Eine lose Zusammenstellung von Musik und einigen, voneinander unabhängigen Abenteuern der berühmten Rockband "The Monkees", die den vier Musikern bei ihrer Reise an den verschiedenste Orten widerfahren.
Head begins at the dedication of a bridge. As a local politician struggles with his microphone during the dedication speech, The Monkees (Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Peter Tork, and Michael Nesmith) suddenly interrupt the ceremony by running through the assembled officials to the sound of various horns and sirens. The rest of the film shows the events leading up to this.
Earlier, the four have just all kissed the same groupie, who tells them that they were indistinguishable. Throughout the film, they make their way both together and separately through a series of unrelated vignettes, each being a different type of movie (a mystery, a war movie, a western, a desert adventure, etc.).
In each segment, The Monkees try to deal with the fact that they're four real people in a real band that makes records for real people, but are also scripted characters in a fake TV band doing nothing except exactly what the director wants them to.
They continually try to prove to themselves that they're free and can make any choice they want. But no matter what they try (e.g., deliberately flubbing their lines in scenes from their TV show, pointing out to other characters that they're really just actors making a movie, complaining to producers Jack Nicholson and Bob Rafelson who are on the set but not part of the film, smashing through the painted paper walls, walking off the set and into the street, physically attacking other actors for no reason, and making everyone they encounter mad at them) they discover that their every word and deed was predetermined to the finest detail by the script of the movie they're in and the director directing it.
While being chased by everyone they've encountered (and disrupted) in the various vignettes, they run onto a bridge, shoving people out of the way. It's revealed that they weren't being "wacky" at the beginning of the film; they were desperately trying to escape being mere scripted puppets. They jump off the edge and commit suicide, falling a very long way and slamming into the water far below.
However, this, too, was scripted. The film's director hauls their soaked bodies away in a huge aquarium while the four stare blankly through the glass, struggling under the water. Laughing, he rolls the aquarium into a slot at the studio warehouse, to be taken out when he wants to use them again in another movie.
Peter Tork as Peter
David Jones as Davy
Micky Dolenz as Micky
Michael Nesmith as Mike
Annette Funicello as Teresa/Minnie
Timothy Carey as Lord High 'n' Low
Logan Ramsey as Officer Faye Lapid
Abraham Sofaer as Swami
Vito Scotti as I. Vitteloni
Charles Macaulay as Inspector Shrink
T. C. Jones as Mr. and Mrs. Ace
Charles Irving as Mayor Feedback
William Bagdad as Black Sheik
Percy Helton as Heraldic Messenger
Sonny Liston as Extra
Ray Nitschke as Private One
Carol Doda as Sally Silicone
Frank Zappa as The Critic
June Fairchild as The Jumper
Teri Garr as Testy True
I. J. Jefferson as Lady Pleasure
Victor Mature as The Big Victor
Toni Basil as 'Daddy's Song' Dancer
Lee Kolima as Guard
Terry Chambers as Hero
Mike Burns as Nothing
Esther Shepard as Mother
Kristine Helstoski as Girl Friend
John Hoffman as The Sexfiend
Linda Weaver as Lover Secretary
Jim Hanley as Frodis
Dennis Hopper as Himself
Bob Rafelson as Himself
Jack Nicholson as Movie Director in Restaurant