| Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
|
| 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 |
| Studio | Interscope Communications |
| Distributed by | Nelson Entertainment through Orion Pictures (USA) De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (non-USA)[1] |
| Release date(s) | February 17, 1989 |
| Running time | 90 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $10,000,000 (estimated) |
| Box office | $40,485,039 (domestic) |
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure is a 1989 American science fiction–comedy buddy film and the first film in the Bill & Ted franchise in which two metalhead slackers travel through time to assemble a menagerie of historical figures for their high school history presentation.[2]
The film was written by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon and directed by Stephen Herek. It stars Keanu Reeves as "Ted" Theodore Logan, Alex Winter as Bill S. Preston, Esquire, and George Carlin as Rufus. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure received mostly positive reviews upon release and was commercially successful. It is now considered a cult classic. A sequel, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, was released two years later. An untitled third film is planned to be released in 2013.[3]
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The film opens in San Dimas, California in the year 2688 AD. Rufus (George Carlin) prepares to use a time-traveling phone booth to travel back to 1988 to ensure the Two Great Ones–Bill S. Preston, Esq. (Alex Winter) and Ted "Theodore" Logan (Keanu Reeves)–remain together to form the band "Wyld Stallyns", whose music will become the core of the future's Utopian society. Rufus finds that Bill and Ted are on the verge of failing their high school history class, and, should Ted fail, his father, Police Captain Logan (Hal Langdon) will ship him off to an Alaskan military academy, effectively ending the pair's dreams of forming a band.
As the two attempt to write a history report by asking customers questions at a local Circle K, Rufus lands in the time traveling phone booth and introduces himself to them. Though Bill and Ted are skeptical of Rufus, they are convinced to listen to him when future versions of themselves land in another phone booth nearby and explain the situation to them. Rufus reveals to Bill and Ted that they can use the booth to travel the Circuits of History, which can transport the user anywhere in time. Rufus briefly takes the pair to Austria in 1805 where they find Napoleon Bonaparte (Terry Camilleri) is preparing to lead his French Imperial Forces into battle. Napoleon spots them and orders his troops to blow them up. They escape back into the Circuits of History, but Napoleon is sucked in behind them and follows the booth as it travels through the Circuits of History. They return to the present and Rufus leaves Bill and Ted with the booth, stating that they will be able to travel anyplace in time, but only as long as they deliver their history report on-time. After Rufus leaves, they discover that they accidentally brought Napoleon back to the present with them. Bill and Ted form an idea for their report to go back in time, kidnap other historical figures and have them explain what they think of San Dimas of the present. Bill and Ted leave Napoleon with Ted's younger brother, Deacon (Frazier Bain), while they travel to the past to complete their report.
Bill and Ted first collect Billy the Kid (Dan Shor) after helping him escape a bar fight. With Billy they travel to Ancient Greece where they meet Socrates (Tony Steedman) (whom they refer to as "So-crates" (English pronunciation: /ˈsoʊkreɪts/)). They convince Socrates to join them when they "philosophise with him" using the lyrics to Dust in the Wind. They decide to travel to 15th century England where they become smitten with Princess Elizabeth (Kimberley Kates) and Princess Joanna (Diane Franklin). They find out that the Princesses are being forced to marry against their will, so they attempt to help them escape only to be stopped and sentenced to be executed by the King. They manage to escape being beheaded with the help of Billy and Socrates who disguise themselves as executioners in order to rescue Bill and Ted. They then travel to the future where they find that they are worshiped, they decide that they should say something wise to the crowd that gathers. Bill advices them to "Be excellent to each other" while Ted tells them to "Party on Dudes!". After the detour to the future they decide to kidnap more historical figures for extra credit on their report when they next end up in Vienna, Austria and encounter and kidnap Sigmund Freud (Rod Loomis). They continue to travel through time to kidnap Ludwig van Beethoven (Clifford David), Genghis Khan (Al Leong), Joan of Arc (Jane Wiedlin), and Abraham Lincoln (Robert V. Barron). The booth ends up malfunctioning and they end up in 1,000,000 B.C. While there they repair the booth using tin pudding cans and bubble gum. Once the booth is repaired they attempt to return to the present but end up returning on the previous day outside the Circle K with Rufus introducing himself to their past selves. Bill and Ted recount their experience to their past selves, and learn how to properly return to the present from Rufus in order to give their history report on time.
They return to the present at Bill's house. They ask Bill's step mom Missy (Amy Stock-Poynton) to give them a ride but she refuses insisting that Bill finish his chores. With the help of the Historical Figures, they clean Bill's house. They take the Historical Figures to the San Dimas Shopping Mall, where they tell the Historical Figures to enjoy themselves in the food court while Bill and Ted search for Napoleon. They find Deacon at a baseball field only to find out that he abandoned Napoleon at a bowling alley the night before. Bill and Ted go off to search for him, finding him enjoying himself at a local water park, "Waterloo". When they return to the mall, they find the other Historical Figures have been arrested by Ted's father due the chaos they caused while unsupervised at the mall. The two try to figure out how to rescue them when they realize they can use the time machine to go back in time and plant elements, such as the keys to the cell in which the Historical Figures are being held, at the police station for their escape plan. They successfully free the Historical Figures and make it to the school on time for their report. The report, presented in the style of a rock concert, in which Bill and Ted engage in entertaining discussions and demonstrations with each of the Historical Figures is an outstanding success, and the two pass their course.
In the epilogue, Rufus joins Bill and Ted as they practice music and congratulates them on their report. Rufus brings in Princesses Elizabeth and Joanna, whom he rescued from their father, explains that he has introduced them to the modern century, and that they too are destined to be part of Wyld Stallyns.
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 film, although Bill's stepmother Missy did make the transition from theater to the film.
The film was shot in the Phoenix, Arizona, metropolitan area, mostly in and around Coronado High School in Scottsdale, Arizona in 1987. 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 leave from school in a red Mustang) on the outside of the auditorium was saved piece by piece and moved to the new auditorium along with unique design of the gym roof.
The setting for Waterloo was the Golfland Sunsplash water park at the intersection of Arizona Highway 87 and the US 60 freeway in Mesa. (In reality, there is a water park in San Dimas, but it's named Raging Waters, not "Waterloo".) The bowling alley was then a Fair Lanes branded alley, but is now the AMF Tempe Village Lanes located on Rural Road at US 60 freeway, three miles south of Arizona State University. The mall was Phoenix Metrocenter located between Peoria and Dunlap Avenues at Interstate 17. The mall has since been renovated and no longer looks as it did in the film. The Circle K store is located at the intersection of Southern and Hardy in Tempe.[4][5]
Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson make appearances in the film during the ice cream scene. Ed is credited as the "stupid" waiter, and Chris is credited as the "ugly" waiter. They are given similar credits in Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey.
During the shot of Rufus' hands playing his guitar solo, the actual hands are those of Stevie Salas, the composer of all the guitar work featured within the film.[6]
The film took nearly two years to materialize. Filming took place from February to May 1987[7] and it was originally planned to be released in 1988. However, the film's original distributor, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, went bankrupt before it could be released. Orion Pictures and Nelson Entertainment bought the rights to the movie in 1988, and it was released theatrically on February 17, 1989.[8] As a partial result of the delay, certain dates in the film originally scripted as "1987" had to be redubbed as "1988". The copyright date of this film is 1989, while 1988 incorrectly appears on the DVD cover (though some copies still note 1989 as its release date). It was followed in 1991 by a sequel, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey.
In earlier drafts of the script, Rufus was 28 years old and historical figures Bill and Ted plucked from history included Charlemagne (whom they referred to as "Charlie Mangay"), Babe Ruth, and a non-famous medieval person called "John the Serf". John is listed in the credits.[9]
Originally, the time machine was to be a 1969 Chevrolet van, but the idea was abandoned as being too close in concept to the DeLorean used in the Back to the Future trilogy. Instead, despite the similarities to Doctor Who, the time machine was styled after a 1960s American telephone booth, though a newer model Ford van would be used as the rock concert "band wagon" for the sequel.
| Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) | |
|---|---|
| Soundtrack album (Audio CD/Digital download) by Various artists | |
| Released | 1989 |
| Length | 40:32 |
| Label | A&M Records |
The film's soundtrack was released in 1989. The tracks are as follows:
These tracks are ordered for the album differently than they are in the movie. In the movie, the songs show up in the following order: "I Can't Break Away," "Dancing with a Gypsy," "Father Time," "Dangerous," "In Time," "Two Heads are Better Than One," "Boys and Girls Are Doing It," "Play With Me," "Walk Away," "Not So Far Away," and "Two Heads" (reprised over the credits).
The following songs appeared in the film but were not included in the soundtrack:
A theatrical sequel, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, was released in 1991.
A third theatrical film in the Bill and Ted franchise was planned, and a screenplay was written, though it never got past the pre-production phase. Contrary to popular belief, a large portion of the script was not adapted into the 1996 film Bio-Dome; the rumor was debunked by Alex Winter himself.[10]
In 2010, Reeves indicated that Matheson and Solomon were working on a script for a third film,[11] confirming in April 25, 2011 script's draft was complete.[12]
Two spin-off television series were produced; both were titled Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures.
A one-shot comic book adaptation of the sequel was published to coincide with the second film's release. Its popularity led to the series Bill and Ted's Excellent Comic Book by Evan Dorkin and produced by Marvel Comics.
There was a weekly 2/4 page semi-adaptation of the animated series published for a year by UK's defunct Look-In Magazine from 1991-1992.
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 film very closely.
The annual Halloween Horror Nights events at Universal Studios Orlando and Hollywood have featured since 1992 (Orlando) and 2007 (Hollywood) Bill & Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure, a show satirizing pop culture of the year with Bill & Ted as the protagonists fighting villains who steal their phone booth for their own schemes.
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure was a financial success, grossing $40.4 million domestically on a budget of about $10 million.[14] It has become something of a cult classic. The film has an 82% freshness rating at Rotten Tomatoes, based on 33 reviews.[15]
Both the success of the film and the animated series spawned a short-lived breakfast cereal called Bill & Ted's Excellent Cereal.
The phone booth used in this film 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.[16][17]
Since 1992, "Bill and Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure" has been performed at the Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood 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.[18][19]
In 2010, the city of San Dimas celebrated 50 years of incorporation as a city. The theme for the celebrations was San Dimas, 1960-2010 An Excellent Adventure.[20]
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