Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
Short description
Bill and Ted are two California teenagers whose band matters far more to them than schoolwork. When it becomes clear that Ted's father will send him to military school unless the pair pass their history exam, the friends face being separated. Help arrives unexpectedly in the form of Rufus, a visitor from the future who travels in a time machine shaped like a telephone booth. With it, Bill and Ted set out to gather the historical figures they are supposed to write about, and their assignment turns out to carry consequences well beyond a single grade.
Stephen Herek directed the film, the second of the nineteen features listed for him, following Critters and preceding Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead. Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson wrote the screenplay, and the cast includes Keanu Reeves as Ted, Alex Winter as Bill, George Carlin as Rufus, and Terry Camilleri, Dan Shor and Tony Steedman as Napoleon, Billy the Kid and Socrates.
Made for about 10 million dollars, the film returned roughly 40 million worldwide. It holds a 6.9 rating on IMDb from around 149,000 votes and a 6.8 on TMDB from more than 2,000 votes, while the critics' rating stands at 7 out of 10 from 59 reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- The scene where Bill and Ted are rescued in medieval England, when their companions disguise themselves as executioners, almost exactly mirrors the similar rescue scene of d'Artagnan from "The Three Musketeers" (1993), also directed by Stephen Herek.
- When Bill reads the history assignment to Ted, he says, "Tell the class how prominent figures from different periods of history would view the world of San Dimas, 1988." However, reading Keanu Reeves’ lips reveals that he actually says 1987, not 1988. This is due to numerous delays in the film's release, which resulted in this moment and some others being re-dubbed significantly later, shortly before the premiere.
- The guitar playing of Rufus (George Carlin) in the final scene of the film was performed by the renowned guitarist Stevie Salas, instead of an actor. It is his fingers that appear on screen and so skillfully play the instrument.
- In one scene of the film, Bill and Ted say that their rock band needs Eddie Van Halen to play better. After the film was released, the famous musician jokingly said in an interview that he would join their band if the characters had actually asked him to.
- When Napoleon finishes his “presentation” on the Waterloo waterpark’s water slide, Ted looks up and says, “I don’t think that’s gonna work.” If you look closely at the maps drawn by Napoleon, you can see that he is actually depicting the plan for the French invasion of Russia, which, as is well known, ended in complete disaster for him.
- Throughout the film, Bill repeatedly refers to himself by his full name, Bill S. Preston, Esquire. In fact, Esquire is an honorary title that in the United States signifies a practicing lawyer.
- The 'Ziggy Pig' ice cream dish that Napoleon eats in the restaurant is a reference to the comic book character of the same name from Timely Comics (later Marvel Comics), published during World War II. By the time the film was released, the character and its image, the pin that is attached to Napoleon's chest, had become public domain in the United States.
- Originally, Alex Winter auditioned for the role of Ted, and Keanu Reeves for the role of Bill.
- The original script featured a 1969 Chevy Van as the time machine, but the filmmakers felt it was too reminiscent of the blockbuster film “Back to the Future” and redesigned it as a 1960s phone booth. Also, when the time machine was a car, Bill and Ted picked up more historical figures than in the final version of the film. Among them were the King of the Franks, Charlemagne, and the famous American baseball player Babe Ruth.
- The phone number Rufus dials to travel to Austria in 1805 is 1-323-459-4303.
- Filming of “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” took place from February 9th to May 1987 in the American states of Arizona and California (the city of San Dimas), and the premiere was scheduled for the fall of the same year, 1987. However, due to the bankruptcy of distributor De Laurentis Entertainment Group, the film’s release was postponed for over a year. Ultimately, the rights were purchased by Orion Pictures studio in conjunction with Nelson Entertainment, and the film was released on February 19, 1989.
- Footage of Napoleon's military campaign in Austria in 1805 (the Battle of Austerlitz) was taken from the film "War and Peace" (1956).
- Rufus himself never states his name – Bill and Ted introduce him to each other.
- In the initial script, Bill and Ted gave their report in a regular school classroom, and historical figures used a chalkboard to illustrate their experiences.
- The scenes at and around the school were filmed at Coronado High School in Scottsdale, Arizona. From 2005 to 2007, the school underwent major reconstruction, and the auditorium where Bill and Ted gave their famous history report was completely demolished. However, the exquisitely delicate mosaic that can be seen outside the auditorium was preserved and moved in pieces to another auditorium in the school.
- The phone booth used in the filming of the movie became the grand prize of a contest run by Nintendo Power Magazine, a video game magazine. It was won by an ordinary boy from the state of Mississippi.
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