The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
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The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension (sometimes just Buckaroo Banzai) is a science fiction film that has reached cult film status. It was released in 1984, directed and produced by W. D. Richter and it stars Peter Weller, John Lithgow, Ellen Barkin, Christopher Lloyd, Jeff Goldblum, and Clancy Brown.
The film is a cross between the action/adventure and science-fiction movie genres, and also includes elements of comedy, satire, and romance. It is also made to feel like one of a series of movies, or like the middle chapter in a book, by the use of ongoing allusions to other characters, adventures, and events.
Tagline: Beings from Another Dimension have invaded your world. You can't see them... but they can see you. Your only hope is Buckaroo Banzai.
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Plot
The plot of Buckaroo Banzai is quite complex, often requiring multiple viewings before it can be fully understood. This is partly due to the fact that it spans roughly 50 years, begins in medias res, and doesn't fill in some of the earliest parts of the story until the viewpoint characters themselves unravel the mystery — roughly half-way through the movie. In its essentials, the plot concerns the efforts of the multi-talented Buckaroo Banzai (whose careers include physicist, neurosurgeon, martial artist, rock musician and comic book hero) to save the world by defeating a band of aliens called Red Lectroids.
The DVD of the film restores a deleted opening scene consisting of a "home movie" from Buckaroo Banzai's childhood, narrated by Clancy Brown, who plays the character Rawhide. The scene depicts an early test of a precursor to the Jet Car, built by Buckaroo's parents and Dr. Hikita. The test ends in disaster, as the Jet Car has been sabotaged by the evil Hanoi Xan, leader of the World Crime League. The "home movie" ends, and dissolves to the present-day opening scene of the film depicting Buckaroo's test run of the latter-day Jet Car. Jamie Lee Curtis plays Buckaroo Banzai's mother, Sandra Banzai.
The theatrical release version of the film opens with Banzai (Weller) performing a test-run of his Jet Car, a heavily modified pickup truck powered by a jet engine and capable of exceeding Mach 1. The car is also equipped with a device called an oscillation overthruster, which allows it to drive through solid matter. The test is a success; Banzai stuns onlookers by driving the Jet Car directly through a mountain. Emerging from the mountain, Banzai finds that an alien, pod-like organism has attached itself to the car during transit.
Hearing of Banzai's success, Italian physicist Dr. Emilio Lizardo (Lithgow) breaks out of the New Jersey insane asylum he's been imprisoned in for some years. In a flashback sequence, we learn that Banzai's assistant and mentor, Dr. Hikita (Robert Ito) was present at a failed overthruster experiment of Lizardo's in 1938. The experiment ended with Lizardo's mind being taken over by Lord John Whorfin, leader of the Red Lectroids — a race of alien reptiles — hence his current diagnosis of a delusional disorder.
Image:Buckaroo banzai.jpgDespite being trapped in Lizardo's body, Whorfin maintains his leadership of the Red Lectroids, and has brought over a thousand of them to Earth in an incident that was reported by Orson Welles in his The War of the Worlds radio broadcast. The Red Lectroids now pose as employees of a defense contracting company named Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems, and all bear the first name John, with various last names such as Yaya, Smallberries, and Bigbooté. Now that Banzai has produced a working overthruster, Whorfin hopes to steal it and use it to return his people to their home planet and subjugate its current inhabitants, the peace-loving Black Lectroids.
In the meantime, a Black Lectroid spaceship orbiting Earth contacts Banzai, giving him a cryptic nonverbal message that enables him to see through Lectroids' natural pheromonic camouflage. (To unassisted humans, Black Lectroids appear to be Black, Rastafarian Jamaicans, while Red Lectroids appear as red-haired Caucasians.) The ship also sends a "thermo-pod" to Earth, with a messenger who brings Banzai a holographic message from the Black Lectroids' leader, explaining Lord Whorfin's history and motives, and giving an ultimatum: stop Whorfin and his Red Lectroid army, or the Black Lectroids will protect themselves by staging a fake nuclear attack and letting the U.S. and USSR destroy the world in a burst of Cold War paranoia. With help from the Black Lectroid messenger John Parker, and his usual posse of helpers ("those hard-rockin' scientists, the Hong Kong Cavaliers"), Buckaroo succeeds in his mission, destroying the Red Lectroids and saving Earth.
Memorable Lines
The script to Buckaroo Banzai is laced with deadpan humor, delivered (for the most part) with straight-faced seriousness by the film's cast. A sampling:
- "Laugh-a while you can monkey boy!" — Lord John Whorfin/Dr. Emilio Lizardo
- "Remember: No matter where you go... there you are." — Buckaroo Banzai
- "Evil! Pure and simple, from the eighth dimension!" — Buckaroo Banzai
- "I tell you, if it's not one thing, it's another." — Rawhide
"Lighten up." — Pinky Carruthers - "Why is that watermelon there?" — New Jersey
"I'll tell you later." — Reno - "It's not my goddamn planet. Understand, monkey-boy?" — John Bigbooté
- "Where are we going?" — Lord John Whorfin
"PLANET TEN!" — Assembled Red Lectroids
"When?" — Lord John Whorfin
"REAL SOON!" — Assembled Red Lectroids - "It flies like a truck." — Buckaroo Banzai
"Good. What is a truck?" — John Parker
Other versions
A substantially longer print was shown in test screening in Texas and in Washington State before general release, but the "restored" DVD print is still missing much of the test print material. It has been suggested that the large amount of deletions is a partial explanation for the unusual pace of the film.
The novelization by Earl Mac Rauch is told through fake documents written and compiled by "Reno Nevada," and further expands on the backstory of the film, including the murder of Peggy Banzai by the minions of Asian crime lord Hanoi Xan, the deaths of Buckaroo's parents in an early Jet Car accident, and at least two other fictitious novels.
The 103 minute version released on DVD in January 2002 has a subtitle track that has director's commentary style information that also has a fake documents aspect. It also has elements of MST3k humour and provides more information.
Sequels
The credits mention a sequel, Buckaroo Banzai versus the World Crime League, which was never made. A fan script was written by Ernest Cline, posted on the Internet and subsequently bought, but the prospects of production seem slight considering the initial film's limited take at the box office. (The film Free Enterprise parodies this with its promised sequel, entitled William Shatner versus the World Crime League.)
Moonstone Books is to publish a mini-series of comic books that depict further adventures of the characters. The story, called Return of the Screw, was written by Buckaroo Banzai's creator, Mac Rauch. The preview edition of the comic is available (as of February 2006) and the mini-series officially starts in April 2006.[1]
The novelization of the first movie was reprinted to coincide with the release of the movie on DVD. In the foreword Mac Rauch mentioned that the Buckaroo Banzai series would be continued in a series of novels. None of those novels were ever published, though Rauch does discuss writing them on the DVD commentary. He mentions one plot point from the first novel: Penny Priddy is killed by Hanoi Xan, who strangles her with her own hair.
Some sources claim John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China began as another sequel to this movie. This is incorrect. The original Big Trouble in Little China script was written by Gary Goldman and David Z. Weinstein and was set in the Old West. Screenwriter W.D. Richter (who directed Buckaroo Banzai) was brought in to work on the script and bring the story into the present day.
Computer game
An early example of the computer industry licensing movie titles was the "Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai" text adventure published by the now defunct software publisher Adventure International. Original unopened copies of this game are extremely rare. A copy of the game sold for $2300 on EBay in 2002. This game was a text based language parser and playable online reengineered versions of it exist on the net. iFiction.com's re-engineering of 'The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai
References
The end credits to Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou seem to be inspired by the end credits to this film. Both feature their respective cast of characters walking together in a group to the beat of the music. Coincidentally, both movies feature Jeff Goldblum.
Buckaroo Banzai features many similarities to pulp hero Doc Savage.
Many names and terms, such as Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems, were taken from Thomas Pynchon's books The Crying of Lot 49 and V.. In turn, Pynchon's novel Vineland (published 1990) mentions "Eddie Enrico and his Hong Kong Hotshots." The computer game "BZFlag" also includes a game element named the "oscillation overthruster" which allows a player to travel through solid objects.
The phrase "No matter where you go, there you are.", is quoted on a plaque, located on the bridge of the USS Excelsior (NCC-2000), in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) as an homage to Buckaroo Banzai.
Trivia
Ending credits shot at Los Angeles' Sepulveda Dam.
Red Lectroid names include: John Barnett, John Bigboote, John Camp, John Careful Walker, John Chief Crier, John Cooper, John Coyote, John Edwards, John Fish, John Fledgling, John Gomez, John Grim, John Guardian, John Icicle Boy, John Jones, John Joseph, John Lee, John Littlejohn, John Many Jars, John Milton, John Mud Head, John Nephew, John Nolan, John O'Connor, John Omar, John Parrot, John Rajeesh, John Ready to Fly, John Repeat Dance, John Roberts, John Scott, John Smallberries, John Starbird, John Take Cover, John Thorny Stick, John Two Horns, John Whorfin, John Wood, John Wright, and John Ya Ya.[2]
External links
- {{{2|{{{title|The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension}}}}}} at The Internet Movie Database
- MGM's site on the movie
- Official Banzai Institute Website
- Buckaroo Banzai FAQ
- World Watch Online Website
- Review by Science Fiction Weekly
- Moonstone Books - Return of the Screw comic bookde:Buckaroo Banzai
fr:Les Aventures de Buckaroo Banzaï à travers la 8e dimension