The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
Short description
Buckaroo Banzai is a neurosurgeon, physicist, race-car driver, comic-book hero and rock musician, and he leads a band called the Hong Kong Cavaliers. After a test run in an experimental vehicle takes him through a barrier into another dimension and safely back again, he finds that the technology behind the trip is coveted by hostile aliens who have been using that dimension as a prison. Their leader, the deranged Lord John Whorfin, wants the device for himself and threatens the Earth, so Buckaroo and his circle of scientists, bandmates and allies have to stop him.
The film was directed by W.D. Richter, who also produced it with Neil Canton, from a screenplay by Earl Mac Rauch. Peter Weller plays Buckaroo, with John Lithgow as Whorfin, Ellen Barkin as Penny Priddy, Jeff Goldblum as New Jersey and Christopher Lloyd as John Bigboote among a credited cast of 36. Released in August 1984, it runs 103 minutes and blends adventure, comedy, romance and science fiction.
Made for 17 million dollars, it took in about 6 million worldwide, a poor return on its budget. Audiences remain divided but engaged: on IMDb it holds 6.2/10 from roughly 33,000 votes, and on TMDB 6/10 from about 520 votes, while a critics' rating of 6.6/10 from 45 reviews places it somewhat higher than the viewer scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Actress Jamie Lee Curtis filmed several scenes for this film as Sandra Banzi, Buckaroo's mother, but these scenes were cut during the final editing of the film.
- Some of the lines in the scene in the protagonist's experimental vehicle were borrowed from radio communications between mission control and the space shuttle during launch.
- At the end of the film, the audience is invited to see a future film, *Buckaroo Banzai vs. The World Crime League*. Sherwood Studios actually planned a sequel with that title, which they would have filmed had this film been successful. *The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension* (1984) flopped at the box office, and the studio went bankrupt. Nevertheless, the film became a cult classic after its release on DVD, but legal complications prevented any other film company from buying the rights to film a sequel. Even years later, MGM had to fight many legal battles in court just to get permission to simply re-release the film on DVD. In 2021, a book titled *Buckaroo Banzai vs. The World Crime League* finally came out.
Similar movies
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
