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With the approach of the long-awaited third film, Bill & Ted Face The Music, premiering on August 14 now is the best time to revisit the past. The idea for the film had first come about in 2007, but due to financial and production misalignments, it never came to fruition, until now.
Both Excellent Adventure (1989) and Bogus Journey (1991) provided fans with memorable quotes and even more memorable characters. Jump into this rewind for a quick refresher and thoughts concerning the latest addition.
Wyld Stallyns
Audiences were first introduced to Bill S. Preston, Esq., and Ted Theodore Logan, two metalhead slackers, in a garage attempting to create the most triumphant music video. They were soon told by a future ally, Rufus, that they would create a song to “put an end to war and poverty,” align the planets, and bring universal harmony, but only if they could pass their history exam. Both boys are well known for their life motto that future civilization lives by, “Be excellent to each other! Party on dudes!”
These two laid back optimists spoke in a combination of proper English, old slang, and an unabridged dictionary. While collecting historical figures to pass history, they miraculously fit nine adults into their borrowed time-traveling phone booth. The results of their pitstops graced viewers with images of Joan of Arc leading an aerobics class, Abraham Lincoln running from mall security, and Beethoven totally rocking out on electric keyboards. It also reiterated what history has told us: Napoleon Bonaparte was a jerk and loved ice cream.
Bogus Journey
The sequel to Excellent Adventure brought even more to the table in terms of comedy and left a lot to be desired in the upcoming film. While Bill and Ted remained the same, unable to play instruments while attempting to be the number one band, their family dynamics have changed. Bill’s young stepmother, Missy, has moved onto Ted’s father, and the boys have proposed to their medieval historical babes, Joanna and Elizabeth. Unfortunately, before they can play in the fourth annual Battle of the Bands competition they’re killed off by evil robot versions of themselves sent from the future.
Winning in several games against Death himself (he’s a sore loser), Bill and Ted are able to get back to the land of the living to save their fiancés and band. Their newest companion Station, the best scientist in the universe, creates two good Bill and Ted robots to beat the evil ones. After a time-long battle with enemy De Nomolos, a futuristic lesson in playing instruments, and a rock-n-roll makeover, the two slackers won the contest and their futures back. The end credits of the film tell the story of their successes, like Death’s lip-synch scandal, how playing air guitar eliminates smog, and Wyld Stallyn playing on Mars.
Bill & Ted Face The Music
With the third movie of the series coming out almost thirty years after the sequel, fans might have some reservations in addition to their excitement. As the official trailer shows, Bill and Ted are older, basically fifty, and have responsibilities of adulthood and being parents. Everyone fell in love with the chemistry between Reeves and Winter, and all the unimaginable “dumb fun” they got into. But as fathers and failed musicians, will the dynamics change as they are placed in today’s world of technology? Will the film be successful or should the series have been left untouched?
What The Trailer Hints
Most trailers give enough information to stimulate an interest in audiences, but Bill & Ted Face The Music gives a lot in such a small window of time. However, knowing the series, what’s shown is hardly the tip of the iceberg. We learn that Wyld Stallyns fell from stardom and has yet to write the song that will unite the world. One scene shows the two men meeting up with their old friend Death in an apartment. Is the flaming landscape shown through the windows in the back hell? If it is, it’s received a most triumphant renovation. One thing is for sure, Bill and Ted still play air guitar for the greater good.
The trailer also lets fans in on the fact that Bill and Ted have decided to travel to the future in order to steal the song from themselves. This brings back shocking visuals of the two as heavily muscled and tattooed prisoners. They seem to still have the same energy and mindset as the tattoos read “Excellent” and “Heinous”. How did they land themselves in prison when it seemed the least likely place they’d end up? And what does that “dark” song that’s hinted at sound like?
Thoughts & Predictions
There is a fear that the comedy exhibited in the film won’t measure up to the laid-back slacker quips of the first two movies. When movies are revamped or reintroduced, sometimes more up-to-date jokes are inserted and come to be cringe-worthy instead of humorous. The ill-fate pulls audiences away from the movie, making it harder to get back into it without attempting to anticipate another similar joke. Another fear comes with technology, as the future was originally depicted colorfully with huge eighties styled shoulder pads. The advancement of CGI technology will hopefully create an even more visually exciting film without taking too much away from the nostalgia of it all.
As Bill & Ted movies are so unpredictable, it is hard to pinpoint how the film will play out, but with concerns of time traveling to the future, there can be many possibilities. With more shows delving into time travel, Bill and Ted might actually be going through the multiverses. Visits to prison versions of themselves could be but one alternate reality. It is also known that going to the past changes one’s future, as the boys have shown many times.
Although they go to the future, perhaps they will also be going to points in the past thirty years to help them write the song to unite the world. If they don’t steal the song, maybe they will find ways to help heal the relationships they have with their wives and daughters that will in the end help them write the song in their present.
Party On Dudes!
Bill & Ted Face The Music is highly anticipated by fans, and rightfully so as it has been too long of a wait. Hopefully, it will bring the same energy of the first two while creating something rooted in the modern-day as well for new audiences.
The new additions don’t stop at just the film though, as fans will be graced with a comic series titled Bill & Ted Are Doomed. It will act as a prequel to the new movie as it focuses on Wyld Stallyns’ world tour that was hinted at in Bogus Journey. Only Eddie Van Halen himself could make this comeback even more triumphant than it already seems to be.