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Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991)

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13 Excellent Facts About Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey

By roger cormier | jul 19, 2016.

Writers Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon invented the characters William "Bill" S. Preston, Esq. and Ted "Theodore" Logan way back in 1983 , while performing improv with their UCLA classmates. Two years after Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure hit theaters in 1989, Matheson and Solomon decided to put their creations in front of brand new hurdles and challenges in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey , a sequel that some regard as the superior movie of the two. In the latter, our heroes are murdered by their evil robot selves from the future and must go through hell and heaven to get their vengeance. Here are some facts about the film, which was released 25 years ago today.

1. ORION PICTURES INITIALLY INSISTED ON BILL AND TED KIDNAPPING CHARACTERS FROM FAMOUS BOOKS.

While Matheson and Solomon wanted to write about Bill and Ted dying and going to hell, the studio wanted the leads to enter famous works of literature to pass an English test. "The literature idea sounds different from time travel," Solomon said , "but it ends up being the same thing: Bill and Ted go into historical settings and meet famous characters, except now the characters are fictional." The two tried to write that version before telling Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter their initial idea, which the actors preferred. Reeves and Winter told the studio that Matheson and Solomon's movie was the one they wanted to make.

2. IT WAS PETER HEWITT'S FEATURE DIRECTORIAL DEBUT.

Despite never having directed a feature film, British director Peter Hewitt beat out 50 other directors for the chance to replace Excellent Adventure director Stephen Herek (who directed 1991's Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead instead). "To this day I don’t know why," Hewitt admitted in a 1992 interview . "I think I never imagined they’d consider me so I decided to say exactly what I thought about their script ideas: what I didn’t like and would want to change as much as what I wanted left in to build on. Perhaps they admired my honesty and the fact I wasn’t scared to speak my mind."

Though he had never directed a feature film, Hewitt had plenty of veteran help. Special effects supervisor Richard Yuricich ( Close Encounters of the Third Kind , Blade Runner ) teamed up with Kevin Yagher, who designed the Chucky doll in Child’s Play (1988) and who was also responsible for designing and applying make-up in three of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, to help Hewitt execute Matheson and Solomon's vision.

3. PRODUCTION WAS DELAYED TO ACCOMMODATE KEANU REEVES' BUSY SCHEDULE.

Orion wanted the film to be released in the summer of 1991, but the 10-week shoot had to be delayed until January 7, 1991. Reeves couldn't make it until then because he was working on My Own Private Idaho (1991). They stuck to the 10-week schedule by editing the movie as they went along, shooting five days a week and editing on Saturdays.

4. THE ORIGINAL TITLE WAS BILL & TED GO TO HELL , WHICH POSED A MARKETING PROBLEM.

Producer Scott Kroopf explained to The New York Times why they ultimately decided against using a title with the word 'hell' in it: "The problem was—and it was a real one—we couldn't advertise on TV until after 9 o'clock."

5. THE WRITERS FOUND THEIR WAY INTO THE FILM.

Solomon (with glasses) and Matheson (white shirt) appear as New Agers at Missy's seance. The Nomolos in the character name of the evil Chuck De Nomolos is Solomon spelled backwards.

6. THEY KNEW THEY WERE PARODYING INGMAR BERGMAN AND THE SEVENTH SEAL .

"The biggest set piece in the movie is that in order to get back to life, Bill and Ted have to play Death in games," Kroopf explained . "And the games they play are Battleship , Clue , Twister . So your life is on the line; you're playing with Death, but you're playing games that Bill and Ted know how to play. This is a clear parody of Bergman."

7. WILLIAM SADLER HELPED WITH SOME OF THE LINES.

"I think I had more fun doing Bill and Ted than I’ve ever had making anything I’ve ever shot," William Sadler, who played the Grim Reaper, said in 2015 . "It was, once I came up with the Czechoslovakian accent and had the funny make-up done, and the idea that he’s almost effeminate. He starts off as a scary dude and almost immediately it all unravels and he becomes this kind of insecure doofus who all he really wants is for them to like him. At the end it was so sweet. I also got to be creative, I wrote the Reaper Rap. I kept having ideas, like when he goes by—I said to Peter Hewitt the director, 'Wouldn’t it be great if he walks past somebody who’s smoking and says ‘See you real soon’ as he goes by, and the person who’s smoking goes ah and puts it out?’ Peter liked the idea and said bring the camera over here, that’s Peter Hewitt as the smoker. We didn’t have an actor to play it, the idea happened on the set, while we were shooting other stuff."

8. THERE WERE STAR TREK CONNECTIONS.

Bill & Ted University was at the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in Van Nuys, California. It was later used for Starfleet Academy in Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001). Bill & Ted give Death a melvin at Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park near Agua Dulce Springs. It was shot there because shooting the scene in Utah was too expensive. When Hewitt first came across the jagged rock at Vasquez he turned to his first assistant director and said , "Isn’t this the alien planet in every Star Trek episode?" Hewitt rented a VHS of the "Arena" episode from the original series, froze the shot, and worked out the exact place for the crew to place the camera.

9. THERE WAS A CIRCULAR MOTIF THROUGHOUT THE MOVIE.

Production designer David L. Snyder and Hewitt worked it out so that 25 sets were built on three soundstages and other outside locations, each with circular shapes . "I chose a through-line of curves and circles in a desperate need to tie it all up stylistically," Hewitt explained . "Each place is instantly recognizable, but not stereotypically otherworldly. Otherwise Bill and Ted would have had to have said at some stage, ‘Where are we?,’ as they aren’t the smartest guys in the world."

10. AN ALTERNATE ENDING INVOLVING A CAR CHASE BETWEEN BILL AND TED AND THEIR BIGGEST FEARS WAS CUT.

Alex Winter said it was "insanely funny." It was storyboarded . To get rid of their reanimated "Personal Hells," Bill gives his Granny a kiss on the cheek, Ted calls his brother and apologizes for stealing his Easter candy, and both of them are nice to Colonel Oats.

In the original ending, Bill and Ted brought themselves back from the future every minute for 10 years to make full armies of themselves. Preview audiences didn't like it , and a new ending was shot over 10 days.

11. THE DIRECTOR'S CUT WAS MUCH DARKER.

Hewitt claimed the first cut of Bogus Journey was much darker . "That’s a definite British trait," he added. "The humor was black comedy almost. The Evil Us’s were really evil! I went for it and had them running riot doing despicable things. But test screen audiences couldn’t take it ... My original cut would have played well in Britain."

12. JOSS ACKLAND REGRETS BEING IN IT.

Joss Ackland played Chuck De Nomolos. He said that many of the roles in his 50-plus-year acting career were taken just for the money or to settle bets . "I do an awful lot of crap, but if it's not immoral, I don't mind," he explained. "I'm a workaholic." As for Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey ? "I can't tell you how embarrassing that was," he told BBC News .

13. ALEX WINTER SAID A THIRD MOVIE IS COMING SOON.

In April 2016, Winter said that a third film was imminent—and that both he and Reeves would be reprising their roles: “We have a script, we have a director, we have a studio—we’re just trying to nail down a start date.”

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Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, bill and ted's bogus journey.

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There were parts of "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey" I probably didn't understand, but that's all right, because there were even more parts that Bill and Ted didn't understand. This is a movie that thrives on the dense-witted idiocy of its characters, two teenage dudes who go on amazing journeys through time and space with only the dimmest perception that they are not still playing video games. I missed the enormously popular movie that introduced these characters, "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure," and felt myself blessed at the time. But now I'm not so sure. Their "Bogus Journey" is a riot of visual invention and weird humor that works on its chosen sub-moronic level, and on several others as well, including some fairly sophisticated ones. It's the kind of movie where you start out snickering in spite of yourself, and end up actually admiring the originality that went into creating this hallucinatory slapstick. The movie begins far in the future, where students at Bill & Ted's University have the opportunity to chat personally with Thomas Edison and Beethoven, and to study such artistic classics as the " Star Trek " TV series. An evil overlord of time, named De Nomolos and played by that gravel-voiced, white-haired villain Joss Ackland , vows to rewrite history by destroying Bill and Ted (played as before by Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves ). He has invented robots that look and act exactly like the two heroes, and are just as dumb, and he sends them rocketing back through time in a telephone booth. Bill and Ted are meanwhile trying to win a rock band contest with their own group, the Wyld Stallyons, which includes a couple of girl musicians they picked up in the 15th century. Startled by the appearance of their robot-doubles, they commence their own journeys through time and space in a desperate attempt to destroy them, save themselves, preserve the book of history, stay cool, and meet cute chicks. The funniest thing that happens to them is their showdown with the Grim Reaper ( William Sadler ), who looks just as he does in Ingmar Bergman's "The Seventh Seal." In that film (as most of the audience for this one will probably not know), Death played chess with a medieval knight, with the knight's soul at stake. This time the dudes challenge the Reaper to a pocket video game, and beat him, even after he tries to weasel out with an offer of best of three. Death, having lost, has to accompany Bill and Ted on their journey and do what they tell him, and this leads to some of the funniest moments I have seen in any movie in a long time, including one where the Reaper does a little comparison shopping for scythes at the hardware store. One of the stops on the bogus journey is Heaven, created with great imagination and a lot of light and echoing sound effects and a most peculiar conversation with the Deity. Bill ands Ted handle this summit meeting, as they handle everything else in the film, like two dudes for whom "Pee Wee's Playhouse" would be too slow and intellectual. All of the actors (including George Carlin , who turns up in an important supporting role) have a lot of fun with this material, and it turns into more delicate fun, based on more subtle timing, than you might imagine. Many of Sadler's laughs as the Grim Reaper come from simple physical cringing, as he conveys his embarrassment and lost dignity.

Of Bill and Ted, I can say that I have not seen Alex Winter much before (he was in " Rosalie Goes Shopping "), but I have seen Keanu Reeves in vastly different roles (the FBI man in the current "Point Break," for example), and am a little astonished by the range of these performances. Like Sean Penn , who immortalized the word "awesome" in a Bill & Ted-like performance in " Fast Times at Ridgemont High ," he brings more artistry to this cretinous role than might at first meet the eye. Who is the movie intended for? Your basic "Bill & Ted" audience, for starters -- upward-bound young moviegoers looking for something one notch more challenging than " Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ." But also for lovers of fantasy, whimsy, and fanciful special effects. This movie is light as a feather and thin as ice in spring, but what it does, it does very nicely.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey (1991)

George Carlin as Rufus

Keanu Reeves as Ted

Alex Winter as Bill

William Sadler as Grim Reaper

Joss Ackland as De Nomolos

• Chris Matheson
• David Newman

Directed by

• Peter Hewitt

Produced by

• Scott Kroopf
• David Finfer

Photographed by

• Oliver Wood

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Amiable slackers Bill and Ted are once again roped into a fantastical adventure when De Nomolos, a villain from the future, sends evil robot duplicates of the two lads to terminate and replace them. The robot doubles actually succeed in killing Bill and Ted, but the two are determined to escape the afterlife, challenging the Grim Reaper to a series of games in order to return to the land of the living.

Characters, Screenplay

Chris Matheson

Peter Hewitt

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Keanu Reeves

Ted Logan / Evil Ted

Alex Winter

Bill S. Preston/ Granny Preston / Evil Bill

William Sadler

Grim Reaper

Joss Ackland

Ms. Wardroe

George Carlin

Sir James Martin

Hal Landon Jr.

Captain Logan

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Status Released

Original Language English

Budget $20,000,000.00

Revenue $38,000,000.00

• dying and death
• time travel
• heavy metal
• diabolical ego
• doppelgänger

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Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey

1991, Comedy, 1h 38m

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Critics Consensus

Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey has the same stars -- and cheerfully wacky sense of humor -- as its predecessor, but they prove a far less effective combination the second time around. Read critic reviews

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Bill & ted's bogus journey videos, bill & ted's bogus journey   photos.

Amiable slackers Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) are once again roped into a fantastical adventure when De Nomolos (Joss Ackland), a villain from the future, sends evil robot duplicates of the two lads to terminate and replace them. The robot doubles actually succeed in killing Bill and Ted, but the two are determined to escape the afterlife, challenging the Grim Reaper (William Sadler) to a series of games in order to return to the land of the living.

Genre: Comedy

Original Language: English

Director: Peter Hewitt

Producer: Scott Kroopf

Writer: Chris Matheson , Ed Solomon

Release Date (Streaming): Sep 27, 2016

Box Office (Gross USA): $38.0M

Runtime: 1h 38m

Production Co: Interscope Communications, Nelson Entertainment

Sound Mix: Surround, Stereo

View the collection: Bill & Ted

Cast & Crew

Keanu Reeves

Alex Winter

Bill, Granny Preston

William Sadler

Grim Reaper

Joss Ackland

Ms. Wardroe

George Carlin

Amy Stock-Poynton

Sir James Martin

Hal Landon Jr.

Captain Logan

Annette Azcuy

Chelcie Ross

Colonel Oats

Robert Noble

Peter Hewitt

Scott Kroopf

Chris Matheson

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Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure/Bogus Journey Retrospective Review

By Jeff Ames

With the release of Bill & Ted Face the Music   ( pre-order here ), we thought it best to go back and take a look at the previous two Bill & Ted movies to see if they still hold up. Let’s do this!

Keanu Reeves … Ted Theodore Logan Alex Winter … Bill S. Preston Esquire George Carlin … Rufus Terry Camilleri … Napoleon Dan Shor … Billy the Kid Tony Steedman … Socrates Rod Loomis … Freud Al Leong … Genghis Khan Jane Wiedlin … Joan of Arc Robert V. Barron … Abraham Lincoln

Written by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon Directed by Stephen Herek

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure Review

Click here to purchase Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure !

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure is one of those flicks from a bygone era that viewers can appreciate as a carefree time-travel comedy romp that works in spite of its modest budget and asinine stoner-ish plot.

The story concerns Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves), two dimwitted high school pals who go on an adventure through time in order to pass their history exam. Bill and Ted are essential to the future, you see, since they’ll, at some point in their lives, write a musical ballad that will provide guidance for generations to come. Failing the history exam would send Ted to military school, break up the Wild Stallions band, and destroy the future — or so they say.

As such, Rufus (George Carlin) appears with a time travel device (built out of a phone booth, no less) and sends our two heroes on a quest to learn as much about history as possible. This setup gives the production team the daunting task of creating multiple set pieces in numerous time periods as Bill and Ted visit Austria, the Old West, Greece and other locales with the likes of Socrates, Billy the Kid, Napoleon, Abraham Lincoln, Sigmund Freud, Ludwig van Beethoven, Genghis Khan and Joan of Arc in tow.

Indeed, the early time travel bits are actually quite clever and lend the film a fish-out-of-water innocence the latter half, set mainly in present-day 1988, can’t quite replicate. There are wild hijinks featuring Napoleon learning (and failing) the simple art of bowling; and a fun scene in which Genghis Khan, Joan of Arc, and Beethoven explore a shopping mall and entertain onlookers with their notable talents. The film also enjoys messing around with its time travel concept. At one point, Bill and Ted must break into a police station and make mental notes to travel back in time at some point in the future to leave behind objects for their use at that exact moment. So, when Ted requires some keys, for example, he need only plan to return to that location earlier via time travel and leave the keys in the location of his choice for them to appear in the present. Get it?

The biggest detriment to Bill and Ted is its minimal budget, which can’t quite match the wild ambitions of the filmmakers who clearly want to do more with the material — and get their wish with part two. As such, Excellent Adventure’s FX is rather bland and the big locales look more like movie sets than actual locations.

Even so, the stars of the film, namely Winter and Reeves, shine as a pair of lovable dimwits who are much too innocent to mock — upon seeing Rufus emerge from a time-traveling phone booth that just dropped out of the sky, Ted asks, “Do you know when the Mongols ruled China?” Bill and Ted are slow to piece ideas together, but they are also good guys who are genuinely excellent to each other and the people they run into. They don’t smoke, do drugs, drink, or curse (often), which makes their naïveté all the more genuine and fun.

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure makes for light-hearted entertainment that can be enjoyed by all audiences, even if it never quite reaches the heights it sets out to achieve.

Keanu Reeves … Ted Alex Winter … Bill / Granny Preston William Sadler … Grim Reaper Joss Ackland … De Nomolos Pam Grier … Ms. Wardroe George Carlin … Rufus

Written by Chris Matheson & Ed Solomon Directed by Peter Hewitt

Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey Review

Click here to purchase Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey !

Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey is the rare sequel that actually surpasses the original. Thanks mostly to a larger budget, which allows for a more polished product, and a decidedly bat-shit crazy tone, Bill and Ted’s second hurrah through the strands of time delivers a balanced blend of clever humor and stupidity that will leave even the most stone-hearted viewer in stitches.

Bogus Journey follows our heroes as they travel (quite literally) to Hell and back in an attempt to bring down the villainous De Nomolos (Joss Ackland), who wants to rid the future world of these two guitar-playing idiots.

That’s it. That’s the plot. And yet, director Peter Hewitt and writers Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon use that basic outline as an excuse to go absolutely wild with the film’s various set pieces. Make no mistake: Bogus Journey is about as weird a movie as you’ll ever find, but the level of ambition and creativity on display truly astonishes.

At one point, Bill and Ted are killed by two evil versions of themselves and come face-to-face with Death, whom, in a clever twist on Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, they must beat in a series of games in order to return to the land of the living. Naturally, these games include Battleship, Clue, and Twister; and, naturally, Death can’t quite discern the intricacies of the board game or the shame of defeat — “Three out of four!” It’s in these scenes that the film really clicks; and credit to William Sadler for his hilarious depiction of such an outlandish character. His comic timing, comprised mostly of subtle looks and pitch-perfect line deliveries — “I’ll see you soon!” — is perfection; and the jokes, including a bit where he wanders around Heaven in a “disguise” good enough to fool God’s assistants, are pulled off with something resembling artistic brilliance.

Indeed, here is a film jam-packed with clever dumb humor —  if that makes any sense.

“If we die,” Bill says to Ted while strolling through the underworld, “you can have my Megadeath collection.”

“But Bill,” Ted replies, “we’re already dead.”

“Oh,” Bill exclaims, “well, then I guess they’re yours then.”

Like the original Excellent Adventure , the sheer fact that Bogus Journey actually works is commendable in and of itself. That it manages to enhance the original despite toeing the fine line between entertaining 80s stoner comedy and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze is a damned miracle.

Part of its success lies in the casting of Winter and Reeves, who once again embody Bill and Ted with genuine innocence. These are two guys who love life, love their “babes” and aren’t so much interested in material things as they are in simply going through life being excellent to everyone they meet.

Even their evil counterparts are likable, especially when they’re removing and dunking their heads in wastebaskets.

Of course, all of the nonsense does grow a tad tedious by the third act (like the original), especially with the appearance of Station, a weird alien thing that looks like something crafted by the same psychos behind the nightmare known as Labyrinth. I wasn’t a fan.

And yet, the rest of Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey delights thanks to a clever script, a pair of charismatic leads, and a wild adventure that can only be described as bonkers. Enjoy the madness — they really don’t make them like this anymore.

Jeff lives and breathes all things sports and entertainment! As a die-hard Seahawks fan and devoted Utah Jazz supporter, you'll often find him cheering his heart out for his favorite teams. Jeff's passion for movies is unrivaled, and he has channeled that enthusiasm into a successful stint at ComingSoon.net. When he's not immersed in the world of media, Jeff loves spending quality time swearing at his favorite sports teams with his family. He also loves hats.

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Review by Tim Brayton Pro

Bill & ted's bogus journey 1991 ★★★½.

Rewatched Aug 23 , 2020

Tim Brayton’s review published on Letterboxd:

The most ambitious kind of sequel, one that does basically everything different, except insofar as the central characters provide a unified tone and cheerful attitude with the original. This is a far more uneven film than Excellent Adventure , dragging badly during its set-up phase and finding the filmmakers a bit unsure of what they're doing with all this expanded budget and scale; but then it swings around to extraordinary heights like William Sadler's peevish Grim Reaper, the best thing in either movie by a considerable distance, or the surprisingly clever way color is used to give us more knowledge than the persistently dopey heroes. Probably a bit more to my tastes than the first film in its reference points and genre elements, though if you wanted to argue that it suffers from having less heart and warmth, I'd be forced to agree.

( Full review at Alternate Ending )

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The Science Fiction Horror and Fantasy Film Review

Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991)

Rating: ★★.

Director – Peter Hewitt, Screenplay – Chris Matheson & Ed Solomon, Producer – Scott Kroopf, Photography – Oliver Wood, Music – David Newman, Visual Effects Supervisors – Gregory L. McMurray & Richard Yuricich, Makeup Effects – Kevin Yagher, Production Design – David L. Snyder. Production Company – Interscope Communications..

Alexander Winter (Bill S. Preston Esq/Granny Preston), Keanu Reeves (Ted Theodore Logan), William Sadler (Grim Reaper), Joss Ackland (Chuck De Nomolous), Annette Azcuy & Sarah Trigger (Princesses), Hal Landon Jr (Captain Logan), Amy Stock-Poynton (Missy), George Carlin (Rufus), Pam Grier (Miss Woodrow), Roy Brocksmith (Mr Preston)

The warlord De Nomolous, tired of life in a future ruled by the Bill and Ted philosophy, creates two android duplicates of Bill and Ted. He sends these back in time to the present where they throw Bill and Ted off a cliff to their deaths. As disembodied spirits, Bill and Ted travel through the afterlife, journeying to both Heaven and Hell. There they encounter Death and challenge him to a series of board games in order to obtain his help in getting back home.

This is a sequel to Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989), which proved a reasonable hit with its idiosyncratic and appealingly offbeat sense of humour. It was one of those sleeper hits that took off in ways that nobody expected. Not to mention that it propelled co-star Keanu Reeves on his subsequent path to A-list stardom.

As is usually the wont with sequels, Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey offers much the same as last time – and in an often entertaining package. However, the very act of repetition also lacks the unique one-offness and the lightness of step that came in the hip nonsensical wit of the original. Director Peter Hewitt lingers on the all the ‘exxx-cellent’s and the guitar riff pantomimes too long and often (although there are some amusing variations on the latter – when Ted’s father conducts a trill, it comes out as an acoustic guitar chord, while Death’s is accompanied by a Gothic organ) and the joke wearies through over-emphasis.

Most noticeably, the gags have been scaled up from an economy to an A-size budget. Like the game of Battleships with Death at a giant table, this leaves them echoing amid the cavernous oversized sets and the top-notch but superfluous effects. Heaven, for example, is an impressive set with some well-done creature effects but all there is to look at is the sets – there is no particular gag going on inside them.

Much of the film is just there for you to look at and the first film’s slacker/stoner humour is left wandering. The first film’s charm was all in its humour; it did not need, nor did it have, big-budget effects and razzle-dazzle. Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey fatally mis-scales the film into something oversized. Even a chase sequence through Bill and Ted’s private Hells adds nothing (although has enough sentiment-bashing amusement to suggest that their Hells will be embodied by fluffy toys and a halitotic Granny wanting a kiss).

Still Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey has its small successes. The best aspect is William Sadler as a slightly disgruntled Grim Reaper, played with the accent and wry mannerisms with which they used to characterise Jewish immigrants. The character is an amusing send-up of the personified Death in Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal (1957) (although one suspects that Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon stole more than a little from Terry Pratchett). Bergman crafted the archetypal image of a chess-playing Death but this film’s amusing spin is to have Death challenging souls to games of Battleships, Cluedo and Twister; or throwing in wittily incongruous images like seeing Death outfitted in a Bo Peep costume and contemplating turning in his scythe for a hoe at a hardware store. The montage ending also does an amusing and credible job of suggesting how the Bill and Ted philosophy could end up conquering the world.

29 years after this, a third film was made, reuniting Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter and William Sadler, with Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020). The two characters were subsequently spun out in the animated tv series Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventures (1990) and awful live-action tv series Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventures (1992) where Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter were replaced respectively by Christopher Kennedy and Evan Richards.

British director Peter (sometimes Pete) Hewitt stayed with genre material through his next several films:– the adaptation of Mary Norton’s little people adventures The Borrowers (1997); Whatever Happened to Harold Smith? (1999), a coming of age comedy about a teen whose father has psychic powers; Thunderpants (2002) about a kid who launches a NASA mission using his farts; Garfield (2004), a live-action adaptation of the popular syndicated comic-strip; the superhero film Zoom: Academy for Superheroes (2006); and Mostly Ghostly: Have You Met My Ghoulfriend? (2014). Hewitt is also credited with the story for Thunderbirds (2004).

Trailer here

Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey

• Edit source
• View history
• 3 Soundtrack
• 4.1 Marvel Comics
• 5 Reception
• 7.1 Posters

The music of Bill and Ted 's band, Wyld Stallyns , has created a utopian future society. Rufus now works as teacher at Bill & Ted University . He used the Time Booth to travel back in time to bring historical figures; Thomas Edison , Sir James Martin , Johann Sebastian Bach and Ria Paschelle to the future to teach his students. In one such lesson Chuck De Nomolos , who detested this society, steals the phone booth and sends two robots Evil Bill and Evil Ted back to the late 20th century to prevent Bill and Ted from winning the San Dimas Battle of the Bands . Rufus attempted to stop De Nomolos by leaping after the booth but seemingly becomes lost in the Circuits of Time .

In the present, three years after Bill and Ted first traveled through time, Wyld Stallyns is preparing for the contest. Though Bill and Ted's current fiancées and former 15th-century princesses Elizabeth and Joanna have become skilled musicians, Bill and Ted are still inept. Despite this, the organizer Ms. Wardroe assures them a slot in the contest as the final act. Bill's stepmother Missy divorces his father in favor of Ted's father , who threatens Ted with military school should they fail the Battle of the Bands. Evil Bill and Evil Ted arrive, and the robots eventually replace Bill and Ted, killing them by throwing the two over the side of a cliff at Vasquez Rocks. The robots behave rudely to the princesses and work to ruin the duo's fame.

Bill and Ted's souls are met by Death who challenges them in a game for their souls. Bill and Ted escape after giving Death a " Melvin ". They attempt to alert their families, but their ethereal forms prove difficult, and at one point, are cast down into Hell at a séance held by Missy. In Hell, they are tormented by Satan , made to face their own fears, manifesting as Col Oates , the Easter Bunny , and Granny S Preston , and realize their only escape is to take Death's offer. Taken to Death's chambers, the spirit gives them the option of what game to play. Bill and Ted, to Death's dismay, select modern games like Battleship, Clue and Twister, easily beating Death. Death admits defeat and unwillingly becomes their servant. Bill and Ted recognize they need to locate the smartest person in the universe to help build robots to counter De Nomolos' evil robots. Death escorts the two to Heaven, and with God's help, are directed to an alien named Station who has the ability to split into two identical twins, and readily offers to help Bill and Ted.

Death brings them back to the mortal world, where it is the night of the Battle of the Bands. Bill and Ted take Station to a hardware store, and then race in their van back to the concert while Station constructs good robots. Just as the evil robots take the stage, Bill and Ted arrive, and Station's robots easily defeat the evil ones. De Nomolos appears in the time booth, ready to defeat Bill and Ted himself, and overrides the broadcasting equipment to send the video footage of this to everyone on the planet. The two recognize they can later go back in time to arrange events for De Nomolos to be trapped in the present, aided by Death and Station; though De Nomolos is apparently able to do the same, Bill and Ted gain the upper hand with the explanation that it is only the winners who get to go back, and De Nomolos is arrested by Ted's father, after suffering a "Melvin" at the hands of the Reaper. Ms. Wardroe reveals herself to be a disguised Rufus, having assured Bill and Ted's spot in the concert, and urges them to play.

As Bill and Ted reunite with their fiancées, they realize they are still terrible musicians, and the four use the time booth; though they return immediately, "an intense 16 months of guitar training plus a two-week honeymoon" have passed for them, they have married the princesses, and each is raising a young infant " Little Ted " and " Little Bill ". They begin to perform a stunning rock ballad, joined by Death, Station, and the good robots. The worldwide broadcast set by De Nomolos continues, and Wyld Stallyns' music is played across the globe, creating harmony. Over the credits, it's shown through newspaper articles that the band, along with Death, go through many perks of fame before eventually taking their act to Mars.

• Keanu Reeves as Theodore "Ted" Logan / Evil Ted
• Alex Winter as Bill S. Preston, Esq. / Evil Bill / Granny S. Preston, Esq.
• William Sadler as Death
• Joss Ackland as Chuck De Nomolos
• George Carlin as Rufus
• Pam Grier as Ms. Wardroe
• Annette Azcuy as Elizabeth Logan
• Sarah Trigger as Joanna Preston
• Hal Landon Jr. as Captain John Logan , Ted's father
• Amy Stoch as Missy/Mom
• Ed Gale , Arturo Gil and Tom Allard as Station
• Neil Ross as Station Twin #2 (voice)
• Frank Welker as the voices of Satan , Easter Bunny and Station

Soundtrack [ ]

As was particularly common at the time, the soundtrack album focuses on the rock music heard throughout the film. An album of the full orchestral score by David Newman would not become available until 2007.

The song Bill and Ted play for the battle of the bands is "Final Guitar Solo" by Steve Vai, which he wrote to help blend into "God Gave Rock 'N' Roll to You II" by Kiss, although Bill appears similar in appearance to Dusty Hill and Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top.

There's also a reference to the lyrics from "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" by Poison.

Adaptations [ ]

Marvel comics [ ].

To coincide with the release of the Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, Marvel Comics released a one-shot comic book adaptation of the film, hiring Evan Dorkin to adapt the screenplay and pencil the art. Like Archie Goodwin's adaptation of the first Star Wars film film, Dorkin worked from the original script, which included many deleted scenes such as the fears from Hell attempting to block Bill and Ted from the concert, and Evil Bill and Ted killing Bill and Ted before they remind the Reaper that they are owed lives from beating him so many times. Death was portrayed as the archetypal skeletal figure. Due to the popularity of the comic, Marvel commissioned a spin-off series, Bill & Ted's Excellent Comic Book, which kept the talents of Dorkin, DeStefano, and Severin. The series ran for 12 issues, featuring original stories, such as Death taking a vacation, a medieval version of Bill and Ted, Bill and Ted gaining a band manager, a return by DeNomolos, an attempt to stop John Wilkes Booth, and meeting Little Bill and Ted from the future.

Reception [ ]

Critical reception to the movie was mixed. Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reported that 54% of 50 surveyed critics gave Bogus Journey a positive review; the average rating was 5.93/10. The film's consensus stated: "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey has the same stars—and cheerfully wacky sense of humor—as its predecessor, but they prove a far less effective combination the second time around."

• Progressive rock/metal band Primus appear as themselves during Battle of the Bands, performing Tommy the Cat.
• The original title of Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey was “Bill & Ted Go To Hell”.
• Another story idea for Bogus Journey had been to let them take an English test and have them get into books and whatnot.

Gallery [ ]

Posters [ ].

• 1 Wyld Stallyns
• 3 Ted Logan

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey

• A tyrant from the future creates evil android doubles of Bill and Ted and sends them back to eliminate the originals.
• The world of our distant future is a veritable utopia, thanks to the lyrics of two simple-minded 20th-century rock-and-rollers, Bill S. Preston, Esq., and Ted "Theodore" Logan. However, a would-be conqueror threatens to throw history off-track by sending "most non-non-heinous" evil robot Bill and Teds back to kill their good counterparts. Finding themselves dead, the boys must outwit the Grim Reaper and traverse Heaven and Hell to return to the land of the living, rescue their "babes," and have a "most triumphant" concert at the all-important Battle of the Bands. — David Thiel <[email protected]>
• For many years now, at Bill and Ted University of the future, the people of the world have been excellent to each other. But fed-up with Bill and Ted's peaceful world and even more fed up with heavy metal, Chuck De Nomolos decides to do something about it. De Nomolos creates cyborg versions of Bill and Ted, who travel back to 1990 with orders to kill the human versions of Bill and Ted, win the Battle of the Bands, and pave the way for De Nomolos to take over the future. In 1990, Bill and Ted are sent to hell by the cyborgs. Cyborg Bill and Cyborg Ted make time with the real Bill and Ted's girlfriends, Joanna and Elizabeth, and prepare to take the human Bill and Ted's places in the Battle of the Bands. With their friend Rufus' help, the human Bill and Ted are forced to find a way out of hell, deal with the Grim Reaper, and talk to God Himself in their mission to get to the Battle of the Bands. — Todd Baldridge
• In this sequel to 'Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure', the music of Bill and Ted's band, Wyld Stallyns, has created a utopian future society. Chuck De Nomolos, who detests this society, steals one of the time-traveling phone booths and sends two robots modeled after Bill and Ted back to the late 20th century to prevent Bill and Ted from winning the San Dimas Battle of the Bands. Rufus attempts to stop De Nomolos but seemingly becomes lost in the circuits of time. In the present day, five years after Bill and Ted first traveled through time with Rufus' help to pass their history project and graduate from high school, the Wyld Stallyns are preparing for the contest. Though Bill and Ted's current fiancées, and former 15th-century princesses, Elizabeth and Joanna have become skilled musicians in working alongside them, Bill and Ted are still inept singers and songwriters. Despite this, the organizer Ms. Wardroe assures them a slot in the contest as the final act. Bill's young stepmother Missy divorces his father in favor of Ted's, who threatens Ted with military school should they fail the Battle of the Bands. Evil Bill and Evil Ted arrive and the robots eventually replace Bill and Ted, killing them by throwing the two over the side of a cliff at Vasquez Rocks. The robots behave rudely to the princesses and work to ruin the duo's fame. Bill and Ted's souls are met by Death who challenges them in a game for their souls. Bill and Ted escape after giving Death a "melvin". They attempt to alert their families but their ethereal forms prove difficult, and at one point, are cast down into Hell at a séance held by Missy. In Hell, they are tormented by Satan, made to face their own fears, manifesting as Col Oates, the Easter Bunny, and Granny S. Preston, and realize their only escape is to take Death's offer. Taken to Death's chambers, the spirit gives them the option of what game to play. Bill and Ted, to Death's dismay, select modern games like Battleship, Clue, and Twister, easily beating Death. Death admits defeat and unwillingly becomes their servant. Bill and Ted recognize they need to locate the smartest person in the universe to help build robots to counter De Nomolos' evil robots. Death escorts the two to Heaven, and with God's help, are directed to an alien named Station who has the ability to split into two identical twins, and readily offers to help Bill and Ted. Death brings them back to Earth in the mortal world, where it is the night of the Battle of the Bands. Bill and Ted take Station to a hardware store, and then race in their van back to the concert while Station constructs good robots. Just as the evil robots take the stage, Bill and Ted arrive, and Station's robots easily defeat the evil ones. Just then, De Nomolos appears in the time booth, ready to defeat Bill and Ted himself, and overrides the broadcasting equipment to send the video footage of this to everyone on the planet. The two recognize they can later go back in time to arrange events for De Nomolos to be trapped in the present, aided by Death and Station; though De Nomolos is apparently able to do the same, Bill and Ted gain the upper hand with the explanation that it is only the winners who get to go back, and De Nomolos is arrested by Ted's father. Ms. Wardroe reveals herself to be a disguised Rufus, having assured Bill and Ted's spot in the concert, and urges them to play. As Bill and Ted reunite with their fiancées, they realize they are still terrible musicians, and the four use the time booth to travel through time to practice. Although they return immediately after less then a minute, Bill and Ted claim that "an intense 16 months of guitar training, plus a two week honeymoon" have passed for them. They have married the princesses and each is raising a young infant "Little Ted" and "Little Bill". They begin to perform a stunning rock ballad, joined by Death, Station, and the good robots. The worldwide broadcast set by De Nomolos continues, and Wyld Stallyns' music is played across the globe, creating harmony. Over the end credits, it's shown through newspaper articles that the band, along with Death, go through many perks of fame before eventually taking their act to the planet Mars.

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Summary Bill and Ted are killed by their evil twins -- robot agents from the future -- and find themselves transported to the fiery depths below. They gamble with the Grim Reaper and end up traveling through heaven to find a great scientist to help them blow their evil twins to smithereens. (MGM)

Directed By : Peter Hewitt

Written By : Chris Matheson, Ed Solomon

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Bill & ted's bogus journey, common sense media reviewers.

Slackers meet Satan in not-quite-so-excellent adventure.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Some stereotypes upheld, but at the heart of Bill

Bill and Ted may fit the "slacker" stereotype, but

Some gnarly robot behavior, including pulling skin

Lewd reference to being excited when a character s

Occasional language including "s--thead," "hell,"

Pepsi and Lite Beer cans and signage. Mountain Dew

Bill drinks from a can of Miller Lite before propo

Parents need to know that Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey is the 1991 sequel to the better-known Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure . In this installment, evil robot versions of Bill and Ted are sent from the distant future to kill the real Bill and Ted before they have the chance to shape a positive…

Positive Messages

Some stereotypes upheld, but at the heart of Bill and Ted is the message to "be excellent to each other."

Positive Role Models

Bill and Ted may fit the "slacker" stereotype, but they've got their hearts in the right place, and they're decent guys. Death is a patient, scythe-wielding character who actually becomes kind of a lovable sidekick. The evil androids, who are trying to kill Bill and Ted, are malevolent and sexist. Women are largely seen as little more than "babes"/ trophies.

Violence & Scariness

Some gnarly robot behavior, including pulling skin apart to expose robot parts hidden underneath. Punching. A perilous fall that kills two main characters (who later come back as ghosts). Bill and Ted's princess girlfriends hang from the rafters of the arena where the Battle of the Bands takes place, on the verge of falling to their deaths. Androids try to force sex on teenage girls, demanding that they "put out," but are unsuccessful. Death is a key character in the story.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Lewd reference to being excited when a character sees a photo of a female. As ghosts, Bill and Ted look down the dress of a woman and gawk at her breasts. Passionate kissing after marriage proposals.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Occasional language including "s--thead," "hell," "damn," "p--sweeds," "d--k," and variations of "d--k." Ted calls the Devil a "f-g." Evil robot Bill and Ted call the real Bill and Ted "f-gs." Middle finger gesture.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Pepsi and Lite Beer cans and signage. Mountain Dew cans, and the brand sponsors the Battle of the Bands, along with Reebok. Doritos bags clearly shown in the mess of Bill and Ted's apartment. Just like the original, strange things are afoot in scenes set in a Circle K parking lot.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Bill drinks from a can of Miller Lite before proposing to his girlfriend. Cigarette smoking in one scene. Cigar smoking in one scene.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey is the 1991 sequel to the better-known Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure . In this installment, evil robot versions of Bill and Ted are sent from the distant future to kill the real Bill and Ted before they have the chance to shape a positive destiny for humankind and the planet. While much of the dumb slacker humor holds up, some of it has not, including two instances of a homophobic slur being used, and evil robot Ted using slang to express his sexual arousal while looking at a picture of one of the English princesses who are their girlfriends. Expect some profanity, including "s--thead," and "d--k." Some sexualized female stereotypes. Drinking and cigarette smoking in one scene, and cigar smoking in another. There's also a fair amount of product placement, particularly from Pepsi and Miller Lite, and in this sequel, the Circle K is also a place where "strange things are afoot." Much of the movie takes place in Hell, where the guys (played by Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves ) meet Satan and face their fears. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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• Parents say (5)
• Kids say (9)

Based on 5 parent reviews

Raunchier than the first one

Still funny, what's the story.

In BILL & TED'S BOGUS JOURNEY, Bill ( Alex Winter ) and Ted ( Keanu Reeves ) are two teenagers who like to hang out and shred on guitar. That is, until an evil dude from the future threatens to kill their Utopian dream by sending back in time two evil androids who look like Bill and Ted but are so ... not them. When the evil Bill and Ted push the real Bill and Ted to their deaths, the two ghosts have to travel through Hell in order to regain their mortality and win the rock music contest that their destinies rely on.

Is It Any Good?

As the sequel to Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure , this movie doesn't hold up to the first movie's fresh quality. Though there are some laugh-out-loud moments, Bill and Ted seem to be stumbling through the gates of Hell to get to the grand finale. Moreover, we don't get enough of George Carlin in this movie, whose character Rufus created a nice foil to the slacker pace in the first movie.

Perhaps, too, the airhead stereotype has been reprised so often that the 21st-century viewers can't appreciate how illuminating Reeve's' characterization of Ted was in the late '80s and early '90s. We now see echoes of this slacker character all the time, but his portrayal was one of the first to define a generation. Keeping that in mind, parents who grew up in the '80s might enjoy introducing their tweens to a little lighthearted fun care of the boys from San Dimas.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the "slacker" stereotype. What does that mean to you? Do you consider Bill and Ted to be slackers?

The "dudes" shred on guitar, and the "babes" are treated like prizes. Are those stereotypes ? If so, what message does that send to viewers?

Death -- AKA The Grim Reaper -- ends up being a pretty decent dude in this movie. How does playing down death and dying work as comedy? Where can it go wrong?

In two scenes, the guys use a homophobic slur. In many movies from the '80s and into the '90s, there are scenes in which gross stereotypes based on race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation are used for the sake of humor, as well as humor rooted in fat-shaming and ageism. Besides being lazy attempts at humor, how do these jokes perpetuate hurtful stereotypes? Why do you think these kinds of jokes were accepted in our culture for so long?

Movie Details

• In theaters : December 4, 1991
• On DVD or streaming : December 4, 2001
• Cast : Alex Winter , George Carlin , Keanu Reeves
• Director : Peter Hewitt
• Inclusion Information : Asian actors, Polynesian/Pacific Islander actors
• Studio : MGM/UA
• Genre : Comedy
• Topics : Adventures , Friendship
• Run time : 93 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• Last updated : November 10, 2023

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Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey Review

03 Jan 1992

Bill &#038; Ted&#8217;s Bogus Journey

One very satisfying aspect of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure was its refusal to redeem the pair, allowing them to depart as stupid as they arrived. Useful for a sequel too, as without any acquired wisdom Bill & Ted's dedicatedly dumb surfer cool (the characters' central joke) can remain impervious to accepted logic and the first film's lunatic humour need not be diminished.Bogus Journey begins with what was hinted at in Excellent Adventure - that in the future Bill & Ted culturally dominate the planet. (It presumes a more-than-working knowledge of the first film, and so wastes no time.) However, the wicked DeNomolus is about to travel back to 1990 (where Bill & Ted have left school and dream of stardom with their awful heavy metal band), kill the guys and replace them with looklike, thoroughly nasty androids, "the evil robot usses". While this creates confusion in town, Bill & Ted appear to be breezing through the hereafter: they, literally, gamble with death and beat the Grim Reaper at parlour games like Twister and Cluedo; hang out in Hell ("Just like an Iron Maiden album cover"); visit Heaven to get help in making their own androids ("the good robot usses"); and return to "save the babes". All with the same idiot expressions of perplexed optimism and still unable to play their guitars.Every bit as acutely observed as its predecessor - all sorts of verbal asides and background visual gags supplement the free-flowing main jokes, Winter & Reeves (Bill & Ted) achieve new levels as teenage morons and the supporting cast (notably Sadler as the foppish Grim Reaper) play out the ridiculousness with the dryest of Pythonesque straight faces.

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• Contributors

Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey Blu-ray Review: A Delightfully Goofy Sequel

The 26th Century utopia based on the music of Wyld Stallyns is threatened when Rufus’s (George Carlin) former teacher, the villainous De Nomolos (Joss Ackland), sends look-alike robots back to the past to kill Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) after the events of their Excellent Adventure , and alter the future.

Rather than simply repeating the story from the original film, returning screenwriters Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon offer audiences something different with this sequel. Instead of more time-traveling silliness, Bill and Ted have a metaphysical adventure as the robots are successful in killing them early on. The robots disrupt our heroes’ lives while their souls are left to try and save the day with help from Death (William Sadler), whom they initially escape by giving him a “melvin” and defeating him at a game in a nod to Bergman’s The Seventh Seal . And because that’s not weird enough, there are martians.

After unsuccessfully trying to communicate with Ted’s dad (Hal Landon Jr. in a hysterical scene where he acts and speaks like Ted), Missy (Amy Stock-Poynton), who is now Bill’s ex-step mom and Ted’s current step mom, sends them to Hell during a séance. Getting equal time, they also go to Heaven, before returning to San Dimas to battle their counterparts and other bands. (Keep an eye out for a quick cameo by Primus.) How the timeline proceeds is very funny and plays out during the closing credits.

Previously available from Shout Factory in Bill & Ted’s Most Excellent Collection , the sequel Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey is now a stand-alone release in a limited edition steelbook.

The video has a 1080p/MPEG-4 AVC encoded transfer are displayed at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The colors are strong, from natural hues to bright day-go neon costumes of the future that pop off the screen. Blacks are inky and whites are bright, contributing to a strong contrast. Fine texture details can be seen on objects.

Film grain and occasional dirt are evident. Also evident is the artificialness of some of the CGI effects. The audio is available in DTS-HD MA 5.1. Dialogue is clear. Effects are well placed around the soundscape. David Newman’s score also fills the speakers as do the rock sounds on the soundtrack. The track has a good dynamic range, and the bass supports the music and effects well.

Bonus features from 2016 include

• Audio Commentary with actor Alex Winter and producer Scott Kroopf
• Audio Commentary with writers Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon
• “Bill & Ted Go To Hell (HD, 52 min) – Revisiting A Bogus Journey” actors Alex Winter, Keanu Reeves, and William Sadler; producer Scott Kroopf; production designer David L. Snyder; composer David Newman; and others discuss the making of the film.
• Theatrical Trailer

Bogus Journey is a delightfully goofy comedy that succeeds in large part because of the two lead performers, who infuse a sweet charm at the core of their dim-witted characters. Fans should be delighted to see the boys back for another adventure, but if one didn’t like their first outing, not sure this sequel will be any more appealing. The Shout Factory Blu-ray delivers a pleasing high-def experience that makes this journey worth taking.

Gordon S. Miller

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Home > Films > B > Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey

Saturday April 13th 2024

Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey | 1991

• Locations |
• Los Angeles , California
• Peter Hewitt
• Keanu Reeves,
• Alex Winter,
• William Sadler,
• Joss Ackland,
• George Carlin,

Originally intended to be Bill and Ted Go to Hell , this time ‘San Dimas’ really is in California – but all the fun seems to have been left behind in Arizona .

The locale becomes a real Los Angeles suburb, Northridge in the San Fernando Valley.

The spectacular landscape where B&T give Death ( William Sadler ) a melvin is Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park , 10700 West Escondido Canyon Road , near Agua Dulce Springs , southern California . The photogenic rock formations can also be seen in plenty of films, including The Flintstones and the 2009 reboot of Star Trek .

The ‘Bill and Ted University’ campus is the Japanese Garden , 6100 Woodley Avenue , in Van Nuys , north of LA in the San Fernando Valley. Part of the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant , it’s another screen favourite, appearing in Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery , Rising Sun and Memoirs Of A Geisha .

‘San Dimas Civic Auditorium’, where the good Bill and Ted finally see off the evil Bill and Ted at the Battle of the Bands, is Santa Monica Civic Auditorium , 1855 Main Street in Santa Monica .

Visit The Film Locations

California | los angeles.

Visit: California

Visit: Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park , 10700 Escondido Canyon Road, Santa Clarita, CA 91390 ( tel: 661.268.0840 )

Visit: Los Angeles

Flights: Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) , 1 World Way, Los Angeles, CA 90045 ( tel: 424.646.5252 )

Travelling around: Los Angeles Metro

Visit: the Japanese Garden , Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area, 6100 Woodley Avenue, Van Nuys, CA 91406 ( tel: 818.756.8166 )

Visit: is Santa Monica Civic Auditorium , 1855 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90401 ( tel: 310.458.8551 )

• Entertainment

4 Highly Plausible 'Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey' Theories You Need to Hear

Published on 1/13/2016 at 12:17 PM

Panned by critics as a bid to ride Back to the Future 's coattails, 1989's Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure quadrupled its $10 million budget at the box office and inspired kids nationwide to pepper every conversation with non-sequitur air-guitar riffage. It also spawned a 1991 sequel that's unjustly regarded as inferior.

Usually, when a zany concept clicks with the mainstream and becomes a million-dollar franchise, movie studios tend to dial back the idiosyncrasies to broaden the appeal. But Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey is in no way less weird than Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure . In fact, Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter's second spin through space and time is actually kind of fucked up. And, if you look hard enough, it's full of hidden meaning.

Remembering Bogus Journey

The sequel begins with Bill and Ted's mentor and 27th-century scholar Rufus (the mighty George Carlin) learning of a plot by fascist cult leader De Nomolos (a reluctant Joss Ackland) to send robot duplicates of our heroes back in time to slay and smear their originals. Sure. Why not? Rufus resides in a utopian society founded on the music of Wyld Stallyns, a band Bill and Ted (referred to as "the Two Great Ones," in Rufus' world) have barely gotten off the ground in the early '90s. De Nomolos figures, that with the Two Great Ones dispatched, disgraced, and erased from the timeline, the trajectory of humanity shall shift toward his totalitaristic ideal vision.

And his 'bots succeed. Easily. Within the first 20 minutes of Bogus Journey , the good guys die. Evil wins. After that logical endpoint, Bill and Ted's disembodied souls briefly evade the Grim Reaper (William Sadler), wind up in hell anyway, win the Reaper's companionship after defeating him in Twister, meet God, befriend a pair of martian scientists collectively known as Station, then rise from the dead. A happy ending ensues, but the questions only begin...

Is Bogus Journey secretly a fundamentalist Christian movie?

Bill and Ted must be executed and resurrected before embracing their destinies as the saviors of mankind, but that's just the tip of the pseudo-subliminal bible thumping in Bogus Journey . Early on, our heroic duo mention that their medieval princess girlfriends of three years have yet to spend a night at their apartment, implying that all four have agreed to suppress their carnal urges until marriage, just like Mike Seaver on Growing Pains .

The allusions become more direct. A haywire seance inadvertently sends Bill and Ted's souls to hell. A warning against occultism? Before Bill and Ted's robot doppelgangers toss them off a cliff, they restrain their foes and unleash some casual hate speech, as if demonstrating Leviticus 20:13. And most egregiously of all, Bogus Journey 's heaven is inhabited by zero dogs and cats. This falls in step with the shit-head doctrine that animals don't have souls, as decreed by the creature who taught my CYO classes.

Are Bill and Ted immortal?

The New Testament isn't the only fictional saga that parallels Bogus Journey . De Nomolos' scheme mirrors that of Skynet in Terminator , except he programs Evil Robot Bill and Evil Robot Ted to sabotage the genuine articles' careers and romances once they're out of the way.

Robo-Schwarzenegger would call De Nomolos' plan redundant. Why doesn't he expect his preferred version of the future to unfold the instant Bill and Ted cease to exist? Why do the Evil Robots need to take over Bill and Ted's lives, brutalize Princess Joanna and Princess Elizabeth, then deliberately botch the battle of the bands Wyld Stallyns are supposed to win? Why bother with Evil Robot duplicates at all? Why wouldn't Nomolos simply go back in time himself and decorate a wall with Bill and Ted's grey matter? Because Bill and Ted are immune to the natural order of space-time.

Tellingly, when the authentic Bill and Ted arrive at the San Dimas Battle of the Bands, the movie's grand finale, their cybernetic counterparts do not appear the slightest bit surprised to see their recent murder victims galavanting about without a scratch on 'em. Neither does De Nomolos, when he drops into the scene shortly thereafter. Everyone is in on a fact that is never conveyed to the audience. Bill and Ted are immortal.

Is Rufus a Machiavellian manipulator of history?

Bootstrap paradoxes abound throughout the two Bill & Ted films. If Rufus hadn't gone back to prevent the Two Great Ones from flunking history class in Excellent Adventure , Wyld Stallyns would not have formed, and the utopian future Rufus originates from would never come to be. Meaning, the civilization Rufus acts to preserve wasn't created by Wyld Stallyns, but by Rufus himself, probably working in conjunction with the shadowy cabal that briefly appeared at Excellent Adventure 's onset.

The time-space continuum takes even harsher blows in Bogus Journey . After Rufus follows Evil Robot Bill and Ted to 1991, he disguises himself as, and replaces, Ms. Wardroe (Pam Grier), head promoter of the San Dimas Battle of the Bands. The status of the real Ms. Wardroe is never mentioned or explained. No assurances of her safety or well-being are ever provided.

As Wardroe, Rufus grants Wyld Stallyns an undeserved slot in her "prestigious" competition, once again playing an essential role in creating the future he comes from. During that same conversation, he neglects to reveal his true identity, or warn Bill and Ted about their homicidal robot duplicates whom he encountered (in his personal timestream) hours earlier. He also doesn't bother giving Princess Elizabeth or Joanna a heads up that androids bearing a precise likeness to their boyfriends might very well be planning to kidnap and/or torture them.   

Evil Robot Bill and Ted only get to kill Bill and Ted because Rufus lets it happen.

Now, if Bill and Ted's demise and return was required for them to become the Two Great Ones, perhaps Rufus' inaction was morally justifiable. But he had no reason to let the princesses suffer, and we don't know for sure that he didn't murder Pam Grier. So, yeah, Rufus is evil.

What happened to Deacon?

Deacon Logan -- Ted's little brother, played by Frazier Bain -- enjoys a good chunk of screentime in Excellent Adventure , even if he adds little to the story apart from facilitating Napoleon's amusing-but-pointless trip to the Waterloo amusement park. Since Bogus Journey takes place three years after the original, Deacon could very well be attending college out of state. Assuming Captain Logan is a divorcee and not a widower, maybe Deacon's staying with Ted's biological mother. Maybe he joined the Peace Corps. There are multiple perfectly benign and plausible explanations for Deacon's almost complete absence in Bogus Journey .

But no one talks about him. For the most part, Deacon might as well have been shuffled off to the same Negative Zone occupied by Chuck Cunningham and Mandy Hampton.

Except for the single time he's mentioned during Ted's brief sojourn through the realm of eternal damnation. In one of the unpleasant scenarios for Ted to repeat in perpetuity should he remain in hell, an incensed Easter bunny guilt trips him for stealing and consuming the contents of his brother's Easter basket 10 years prior.

Now, why would a childhood transgression involving ill-gotten candy rank among Ted's most painful memories or greatest shames? He didn't even like Deacon. Now, for no reason we know of, he feels guilty about depriving his suddenly absentee sibling of a few Cadbury eggs? The fact that his immediate family members won't even say his name unless supernatural forces subject them to an introspective nightmare strongly implies that something bad happened to Deacon. And the entire Logan clan, especially Ted, was traumatized as a result.

Perhaps Ted stepped on a butterfly during one of his romps through history, and caused a ripple effect that altered future events and prevented Deacon from being born? That would explain Ted's feeling of responsibility, and account for why no one ever questions his brother's whereabouts. Deacon never existed.

That, or Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey isn't the most well thought-out movie ever made. It's still fun to watch, though!

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Barry Thompson writes pop culture and music things. His work has appeared in  The Boston Phoenix , Esquire.com,  Paste Magazine , and several other online and print publications. He lives under a bridge in Allston, MA, with a cat. Follow him:  @barelytomson .

Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991)

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Amiable slackers Bill and Ted are once again roped into a fantastical adventure when De Nomolos, a villain from the future, sends evil robot duplicates of the two lads to terminate and replace them. The robot doubles actually succeed in killing Bill and Ted, but the two are determined to escape the afterlife, challenging the Grim Reaper to a series of games in order to return to the land of the living.

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Streaming Charts The JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts are calculated by user activity within the last 24 hours. This includes clicking on a streaming offer, adding a title to a watchlist, and marking a title as 'seen'. This includes data from ~1.3 million movie & TV show fans per day.

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I Just Rewatched Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure For The First Time In Years, And It Led To Me Falling Down A Time Travel Rabbit Hole

Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure is still excellent, but I am still trying to figure out how the time travel makes any sense.

I still remember going to a movie theater with my friends when I was 11 years old and seeing one of the best '80s movies , Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure , for the first time. I didn’t even want to see it, thinking I was too smart for the comedy about a couple of dumb guys. However, I was talked into it and ended up loving the movie. I few years later, I would reunite with the same friends to see Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey , and they were very much in my thoughts when I fell in love with Bill and Ted Face the Music so many years later.

Yet while I love the whole trilogy, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure is still the best movie in the franchise , though it had been quite some time since I had actually seen it. I watched it so often as a kid I still know it by heart, but in sitting down to go through it again for a piece I was writing, I found myself being sucked in by the absolutely ridiculous time travel mechanics of the story and asking questions I'd never asked before. In many ways, the time travel is brilliant, and I know the movie is a comedy that isn’t meant to be taken too seriously. At the same time, I have some serious questions about how it all works that I can’t get out of my head.

Bill And Ted’s Timeline Is A Recursive Loop, But It Had To Start Somewhere

The premise of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, for all its time travel nonsense, is simple. Bill and Ted are destined to change the world, and so the future that depends on them sends George Carlin’s Rufus, the true hero of the movie , back in time to ensure the duo is not broken up due to a failing history grade, which sends Keanu Reees’ Ted off to military school, destroying their band before it has a chance to make the world a better place.

But then, how does that work exactly? The future where Bill and Ted have united the world already exists, which indicates the pair did not split up, but if time travel intervention is necessary to prevent the split, how did the future that works to prevent it come about in the first place? It’s a paradox of predestination, and it just doesn’t work.

Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey tells us that changing the past is at least theoretically possible. That’s what Joss Ackland's villain attempts to do, trying to kill Bill and Ted before they form their band, but there’s no indication in Excellent Adventure that anything has gone wrong in the past that requires Rufus’ intervention to fix. The implication is that Bill and Ted will naturally fail their history report if time travel doesn’t help them, which would mean that the future that helps them never comes to pass, right? Why is my nose bleeding?

How Does The “Clock In San Dimas” Keep Moving Forward If They Can Go Back In Time In The Future To Change The Present/Past

One of the key plot items in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure is a ticking clock. It's a frequently used drama element, but it doesn't work here. Rufus explains to them that even though they have a time machine, it is still possible for them to miss their history report if they are not back in time to give it because their timeline continues marching forward while they are in the past. Ted is supposed to wind his watch, which he forgets to do, and the pair nearly miss the report. This makes zero sense.

Bill and Ted can travel into their own past, as they do, accidentally traveling to the night before their report where they meet themselves. While we never see it, we know they travel into their past again after their report is done to set up the Rube Goldberg series of events that allow them to break the historical figures out of jail. If they can go back in time and deliver a set of keys, why can’t they go back in time to give their history report?

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Interacting with themselves in the past doesn’t cause any sort of paradox, as it does in other time travel stories. Even if there is a constantly-changing present moment for Bill and Ted that they are missing by not being around, they can just travel into the “past” by arriving there as they already do in the film. What was to stop them from, instead of time jumping to the next day, simply taking the historical figures home from the Circle K in their "past" and simply waiting for the next day? At least if they had done that it would explain how they had time to create a multi-person choreographed stage show with music and lights.

What’s the difference between going into the past to drop a set of keys and set up a tape recorder, and going to the past to give a history report? As long as the pair do go back and give the report, it shouldn’t matter when, from their perspective, they do it.

How Does Ted Know Rufus’ Name?

In the grand scheme of things, this last issue is a minor one, but it’s a smaller version of the same infinite loop problem that plagues the rest of the movie. George Carlin’s Rufus never introduces himself, and yet, Bill and Ted learn his name, when it is given to them… by Bill and Ted.

It’s called the bootstrap paradox, and it’s a problem because the information, Rufus’ name, has no clear origin. How did “future” Bill and Ted learn Rufus’ name? They got it from the future when they were “present” Bill and Ted, and the information continues to be passed forever in the loop, but it still doesn’t explain where it came from.

The ultimate answer to these questions is obviously “Who cares? It’s a funny movie.” If anything, the fact that the time travel doesn't work is a feature, not a bug. It's part of the comedy. Nobody other than me is being kept up at night trying to figure out how the time travel in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure is supposed to work . Still, now that I’ve had these thoughts, I’m probably going to have them every time I watch the movie from now on.

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.

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