the adventures of buckaroo banzai across the 8th dimension

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Acrossthe 8th Dimension

Theatrical release poster

Directed by W. D. Richter

Produced by W. D. RichterNeil Canton

Written by Earl Mac Rauch

Starring Peter WellerEllen BarkinJohn LithgowJeff GoldblumChristopher Lloyd

Music by Michael Boddicker

Cinematography Fred J. KoenekampJordan Cronenweth(uncredited)

Edited by George BowersRichard Marks

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the8th DimensionFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8thDimension!, often shortened to Buckaroo Banzai, isa 1984 American science fiction film. It was directedand produced by W. D. Richter, and concerns theefforts of the multi-talented Dr. Buckaroo Banzai, aphysicist, neurosurgeon, test pilot, and rockmusician, to save the world by defeating a band ofinter-dimensional aliens called Red Lectroids fromPlanet 10. The film is a cross between theaction/adventure and sci-fi film genres and alsoincludes elements of comedy, satire, and romance.[3]

Contents

1 Plot2 Cast

2.1 The Hong Kong Cavaliers2.2 Lectroids2.3 Other characters

3 Production3.1 Development3.2 Screenplay3.3 Casting3.4 Pre-production3.5 Principal photography

4 Soundtrack5 Reaction

5.1 Critical reception5.2 Home media5.3 Legacy

6 Other versions7 Proposed sequels

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Buckaroo_Ba...

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Productioncompany

Sherwood Productions

Distributed by 20th Century Fox

Release dates August 15, 1984

Running time 102 minutes [1]

Country United States

Language English

Budget $17 million[2]

Box office $6,227,998

7.1 Buckaroo Banzai Against theWorld Crime League7.2 TV series

8 Other media8.1 Books8.2 Comics

8.2.1 Marvel Comics8.2.2 Moonstone Books

8.3 Video game9 See also10 References11 External links

PlotBanzai prepares to test his Jet Car, a modified Ford F-350 pickup truck powered by a jet engine andcapable of exceeding Mach 1. The car is also equipped with a secret device called an "oscillationoverthruster", which Banzai and his associates hope will allow it to drive through solid matter. The testis a success: Banzai stuns onlookers by driving the Jet Car directly through a mountain. Emerging on theother side, Banzai finds that an alien organism has attached itself to the undercarriage.

Hearing of Banzai's success, physicist Dr. Emilio Lizardo breaks out of the Trenton Home for theCriminally Insane, after being held there for 50 years. A flashback shows Banzai's mentor, Dr. Hikita,was present at Lizardo's failed overthruster experiment in 1938. Crashing half through the target wall,Lizardo had been briefly trapped in the 8th dimension where his mind was taken over by Lord JohnWhorfin.

Whorfin is the leader of the Red Lectroids, a race of alien reptiles who wage war against Planet 10. Afterbeing defeated by the less-aggressive Black Lectroids, Whorfin and his group were banished into the 8thdimension. Lizardo's failed experiment accidentally released Whorfin and he soon brings many of theRed Lectroids to Earth in an incident that was reported in 1938 by Orson Welles in his radio broadcastThe War of the Worlds, only to be forced by the aliens to retract it all as fiction.

The Red Lectroids now pose as employees of the defense contracting company named YoyodynePropulsion Systems. They have been working on building a large spacecraft under the guise of a UnitedStates Air Force program, the Truncheon bomber. They intend to rescue the remaining 8th dimensionexiles and take over Planet 10. They were unable to produce a working overthruster like Banzai's, soWhorfin plans to steal it. Banzai's team, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, finds out about Yoyodyne and hacksinto their computer. They discover that everyone there has the first name John, with various last namessuch as Yaya, Smallberries and Bigbooté. At first they believe it to be a joke, but then they notice all the


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Yoyodyne employees applied for Social Security cards on November 1, 1938 and all in the same town:Grover's Mill, New Jersey.

In the meantime, a Black Lectroid spacecraft orbiting Earth contacts Banzai, giving him an electricshock that enables him to see through Lectroids' camouflage. (Black Lectroids appear to be RastafarianJamaicans, while Red Lectroids appear to be Caucasians.) The ship also sends a "thermo-pod" to Earth,with a holographic message from the Black Lectroids' leader, John Emdall, explaining Lord Whorfin'smotives and giving an ultimatum: stop Whorfin and his army or else the Black Lectroids will protectthemselves by staging a fake nuclear attack, causing the start of World War III.

With help from the Black Lectroid messenger John Parker, Banzai and the Hong Kong Cavaliers, acollection of civilian volunteers named "The Blue Blaze Irregulars" and a young woman named PennyPriddy (a long-lost twin sister of Buckaroo's late wife), Buckaroo succeeds in his mission, destroying theRed Lectroids and saving Earth. The end credits announce an unproduced sequel Buckaroo BanzaiAgainst the World Crime League.

Cast

Peter Weller as Buckaroo Banzai, a modern-day renaissance man, top neurosurgeon, particlephysicist, race car driver, rock star and comic book hero. In the film, he is seen as amild-mannered hero whose latest experiments open the door to the 8th dimension and unwittinglystart an interstellar battle for the world.John Lithgow as Dr. Emilio Lizardo / Lord John WhorfinEllen Barkin as Penny PriddyRonald Lacey as President Widmark

The Hong Kong Cavaliers

The Hong Kong Cavaliers are the main assistants of Banzai in the film and bear some similarity to DocSavage's Fabulous Five. They reside at the Banzai Institute, a think-tank located in Holland Township,New Jersey. In addition to being multidisciplinary scientific experts in a variety of fields, they are alsoBuckaroo's rock and roll band. They are all referred to by code names or nicknames and, except for NewJersey, their actual names remain secret.

Clancy Brown as Rawhide, arguably Buckaroo's lieutenant. Plays piano. He appears to be killedby a Red Lectroid's poisoned barb, but the 'Pinky Carruthers' fact overlay feature on the DVDstates that he was put into suspended animation until they can find a cure.Pepe Serna as Reno Nevada, who plays saxophone. Reno is romantically involved with another ofBuckaroo's teammates, a woman named Pecos (referenced in a line of dialogue as being in Tibet,she appears in the novel, but not in the film).Lewis Smith as Perfect Tommy, who plays rhythm guitar, and is generally accepted to be perfect.


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He designed the Jet Car's suspension system, which allows it to hug the ground even at supersonicspeeds.Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Sidney Zweibel/New Jersey, a neurosurgeon and a colleague of Dr. Banzai'sfrom Columbia. He sings a little, dances and plays piano.Billy Vera as Pinky Carruthers, one of Buckaroo's Blue Blaze Irregulars. Plays bass guitar.

In addition to the Hong Kong Cavaliers, Banzai is assisted by a multi-talented network of supporters andfans. The Radar Rangers are an amateur radio enthusiast group that helps Buckaroo track major threats.The Blue Blaze Irregulars are people of all ages and from all walks of life who help in various ways. Theorganization includes assault teams in its structure. The Rug Suckers are a team of armed civilians whooperate a rug cleaning company, but are available to help Banzai when called upon.

Lectroids

Christopher Lloyd as John BigbootéRosalind Cash as John EmdallCarl Lumbly as John ParkerVincent Schiavelli as John O'ConnorDan Hedaya as John Gomez

Other characters

Robert Ito as Professor HikitaMatt Clark as Secretary of DefenseWilliam Traylor as General CatburdMariclare Costello as Senator CunninghamBill Henderson as Casper LindleyDamon Hines as Scooter LindleyLaura Harrington as Mrs. JohnsonYakov Smirnoff as National Security AdvisorJamie Lee Curtis and James Saito (deleted scenes) as Sandra and Masado Banzai

ProductionDevelopment

In 1974, W. D. Richter's wife read a review of Dirty Pictures from the Prom, the debut novel fromDartmouth College graduate and writer Earl Mac Rauch. Richter, also an alumnus from the college, readthe book, loved it and wrote Mac Rauch a letter.[4] The two men began corresponding and when the


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writer told him about his interest in becoming a screenwriter, Richter offered him an open-endedinvitation to visit him in Los Angeles where he was attending the University of Southern California[5]

and working as a script analyst for Warner Brothers.[6]

Screenplay

Years passed and Richter became a successful screenwriter. Mac Rauch took Richter up on his offer andarrived in L.A. Richter proceeded to introduce the writer to producer/director Irwin Winkler who gaveMac Rauch rent money for the next six months.[5] Over several dinners, Mac Rauch told Richter and hiswife about a character named Buckaroo Bandy that he was thinking of writing a screenplay about.Richter and his wife liked the idea and paid Mac Rauch $1,500 to develop and write it. According toMac Rauch, his script was inspired by "all those out-and-out, press-the-accelerator-to-the-floor, non-stopkung fu movies of the early '70s".[7] Richter remembers that Mac Rauch wrote several Banzai storiesand that he "would get thirty or forty pages into a script, abandon its storyline and write a new one".[4]

Mac Rauch recalled, "It's so easy to start something and then - since you're really not as serious about itas you should be - end up writing half of it ... You shove the hundred pages in a drawer and try to forgetabout it. Over the years, I started a dozen Buckaroo scripts that ended that way".[6]

Mac Rauch's original 30-page treatment was entitled Find the Jetcar, Said the President - A BuckarooBanzai Thriller.[6] Early on, one of the revisions Mac Rauch made was changing Buckaroo's surnamefrom Bandy to Banzai but he wasn't crazy about it. However, Richter convinced him to keep the name.[5]

The Hong Kong Cavaliers also appeared in these early drafts, but, according to Richter, "it never reallywent to a completed script. Mac wrote and wrote but never wrote the end".[5] Another early draft wasentitled The Strange Case of Mr. Cigars, about a huge robot and a box of Hitler's cigars.[6] Mac Rauchshelved his work for a few years while he wrote New York, New York for Martin Scorsese and otherun-produced screenplays.[6]

In 1980, Richter talked with producers Frank Marshall and Neil Canton about filming one of hisscreenplays.[8] Out of this meeting, Canton and Richter formed their own production company anddecided that Buckaroo Banzai would be the first film. Under their supervision, Mac Rauch wrote a60-page treatment entitled, Lepers from Saturn.[6] They shopped Mac Rauch's treatment around toproduction executives who were their peers but no one wanted to take on such unusual subject matter bytwo first-time producers and a first-time director. Canton and Richter contacted veteran producer SidneyBeckerman at MGM/United Artists who Canton had worked with before.[8] Beckerman liked it andintroduced Richter and Canton to studio chief David Begelmen. Within 24 hours they had a developmentdeal with the studio.[6] It took Mac Rauch a year and a half to write the final screenplay and during thistime, the Lepers from the treatment became Lizards and then Lectroids from Planet 10.[8] Much of thefilm's detailed character histories were taken from Mac Rauch's unfinished Banzai scripts.[9]

However, a Writers Guild of America strike forced the project to languish in development for more thana year. Begelmen left MGM because several of his projects had performed poorly at the box office. Thisput all of his future projects, Buckaroo Banzai included, in jeopardy.[6] Begelmen formed SherwoodProductions and exercised a buy-out option with MGM for the Banzai script. He took it to 20th CenturyFox who agreed to make it with a $12 million budget.[10] Mac Rauch ended up writing three more drafts


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before they had a shooting script.[7]

Casting

To cast the role of Buckaroo Banzai, Richter wanted an actor who "could both look heroic with greaseall over his face, and project the kind of intelligence you would associate with a neurosurgeon andinventor".[11] The studio wanted a recognizable movie star, but Richter and Canton wanted to cast arelatively unknown actor.[6] Richter looked in New York City because he assumed that an actor withexperience on stage and small films "would be able to completely interact with props".[11] He had beenimpressed by Peter Weller's performance in Shoot the Moon and met with him.[8] The actor was hesitant,at first, to take the role because he was unclear on the overall tone of the movie. "Would it be campy?Would it be a cartoon? Or would it be the sort of wacky, realistic film that would catch people sideways -and not be a cartoon", Weller remembers thinking.[6] Richter told him Banzai's story and convincedWeller to do the film. The actor says that he based his character on Elia Kazan, Jacques Cousteau, AlbertEinstein, Leonardo da Vinci, and Adam Ant.[8]

For the role of Dr. Emilio Lizardo, the studio wanted to cast an unknown actor, but Mac Rauch hadwritten the role with John Lithgow in mind. Like Weller, he was not sure about the character, but Richterconvinced him by "claiming what a real feast for an actor this wonderful Jekyll and Hyde characterwas", the actor said.[6] Lithgow told an interviewer, "I have had roles where I came very close to goingover the top. In Twilight Zone I almost went over the top several times. But this role is completely overthe top. It makes the role in Twilight Zone seem like a model of restraint. I do it in a wild, red fright wigand rotten false teeth with a thick Italian accent. It's wild."[12] For Lizardo's accent, Lithgow spent timewith an Italian tailor at MGM and recorded his voice. He changed his walk to that of an "old crab, andbecause my alien metabolism is supposed to be messed up".[8] Lithgow said of his character, "playingLizardo felt like playing the madman in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari".[8]

Ellen Barkin, who played the romantic interest "Penny Priddy", describes the film as "if Terry Southernhad written Star Wars. None of the characters are quite what they should be - just my kind of thing."[8]

Richter's only choice to play John Bigbooté was Christopher Lloyd. Richter first met Jeff Goldblum onInvasion of the Body Snatchers and wanted him to play New Jersey. The actor admired his writing andwas eager to work with the cast the director had assembled. Lewis Smith was asked to dye his hairblond. It took eight hours, and he saw it go from red to orange to fluorescent yellow to white.[8]

Clancy Brown said that his character is "very common sensical. He's the everyman of the film".[8]

Robert Ito was so determined to get the role of Dr. Hikita, that he disguised himself as an old man,designing his own makeup job to age himself 30 years.[8]

Pre-production

Production designer Michael Riva had worked with Richter before and spent two years working on thelook for Banzai before pre-production.[8] He and Richter studied all kinds of art and literature for thefilm's look, including medical journals, African magazines, and Russian history. The inspiration for thelook of the Lectroid masks came from Riva sporting a lobster on his nose. Richter based the Lectroids'


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alien form on a Canadian anthropologist's extrapolation of what dinosaurs might have evolved into ifthey had survived, but modified the concept because it would have required prosthetics that would haveimmobilized the actors.[13] Their makeup consisted of 12 separate pieces of latex appliances per alien.Each actor's makeup was unique, with casts taken of their faces.[13] Their outfits were influenced bycontemporary Russian lifestyles and they went with greens, blues and yellows because, according toRiva, they are "sick and anemic."[8] Richter wanted the Black Lectroids to have a "warrior-likedemeanor, but in an elegant, not fierce fashion".[13] Their costumes came from African tribal markings.For the Red Lectroids, Riva consulted Russian history to give them a "baggy-suited, Moscow bureaucratsort of image".[13] For Buckaroo's look, the costume designer had him wear a Gianni Versace sportsjacket and a Perry Ellis suit and tie. He also wears a recut Giorgio Armani fabric suit.[8]

Principal photography

By the time of filming, Richter had a 300-page book called The Essential Buckaroo[5] that consisted ofnotes and had every incomplete script Mac Rauch wrote over the years.[6] Principal photography beganduring the second week of September 1983 on locations in and around South Gate, an industrial suburbof L.A.[6] Buckaroo's neurosurgery scene with New Jersey was shot at the Lakeview Medical Center inthe San Fernando Valley.[8] The jet car sequences were shot in October on a dry lake north of the SanBernardino Mountains. The vehicle was designed and built by Riva, art director Stephen Dane andThrust Racing owners Jerry Segal and George Haddebeck. Segal started with a Ford F-350 truck,reinforced the frame assembly, added the front end from a Grand National stock car, borrowed airscoops from a DC-3, and a one-man cockpit modeled after a Messerschmitt fighter plane.[8] Under thehood, Segal modified the Ford engine with an oversized carburetor and nitrous oxide injectors. TheOscillation Overthruster was created by Riva and visual effects supervisor Michael Fink out of agyroscope to which a metal frame, wires, circuits, and tiny strobe lights were added.[8] The design wasthe basis for the Flux Capacitor in the 1985 film Back to the Future. The prop itself would ultimately bereused a number of times on various Star Trek episodes.

Cinematographer Jordan Cronenweth was initially hired as the film's director of photography but,halfway through production, producers replaced him with Fred J. Koenekamp.[14]

The Banzai Institute exteriors were shot in Rustic Canyon, Los Angeles, with the interiors filmed in anArt Deco house designed in 1931 by MGM art director Cedric Gibbons for his wife, Dolores del Río.[8]

Deserted rooms at Brentwood's V.A. hospital were used for Dr. Lizardo's room at the Trenton Home forthe Criminally Insane. Lizardo's 1938 laboratory was filmed at a deserted industrial site, Alpha Tubing.The set decorators rented a collection of 1930s electrical props originally used in the original BorisKarloff Frankenstein films.[8] The interiors of Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems were shot in the abandonedFirestone tire factory. The production rented warhead nosecones from Modern Props and had televisionsgoing all the time on the set. Wilmington's Department of Water and Power provided the location for Dr.Lizardo's shock tower and served as the Yoyodyne exterior.[8] Weller remembers that during the scenewhere his character is tortured by Dr. Lizardo, "I never laughed so hard in my life! They had to stoptakes over and over on that segment because I was laughing at the banter between [Christopher] Lloydand [John] Lithgow."[15] The Armco Steel Plant in Torrance housed the Lectroid launch hangar. Finally,


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12 weeks of filming were done on the backlot and soundstages at MGM.[8]

Richter and Riva did not want metal spaceships and opted for a more organic look like a deep sea oystershell.[8] Gregory Jein, Inc. and Stetson Visual Concepts built the spaceship models and worked offsketches by production illustrator Tom Cranham and used seashells as guides.[8] Richter purposely gavethe film an unpolished look because the "real world appears ramshackle—because people constantlyrepair whatever's around them".[16]

SoundtrackThe film's music coordinator and sound designer Bones Howe worked with musician MichaelBoddicker, who wrote and performed the score, on the theme music and sound effects.[8] Howe selectedthe source music for the club scene and put together a special arrangement of "Since I Don't Have You"that Buckaroo sings to Penny Priddy. Weller, an accomplished musician, played the guitar and pockettrumpet, did his own vocals, and learned to mime piano playing. Howe and the filmmakers decided notto go with a rock music score and opted for an electronic one instead. He wanted to "integrate music andsound effects so that everything would merge on the soundtrack with no distinction between music andsound".[8] Boddicker was Howe's first choice for composer. They had worked together on the soundtrackfor Get Crazy. Boddicker had just won a Grammy for his song, "Imagination", on the Flashdancesoundtrack. In addition to composing the score, he also produced alien sound effects while AlanHowarth was hired to create the sounds of the 8th Dimension.[8]

ReactionFox hired Terry Erdmann (Blue Blaze code name "Silver Fox") and a team of publicists including BlakeMitchell and Jim Ferguson to promote the film at Star Trek conventions with a few film clips and freeBanzai headbands, which have since become highly-sought-after collector's items by fans of the film.[6]

The studio made no attempts to sell the film to a mainstream audience with traditional promotion,although there was some magazine advertising (primarily in Marvel Comics) and related licensing whichserved as viral advertising in limited venues. Studio publicist Rosemary LaSalmandra said, "Nobodyknew what to do with Buckaroo Banzai. There was no simple way to tell anyone what it was about—I'mnot sure anybody knew".[6] Lithgow said, "I've tried to explain the story line to people and it takes aboutan hour. I mean it; it's that complicated. But it's terrific. Every time I tell people about it, I get so excitedthat I end it by saying, Buckaroo Banzai, remember where you heard it first!"[12]

Buckaroo Banzai was originally scheduled to be released on June 8, 1984 but was pushed back toAugust 15. It opened on 236 screens and faced stiff competition against the likes of Star Trek III: TheSearch for Spock (also featuring Banzai co-star Christopher Lloyd), Indiana Jones and the Temple ofDoom and Ghostbusters. It made USD $620,279 on its opening weekend before finally grossing $6.2million in North America.[17]

Critical reception

The film was given mixed to positive reviews and based on reviews from 34 critics has a 71% "fresh"


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rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Bill Cosford of The Miami Herald praised it as "an unusual film": "Itscomedy springs from that odd combination of self-effacement and self-absorption that characterizedsome of the Saturday Night Live characters and continues to provide Bill Murray with work. And thoughBuckaroo Banzai is basically a comic strip, it's also relentlessly hip, hipper even than it is goofy."Cosford added, "There are inside jokes and 'quotations' from movies, television and pop music, andthere's lots of weird activity on the edges of the film, so much that I suspect Banzai might even berewarding the second time around. First or second, the film defies easy explanation. But it's anarchiccomedy for the 1980s, closest in spirit to the Marx Brothers as they might have been if they grown up onthemselves, and had had the benefit of post-Star Wars special effects. It's also adventure in the BuckRogers mold, the aliens employing a wide array of weaponry, including Arachnids From Space, thegood guys fighting back from a mobile command post aboard the Cavaliers' doubledecker tour bus. Thepace of both jokes and action is that of Airplane!, and to say much more is only to spoil the fun."[18]

Dave Kehr, in the Chicago Reader, wrote, "Richter seems to have invented an elaborate mythology forhis hero ... but he never bothers to explicate it; the film gives you the mildly annoying sensation of beingleft out of a not very good private joke".[19] In his review for the New York Times, Vincent Canby wrotethat Buckaroo Banzai "may well turn out to be a pilot film for other theatrical features, though this onewould be hard to top for pure, nutty fun".[20] Richard Corliss, in his review for Time, wrote, "its creators,Earl Mac Rauch and W.D. Richter, propel their film with such pace and farfetched style that anyonewithout Ph.D.s in astrophysics and pop culture is likely to get lost in the ganglion of story strands. Onewonders if the movie is too ambitious, facetious and hip for its own box-office good".[21] Film criticPauline Kael wrote, "I didn't find it hard to accept the uninflected, deadpan tone, and to enjoy BuckarooBanzai for its inventiveness and the gags that bounce off other adventure movies, other comedies. Thepicture's sense of fun carried me along".[22]

Danny Bowes, writing a retrospective in 2011 for Tor.com, said that the film "is paradoxically decadesahead of its time and yet completely of its time; it's profoundly a movie by, for, and of geeks and nerds ata time before geek/nerd culture was mainstreamed, and a movie whose pre-CG special effects andpre-Computer Age production design were an essential part of its good-natured enthusiasm. What at thetime was a hip, modern take on classic SF is now, almost thirty years later, almost indistinguishable fromthe SF cinema that inspired it in terms of the appeal to modern viewers: the charmingly old-fashionedspecial effects, and the comparatively innocent earnestness of its tone."[23]

Home media

Buckaroo Banzai was released on DVD on January 4, 2002. Entertainment Weekly gave the release a"B+" rating and wrote, "Fans will drool over the extras, including some illuminating deleted scenes (ofparticular note is an alternate opening detailing Buckaroo's tragic childhood, featuring Jamie Lee Curtisas Banzai's mother) and director Richter's commentary, which reveals some colorful behind-the-scenesbattles with studio execs".[24] IGN gave the DVD their highest rating and was "thrilled by the specialedition treatment that this landmark cult film has received at the hands of MGM. The video is great, thesound is great, there are tons of extras ... Bottom line, if you're a Buckaroo fan, this is the home videoversion you have been waiting for".[25]

Legacy


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Buckaroo Banzai has since attracted a loyal cult following and has been quite popular on homevideo.[26] Richter said, "It has had the most dramatic reactions of anything I've worked on. Some loatheit and others are willing to die for it".[26] The director feels that the film failed commercially because thenarrative was too complex. He would like to have had more coverage for certain scenes. He could haveedited the film better and there were too many master shots and two-shots that left little for the editor towork with.[26]

Wired Magazine, in 2009, celebrated "the 25th anniversary of the release of a film near and dear to manygeeks who came of age in the '80s. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension was agreat, adventurous, geeky movie, with enough silly science fiction and great characters to fill any threelousy summer blockbusters these days... And it gave us so many great, geeky lines to quote."[27] Cosfordof The Miami Herald said in his review, "I suspect that Buckaroo's odd musings, particularly the oneabout being there no matter where you go, are about to enter the popular argot on the scale of "Where'sthe beef?"[18]—and his prediction has been proved right.[27][28][29][30][31][32] (There is a page atCafePress for Buckaroo Banzai Quotes Gifts, for example.) Entertainment Weekly ranked BuckarooBanzai as #43 in their Top 50 Cult Movies.[33] The film was also ranked #21 on the magazine's "TheCult 25: The Essential Left-Field Movie Hits Since '83" list.[34] The Guardian has also cited BuckarooBanzai as one of their "1,000 films to see before you die".[35]

The current incarnation of the comic strip Dick Tracy has seen two subtle references to the film in thestoryline. In a strip dated October 22, 2013, there is a reference to a business named "Emilio LizardoCrematorium".[36] In a strip dated November 7, 2013, Dick Tracy's granddaughter Honeymoon tells himshe will be attending a Hong Kong Cavaliers concert with the hope of getting Perfect Tommy'sautograph.[37]

Filmmaker Wes Anderson pays homage to the ending of Buckaroo Banzai in the final sequence of his2004 film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. In both scenes, members of the cast join one-by-one in acontinuous walking shot. The Buckaroo Banzai version was shot in the concrete LA River bed.

Other versionsA substantially longer print was shown in test screening in Texas and in Washington State before generalrelease, but the "restored" DVD print is still missing much of the test print material.

The DVD restores a deleted opening scene consisting of a "home movie" from Banzai's childhood,narrated by Clancy Brown, who plays the character Rawhide. The scene depicts an early test of aprecursor to the Jet Car, built by Buckaroo's parents and Dr. Hikita. The test ends in disaster, as the JetCar 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 thelatter-day Jet Car. Jamie Lee Curtis plays Buckaroo Banzai's mother, Sandra Banzai.

The novelization by Mac Rauch is told through fake documents written and compiled by Reno Nevadaand further expands on the backstory of the film, including the murder of Peggy Banzai (her twin sisterPenny plays a role in the movie) by the minions of Asian crime lord Hanoi Xan, the deaths ofBuckaroo's parents in an early Jet Car accident and at least two other fictitious novels.


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The 102-minute version released on DVD in January 2002 has a subtitle track with director'scommentary-style information and a fake documents feature. The packaging and literature with theDVD maintain a mythos that Buckaroo Banzai is a real person, that the Banzai Institute exists and thatthe movie is in fact a docu-drama of the real adventures of Buckaroo Banzai. The producers makeclaims such as having had brief tours of the Banzai Institute, having met and interviewed severalmembers of the Hong Kong Cavaliers and that the script required approval from the Institute.

Proposed sequelsBuckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League

The credits mention a sequel, Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League, which was neverproduced: the film would have focused on the League and its leader, Hanoi Xan. MGM now owns therights to the Banzai franchise (after being passed on from now-defunct Sherwood Productions and itssuccessors), so any sequel or remake is at their discretion.

TV series

In late 1998, the Fox Network tried to develop a Buckaroo Banzai TV series, entitled Buckaroo Banzai:Ancient Secrets and New Mysteries, but nothing ever came of it.[38] The special edition DVD contains ashort computer animated sequence; done by Foundation Imaging, that was made as a test reel for theseries. Among other things, the clip depicts a Space Shuttle trying to land with broken landing gear. Dr.Banzai maneuvers his Jet Car under the Shuttle and uses it to take the place of the broken gear.

Other mediaBooks

The novelization of the first film was reprinted to coincide with the release of the movie on DVD. In theforeword, Mac Rauch mentions that the Buckaroo Banzai series would be continued in a series ofnovels.

Comics

Marvel Comics

In conjunction with the film's 1984 release, Marvel Comics published a comic book adaptation by writerBill Mantlo and artists Mark Texeira and Armando Gil in Marvel Super Special #33.[39] The adaptationwas also released as a two-issue limited series.[40]

Moonstone Books

In 2006, Moonstone Books began publishing comic books depicting earlier and further adventures ofBuckaroo Banzai and the Hong Kong Cavaliers. The first story, Buckaroo Banzai: Return of the Screw,


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was written by Buckaroo Banzai's creator, Earl Mac Rauch. The black-and-white preview edition of thecomic was released in February 2006, featuring a behind-the-scenes article by Dan Berger regarding thetransformation of the rejected Buckaroo Banzai television pilot script Supersize those Fries into thepresent comic book limited series. The three issues of this comic have been collected into a tradepaperback.[41]

In December 2007, Moonstone released a new Banzai comic story, "A Christmas Corrall," in theMoonstone Holiday Super Spectacular compilation, also written by Rauch and drawn by Ken Wolak.[41]

A two-issue prequel to the movie was released in early 2008 called Of Hunan Bondage. It was writtenby Rauch with art by Superman Returns storyboard artist Chewie.[41]

In early 2009, Moonstone released Big Size, a special oversize one-shot comic, written by Rauch with artby Paul Hanley.[41]

Video game

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai was an interactive fiction video game based on the franchise. It waswritten in 1984 by Scott Adams and published by Adventure International.

See also

Doc Savage

References

^ "THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROOBANZAI ACROSS THE 8TH DIMENSION (PG)"(http://www.bbfc.co.uk/AFF012417/). BritishBoard of Film Classification. 1984-11-15.Retrieved 2012-03-30.

1.

^ Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century Fox: ACorporate and Financial History, ScarecrowPress, 1989 p260

2.

^ Vincent Canby (1984-10-05). "The Adventuresof Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension!(1984) FILM: SCI-FI FARCE, 'BUCKAROOBONZAI' " (http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9B07E2D8123BF936A35753C1A962948260). The New York Times. Retrieved2012-03-29.

3.

^ a b Burns 1984, p. 56.4. ^ a b c d e Berger, Dan (2004). "The Saga of aHollywood Orphan: An Interview with W. D.Richter" (http://www.worldwatchonline.com/ww120th.pdf). World Watch One: Newsletter ofTeam Banzai. Retrieved 2007-07-20.

5.

^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Flynn, John L (1995)."Across the Eighth Dimension: Remembering theFirst Adventure of Buckaroo Banzai"(http://web.archive.org/web/20070515141240/http://pages.towson.edu/flynn/banzai.html).Sci-Fi Universe. Archived from the original(http://pages.towson.edu/flynn/banzai.html) on2007-05-15. Retrieved 2007-07-20.

6.


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^ a b Goldberg, Lee (July 1984). "Earl MacRauch:Living with the Lepers of Saturn". Starlog.

7.

^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z "TheAdventures of Buckaroo Banzai ProductionNotes". 20th Century Fox Press Kit. 1984.

8.

^ Burns 1984, p. 60.9. ^ Burns 1984, p. 55.10. ^ a b Burns 1984, p. 61.11. ^ a b Lyman, Rick (February 19, 1984). "ANACTOR WHO HAS MASTEREDVERSATILITY". The Philadelphia Inquirer.p. I01.

12.

^ a b c d Burns 1984, p. 54.13. ^ Ryan, Mike (2011-01-26). "Jeff Cronenweth onHis Oscar Nomination for The Social Networkand Joining His Late Father as a Nominee"(http://www.movieline.com/2011/01/26/jeff-cronenweth-on-his-oscar-nomination-for-the-social-network-and-joining-his-father-as-a-nominee/). Movieline.com. Retrieved2012-04-01.

14.

^ Niderost, Eric (August 1987). "Peter Weller:Code Name: Robocop". Starlog.

15.

^ Burns 1984, p. 53.16. ^ "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai"(http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=buckaroobanzai.htm). Box Office Mojo.Retrieved 2008-01-18.

17.

^ a b Cosford, Bill (August 11, 1984). "BuckarooLies on the Lunatic Fringe". The Miami Herald.

18.

^ Kehr, Dave. "The Adventures of BuckarooBanzai Across the Eighth Dimension"(http://onfilm.chicagoreader.com/movies/capsules/69_ADVENTURES_OF_BUCKAROO_BANZAI). Chicago Reader. Retrieved 2008-01-18.

19.

^ Canby, Vincent (October 5, 1984). "Sci-FiFarce" (http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=1&res=9B07E2D8123BF936A35753C1A962948260&oref=slogin). New York Times. Retrieved2008-01-18.

20.

^ Corliss, Richard (August 13, 1984). "It Camefrom Beyond Bananas" (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,926794,00.html).Time. Retrieved 2008-08-20.

21.

^ Kael, Pauline (August 20, 1984). "TheCharismatic Half-and-Halfs". The New Yorker.

22.

^ Bowes, Danny (July 27, 2011). "Wherever YouGo, There You Are: A Look Back at BuckarooBanzai" (http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/07/wherever-you-go-there-you-are-a-look-back-at-buckaroo-banzai). Retrieved March 25, 2013.

23.

^ Kim, Albert (December 25, 2001). "TheAdventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the EighthDimension: Special Edition" (http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,189698~21~~,00.html).Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2008-12-18.

24.

^ Sanchez, Rick (January 10, 2002). "TheAdventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the EighthDimension: Special Edition" (http://dvd.ign.com/articles/317/317353p1.html). IGN. Retrieved2008-12-18.

25.

^ a b c Goldberg, Lee (June 1986). "W.D. RichterWrites Again". Starlog.

26.

^ a b Denmead, Ken (August 17, 2009). "NoMatter Where You Go, There You Are: HappyBirthday Buckaroo Banzai!"(http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/08/no-matter-where-you-go-there-you-are-happy-birthday-buckaroo-banzai/). WIRED Magazine.Retrieved March 25, 2013.

27.


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^ Murphy, Sean; Wike, Chris. "What are some ofthe more popular quotes from the BuckarooBanzai movie and book?"(http://www.figmentfly.com/bb/popculture.html).www.figmentfly.com. Retrieved March 25, 2013.

28.

^ Mitchell, Nigel (January 7, 2013). "10 Ways'Buckaroo Banzai' Has Infiltrated Pop Culture"(http://www.thegeektwins.com/2013/01/10-ways-buckaroo-banzai-has-infiltrated.html#.UVBQbbHD_Qw). TheGeek Twins. Retrieved March 25, 2013.

29.

^ Martell, Nevin (August 13, 2010). "TheAdventures of Buckaroo Banzai: No MatterWhere It Went, There It Was"(http://filtermagazine.com/index.php/exclusives/entry/the_adventures_of_buckaroo_banzai_no_matter_where_it_went_there_it_was/). Filter Magazine.Retrieved March 25, 2013.

30.

^ "Buckaroo Banzai: Statements, aphorisms,quotes by Buckaroo Banzai – 75 total"(http://quotebook.us/statements_aphorisms_quotes_by/Buckaroo_Banzai). Quotebook.us. RetrievedMarch 25, 2013.

31.

^ Pearlman, Nathaniel (April 3, 2005). "BuckarooBanzai: "Why is there a watermelon there?" "(http://nworld.squarespace.com/blog/2005/4/3/buckaroo-banzai-why-is-there-a-watermelon-there.html). Political Mammal. RetrievedMarch 25, 2013.

32.

^ "EW's Top Cult Movies" (http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,452193_7,00.html). EntertainmentWeekly. May 23, 2003. Retrieved 2008-01-18.

33.

^ "The Cult 25: The Essential Left-Field MovieHits Since '83" (http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20221982_5,00.html). Entertainment Weekly.September 3, 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-04.

34.

^ "1,000 films to see before you die"(http://film.guardian.co.uk/1000films/0%2C%2C2108487%2C00.html). The Guardian(London). Retrieved 2008-12-18.

35.

^ GoComics.com: Dick Tracy - October 22, 2013(http://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2013/10/22#.UoWJOvl02Sp)

36.

^ GoComics.com: Dick Tracy - November 7,2013 (http://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2013/11/07#.UoWIV_l02Sq)

37.

^ Wolk, Josh (December 16, 1998). "Role On"(http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,84009,00.html).Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2008-01-18.

38.

^ Marvel Super Special #33(http://www.comics.org/issue/38144/) at theGrand Comics Database

39.

^ Buckaroo Banzai (http://www.comics.org/series/2862/) at the Grand Comics Database

40.

^ a b c d Buckaroo Banzai(http://www.moonstonebooks.com/banzai.asp).Moonstone Books. Retrieved 9 March 2008.

41.

Bibliography

Burns, James. "An Interview with the Director of Buckaroo Banzai W.D. Richter". Marvel SuperSpecial #33: Buckaroo Banzai. New York: Marvel Comics, 1984.

External links


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Wikiquote has quotationsrelated to: The Adventuresof Buckaroo BanzaiAcross the 8th Dimension

Official website (http://www.buckaroobanzai-themovie.com/)The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8thDimension (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086856/) at theInternet Movie DatabaseThe Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (http://www.allmovie.com/movie/v920) at AllMovieThe Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=buckaroobanzai.htm) at Box Office MojoThe Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/adventures_of_buckaroo_banzai/) at Rotten TomatoesThe Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/1984/0BUBA.php) at The NumbersOfficial Banzai Institute Website (http://www.banzai-institute.com)Buckaroo Banzai Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) (http://www.figmentfly.com/bb/bbindex.shtml), including What are some of the more popular quotes...?(http://www.figmentfly.com/bb/popculture.html)Wherever You Go, There You Are: A Look Back at Buckaroo Banzai (http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/07/wherever-you-go-there-you-are-a-look-back-at-buckaroo-banzai) by Danny Bowes (July27, 2011)Buckaroo Banzai Intro + Q&A at New York Film Festival (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi_ixer1-5M&feature=relmfu) (October 24, 2011)

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the adventures of buckaroo banzai across the 8th dimension

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