The heat of reaction has been measured for vapor deposition of metal atoms onto clean polymeric substrates. These calorimetric measurements introduce a new technique for the study of metal-polymer interfacial chemistry. Results for three systems are reported here, calcium, chromium, and copper on PMDA-ODA polyimide, and widely different reaction heats are observed in each case. Our results show that calcium deposition is very exothermic at low coverages, with an initial heat approaching 610 kJ/mol. In the case of chromium deposition, the initial heat is quite low, 125 kJ/mol or less, an affect we attribute to the energetic cost of polymer bond disruption. The data for copper deposition show that calorimetry can be used to study fine details of the nucleation and growth process of the metal island film.