Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

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Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
Directed by Stephen Herek
Produced by Scott Kroopf
Michael S. Murphey
Joel Soisson
Written by Chris Matheson
Ed Solomon
Starring Keanu Reeves
Alex Winter
George Carlin
Music by David Newman
Distributed by Orion Pictures
Release date(s) February 17, 1989
Running time 90 min
Country Flag of the United States United States
Language English
Budget $10,000,000 (estimated)
Followed by Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991)
IMDb profile

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989) is an American comedy/science fiction movie in which two slackers travel through time in order to assemble a menagerie of historical figures for their high school history presentation.

The movie was released by Nelson Entertainment and Orion Pictures, written by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon and directed by Stephen Herek. It stars Alex Winter as Bill S. Preston Esq., Keanu Reeves as "Ted" Theodore Logan, and George Carlin as the mystical Rufus.


Contents

[edit] Plot

Bill S. Preston, Esq. (Winter) and Ted "Theodore" Logan (Reeves) (or simply "Bill & Ted") are two hard rock-obsessed teenagers in San Dimas, California, (1988) who are about to flunk out of high school because they are failing history class. The only way they can pass history is to get an A+ on their upcoming history report. This situation is particularly "heinous" because Ted's authoritarian father, Capt. Logan, has threatened to ship him to the Alaskan Military Academy (run by the psychotic Colonel Oats) if he flunks.

Miraculously, a guitar-playing guru named Rufus (Carlin) arrives from the San Dimas of the year 2688 to help them pass a vital history report, because their garage band Wyld Stallyns holds the key to world peace and ultimate truth. However, they will not achieve this destiny if they flunk out and Ted is shipped to Alaska. Rufus lends them a time machine disguised as a phone booth to help them get an A+ on their oral report.

Various time traveling shenanigans ensue, as they proceed to "collect" various historical figures, including Napoleon Bonaparte, Socrates (whose name they pronounce IPA: /ˈsoʊkreɪts/, i.e., "So-Crates"), Billy the Kid, Sigmund Freud (whose name they also mispronounce, "Frood"), Ludwig van Beethoven (whose name they also mispronounce, "Beeth Oven"), Genghis Khan, Joan of Arc ("Noah's wife," portrayed by musician-singer-songwriter Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Gos), and Abraham Lincoln to help them with their final history presentation. They also find love with Princesses Elizabeth and Joanna in 15th Century England, at the court of King Henry (presumably Henry VII as the princesses, who are young women when Bill and Ted meet them, are said in Bogus Journey to be 521 years old; as that film is set in 1991, the princesses were therefore born in 1470). They also run into some problems, including mechanical troubles with the booth, and Ted's brother, Deacon, "ditching" Napoleon because he's a dick.

Despite everything, Bill and Ted present their history report...which gets them their "A+". They also recruit the two princesses into Wyld Stallyns. All four proceed to rehearse their music for the future causes which Rufus has outlined: world peace and ultimate truth. Within seconds, their music - which sounds terrible - causes a power outage. Rufus, looking on, smiles wryly at the audience: "They do get better."

[edit] Production

The film was shot in the Phoenix, Arizona, metropolitan area, mostly in and around Coronado High School in Scottsdale, Arizona. The school itself is near Oak St. and Scottsdale Road. Much of Coronado went through a renovation between 2005 and 2007 and the auditorium setting for the final-report scene was torn down, however, the intricate mosaic (seen in an opening scene when Bill and Ted arrive at school in a red Mustang) on the outside of the auditorium was saved piece by piece and moved to the new auditorium.[citation needed]

The setting for Waterloo was Golfland (now Golfland Sunsplash) located at the intersection of highways AZ 87 & US 60 in Mesa, AZ. The bowling alley was then a non-franchised locally-owned alley, and is now the AMF Tempe Village Lanes located on Rural Road at US 60, three miles south of Arizona State University. The mall was Phoenix Metrocenter located on Peoria Avenue at Interstate 17. The Circle K store is located at the intersection of Southern and Hardy in Tempe.[1][2]

The movie was actually made and planned for release in 1987, but due to the bankruptcy of the film's original distributor, the De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, the project was not released theatrically until February 17, 1989. As a partial result of the delay, certain dates in the movie originally scripted as "1987" had to be redubbed as "1988". The copyright date of this movie is 1988 and the same date appears on the DVD cover. It was followed in 1991 by a sequel, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Origins

The characters of Bill & Ted were created and played by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon in improv theater (originally, it was "Bill, Ted & Bob" although the third character was eventually dropped). Matheson and Solomon have described Bill & Ted as an idealized version of their friendship (Bill & Ted = Chris & Ed). In the original improvised pieces, Ted was described as having a stoner pseudo-intellectual older brother. This was changed for the movie, although Bill's stepmother Missy did make the transition from theater to the film.

[edit] Differences from original script

In earlier drafts of the script, Rufus was 28 years old and historical figures Bill & Ted plucked from history included Charlemagne (whom they referred to as "Charlie Magnay"), Babe Ruth, and a non-famous medieval person called "John the Serf". John is listed in the credits.[3]

In the original ending, Bill and Ted delivered their oral report in the classroom, with the historical figures displaying their views on the blackboard.[citation needed]

At one point in the movie, a character utters, "San Dimas High School football rules!" This was inserted at the behest of the town of San Dimas in lieu of the previously-written line for the character, which was "Stage fright, go away!"[citation needed]

Originally, the time machine was to be a 1969 Chevrolet van, but the idea was nixed as being too close in concept to the De Lorean used in the Back to the Future trilogy. Instead, the time machine was styled after a 1960s American telephone booth. Its similarity to the time-traveling British police box-shaped TARDIS of the BBC's television programme Doctor Who is reflected in the Cracked parody in which the Doctor threatens to sue Rufus; however, the Bill & Ted telephone booth lacked the huge interior spaces of the Doctor's TARDIS.

[edit] Spin-offs

[edit] Television

Two spin-off television series were produced as Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures.

[edit] Animated series

Main article: Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures

The first, an animated series, that originally featured the voices of Carlin, Winter, and Reeves, ran for 21 episodes in 1990 and 1991.

[edit] Live action series

A later live-action series, featuring none of the cast from the movie, included Evan Richards as Bill and Christopher Kennedy as Ted, lasted seven episodes in 1992.

Ep# Title Airdate
1.1 Nail the Conquering Hero 28 June 1992
1.2 As the Dude Turns 5 July 1992
1.3 It's a Totally Wonderful Life 12 July 1992
1.4 Hunka Hunka Bill and Ted 19 July 1992
1.5 Destiny Babes 27 November 1992
1.6 Deja Vu 2 August 1992
1.7 Stand Up Guy 8 August 1992

[4][5]

[edit] Comics

A spin-off comic book, Bill and Ted's Excellent Comic Book by Evan Dorkin, (following Bogus Journey) was produced by Marvel Comics.

[edit] Video games

There were also Game Boy, NES and Atari Lynx games released, which were very loosely based on the film's plot. A PC title and nearly identical Amiga and Commodore 64 port were made in 1991 by Off the Wall Productions and IntraCorp, Inc. under contract by Capstone Software and followed the original movie very closely.

[edit] Legacy

Bill & Ted was a financial success, grossing $40.4 million domestically on a budget of about $10 million. It has become something of a cult classic, possibly fueled by the subsequent film successes of Keanu Reeves, and has an 81% freshness rating at Rotten Tomatoes.

In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure the 50th greatest comedy film of all time. It was also listed as number 24 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".

The phone booth used in this movie was given away in a contest presented by Nintendo Power magazine (in honor of Bill & Ted's Excellent Video Game Adventure), won by a boy in Mississippi.[6][7]

Since 1992, "Bill and Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure" has been performed at the Universal Orlando resort every October during Halloween Horror Nights. The show differs from year to year, with spoofs of various pop culture icons. The main plot involves Bill and Ted being threatened by an evil villain from a popular film of that year, with appearances by a host of villains, heroes, and celebrities. The show usually includes elaborate dance numbers, stunts, and multiple double-entendres for the late night event crowd.[8][9]

The February 23, 2007, episode of Jeopardy! featured a category title "Bills & Teds" which contained questions on famous people named Bill and Ted. A category next to it, titled "Excellent Adventures", was about famous adventures in novels and films.[10]

The music featured in the background of the tenpin bowling scene is by Range War, a country band headed by Lee Ving, lead singer of infamous punk band Fear and occasional actor.

U.S. rock band The Ataris also recorded a song on their 1999 album Blue Skies, Broken Hearts...Next 12 Exits called "San Dimas High School Football Rules" after a line taken from the movie.

Bill and Ted are mentioned in the film Chasing Amy during the opening scene when the Really Big Fan says "They're like Bill and Ted meet.......Cheech and Chong!"

Bill and Ted are also mentioned in the song, "The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny".

Billie Joe Armstrong from pop rock band Green Day has been quoted to say, "We wanted to be the Wyld Stallyons."[citation needed]

Chris and Kevin's Excellent Adventure is a song from Liquid Tension Experiment, named because of a promo photographer who, during a photo session, kept calling Mike Portnoy and Tony Levin "Chris" and "Kevin", even after being corrected several times.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure Movie -The 80s Rewind «
  2. ^ In The 80s - Eighties Movie Locations That Really Exist
  3. ^ Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)
  4. ^ IMDB Episode List
  5. ^ Episode Guide
  6. ^ Error Macro (2006-06-02). The Saturday Scan - Give It Away Now. Retrieved on 2006-12-10.
  7. ^ Picture of phone booth winner
  8. ^ Arthur Levine (2006-08-10). Universal Orlando is Out for Blood. Retrieved on 2006-12-10.
  9. ^ Teresa Plowright (2004-10-15). Halloween Horror at Universal. Retrieved on 2006-12-10.
  10. ^ Show #5175 from the J! Archive

[edit] External links

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