Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
In Futuristic City, 2688, humanity exists as a utopian society due to the inspiration of the music and wisdom of the Two Great Ones: Bill S. Preston, Esq. (Alex Winter) and Ted "Theodore" Logan (Keanu Reeves). Rufus (George Carlin) is tasked by the leaders to travel back to San Dimas, California, in 1988 using a time machine disguised as a telephone booth to ensure that Bill and Ted, who are dimwitted metalhead slacker high school students, get a good grade in their final history oral report and pass the class. Should they fail, Ted's father, Police Captain John Logan (Hal Langdon), plans to ship Ted to a military academy in Alaska, ending Bill and Ted's fledgling band, the "Wyld Stallyns", thus altering the future. Bill, meanwhile, has a crush on his father's new wife, barely older than himself.
Bill and Ted struggle with the report, which asks them to envision how three historical figures would see San Dimas in the present. While they are asking strangers at the local Circle K convenience store for help, Rufus arrives in the time machine. The two are distrustful until the time machine arrives again nearby, out from which step future versions of Bill and Ted. They prove to their younger selves that they are really them and that they should trust Rufus. They privately ask Rufus a question and then depart. The younger versions of Bill and Ted accept Rufus' offer to take them into the past. Rufus takes them to a battlefield in Austria, 1805 where Napoleon Bonaparte (Terry Camilleri) is commanding the French army against Austria. They return to the present, unaware that the time machine has caught Napoleon in its wake and pulled him along. Landing near Ted's house, Rufus reminds them that they must still reach the school on time to give their report and then departs, returning the time machine to them. The two discover Napoleon after he falls out of a nearby tree, and come up with the idea of kidnapping other historical figures to bring to the present. They leave Napoleon with Ted's younger brother, Deacon (Frazier Bain), and start traveling through time.
The two befriend Billy the Kid (Dan Shor) in The Old West, 1879 and Socrates (Tony Steedman) in Ancient Greece, 410 BC before stopping in London, 1461 where they become infatuated with Princesses Elizabeth (Kimberley Kates) and Joanna (Diane Franklin). The teens anger the princesses' father, Henry VI of England (John Karlsen), who orders their beheading, but they are rescued by Billy and Socrates. They are forced to leave without the princesses and, in the escape, the telephone booth is damaged. Dialing a random number, they land next in the Utopian future, where Bill and Ted are amazed by the music playing and that the citizens worship them. They leave after a brief stay and, believing they have plenty of time before the report, start collecting more historical figures for extra credit, including Sigmund Freud (Rod Loomis) in Vienna, 1901, Ludwig van Beethoven (Clifford David) in Kassel, 1810, Joan of Arc (Jane Wiedlin) in Orléans, 1429, Genghis Khan (Al Leong) in Mongolia, 1209, and Abraham Lincoln (Robert V. Barron) in Washington, D.C. in 1863. Having run out of room in the phone booth, Bill and Ted finally discover the time machine is damaged.
After making ad hoc repairs to the time machine, Bill and Ted try to return to the present but land outside the Circle K, recognizing the situation they previously witnessed. After reassuring their younger selves, they learn from Rufus how to dial the right number to get to their present and that they are running out of time. Once they arrive to the present, Bill's mother has him, Ted, and the historical figures get their household chores done before taking them to the local mall, where the historical figures are left to experience San Dimas while Bill and Ted look for Napoleon; Ted finds Deacon had ditched Napoleon earlier out of embarrassment, but they later find him at the water slide park "Waterloo" (the name based on the Napoleon's famous battle of "Waterloo"). Meanwhile, the historical figures had caused trouble at the mall and have been arrested by Captain Logan. Upon discovering this, Bill and Ted figure out how they can use the time machine to set up an event at the police station to allow them to free the historical figures without getting caught. After freeing them, Bill's mother drives them all to the high school and arrive just in time, where they give an impressive presentation with the help of the historical figures that receives a standing ovation. They pass their course and return the historical figures to their proper times.
Later, as Bill and Ted are practicing, Rufus arrives, showing he had rescued the princesses from England and introduced them to the modern world, and that they become part of Wyld Stallyns. Elated, Bill and Ted resume their practice with their usual ineptitude, with Rufus breaking the fourth wall and promising, "They do get better..."
comedy, cult, historical fiction, alternate history, historical, entertaining