Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure

 

I've always been a sucker for a good time travel movie and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure is one of the more fun ones. There's a certain charm to the film as we watch the titular characters stumble through time to study for a crucial history report they have due the next day. It doesn't burden itself with time travel theory or even perhaps historical accuracy, rather preferring to just be a good and frequently funny. It certainly made it's mark with audiences over the years, with a belated third movie finally hitting screens this weekend. In honor of this occasion, I take a look back at the movie that started it all.

Bill S. Preston (played by Alex Winter) and Ted "Theodore" Logan (played by Keanu Reeves) are two best friends living in the California suburb of San Dimas, California. They have aspirations to being rock stars with their garage band Wyld Stallyns, of which they are the only two members and it occupies much of their free time. As a result, their schoolwork has suffered. If they fail their history exam, Ted's dad (played by Hal Landon, Jr.) is threatening to send Ted to Oates Military Academy. Realizing they have to buckle down, the two hit the books when they are visited by a man from the future, Rufus (played by George Carlin). He was sent back to present Bill and Ted with a time machine in the form of a telephone booth that they can use to travel through time to prepare for their presentation the next day. After their first trip accidentally brings Napoleon (played by Terry Camilleri) into present day California, Bill and Ted decide to travel through time to bring other important historical figures to present day to help with their report too, including Billy the Kid (played by Dan Shor), Socrates (played by Tony Steedman) and Abraham Lincoln (played by Robert V. Barron), among others.

The film was directed by Stephen Herek from a script by Ed Soloman and Chris Matheson. There is a certain simplicity to this film's story that really works for me. It's basically two numbskulls misadventures as they travel through time, with their reactions to various things providing much of the humor of the film. But there is a lot of cleverness behind all the silliness that really worked for me with Soloman and Matheson's script. There is also a lot of heart in the movie too, especially towards the main characters, who despite it all have a sort of sweet innocence about them and it's clear no matter what, they mean well. They may not be the brightest bulbs, but there is a certain charm to them that makes them rather likable. They are a pair that you can't help but root for and don't want to see split up. The movie also does set up plausible stakes to explain why Rufus brings them the time machine in the first place. It turns out that Bill and Ted, with their band Wyld Stallyns, ultimately create music that helps unite the world and create the future as they know it. With Ted being threatened with being shipped off to Military School puts that future in dire jeopardy.     

Keanu Reeves' turn as Ted was the first role to really make him famous, so much so that he struggled to escape it initially and feared his epitaph would read Here Lies Keanu Reeves. He Played Ted. Still, he infuses Ted with a certain likability and charm that is hard to resist and it's easy to see why he became the beloved star he is today. Alex Winter matches Keanu beat for beat throughout the film as Bill. Both actors do a great job depicting how close of friends the two of them are and that they have been friends for a long time. George Carlin has a small but memorable role as Rufus, who initially sends Bill and Ted off on their adventure. It's so memorable in fact, that when the third movie was announced, fans were wondering how a Bill and Ted movie could work without Rufus, since Carlin passed away in 2008. Of course, I also have to make note of the actors playing the various historical figures, especially Terry Camilleri as Napoleon, who is cut loose on modern day San Dimas as we see him interact with such things as bowling and a water park, ultimately finding delight in both. In fact, the actors are clearly having a ball playing their historical characters interacting with modern day, whether it's Beethoven (played by Clifford Davis) discovering electric keyboards, Joan of Arc (played by Jane Wiedlin) taking to aerobics, or Genghis Khan (played by Al Leong) laying waste to a sporting good store after trading his club in for an aluminum baseball bat. 

This film certainly made it's mark not only in pop culture history, spawning both an animated series, a ill-fated live action series, two sequels and a breakfast cereal, but also in the pantheon of time travel movies. There is even a knowing nod to the Bill and Ted films in the cult favorite time travel series Timeless, with the three lead characters Lucy Preston, Wyatt Logan and Rufus Carlin named after the characters in this movie. Still, none of it would matter if the first film wasn't as fun and memorable as it was. It's not going to be confused with high art, but it was never meant to be. This movie is just plain fun from beginning to end, and frequently more clever than one might initially expect, not unlike it's two titular characters.