Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)

Director:

Stephen Herek

Writers:

Chris Matheson (writer)
Ed Solomon (writer)

Release Date:

17 February 1989 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

History is about to be rewritten by two guys who can't spell...

Plot:

Two seemingly dumb teens struggle to prepare a historical presentation with the help of a time machine.

Plot Keywords:

Bill And Ted | Future | High School | Telephone | Telephone Booth

Awards:

3 nominations

Cast

Keanu Reeves	...	Ted Logan
Alex Winter	...	Bill S. Preston, Esq.
George Carlin	...	Rufus
Terry Camilleri	...	Napoleon
Dan Shor	...	Billy the Kid
Tony Steedman	...	Socrates
Rod Loomis	...	Dr. Sigmund Freud
Al Leong	...	Genghis Khan
Jane Wiedlin	...	Joan of Arc
Robert V. Barron	...	Abraham Lincoln (as Robert Barron)
Clifford David	...	Ludwig van Beethoven
Hal Landon Jr.	...	Captain Logan
Bernie Casey	...	Mr. Ryan
Amy Stock-Poynton	...	Missy Preston
J. Patrick McNamara	...	Mr. Preston

Also Known As:

Dudes (USA) (working title)
The Adventures of Bill and Ted (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French | German

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

South Korea:12 | Argentina:Atp | Australia:PG | Canada:G | Sweden:7 | UK:PG | USA:PG | West Germany:6 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

AMF Tempe Village Lanes - 4407 S. Rural Road, Tempe, Arizona, USA

Company:

De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG)

Trivia:

In the original script, the time machine was a 1969 Chevy Van, but the filmmakers thought that it would be a rip-off of Back to the Future (1985). So, they changed it to a phone booth (apparently unconcerned that "Doctor Who" (1963) uses a police telephone box as its time machine). Also, when they used the van, Bill and Ted picked up more historical figures than they did in the final film.

Goofs:

Continuity: At the end of the film, onstage during the presentation, the phone booth antenna is undamaged and shows no traces of the "gum and cans" repair done earlier in the film.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Rufus: Hi, welcome to the future. San Dimas California 2688. And I'm telling you it's great here. The air is clean, the water's clean, even the dirt, it's clean. Bowling averages are way up, mini-golf scores are way down. And we have more excellent water slides than any other planet we communicate with...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Doogie Howser, M.D.: Doogie's Awesome, Excellent Adventure (#1.19)" (1990)

Soundtrack:

The Boys And Girls Are Doing It

A surprisingly gnarly comedy!

June 8, 2002 was an 80's renaissance for me. Playing an emulated ColecoVision on my PC, listening to Huey Lewis, Prince, and Men At Work, watching the A-Team on TNN, and seeing this film from 1989. I still enjoy the decade of feathered mullets, jerri-curled hair, acid-washed jeans, skinny ties, dominant pop music, and terrible fashions. The 90's will never have that to live down (except terrible fashions, but not as bad).

When Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure became the surprise hit of 1989, it made a star of everyone's favorite Lebanese-Canadian-U.S. rock 'n rolling actor, Keanu Reeves, who is one of the top stars at the box office today and one of the few likeable people in Tinseltown. It seems that he still carries a bit of Theodore "Ted" Logan in all his movies.

He and Alex Winter (an indie film dynamo) play Bill and Ted, a couple of 80's California dudes who want to start their own rock band (Wyld Stallyons). However, both are flunking in high school and will be expelled unless they get an A+ in history. To make matters worse, Ted will be sent to the military by his father, therefore squashing their dreams of rock stardom. Enter Rufus (George Carlin), a man from the future who plays Clarence to the boys George (shades of It's A Wonderful Life) who gives them a telephone booth. With it, they decide to use it to collect great historical figures and bring them to San Dimas, California to show them how mankind has evolved.

Surprisingly, the film holds up today. Bill and Ted are truly likeable boneheads and both Reeves and Winter deliver fine performances. Carlin is funny in his appearances, showing that he doesn't need trash-talk to be entertaining. The dialogue is truly amusing, probably because no one talks like that any more. The only weakness is that it's an 80's film, so if you didn't grow up in that era, you might not understand why there's music playing throughout the film, or why everyone looks and dresses so weird (yes, that's how everyone looked in the 1980's). The DVD version is quite nice, but it only has a trailer as a bonus. Still, a must watch, and much better than all the copycat films (including the horrible Dude, Where's My Car?). Party On!