“Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure”: Most Triumphant Time Travelers

Fun Facts To Know:

• Genghis Khan and Abraham Lincoln have appeared together four times. The pair are pulled from their respective time zones in order to join Bill and Ted on their excellent adventure. They also unite of the set of Star Trek: The Savage Curtain (1969), Clone High (2002) and Night at the Museum 2 (2009).
• Musician Stevie Salas provides the fingering for Rufus during the jam session at the end of the movie.
• The film completed shooting in 1987, but the release was delayed because the film’s original financiers, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, went bankrupt. The movie was almost dumped onto cable television. Luckily, Nelson Entertainment bought the rights to the movie in 1988, and it was released in 1989.
• The movie is rated PG, and they tried to keep the language clean throughout the film. But there is one quick F-bomb that can easily be missed. At the end of the scene where Ted is enticing Genghis Khan into the phone booth with the Twinkie, right after Genghis walks off-screen, you hear him yell, “You motherfucker!” The last word is a bit muffled, though. One of the other curse words is heard when Ted asks Bill if they know where they’re going, and after responding he doesn’t know, Bill yells, “Shit!” while Ted just shouts.
• Pauly Shore was among the hundreds of actors who auditioned for the role of Ted. In 1991, Shore hosted an MTV special, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Premiere Party, in which Shore corners Reeves in a back room to talk about his failed audition.
• In 1984, Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson wrote the script over the course of just four days. They wrote it by hand, on note paper, during a series of meetings at a couple of local coffee shops. The 2005 box set, Bill & Ted’s Most Excellent Collection, features some of their handwritten notes.

The movie that skyrocketed Keanu Reeves’ career, and the one role that is forever tainted to his name, whether he likes it or not. I can recall suck skits as “Celebrity Jeopardy” on SNL ,(Saturday Day Night), where their portrayal of Keanu Reeves was clearly based on Ted Logan from the Bill and Ted franchise. To be blunt, much like an airhead. Such iconic roles tend to be so memorable that it can be hard to differentiate between the actor and the character. Especially if  the actor fits the role a little too perfectly. Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars franchise is an example of such. Keanu luckily beats those odds but he shall forever be remembered as Ted.

Now back to the movie at hand, which is rather puzzling at times considering time traveled is involved. The chicken or the egg causality dilemma, known as “which came first: the chicken or the egg?” theory, comes into play concerning the plot of the story. It’s a puzzling subject to discuss but let’s try…

Bill and Ted, two clueless teenagers from the 1980’s (starring Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves), have only one day to put together a “one-of-a-kind” presentation/report for history class. And what better way to learn history, than to travel through it? At least that’s what the future planned. Future civilians thought it best that in order to ensure the success of “Wyld Stallyns” (Bill & Ted’s band), Bill and Ted must not fail their history class. Or else the duo will suffer the consequences, considering Ted would be shipped off to Alaska for military school. That would cause the duo to split, which the future wishes to prevent.

The future leaders, dressed in futuristic attire (which looks much still like the 80’s but with a lot more flash) took it upon themselves to deliver a trust-worthy guide named Rufus (George Carlin) to prep them for their mission. In a time machine which looks much like a payphone booth, and works much the same, our iconic duo were allowed to achieve such means. According to the script, the original time machine was a 1969 Chevy Van, but the filmmakers didn’t want people to think they were ripping off Back to the Future. They then changed it to a phone booth and apparently weren’t concerned about Doctor Who. When the van was in the script, Bill and Ted picked up even more historical figures than they did in the final film.

Apparently in the future, the influence of  Wyld Stallyns music was so moving that it created world peace. Do you  need a more justifiable reason to use time travel? I think not!  Unless it’s imminent danger on a grand scale that is. All the trouble in the world is worth world peace. Take Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen for example, he allowed himself to become the enemy of the world and all of its united forces in order to achieve it. I was confused on one thing in the movie, which was how the future knew that fate of human world peace relied on Bill and Ted’s band?

Now regardless of the plot, I found the cast of characters to be a blast! Each one was fit perfectly for the look and presentation of each historical figure. Starting with my favorite, Billy the Kid (Dan Shor), from the wild, wild west. He’s the one character I found to always be enjoying the moment, and he’s just gonna ride it out, …like a cowboy. Next up, is Socrates (Tony Steedman),who is just adorable. Both Bill and Socrates end up forming a friendship, and the two of them together is just hilarious. Especially since there’s a language barrier, but that’s a problem for the majority of the historical figures involved in the film. Napoleon Bonaparte (Terry Camilleri) for example, knew only French, and under unfortunate events was left in the future where everyone only spoke English. The poor guy…

A bunch of other historical figures joins our duo including Genghis Khan, starring Hollywood stuntman Al Leong, who brings the character to life. His best scene is in the mall (at the sports store), when all of our figures are let loose to enjoy the future. But things get a bit chaotic when rules are broken, especially once the law got involved. The most comical thing about each historical figure, is how each one was influenced to come aboard the time machine. Genghis Khan was tempted by a Twinkie believe it or not. Joan of Arc (Jane Wiedlin) came with perhaps the greatest of ease, when Ted shows up with his angelic face, out of the blue, with his hand outstretched to her. It was like a holy sign or something. Can’t blame the lady either. I would’ve taken his hand without question too.

If you are at all interested in comedies such as Wayne’s World, then you’re going to love this film! Did you know that Bill & Ted started as a stand-up act in which the characters would discuss current events without knowing what they were talking about? There is however one student in the film who did know their history, the first student speaker seen giving her presentation, is my cousin, Marjean Holden. A very proud moment in her career, (among others of course). Way to go Marjean!

A cool thing to know is that Bill and Ted are so iconic, that they even made it into “Epic Rap Battles of History” (ERBOH), which are musical rap battles between epic characters/figures on YouTube. What makes their rap battle so much more epic, is the fact that they incorporated other characters from other prior rap battles from ERBOH into their episode. Such a memorable pair of characters that you can’t help but adore them. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure is a bodacious movie that anyone of any age will love! I give this film 9.5/10 stars! To make matters even more excellent, I shall end this article with a momentous picture of our iconic duo modeling.