Hedwig is following Tommy's tour in order to pursue a copyright lawsuit. Yitzhak is angry with Hedwig as he refuses to write a new song, that could propel them to the same level of popularity as Tommy.She tells unsuspecting diners her life story. Phyllis Stein (Andrea Martin) is Hedwig's manager and advises her not to "stalk" Tommy as that weakens her case against him.
Hedwig refers to Aristophanes' speech in Plato's Symposium. This myth, retold by Hedwig in the song "The Origin of Love", explains that human beings were once round, two-faced, four-armed, and four-legged beings. Angry gods split these early humans in two, leaving the separated people with a lifelong yearning for their other half. Near the end of the film, Hedwig is down and out, her band and her manager having abandoned her in disgust after she tears up Yitzhak's (Miriam Shor) passport. While working as a streetwalker, she finally reunites with Gnosis, and they reconcile. After paparazzi burst onto the scene, Hedwig becomes famous, and Gnosis' popularity suffers. Reunited with her band, Hedwig performs at Times Square Bilgewater's culminating in a violent removal of her drag.
Entering the final chapter of the film, it seems to take place in a non-real space, perhaps Hedwig's mind. Now in male form, Hedwig discovers herself alone in front of Tommy on a huge stage. He sings to her, pleading forgiveness and saying goodbye; she realizes that she created her "other half" from within herself.Hedwig is down and out, her band and manager having abandoned her in disgust after she tears up Yitzhak's passport. While working as a streetwalker, she finally reunites with Tommy and they reconcile. After the two of them accidentally drive Tommy's limo into a news truck, paparazzi burst onto the scene, Hedwig becomes famous and Gnosis' popularity tanks. Reunited with her band, Hedwig performs at Times Square, culminating in a violent removal of her drag.
The last chapter seems to take place in a non-real space, perhaps Hedwig's mind. Now in male form, Hedwig discovers herself alone in front of Tommy on a huge stage. Tommy sings to Hedwig, pleading forgiveness and saying goodbye; she realizes that she created her "other half" from within herself. Hedwig then finds herself back at Times Square, but the space seems transformed, with ambient white lighting. The band members, dressed all in white, are already in their places on stage. Hedwig gives Yitzhak her blonde wig, allowing Yitzhak to take her place, and sings in solidarity with "all the misfits and losers" of the world.A brief animated sequence symbolizing the union of the separated Platonic halves leads to the final shot: Hedwig walking naked down a dark alley and into the street.
