Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)

Timing: 1:30 (90 min)

6.861/10
1771

6.587/10
14921

6.9/10
148000

All about film

Video 1

Photo 53

Actors and characters

Release date

1989-02-17

Country

United States

Production

Orion Pictures, Interscope Communications, Nelson Entertainment, DEG, Soisson/Murphy Productions

Genre

Adventure, Comedy, Science Fiction

Budget

$10 000 000

Revenue

$40 485 039

Website

Director

Stephen Herek

Actors

Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, George Carlin, Robert V. Barron, Terry Camilleri, Clifford David, Al Leong, Rod Loomis, Dan Shor, Tony Steedman
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Ed Solomon, Chris Matheson

Producer

Scott Kroopf, Michael S. Murphey, Joel Soisson, Ted Field, Robert W. Cort

Operator

Tim Suhrstedt

Composer

David Newman

Artist

Audition

Stanzi Stokes

Editing

Larry Bock, Patrick Rand
All team (124)

• The phone number Rufus dials to travel to Austria in 1805 is 1-323-459-4303.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Originally, Alex Winter auditioned for the role of Ted, and Keanu Reeves for the role of Bill.
• Rufus himself never states his name – Bill and Ted introduce him to each other.
• Footage of Napoleon's military campaign in Austria in 1805 (the Battle of Austerlitz) was taken from the film "War and Peace" (1956).
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 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.