Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure is the 181st episode of Screen Junkies comedy series Honest Trailers. It was written by Spencer Gilbert, Joe Starr, Dan Murrell and Andy Signore. It was narrated by Jon Bailey as Epic Voice Guy. It parodies the 1989 sci-fi comedy film Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. It was published on January 13, 2017, as part of Screen Junkies' Fan Appreciation Month. It is 3 minutes 58 seconds long. It has been viewed over 2.2 million times.
Watch Honest Trailers - Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure on YouTube
"Join their epic adventure through history, all to pass a final exam, where, instead of using a time machine to help with their studying, they'll use it to violently abduct historical figures like a game of human Pokémon, and ensure a future where they become our dystopian god emperors!" ~ Honest Trailers - Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
Script[]
Before Wayne and Garth (Wayne's World), Harry and Lloyd (Dumb and Dumber), Ashton and, uh... Stifler (?) (Dude, Where's My Car?), one film would bring something original to the "two dumb guys being dumb" genre: time travel.
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
Meet Bill and Ted, a couple of Valley boys who hang out together, rock out together (montage of Bill and Ted playing air guitar), and say the exact same words together.
Bill and Ted: (in unison) Waterloop! / Sixty-nine, dudes! / No way! / Excellent! / Bogus. / How's it going, ladies? / Of course, babes. / Sounds good, Mr. The Kid.
They may not be smart, but they've got a message of love for all mankind: "Be excellent to each other... just not in a gay way."
Bill and Ted: (after hugging each other, in unison) F*g.
Uh... Yeah, totally forgot about one; moving on...
Sit back and say, "Whoa!" at star Keanu Reeves, who looks exactly like he did in the 80's (shows Reeves as Ted in this film and Hank in The Neon Demon) -- And... maybe so does Alex Winter? I don't know. (shows Winter as Bill in this film, next to a black screen with text reading "Footage Not Found") -- as Keanu debuts the dumb surfer character he would spend his entire career trying to get away from.
Johnny Utah (Point Break): You trying to tell me the FBI is going to pay me to learn to surf?
...Eventually.
Neo (The Matrix): Whoa.
...Any time now. (shows John Wick landing multiple headshots in a row in John Wick) There it is! Nice, dude!
Join their epic adventure through history, all to pass a final exam, where, instead of using a time machine to help with their studying, they'll use it to violently abduct historical figures like a game of human Pokémon...
Bill: Let's bag him. / Let's bag him.
(shows Genghis Khan grabbing Abraham Lincoln and pulling him into the time booth)
...and ensure a future where they become our dystopian god emperors! What, you believed George Carlin when he said it was a paradise? Everyone lives in a cave and barely speaks; wake up, sheeple! They're just like Evil Biff in Back to the Future II!
Chill out for the rare time travel story that doesn't get all hung up on that boring "paradox" stuff...
Ted: --we can't forget to do this, otherwise it won't happen. (beat) But it did happen!
...and enjoy a light-hearted romp that's like Donnie Darko with fart jokes (shows Billy the Kid farting while using an outhouse); Looper with keyboard solos (shows Ludwig van Beethoven playing a rock song with multiple synthesizers); it's like Back to the Future with mommy issues! (shows Lorraine Baines kissing her future son Marty McFly in Back to the Future) Uuumm... more mommy issues...?
Ted: (to Bill) It's your mom, dude!
Billy the Kid: (looking at Missy) She's cute.
Ted: It's his mom, dude.
Bill: (to Sigmund Freud) --just got a minor Oedipal complex.
(shows Missy glaring at Mr. Ryan)
So take a wild ride through time in this cult classic full of classic lines...
Ted: Strange things are afoot at the Circle K.
Ox: San Dimas High School football rules!
...classic CGI (shows the time booth traveling through time via early CGI), and classic historical figures you'll remember way more clearly than whatever you were taught in history class, like how this dictator (Napoleon Bonaparte) loved ice cream and water slides, this violent criminal (Billy the Kid) was a real ladies' man, and the biggest mass murderer in human history (Genghis Khan) was absolutely adorable! (shows Khan bouncing off a trampoline, flipping over a mall cop, and landing on a moving skateboard) Aww, look at the little guy go; he killed more people than Hitler!
Starring: Bill S. Preston "Esquire"? Wait, How is This Dude a Lawyer? (Alex Winter as William "Bill" S. Preston, Esq.); Doctor Whoa! (Keanu Reeves as Ted "Theodore" Logan); Way Ahead of His Time (George Carlin as Rufus); and An American TARDIS (shows the time booth).
Duhh & Duhher
Honest title for Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure - Duhh & Duhher. Titles designed by Robert Holtby.
Bill and Ted: (in unison) One, two, three, four! (clumsily play electric guitar, along with Rufus also on electric guitar, Princess Elizabeth on drums, and Princess Joanna on keyboard)
Three lead guitar players, no bass, and no vocals? Guys, I think the Wyld Stallyns might have always sucked.
Trivia[]
- For Fan Appreciation Month, Screen Junkies ran a poll where viewers got to decide which films they would make Honest Trailers for during January, 2017. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure got the 5th highest number of votes.
- Screen Junkies have also produced Honest Trailers for several other Keanu Reeves films including The Matrix, Point Break, John Wick and Speed.
- Screen Junkies have also produced Honest Trailers for many more awesome 1980s movies including Ghostbusters, The Princess Bride, Die Hard, Labyrinth, Predator, Robocop, Top Gun, Batman (1989) and many more. See list of Honest Trailers for more.
- An Honest Trailer Commentary for this episode was recorded and was available on the Screen Junkies Plus until the website/app was discontinued. Screen Junkies don't currently have any way of releasing the video.
Reception[]
Honest Trailers - Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure has a 97.5% approval rating from YouTube viewers. CinemaBlend described the Honest Trailer as a "loving takedown," but also said it was "way too mean, even if it's right." CinemaBlend also agreed "Rufus' phone booth totally IS a thinly veiled copy of the TARDIS from Doctor Who. It's hard to believe that it took almost 30 years for someone to call out Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure on that fact. Despite the extremely American look, the film really does feel like a Doctor Who episode with less drama, and a lot more comedy."
Many media sites commented on how Screen Junkies handled the gay slur in the film. Uproxx noted that although the film "is treated in largely loving fashion" by Screen Junkies, the film was due "some necessary nitpicking about the weaker elements of the movie. (For example, gay panic gags weren’t cute in 1989 and they sure as hell don’t look any better in 2017.)" Slash Film made a similar remark, writing that the gay slur is "more than awkward to see play out by today’s social standards, but it was the 1980s, and we were just ignorant back then." Indie Wire also found the Honest Trailer notable for putting emphasis on "the way the film portrays the gay panic of the time and its use of anti-gay slurs, something that would definitely not fly on the big screen in today’s world."
Production credits[]
Video thumbnail for Honest Trailers - Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
Voiceover Narration by Jon Bailey
Title design by Robert Holtby
Series Created by Andy Signore & Brett Weiner
Executive Producer - Andy Signore
Producers - Dan Murrell, Spencer Gilbert, Michael Bolton, Christina Kline
Written by Spencer Gilbert, Joe Starr, Dan Murrell & Andy Signore
Edited by TJ Nordaker & Bruce Guido
External links[]
- This Bill & Ted Honest Trailer Is Way Too Mean, Even If It’s Right - CinemaBlend article
- The Time Has Come To Get ‘Honest’ About ‘Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure’ - Uproxx article
- ‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure’ Honest Trailer: A Game of Human Pokémon - SlashFilm article
- ‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure’ Honest Trailer Pokes Fun at the Iconic Surfer Bros - Indie Wire article
- Honest Trailer for BILL & TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE - Geek Tyrant article